College Choice 529

For Indiana taxpayers who have children or grandchildren who will eventually go to college, here is one way to get 20 cents on each dollar you put into a tax free 529 account for your kids.  The limit is $5000 per year (regardless of how many kids).  If you put in $5000 in a 529 this year, you would get a $1000 tax return check, or $1000 off your tax bill.

google college choice 529 if you are in Indiana.

Why share a money idea on Christian family ideas?

Because the more money you save, or get back in taxes, the more missionaries you can support, the more you can give to your church, the more orphans and widows you can help in their distress. 

This is the same reason to invest in the stock market through mutual funds.  Let's say you invest in mutual funds $2000 every year.  Let's say that grows to be $200,000 after 30 years (crazy thing called compounded interest).  Now every year your $200,000 makes its own money, about $10,000 a year.

Now this enables you to give $10,000 to Youth for Christ Africa every year on top of what you were already giving.

You could say, well, why not give $2000 every year?

If you are giving $2000 every year to YFC, great!

If not, and you wanted to use compounding interest not for selfish gain but for the kingdom of God, and on top of that you trained your child to also give and she trained her child, and for 3 to 4 generations a family used compounding interest for an actual purpose - glory to God!!!

Christmas Grief

Whenever a death or tragedy occurs around Christmas, people often comment on what a horrible time to deal with death.  Many people, myself included, are dealing with death this Christmas of 2013.  From the empty place at the table to the empty place in my heart, the season of fullness is hollow.
How does someone comfort in a loss at all, let alone a loss at Christmas?
Rachel lost her son, and then she lost her other one.  Her husband could not comfort her, nor could her friends.  She died in her grief.  Even though she died thousands of years ago, her cry is still heard all around the world - the cry of grief, grief that refuses to be comforted.
There were many like Rachel in Bethlehem, and it was no silent night.  It was a night of grief, or despair, of refusing comfort.  Why did you send your Son if He seemed to only bring more pain?  Salvation?  The mothers of Bethlehem were not experiencing salvation but overwhelming grief.
Mary seemed to sneak out of Bethlehem just in time and miss the grief of Herod the Great.
Mary watched her son crawl, toddle, walk, and run.  She fed him and then He fed her, from loaves of bread and fishes to the Bread from Heaven.  If any woman was ever captivated by her son it was Mary the mother of God's Son.  He did not come to escape death, but to walk straight into it.
The small baby Mary held in her arms spread His arms out and died.

Christmas is a story about grief, specifically the grief of a mother.

Jesus walked into our grief, into our death, and came back with the keys of death and hell.
The hope of every mother, from Eve the mother of Abel to Mary the mother of Jesus to the mothers of the Sandy Hook elementary students, is the little baby born in a feeding trough.
Jesus Christ offers eternal life to all of us freely.
Jesus Christ can deliver people from death.

Jesus said to a grieving sister, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Best things to inherit - #1

God inherits us.   "And he said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."  - Exodus 34:9 (ESV)

The tables are turned.  The best inheritance I can think of is for we, such as we have been and are and will be, to be inherited by God.  Moses recognizes this in the clutch time in the book of Exodus, with the thought of the promised land without YAHWEH to be unthinkable.  

What does it mean for God to inherit us?

Could it really be true, that the Almighty God would want us?  Could he really see us as His inheritance?

To be wanted.

To have a place and a purpose.

To be His, and to belong to Him.

What can be the best inheritance for our children?  It is to know that the Lord God loves them and desires them to be His own.

Do you know that the Lord wants you for His own?

Not because of what you have done, but because of who you are - His.

You have always been His.

The greatest inheritance is the one we are - HIS.

Best things to inherit - #2

The LORD, YAHWEH.  "And the LORD said to Aaron, "You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel."  - Numbers 18:20 (ESV)

All or nothing.  If you want the best you forgo the rest.  Yahweh was offering long ago to Aaron the best possible inheritance, but he had to forgo any other inheritance.  We can look at this two ways.  One way is to think of the fact that Aaron and the Levites had no land, no this, no that.  Wow.  What they had to give up.  At this point the Jim Elliot quote is helpful:  "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."  Today the lands of Israel are a continued and constant issue of war and conflict, and yet YAHWEH remains untouched by war.  He cannot be conquered or overtaken.  Yet he offers himself in the early pages of the Bible to a most unlikely person - Aaron.  

Just start reading about Aaron and you will be frustrated with him and possibly identify with him.  He lies, he complains, he worships idols, and he is jealous about Moses.  Aaron also experiences tragedy.  His sons die instantaneously.  He lost that which was most dear to him.  He saw how fleeting this life is.

This Aaron is offered YAHWEH as an inheritance.  

How much more are we, the royal priesthood through Jesus Christ the eternal high priest, offered YAHWEH, offered Father, Son, Spirit, as an inheritance?

Our children are offered God Himself.  We must share that inheritance with them, even as the FATHER shares it with us.  We must also show our children that to let go of all other things we cling to He who can not be taken from us.

Best things to inherit - #3

The Kingdom.  "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."  - Matthew 25:34 (ESV)

Inheriting a human kingdom, whether that be an ancient kingdom like the Persian empire or a baby kingdom like the United States of America (I know, I know, the U.S.A. is a democracy) is something that would overwhelm the average person.  So much power and responsibility.  So much status and wealth.

And yet those kingdoms fall to nothing.  We see this from history.  We also see this in the pages of the Bible.  Daniel, as an older man, was offered high status in many human kingdoms, but his message continued about THE Kingdom that would crush all others.  It is so easy for we humans to interpret out human kingdom as the kingdom, whether that is Nebuchadnezzar, ancient Israel, current Israel, or the United States of America.

The Kingdom is ruled by the King - Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  We have an inheritance in a kingdom that far outweighs any human kingdom.  Often we are faced with a choice to pursue the eternal kingdom above or the temporal human kingdoms below.  Daniel, even with his status of human kingdoms, continues to speak to people of a better kingdom.  Wherever we are in the kingdoms of this world, whether we are the President of the United Sates, Barack Obama, or whether we are a teenage textile worker in Bangladesh, may we seek out and speak of the kingdom that never ends, which is offered to us freely to inherit.

 May we share with our children that the best thing we have to offer them is not our money or houses or lands, but the kingdom of God which God alone offers, the kingdom of heaven which no earthly money can purchase.

Best things to inherit - #4

Eternal life.  "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life."   - Matthew 19:29 (ESV)

Ah, leaving the inheritance of this world does not mean that we are leaving inheritance altogether, but it could mean that we have found a greater inheritance.

A man says to a person dribbling a basketball, "Excuse me sir, I will pay you one million dollars to wear these shoes for a year and let me take your picture."

The person dribbling the basketball says, "No thanks, NIKE pays me one million dollars every minute."

Saying no to an inheritance that is smaller to put all our eggs in the basket of a larger inheritance is good.

Jim Elliot died at age 28 an did not enjoy an inheritance on this earth or of this earth.  He died trying to share Jesus with the people who killed him.  Jim Elliot said this, 

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

Eternal life is forever, unlike diamonds anything else this world sells.

Best things to inherit - #5

Salvation.  "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" -  Hebrews 1:14 (ESV)

This reminds me of Super Mario Brothers when someone gets that star thingy or whatever that makes them invincible and not die.  The Super Mario Version runs out, but inheriting salvation is worth so much more than any amount of money or property ever could.  For one, those who receive a large inheritance of money, say someone named John D. Rockefeller the 51st (He doesn't exist yet but he could).  He does not inherit salvation based on his great great whatever grandfather, because the Rockefleer's like all humans, die.  

Salvation.  That is what we need to inherit, and what we want our children to understand they can inherit, too.  Not that we pass it on to them, but that our heavenly Father passes it to all of us who will receive it.  

Salvation from what?  Sin, death, the devil.  Salvation from all that is evil and wrong.  

So if you are broke and cannot leave anything to your children, you can leave what has been passed on to us all that is worth far more than diamonds or gold or land or money.

Salvation, what an inheritance we have!

Best things to inherit - #6

#6.  the earth.   "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." - Matthew 5:5 (KJV)

Throughout the bible there is a emphasis on inheritance on land, and while earth could be translated land, this quote from Jesus puts inheritance talk into a great perspective.  Maybe you have not, but I have heard of inheritance arguments and feuds.  When grandpa dies everybody is fighting to get their share.  Jesus suggests a different style of inheritance.  Meekness.  What?  I thought if you want something be bold about it.  Make a plan and plow through so that you can get what you want.  Don't let people plow over you, you plow over them.  "NO,"  says Jesus - it is the meek one who will get it, the pushover, the one who is plowed over.

The two other times this word "meek" is used in the book of Matthew, it is used for Jesus himself as he is talking about himself.  The only other time it is mentioned in the New Testament is in 1 Peter 3:4 talking about a "meek" and quiet spirit, which is great value in God's sight.  Who will inherit the earth?  The meek, those walked on and crucified like Jesus, and the best non-Jesus example (the only one) in the Bible is the meek spirit of a woman.

Inheritance was often tied to men throughout the Bible, and Zelophehad's daughters in Numbers 27 are the exception to the rule.  The world and most of the societies of this world reward boldness and assertiveness and dominance.  God's inheritance is given in a different way - to the meek, the spat upon, the overlooked.

Ah, the meek - they will inherit the earth.

Me:     I thought the rich families and CEOs inherited the earth.
Jesus:   No, it is the meek, the humble, the lowly.
Me:    So you are flipping the way we do inheritance on its head.
Jesus:   Turning it back rightside up - the way you do it is turned on its head.
Me:    I do not know if that will work out in the real world Jesus.
Jesus:  Oh yes it will, for I am the real world, and I am the meek who will inherit the earth, and I share with the meek ones who come to me, for no one comes to me but in a meek way.  The proud will never admit their need of me, unless they let my meekness rule their proud hearts.

Best things to inherit - #7

#7.  Knowledge.   "The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge."  - Proverbs 14:18  (ESV)

Ah knowledge.  I recently gained the knowledge of how to install a lid switch on a washing machine.  It was something that I had no idea of and now I know how to do.  Coca Cola has the knowledge of mixing a drink that is calorie free and still tastes like coke (coke zero).  I went to seminary racking up a bit of debt to get the knowledge of how to read and understand Biblical Greek and Hebrew.  People search for knowledge all the time, nowadays on the internet.   Many times we do not get the knowledge we seek such as how to eat candy and drink pop and lose weight or how to spend all your paycheck impulsively and be a millionaire.  The Bible, such as this verse, speak of the good of inheriting knowledge, such as the metal smith who passes the craft to his children.  Today education is almost always emphasized.  Education is seen as the foundation of all society.  So why do I have it at #7. 

Because two people in the Bible had a lot of knowledge - the first man and the first woman.  Maybe knowing a lot is not the best thing.  There is a danger to knowledge.  Think of nuclear knowledge.  Think of the internet.  Knowledge in and of itself can be deadly.  Many people who live a street life have knowledge.  They have learned, or been forced to learn deadly knowledge.  What is the quality of knowledge that we are passing on to our children?  What quality of knowledge has been passed on to us?

Some knowledge is no doubt better than others

Some knowledge is to be avoided: 

"O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," - 1 Timothy 6:20 (ESV)

Some knowledge is to be filling us: 

 "And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding," - Colossians 1:9 (ESV)