Christian Finances

America was founded upon the biblical principles of faith, hope, and love. According to morallaw.org, a few examples of how our faith in God has shaped the foundation of America include: Since at least the 1820s, the U.S. Supreme Court has opened its court sessions with the prayer of “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.”

The top 20 Christian Financial websites…I wanted to create a list of websites that have helped me in my journey to understand how to manage money God’s way and that would help the ChristianPF readers as well. …  It was difficult narrowing it down to 20, but I figured within these 20 sites you should be able to find everything you would want to about Christian finance.

I am in the process of creating a list of the best Christian Financial websites that I can find. I have found quite a bit, but I am sure there are just as many that I am not aware of. This is where you come in. If you have a site dealing in some way with financial issues from a Christian perspective please share it in the comments below. Alternatively, if you know of or have a site that deals with financial issues, but isn’t overtly “Christian”, but is run by Christians let me know that as well. Feel free to write a bit about some of the site features or what you like about it.

How does your religion affect your finances? Money Magazine is seeking families willing to discuss the dollars-and-cents expenses involved in practicing their faith - the cost of everything from religious schools and dietary restrictions to tithing and faith-based investment limitations. If interested, please email your name, contact information and family photo, along with a brief summary of your salary, savings and religion-related expenses, to gmannes@moneymail.com.

I don’t exactly remember when I started to tithe - probably about 7-8 years ago. But I do remember getting a new job that was nearly double my previous income and thinking, “Wow, so this is the result of tithing.” It was a helpful lesson to me since I was, like most, skeptical about the whole thing. I had heard about all the scandals with TV preachers and kind of grew up with a cynical attitude towards giving to the church. Somewhere along the line I decided to “take a chance” and try it out.

MSNBC is doing a survey to see if people want “In God we trust” on our bills. As of Monday night there were over 2.5 million responses showing that 60% were still voting to keep it on the bills. The thought of removing it is so laughably foolish to me. I mean is it not evident to everyone in the world that the U.S. has been extremely blessed since it started a few centuries ago? It wasn’t our doing - it was God’s. We founded this country on Biblical principles, were blessed as a result, now 40% of the country wants to do away with even the smallest mention of God on our dollar bills. Wow.

Is he frugal or cheap? Growing up you realize that people have completely different definitions for frugal and cheap. Some people consider not wanting to waste money as someone who is cheap. And some people say that someone who refuses to tip waitresses is frugal. Let’s see what Webster has to say about it…

Bad days are inevitable. They happen to everyone. But, there are things you can do to make them better. Here are a few of my favorite ways to turn a bad day around…

Sometimes when someone gives you a piece of advice, it just resonates and almost creates an imprint in your mind. I know I have gotten some advice that even though I didn’t want to hear or believe, I just couldn’t shake it because deep down I knew it was true.

The recent issue of Money has a great article with over 30 well known people contributing their best pieces of advice they’ve received. I really agree with a whole bunch that were listed. And these are my favorites….

I was thinking about how I have spent a whole lot more money on certain items only to find out that they are just a little bit better than the cheaper alternatives. And on the other hand there have been things I have spent just a bit more money on and they were a whole lot better than the cheaper alternatives. When you look at buying decisions this way, it can dramatically change how and what you buy.

I had an inpromptu interview from thestreet.com about this video. I am on a quest to prove that this is not what Christianity looks like. Watch it if you must…

If you don’t win the giveaway, I suggest heading on over to Amazon and getting it used for under $2.00 - you can’t beat that! … ( Duplicate entries or IP addresses will be disqualified ) Make sure you enter your email address when adding your comment so I can contact you if you win. (I promise I will not spam your or give your email to anyone else) The winner will be announced on July 14th in the comments section of this post!!

t is basically about improving your time management skills and as the title implies, getting things done more efficiently to live a less stressful life. I have read a couple similar books, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Zen to Done and a few other generic time-management type books.

iTunes gift card giveaway. This week is a “fun” giveaway as my wife would say. The giveaway is for a $15 iTunes giftcard. Not much else to say about it - enjoy!!

Stewards are required to take risks: It is interesting to me how upset the master got with the steward who took no risks. The other two stewards did take risks and reaped the rewards. I often wonder why the parable didn’t contain a steward who lost some of the investment. But either way, I think we are led to believe that the primary frustration of the master was that the steward was lazy and didn’t even try.

Proverbs 24:30-34 I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles; its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

We have the opportunity to give into God’s kingdom. We have the privilege of being able to give to help people. It really is a privilege and an opportunity. God doesn’t need us. He has an endless supply of finances - He can get the money where it needs to be. But He allows us the chance to be used by Him in the process, knowing that WE will benefit from being used.

This is a good thing to say when faced with a financial difficulty. It is very difficult to utter those words sometimes, but it is good for us to do so. This isn’t an excuse to be lackadaisical with our money, but it is an acknowledgement that there is SO MUCH MORE TO LIFE than money.

No one really wants money, but rather, they want what they think it will provide. Some want to get out of debt, have a BMW, buy a yacht, feel a sense of financial security, and some want to have the prestige or power they think it will bring. But the pieces of cloth that we call cash is ultimately not what people are interested in.

I just visited an old friend of mine this weekend and we talked quite a bit about money and God. It was eye-opening for me to talk to someone who had a completely different mindset on money than I did. He has been on the opposite extreme of the American way of living extravagantly off of credit cards.