Whenever I speak about money (as I did this past Sunday) I ALWAYS talk about the fact that I have one of THE most screwed up financial pasts of anyone I know.  I received Christ in 1987; however, I didn't’t put Him first in my finances until later in my walk. I began giving immediately, but didn't give God complete control of ALL my finances.  God wants us to honor him with ALL our wealth.

Proverbs 3:9-10
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; [10] then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Here are some of the dumb decisions that I made?

* Deb & I bought our first car financed for 72 months at 12% interest; after all, the guy at the dealership told me

•    it was a great deal.

* Credit cards–I could write a book!  I got my first card “in case of an emergency,” ran it up–then got another
   offer (that HAD to be God, right) and maxed it out.

• * Thought Finance companies were my friend…keep in mind there is a reason that there is “fine print” on the
•    contract–it’s because they don’t want you to know that you are about to get screwed!
• * Bought a house in Gaffney and received a Lowes credit card (another God moment, right) quickly maxed it out.
•    It was an investment, getting the yard and house ready!  RIGHT!

THEN…in late 1999 and early in 2000 I came to this conclusion, “When Jesus saved me…He saved all of me…and if He can keep me from going to hell because I surrendered my life to Him then maybe He can pull me out of my financial hell if I finally surrender that area to Him as well.”

Folks…I struggled with this…I had ever excuse in the book as to why I couldn't get out of debt.  We sold our house in Gaffney, pulled all my retirement form teaching school and became debt free.  Here is the sad part, we got ourselves right back into debt again through the next few years

The Lord used several things to rock my world…

Malachi 3:6-12 - here God showed me that my finances were under a curse because He was not first…and that if I would take a step of faith that He would bless me in ways that were beyond my imagination.

Matthew 6:21 - here He showed me that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to call Jesus “Lord” and not have my checkbook reflect that fact.

Matthew 6:24 - I had to finally face the fact that being obsessed with money meant that I was not obsessed with God!