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A Matter of Life and Debt by Phil Callaway Some time ago my wife Ramona and I sat down at the dining room table to figure out how we were doing financially. Our net was looking pretty gross, so I said, “You know, the bank will lend us enough money to get us completely out of debt.” Then I realized what I said. It’s amazing how smart some of us are. Until we start talking about finances. If you are about to back your bank-financed car out of your bank-owned garage to drive with credit card gas to open a charge account in order to fill your mortgaged home with furniture because a sign promises “No payments until February,” please study these commandments for debt-free living. 1. If thy credit cards outspend thee, cut them off. 2. Buy a lottery ticket every 250,000 years. 3. Earn more than you spend. 4. Give stuff away. 5. Remember “new” is not always “improved.” 6. Put not your trust in retirement accounts. Debt-free living liberates us from the baggage and expectations of a materialistic age, freeing our assets to be invested in the lives of others, and freeing our time to invest in those who are gonna cry at our funeral. Phil Callaway is a popular speaker and the best-selling author of two dozen books. Visit him at www.philcallaway.com.
Remote Location by Rhonda Rhea We were searching for the TV remote again this week. We looked in the sofa, under the chair, behind the end table ... inside the DVD player. We looked everywhere but hadn’t even a remote idea where it was (“remote” idea — sorry, but surely you knew I’d have to put it in here somewhere). Every time we finally find something decent to watch on TV at my house, we have to build in an extra half hour to the TV-watching plan for the remote search. Show starts at 8:00 Central? If we don’t want to miss the first half, we have to start the hunt in Mountain Time. If the kids had the remote last, it’s probably more like Pacific. The TV remote doesn’t have one of those pager buttons like the cordless phone. Why ever not? Or why can’t the remote simply sense that it’s 10 feet or more from the TV, sprout some little mechanical legs and maneuver its way back toward the sofa? With little legs it might even be able to crawl out from the depths of the chair cushion. Or maybe we could at least push some sort of pager that would make it send out little puffs of smoke. Yeah, smoke signals. That could work. Spiritual misdirection happens when we stop looking to the Lord for true direction. It’s something to think about. In fact, the psalmist in the Bible thought about it in Psalm 119:59: “I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws.”
The only right direction is His direction — and to top it all off, we can know that His direction is forever and always the direction of amazing, unfailing love. And, hey, I’m not just blowing smoke. Rhonda Rhea, a conference speaker for events across North America, has a recurring role on Focus on the Family’s ‘Weekend Magazine’ radio program. She is a wife, mother, and author of several fun and fruitful books. Look for her newest release, ‘Purse-uit of Holiness’ in stores now. Find out more at www.RhondaRhea.org.
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