Vol.1 No. 24 |  September 13 , 2006  

    

This week

“The Bible teaches that Christians are totally different from anyone else.” -  
Peter Jeffery, Evangelicals Then and Now (Buy Now)

 


 

Finance

Tired of All Those Credit Card Solicitations in the Mail? Here’s How to Opt Out

We saw a couple of weeks ago that debt is a real success killer. But credit card companies stay in business on all the debt we rack up. So they try to make as many offers as they can, sweetening the deal all the time. If your mailbox is like mine, it’s stuffed full of credit card offers. Well, I finally got tired of it and did something to stop it. And you can, too.

All you have to do is call this telephone number: 1-888-5-OPT-OUT. The three major U.S. credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) set up the number to give consumers one place to call to have their information removed from the marketing lists and pre-approved credit offer lists. These lists are rented to third parties daily. When you enter your information, the credit bureaus will no longer include your name on the lists they rent to third parties. This will greatly decrease the number of credit card solicitations you receive in the mail for five years.

A couple of things to remember: When you call, you’ll have to input your social security information. That’s OK. The companies have set up a secure phone line to protect your information. Also, once you’ve made the call, it may take a few weeks for the volume to slow down. It’s likely the credit bureaus have already rented your information to credit companies, but the offers haven’t mailed yet. And it takes five days for them to take your name off their lists, during which time your name likely will be rented again. So be patient.

Notice I didn’t say that this will stop all of the credit card solicitations. That’s because it doesn’t stop your mortgage company, bank, brokerage company, credit union or anyone else you do business with from renting out your name. You have to contact each of these individually and ask them to remove your name from their rental lists.

– Steve Kroening
     
 

 

Health

These Two Nutrients Can Overcome Your Family Link to Cancer

If your parents or grandparents have had cancer, it doesn’t mean you are destined to have the same cancer. There are many things you can do to cut the family link. One of the easiest is to take two flavonoids that appear to stop the family-cancer link.

Researchers recently tested the nutrients curcumin and quercetin on people who suffer from familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). FAP is a genetic predisposition for colon polyps. People with FAP can have literally hundreds of polyps in their colon. And they are some of the most susceptible to developing colon cancer.

In this study, the researchers gave five FAP sufferers 480 mg of curcumin and 20 mg of quercetin. They instructed the participants to take this dose three times daily for six months. After the six months, the researchers evaluated the size and number of polyps and compared the results to the beginning of the study.

What they found was amazing! All five of the participants saw their number of polyps decrease by an average of 60+%. And the polyps that did remain were 51% smaller. None of the participants experienced any side effects from the nutrients.

While this is a small study, its results are fabulous news for anyone with a family history of cancer. I’ve used both of these nutrients for years because of their ability to reduce inflammation. And they’re powerful antioxidants. So it’s very likely they would work to reduce your risk of any cancer, especially if you’re worried about your family’s medical history.

I can’t guarantee that these flavonoids will stop all cancer, especially if you don’t take care of your body with a good diet and exercise. But the nutritional value of these two supplements can greatly enhance your body’s ability to keep cancer away. They are cheap, easy to find in any health food store, and safe enough to take every day.

– Rhett Bergeron, MD

(Source: “Combination Treatment With Curcumin and Quercetin of Adenomas in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis,” Cruz-Correa M, Shoskes DA, et al, Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol., 2006, June 4.)
     
 
   

Marriage & Relationships

A Simple Rule for Handling Disagreements Successfully

Do you live in a peaceful home? Or do you and your spouse seem to argue and yell about everything? Did you know there’s something you can do in your relationship that can transform it from contentious to serene?

Early in our dating relationship, my wife and I set one ground rule for how we would handle disagreements and any other problems that arose. That rule was very simple – we were not allowed to yell at each other.

Of course, we broke the rule periodically. But because we knew it was unacceptable, doing so caused pretty serious consequences. I remember one time I raised my voice at my wife and it literally stunned her. I could tell by her reaction that I had crossed the line.

Through the years, this rule has stuck. But not only that, it’s really guided our relationship with each other (and even with our children). Why? Because we learned that yelling at each other was disrespectful and degrading. We also hated that it seemed to make the problem we were dealing with even worse. It showed that we were willing to drive the other person down in order to get our point across.

It also encouraged a “win at all costs” attitude, which is selfish at its core. And, when we did yell, it never solved any of our problems with a godly solution. If I won an argument by yelling, the outcome was rarely biblical. One thing I noticed about my own heart was that yelling was a way to distract her from the real problem. This was a big problem when I knew she was right, but wasn’t willing to admit my own fault.

While the rule started out as a law in our relationship, it’s become a real desire and expression of grace. It’s taken time, but the law actually taught us about grace in ways we never expected. It wasn’t until a few years after making the rule that I read James 4:1: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”

So the next time you feel your tone of voice getting out of control, ask yourself if your passions are taking over or if you’re solving the problem with your spouse’s best interest and, more importantly, the Lord’s will at heart.

– Steve Kroening
     
 

 

Parenting & Education

How to Motivate Your Children to Love the Scriptures

It has often been said that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it. However, if you salt the oats, he will need to drink. That same principle applies to motivating your children to seek wisdom from the scriptures.

Once, when one of my daughters was being quite willful, I cautioned her not to be like Dinah in the Bible. She did not know the sad account, so she asked me to tell her. I read her the story from Gen. 34. It’s full of principles to help you live a godly life.

Dinah was one of Jacob’s daughters. You may be familiar with her more famous 12 brothers, whose families became the 12 tribes of Israel. Dinah wanted to know how the women of the land lived. So she took off to visit their cities alone, without permission, and unprotected. The prince of the land saw her, lusted after her, and took her. Later the prince’s father tried to make a deal with Jacob to resolve the problem. He suggested that both tribes could intermarry and live together in harmony. This was precisely what God had forbidden the Israelites.

Two of Jacob’s sons decided to obtain justice on their own. They conceived a plan for the men of the city to be circumcised to become like the Israelites. They had no intentions of following through to become one people. At night, they came into the city and killed all the men and boys. Then they took the brokenhearted women and children as captives.

After I read her the story, I explained to my daughter the precepts we could learn from this account. Dinah had been curious, there’s no harm in that. However, she acted independently of her authorities and was raped. Dinah’s brothers took vengeance into their own hands and lied in order to kill. Can you imagine the sadness in the heart of Dinah as she realized that she had occasioned all this senseless violence?

When my daughter saw this, she realized her actions could cause serious problems. But if she remained under her authorities, she would be protected. Anger can diminish your ability to think correctly, so I told her to never make decisions under great emotion. Acting without praying and receiving God’s direction is very dangerous. Dinah was restored to her family (Gen 35:1-7), but there were serious consequences to her actions.

The scriptures reveal people and problems as they are so we can learn from their mistakes and successes. The truth of the word of God is a great motivator in children’s lives as well as their parents. All we have to do is look for ways to show them how to find the truth and make it appealing to them.

1 Cor. 10:11 – “Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

– Gladys Villnow
     
 

 

Success

The Second Biggest Obstacle to Investment Success

The #2 obstacle to investment success is so constant and pervasive that it causes you to start every investment you make in the hole. Every one of us has to deal with it – and overcome it – if we want to make money on our investments.

Ask yourself this question. If the price of everything went up at midnight tonight by 50%, would you be 50% richer? The answer is no. You would not be 50% richer. You’d be 50% poorer. Everything would cost more – a lot more.

Now, you would not be poorer if, at the same time the prices went up by 50%, you were given a 50% increase in the amount of money you have. This way you could still afford to buy everything just as you could right now.

You might ask why on earth anyone would play this kind of game. Putting prices up doesn’t seem to help anyone, and if the amount of money is increased, we’re still no better off.

But this is a game that has been played for centuries. When money was gold or silver, kings, queens, and emperors would recall the money, mix in some cheap metals, and then re-issue the coinage. By doing so, they could use the same amount of precious metal to produce a lot more coins—giving the illusion that the wealth in the realm had increased. 

For a short while, the potentate could buy a lot more with his money supply. People soon figured this out, though, and raised prices to compensate for the loss of valuable metal in the coins. If the leader wanted to increase his purchasing power again, perhaps to wage a war or finance a new castle, he would have to do the same thing all over again.

With paper money, this process is much easier. It’s not necessary to recall the coins, melt them down, take out some of the good metal, and replace it with cheap stuff. Since money is now paper, all that’s needed is a printing press to print more money -- same effect, same illusion, same consequences.

This process is known as inflation, which makes sense, if you think about it. It refers to the inflating of the supply of money, though we usually think of it in terms of its effect on the prices of things we buy.  Prices go up so people can compensate themselves for the dilution of the value of their money.

As long as we use paper money, inflation will be an obstacle every investor has to overcome. If prices inflate by 4% a year, then you have to make at least 4.1% on your money just to get ahead. With most savings accounts paying a measly 2.5%, you’re losing 1.5% every year you leave it there. So, to be an effective investor, you’ve got to set your sights higher.

The parable of the talents (a talent was a currency unit in ancient Rome) in Matthew 25:14-30 teaches us to invest and multiply the money (and other gifts) God entrusts to us. To do so, we must develop personal skill, wisdom, discipline, diligence, and trust in the Lord. It’s hard enough to invest well when the money supply is stable. With inflation in the mix, it’s even harder. It’s like walking up the down escalator compared to walking up the stairs.

Effective investing is a life skill. It will never be as important as investing the Gospel in people’s lives, but it will never be as irrelevant as some Christians mistakenly proclaim it to be, either. In upcoming issues of Wisdom's Edge, we’ll give you the principles you need to overcome inflation (and more) with this biblically endorsed and extremely important process. Next week, I’ll discuss the biggest obstacle to investment success.

– Ian Hodge
     
 

 
 

Wisdom From History

How C.S. Lewis Touched the World – One Person at a Time

C.S. Lewis spent much of his life trying to bring people to God. But he needed to win their attention first. Only then could he could convert them to Christianity.

How did Lewis (1898-1963) get others to hear him out on the touchy subject of religion? By answering every letter anyone mailed to him.

Whether a letter was from a beaten-down Christian in need of a lift or from someone curious about Lewis faith, he answered them all. And he responded in a way that spoke directly to the recipients.

“I think this was his great secret,” wrote former Princeton University Professor Erik Routley, who studied at Oxford University while Lewis was teaching there. “He hated casual contacts; human contact must, for him, be serious and concentrated and attentive.”

Routley had mailed Lewis several letters -- all were answered. “I can't ever have been more to him than just one more confounded writer of letters. But there was a reply every time ... always written for you and for nobody else, Routley wrote.”

That need to reach out and communicate with the reader helped to make Lewis, a native of Belfast, Ireland, one of the most influential Christian writers of modern times.

– Ira Carnahan

(Excerpted from “Christian Writer C.S. Lewis,” Investor’s Business Daily, 3/29/1999.)
     
     
 

 

Word for the Wise

The Only Way to Give

“Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7

Cheerful – Want to know a secret? Giving is all about joy. If you give from obligation, compulsion or guilt, you miss the whole point. If your offering does make your heart sing, you don't understand that God sets you free. The Greek word, hilaros, describes a heart that overflows with happiness. God loves someone who takes great joy in giving. Why? Because joy reflects His heart when it comes to giving to others.

Is this the kind of experience you have when it comes to tithes and offerings? Are you on the edge of exuberance at the thought of giving? Do you hear sermons preached about joy when stewardship comes to mind? Or are you trapped in the law of sacrifice and obligation? Has Jesus set you free from paying for your salvation? Has He given you liberty to give wherever He shows you need? Or are you living under the bondage of financial obligation to God? Where is the joy in that?

The word hilaros is also found in the Greek Old Testament in Proverbs 22:9. “The man who is happy and a giver will be praised by God.” Somewhere along the road to scandalous freedom we became economic prisoners of the “faith.” We were told that tithing is an obligation. We were convinced that tithes and offerings were God's magic money formula. We built empires based on guilt. But God had nothing to do with it. A minister from Africa, visiting the churches in America, was asked what he thought about Western Christianity. He replied, “I never knew you could do so much without God.”

If your giving does not come directly from a heart liberated for joy, why do you insult the character of God with attempts at appeasement? When God says that He detests the smell of offerings produced from ritual obligation, did you think He excluded the odor of money? Examine your heart. Look at your motives. The cheerful giver knows thankfulness as the only reason for contributing. Does your heart rejoice when you volunteer to meet the need of someone else because you have been given an opportunity to reflect His generosity?

Can we be bold enough to stop pretending? Are we ready to give without a tax deduction? Are we ready to say “No” to appeals from guilt or obligation? Are we willing to drop to our faces in repentance over the times that we thought we could leverage God's good will? Are we ready to turn our hearts completely toward Him and ask only for the chance to reflect His benevolence with joy?

– Skip Moen

(Ed. Note: Skip Moen, PhD, is the president of At God’s Table and the author of Words to Lead By.)
     
 

 
 

   

 Resources

 

Evangelicals Then and Now, Peter Jeffery, Evangelical Press (Buy Now)

 

   

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