Vol. 1 No. 31 |  November 3, 2006  

    

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This week

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

Dear Wisdom Seeker,

Each week in Wisdom’s Edge, we discuss how to make wise decisions and apply the Bible to your life. Our goal is to help you in any way we possibly can. So if you have any questions you’d like us to answer in our weekly e-zine, please feel free to write us at feedback@wisdomsedge.com. We’ll try to answer all of the questions, but it might take some time. So make sure you stay tuned. And please tell your friends about us. We’d like to help them too.

– Steve Kroening

 

 


 

Finance

One of the Few Loans We Do Recommend – But Only If You Follow These Simple Rules

We’ve discussed in the past how debt is a success killer. It prevents you from reaching your goals. As a general rule, debt is something you should avoid whenever possible. There are exceptions to the rule. But you have to be very careful.

One of the exceptions is a loan that can actually help you reach your goals faster. Of course, this same loan can also cause tremendous debt problems.

The loan is called a home equity line of credit. It is essentially a loan you take on the value of your home that’s paid off. So, if you owe $100,000 on a $150,000 home, a bank will let you take out a line of credit on some percentage of that $50,000 you have in equity.

The money can be used for just about anything, but that’s where most people get in trouble. The original purpose of these loans was to make improvements or additions to your home. In recent years, though, people have used their lines of credit to buy cars, boats, and vacations.

What’s wrong with that? Unlike a conventional car or boat loan, which is usually three to five years, a line of equity’s monthly payment is usually just a minimum payment, much like a credit card. The longer they can keep you in debt, the more money they make off of you. So you’re going to pay a lot more in interest than you would with a traditional loan. Because most people pay only the minimum payment, it’s conceivable – and probable – that you’ll be paying off the car or boat many years after you’ve sold it.

Second, if you default on the loan, you don’t lose your car or boat. You lose your house.

But, if you use the equity line of credit to build value in your home, it can be a valuable tool. Remodeling a kitchen or a bathroom, building an addition or finishing a basement can pay off big time when you sell the house.

Unfortunately, most of these loans carry variable interest rates. And when the rates go up, so do your payments. This can be a problem for budgeting and it can cause hardship if the rates go up fast.

The good news, though, is that two large banks Wells Fargo and Bank of America are now offering fixed-rate home equity lines. I suspect that more banks will follow suit. The current weakness in the housing industry has also hit the mortgage business. As a result, they’re looking for ways to make their products more appealing. And this is definitely more appealing. At this point, you can only fix the rate on a portion of your loan. But I think that portion will grow as the product grows in popularity.

– Steve Kroening
     
 

 

Health

The Biblical Way to Lower Blood Pressure by 7% in Just Two Days

High blood pressure is a very dangerous ailment that is typically treated with drugs, exercise, and diet. But did you know the Bible has a very simple treatment that works wonders? I say “simple,” because the concept is simple. Unfortunately, too many people simply don’t want to do what it takes to make it work. But if you will do this on a semi-regular basis, it will work.

The treatment is fasting. There are many studies that show how effective fasting can be. One study followed eleven obese women who fasted for 48 hours. Not only did they lose an average of 4.5 pounds, they also dropped their blood pressure significantly. Systolic blood pressure (the first number mentioned when describing blood pressure) went from an average of 158 mmHg to 146 mmHg. Diastolic blood pressure dropped from an average of 96 mmHg to 89 mmHg. That’s a drop of over 7% in just two days.

Unfortunately, when people return to their normal eating patterns, the pressure will return to the upper levels. But regular fasting, say one day a week, can help keep the pressure down. And, if you complement the fasting with regular exercise and a healthy diet (in moderation), you can lower your blood pressure without the use of drugs.

The Bible never commands fasting, and it doesn’t give direction on how long or how often you should fast. It just assumes that you’re going to do it. The few times Jesus speaks of fasting, He typically starts out, “When you fast….” Not “if” you fast, but “when.” And we know Jesus fasted. So it’s something we all should seriously consider doing (though some people’s health may prevent them from fasting).

In addition to lowering your blood pressure, fasting is a great way to lose weight, as the women in this study found out. But more importantly, it helps us keep our dependence on God for our sustenance, not on food.

God has provided amazing abundance for this country. And, as people so often do, we’ve turned our focus off of the abundance-giver and onto the abundance. This is typically called gluttony, but it’s simply another form of idolatry.

You see, the Bible uses the word “glutton” and its variations only a few times (anywhere from two to seven times, depending on the translation). The word literally means “loose living.” When it comes to food, it refers to undisciplined eating. This can include eating too much. And it can include eating too much “comfort food” – food that tastes great, but doesn’t do anything positive for the body.

This type of living will eventually catch up with you – and high blood pressure is one sign that it has, indeed, caught you. The simple act of fasting can help you regain your perspective and your discipline. And it could save your life.

Final notes about fasting: If you decide to go on a fast longer than two or three days, check with your doctor to make sure your body can handle it. He may want to monitor you during the fast. Make sure you drink plenty of liquids. And never stop taking drug pressure medication without the help of your doctor. Stopping cold turkey can cause serious health problems, including death.

– Rhett Bergeron, MD

(Source: Acta Med Scand. 1988;223(6):485-90.)
     
 
   

Marriage and Relationships

How Success in Relationships Can Make You a Success in Other Areas

So often in business you hear about the guy who makes it to the top because he ran over everyone to get there. While people who use these types of win-at-all-cost tactics still find a way to succeed, more and more of these people are getting fired, moved to the sidelines, or left behind. Why? Because people have found a better way to win. And it’s a biblical tactic that can help you regardless of your occupation or calling in life.

This tactic is called “pursuing in love.” And it’s something Christians should be especially good at. After all, that’s what our Heavenly Father has done with us. He gave us the perfect example by pursuing us in love. He desires to have a relationship with us. So He comes after us.

I recently heard a story about a man who ran for the Georgia state House of Representatives. To win his seat, he had to beat out seven other candidates from his own party. But the next time he ran, he ran completely unopposed. When asked what happened in the years between elections, he said, “After I was elected, I pursued all of the candidates I beat out. I got to know them, and tried to help them in any way I could. When the next election came around, they all knew me and liked me, so they didn’t want to run against me.”

He turned his enemy into a friend simply by pursuing them and serving them. He could have snubbed his nose at them instead, and said, “I won, so I’m obviously better than you.” He didn’t have to pursue them. But doing so won them over to his side.

Taking the initiative with other people is a vital part of relationships that most people miss. We’re all too busy hoping others will pursue us. And when they don’t, we complain about it. We all have a desire to be pursued. So think about how others will feel when you pursue them. You’ll make their day.

Here’s how you can get started. Make a list of 5-10 people who you would like to pursue. They might be business associates, neighbors, visitors at your church, or people you meet at a social function. Once you have the list of people, find their phone numbers and write them down beside their names. Then, schedule a time to call them and talk. Don’t call for a favor or to get something you need. Call to serve them and find out how they’re doing.

If it’s possible, stop by and see them or invite them to lunch or breakfast. Pour your life into them. As you develop these relationships, find other people to add to your list and begin to pursue them. You never know where the relationships will take you.

– Steve Kroening

     
 

 

Parenting and Education

The Cost of Many Educational Resources Is About to Drop!

Whether you homeschool your children or send your kids to private or public school, most moms are always looking for good education resources for their kids. Unfortunately, many of those resources are very expensive.

But here’s some great news: Many educational resources are about to cost a lot less!

In fact, they won’t cost you a dime! Here’s how:

You may have heard about new technology called “open source.” Open-source software is essentially free for anyone who wants to use it. You can download it on your computer. And, if you know how to program it, you can customize it to fit your company’s needs.

Well, educational resources are about to go open source. Scott McNealy, the former chairman of Sun Microsystems (a huge software manufacturer), is in the process of developing a new website that will offer education materials at no cost.

The new website is called curriki.com. It gets its name from a play on the words “curriculum” and “wiki.” A wiki is a website that is put together through the collaboration of many different people. The most popular use of the word is in the name of website Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that’s also open source.

McNealy’s hope is that curriki.com will make many expensive textbooks go the way of the dinosaur. A non-profit organization (called Curriki) will run the website. The company will provide content. But the users will provide a lot of the content.

While the site won’t be Christian in nature, Christians will be able to use the site and make adjustments to correct inaccuracies. When asked how the site will handle touchy issues like evolution vs. creationism, McNealy said, “Open source. So if a religious school wants to strike all this … just take it out. It’s open source – you can cut and paste, you can use the pieces you want and create your own textbook.” With curriki.com, you will have the final say on what your kids learn.

The website is up and running, but there isn’t much on the site. Curriki plans to develop it over time, so check it often. And, as you use it, please let us know how you like it. Because of its flexibility, it’s quite possible the site will revolutionize education. At the very least, it will bring a new level of competition to the education market that it’s lacked.

– Steve Kroening

(Source: Investor’s Business Daily, October 10, 2006, page A5.)

     
 

 

Success

This Tool Can Make the Difference Between Success and Failure – But Most Small Businesses Completely Ignore It

Steve Kroening, the editor of Wisdom’s Edge, told me I had to write something practical. “Enough of the philosophical stuff,” he said. “Write something that people can put into practice.” So, I’m doing as I am told (for a change).

Let me ask you this: How do you measure your success? If there were a practical way to measure how successful your business is, would you use it? Most of us would jump at any tool we could find that would tell us how we’re doing. Evaluation is critical for any type of success. Well, there’s one simple tool we all have, but few of us use.

But before I tell you what it is, a little philosophy (sorry Steve). First of all, you need to define what success is. Let me suggest this definition: “Success is doing better tomorrow what you’re doing today.”

Under this definition, success is a journey, not a destination. It’s a process of continual self-improvement. But in order to do better tomorrow, you need to know how well you have done today. And to do that, you need to measure your results – today. Then set new targets for tomorrow.

And the tool you can use to determine this, at least in financial terms, is a “budget.”

Too often budgets are prepared in business, then shelved. No one lives by them. And it’s because budgets have no relationship to the present that they become meaningless – and demeaning – documents.

In order to be meaningful, budgets need to take today’s performance standards then cast a realistic new standard for the next budgeted period. For example, a salesman who is selling $1 million of goods a year probably won’t suddenly jump to $10 million next year. But he might be able to do it in stages over a sustained period.

In a more general sense, a business that is producing 5% net profit when it should be producing 25% probably won’t reach that higher profitability overnight. But it can do so with careful management and consistent steps to review the progress.

So, if you are not measuring your results now, you will have difficult in achieving success. For in measuring results, you also need to look at the activities that achieved those results, then change one or more things to get a better result.

And this should be the real purpose of a budget: to set forth new performance standards. In reality, a budget can become a set of performance standards simply by the way you view the information, and also how you use the information. So you transform your budget into a set of performance standards.

– Ian Hodge

     
 

 
 

Wisdom From History

When the Going Gets Tough … You Have to Get Going

Before she built a cosmetics empire, Mary Kay Ash learned her most important lesson as a seven-year-old girl caring for her dying father: She could do a lot on her own.

“While he waged an unsuccessful and bedridden battle with tuberculosis, My mother worked 14 hours a day to support us,” Ash recalled, looking back over more than six decades to her girlhood in Texas.

It was little Mary's job to fix dinner after school, a task she carried out by calling her mother, who worked in a Houston restaurant.

First, get out the big pot, she'd be coached over the phone. Then you take two potatoes....

The last thing her mother always said to Mary Kay before hanging up was, “Honey, I know you can do it.”

This unfailing maternal message is something Ash says she continues to hear, even though her mother is no longer alive to say it. The words, along with a deep religious faith, helped Ash scale unprecedented corporate heights.

Dallas-based Mary Kay Inc. – now with more than $ 2 billion in sales – is the country's largest direct-seller of skin-care products, and boasts the best-selling brand of cosmetics in the U.S.

– Michael Mink

(Source: Quoted from “Entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash,” Investors Business Daily, May 5, 1998.)
     
     
 

 

Word for the Wise

Why the Unpleasant Path Is Usually the Best Path

“Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” – Psalm 119:67

Afflicted – No one likes chastisement. No one enjoys correction. No one loves discipline. No one except the man or woman who wants to be closer to God.

David's son, Solomon, tells us in Proverbs that the wise man accepts correction and reproof because he knows that it is the way of life. It is the fool who throws aside discipline and chastisement. Wise people know the purpose of affliction. Fools simply complain.

It helps a bit to expand our understanding of this Hebrew word, anah. In Exodus 10:3, it means, “to be humbled.” In Genesis 15:13, it’s about oppression. Once it is used about the self-affliction of fasting (Ezra 8:21). And then there’s the quintessential passage, Isaiah 53:4, about the Lord as the Suffering Servant. Even Jesus knew something very personal about this word. If it applies to Him, why wouldn’t it apply to us?

“Before,” says David. Before I felt humiliation from God. Before I knew His oppression. Before I experienced His chastisement. Before God stepped into my life to correct it, I was on the wrong road. I took the detours. I found the exits. I traveled the back alleys. It took humbling to bring me back to the straight path. For most of us, it usually does. Human beings have bad compasses. They rarely point to true North because we are always brushing up alongside some other magnetic attraction. Left alone, we veer away.

Why does the wise person embrace reproof and affliction? Not simply for course correction. Affliction is positive confirmation of God’s intervention and care. Those who never experience humbling are the most tragic creatures of this world. God has abandoned them to their own directions. When God loves us so much that He makes the effort to straighten our bent ways, we can be sure that we are not alone. Affliction is never abandonment. It is affirmation.

– 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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