THE 7 CURES FOR FINANCIAL ILLS!          DO1271   11/7/82

         1. THE THING TO DO WHEN YOU FIND YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHIN YOUR INCOME is to either cut your living down to the level of your income or figure some way to raise the income. If you can't figure any way to raise the income, then you've got to cut down expenses.
         2. BUT DON'T DO LIKE GOVERNMENTS & A LOT OF BANKS & SOME COMPANIES DO: When they can't live within their expenses & their income, they just borrow!--Until most of the World & most governments & most banks & businesses are living on borrowed money & borrowed time & are now beginning to gradually crumble & fall & go bankrupt, because it's finally beginning to catch up with them! But we don't believe in borrowing money. We believe in the Scripture: "Owe no man anything save to love him!" (Ro.13:8)
         3. SO WHEN OUR INCOME DOESN'T MEET OUR EXPENSES, WE CUT DOWN ON THE EXPENSES--especially the excessive expenses or the fat. If it gets bad enough, we even cut down on some of the needs to make our income cover our outgo.
         4. SO MY SUGGESTION IS: FIRST WE TRIM THE FAT, THEN WE CUT OFF A POUND OF MEAT--10% of all of their income. Since our income has fallen off nearly 10%, we will have to cut their income 10%. If the Lord doesn't see to it that the Family sends it in, then we must not need it or we must need to cut down somewhere.
         5. WE'VE GOT TO WARN THE UNITS THAT THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO LIVE ON THEIR RESERVES this month & get a cut in their next cheque if the income doesn't go up--a cut equivalent to whatever the drop in World Services' income is. That means no cheques this month except in emergency cases where they don't have sufficient Reserves.
         6. IN OTHER WORDS, IF WE HAVEN'T GOT IT, WE JUST DON'T SPEND IT! If we haven't got it, but they've got it in their Reserves, then they spend it, not us. So Number 2 is live on what you've already got; that's what it's for. Everybody is supposed to have at least one or two months' reserves on hand in order to survive such emergencies.
         7. NUMBER 3 IS THEN A 10% CUT IN ALL OF OUR GIFTS & BUDGETS & OUTGO ACROSS THE BOARD!--Everybody & everything, missionaries & all! I don't think you're going to drive the point home & get the point across unless you touch their most sensitive nerve, their pocketbook nerve, & they realise & wake up to the fact that they haven't got as much money this month or next month because they didn't pray hard enough that the Family would have enough income that they could give enough to have enough to give them enough!
         8. NUMBER 4: WARN THE PEOPLE. That's a very important point, because that's probably why God is allowing it--to warn them that they can't get away with robbing God & not giving Him His share. I presume there are lots of people who figured they couldn't afford to pay their full tithe this last month or so because they had to spend it for their fares to go South, & God bless them, they've gone South & obeyed in one way.
         9. BUT AS THE LORD SAYS, "THIS YE OUGHT TO HAVE DONE & NOT TO HAVE LEFT THE OTHER UNDONE!" (Mt.23:23) They should have gone South, but they should have paid their tithe too! And if they keep the 90% & borrow His 10% too, they're going to find out they may lose everything! "Can a man rob God? Yes," the Lord said, "Ye rob Me in tithes & offerings!" (Mal.3:8) It's not going to pay & they may find themselves worse off than they were before! "The last state of the man was worse than it was before!" (Mt.12:45)
         10. AND WE'RE GOING TO WARN THE FAMILY THAT THEY'RE NOT GIVING ENOUGH TO PAY FOR WHAT THEY'VE BEEN GETTING & they're going to have to either resume better giving & tithing or we're going to have to cut down on production. That's a part of trimming the fat.
         11. (MARIA: ANOTHER POINT IS THAT IN THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF THE FAMILY every one would give all kinds of gifts, inheritances, insurance rebates & everything over to the Family en toto, but now they give very little besides their tithe.) Yes, the early policy of the Family was of course 100%: "Give it all! Move in & live with us & serve God 100%, fulltime, & He'll give you 100%, He'll take care of you!"
         12. WELL, WHEN WE ENCOURAGED THE TITHING IT DIDN'T MEAN TO CANCEL THE 100% GIFTS! And as Paul told Ananias & Sapphira, they didn't have to give it all. He said, "It was yours to do with it as you wished." But what the Lord didn't like was they were pretending to give everything & they held back part of it. (Acts 5:1-11) So don't try to kid us that you're giving everything when you're only giving 10%! And don't try to kid us that you're giving 10% when you're not!
         13. NOW ACCORDING TO THE FINANCE REPORT, THE TOTAL FAMILY INCOME HAS FALLEN OFF CONSIDERABLY, but not as much proportionately as has your giving to World Services. The drop in your giving to us is larger than the drop in your own income, which shows you must be using it for your own purposes.
         14. WELL, WE KNEW THAT WHEN WE MOVED TO THESE SOUTHERN FIELDS THE TOTAL FAMILY INCOME WAS PROBABLY GOING TO TAKE A DROP & be lower because they're poor fields & your income was going to be lower, but one reason for it is probably because you were too slow, too late & too little in raising home support & pledges & keeping up a faithful mail ministry! Maybe you thought you'd just start it when you got to the field, but that's pretty hard to do.
         15. IT'S FAR BETTER TO WIN PEOPLE'S CONFIDENCE & FRIENDSHIP & SUPPORT BEFORE YOU GO THAN TO WAIT TILL YOU GET THERE. Probably a lot of you didn't really work on your income like you should have before you left the rich countries that you came from, or there wouldn't have been any need for any drop in your income, because your income shouldn't be coming from the field anyhow!
         16. MOST OF YOUR INCOME OUGHT TO BE COMING FROM HOME, FROM THE RICH COUNTRIES that have nothing better to do with their money & couldn't possibly spend it for any better purpose; your relatives & friends at home who have nothing else to do but earn money & make money, lots of money to give to the Lord! So there is not any excuse for a drop in income! If anything, you should have a better income now than when you were in a home field, because people give to foreign missionaries much better than to home missionaries.
         17. THOSE PRAYER LETTERS GOING HOME OUGHT TO GET THOSE HOME FOLKS UNDER REAL CONVICTION! You need to tell them: "Listen, I'm out here doing the job you're supposed to be doing! You're at home not doing it, so the least you can do is send me enough out of that money & the comfortable living you're making to help me stay out here & do your job for you!" You need to get those home folks & home fields under conviction that it's not just something voluntary, but that it's something they've got to do!
         18. "I'M DOING YOUR JOB FOR YOU! YOU OWE IT TO ME TO SUPPORT ME OUT HERE! It's your duty! I am the reaper reaping down your fields, & God's Word condemns `he that withholds the hire of the reaper who has reaped down your fields.'" (Ja.5:4) That's what the home folks are doing when they don't give enough to support the missionaries: They are withholding the hire of the labourer who is reaping down their fields where they ought to be!
         19. I'M SURE IF YOU WILL REALLY FOLLOW GOD & do your job of mail ministry & raising Home support & obeying the Lord, I know the Lord will support you & even encourage hearts at home to support you! You need to get on the ball getting out those prayer letters & mailing those pictures & articles to the Good News so you can let the World know what you're doing so they'll give!
         20. AND NUMBER 5: HOW CAN WE COMPENSATE FOR SOME PEOPLE'S LACK & OTHER PEOPLE'S SURPLUS? How are we going to compensate for some fields who don't have enough, like the Eastern field, & some fields that have more than they need, like the Western Hemisphere? We're going to take from the rich & give to the poor! The simple answer is that we don't rob Peter to pay Paul, but we ask Peter, the Home Western Church: "Would you kindly send Eastern Paul enough of your surplus to cover his deficit?" They often did this in the Early Church.
         21. THE WESTERN SURPLUS IS MORE THAN ENOUGH TO COVER THE EASTERN DEFICIT, & the Eastern field is where we're putting the money now & where it's the most needed & the greatest mission field with the most people & the most workers & the greatest need. So both North & South America, being a home field, should not begrudge the genuine mission field of the East & the biggest mission field & the neediest mission field their little pittance of a balance.--And they shouldn't begrudge the workers either, & we should be sending them there!
         22. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO TRY TO MAKE EACH AREA INDEPENDENT & INDIGENOUS, SELF-SUPPORTING. What are the three points of indigenuity? Number one: Self-propagating. That means they do the job themselves. They get out the message & do their own printing, production, etc. They do the job: Witnessing, litnessing & everything.
         23. NUMBER TWO: THEY'VE GOT TO BE NOT ONLY SELF-PROPAGATING, BUT THEY'VE GOT TO BE SELF-SUPPORTING! That's what we're talking about right now, right? And self-governing. I'm trying to get that point across to the Western World in particular because they've been the ones who have been babied the most & we took the best care of. The West has got to learn a little more indigenuity, independence, how to make more decisions & be more self-supporting & self-governing.
         24. THEY NEED TO LEARN NOW & TO GET EXPERIENCE AT IT NOW SO THEY WON'T HAVE TO LEARN IT AT THE LAST MINUTE WHEN EAST & WEST ARE CUT OFF FROM EACH OTHER, which they will be someday!--Most certainly during the War & maybe after that, who knows? So they have got to learn to take care of themselves!
         25. THEY NEED TO GET TOGETHER & GET DOWN ON THEIR PRAYER BONES & ASK GOD WHAT TO DO, & confer with each other & make the decisions together! "Lean not to your own understanding!"--Nor ours either!--"In all thy ways acknowledge Him & He shall direct thy paths!" (Pr.3:5,6) You ought to be able to make your own decisions.
         26. SO THE FINAL POINT OF HOW TO MEET THIS EMERGENCY & ANY EMERGENCY IS TO DO WHAT?--SHARE FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY & TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEED, that the Western abundance might supply the Eastern lack!
         27. SO HERE'S A GOOD POLICY FOR ANYBODY, good advice for any Home, any area, our Homes & churches in general: If you have a sudden financial emergency & you get in a tight spot with your finances, what are you going to do?--
         1) Trim the fat!
         2) Live on what you've got, live within your income.
         3) Make a cut across the board of all your expenses, trim it down within the income again.
         4) Warn the people to pray & give.
         5) Greater indigenuity! Take care of it yourself! Decide it yourself! Support it yourself! Govern yourself! I would say, to abbreviate it: Do it yourself! In other words, do whatever you can to meet the need. Be indigenous!
         6) Sharing!
         7) Last but not least & above all, for God's sake FOLLOW GOD & I KNOW He'll supply! Obey God! Where God guides, He provides!
         28. AS LONG AS WE'RE DOING WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO, I DON'T HAVE THE SLIGHTEST DOUBT THAT HE'S GOING TO PAY FOR IT. But if He doesn't pay for it, He must not want it or must not like it or must want us to get down on our prayer bones & pray a little harder & get out & work a little harder & give a little more! There is some kind of message in it other than just trying to explain it away by every other kind of change!--Not even moving South is enough of an excuse.
         29. LORD BLESS & HELP THEM TO DO THEIR JOB & HELP US ALL TO PUT THESE SEVEN POINTS INTO EFFECT & to meet this financial emergency. We know that You will do Your part, Lord, if we do ours, in Jesus' name. TYL! PG! GBYA!

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