Money Walk

In this column, Randy E. Parlor shares principles obtaining freedom from financial bondage.

by Randy E. Parlor

In this column, Randy E. Parlor will teach the principles needed to obtain freedom from financial bondage.

Being content. A very important stage in your spiritual growth is to be content with the situation that God has placed you in or allowed you to be in.

Also, you must learn to be content with the things God has given you or allowed you to have. Contentment does not mean that you do not have ambitions or desires to do more than you are now doing, rather it recognizes the fact that you appreciate the present blessings that God has afforded you and that you consider your close relationship with Him to be the ultimate success you could ever attain.

Being content means recognizing that you wait on the Holy Spirit to open doors that lead you step-by-step to the fulfillment of your purpose and calling in Christ Jesus.

You must understand that what you consider to be success, for a monetary standpoint, may not be the path that the LORD wants you to choose. His ultimate purpose far exceeds the advantages that you may believe you will get from that job or endeavor. You must get to know God's word and His voice well enough to know that you are doing what is required of you for Him to elevate you to the next step. This can be done only though prayer, reading the word, living by the word, and fellowshipping with the saints. Sometimes, that job or business venture, is a means by which Satan and his demonic forces can draw you away from these fundamentals of the faith.

Be delighting yourself in God, you will receive the desires of your heart because the closer you get to God the more His desires for you and mankind permeate your life and become your desires. At this point, the purpose for which God created you and the call He has placed on your life will become more evident with each new day. You will be able to see it based on talents, gifts and abilities that you already use in your local church or new ones that He will show you by the Holy Spirit and the laying of hands by the presbytery.

The amount of money, fame and power that you believe you could have attained by going down the path that you identified will become unimportant to you because you will understand that all of your future and eternal need and desires will be met as you pursue your calling to glorify God in Christ, serve His people, and build His Kingdom.

Remember, the blessing of the LORD makes rich and He adds no sorrow to it. He can and will allow your ministry to take on much greater proportions than you thought possible, but you must take on a humble and contrite attitude of heart and mind in relationship with Him and His people.

Please realize that the size and scope of your ministry to the church is less important to God than the fact that you are doing all you can to fulfill His will for your life.

Please read Philippians 4:11-13, first Timothy 6:6-10, Luke 3:14 and Hebrews 13:5.

May God bless you richly.

Minority mortgage loans down

Banks are turning down blacks, Hispanics and American Indians for home mortgage loans more often than whites, no matter what their income, according to a new government report.

And despite government programs aimed at helping minorities become homeowners, growth in mortgage lending to those groups slowed markedly last year, according to an annual survey of 7,925 banks, thrifts and credit unions nationwide.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume called the report ``abysmal.'' He said it demonstrates ``a major failing on the part of financial institutions around this country.''

``There really has to be greater (government) oversight of the financial services industry,'' he said in a telephone interview. Mfume said he and Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, D-Mass., plan to ask Attorney General Janet Reno for an investigation of banks' lending practices.

Kennedy and several other lawmakers sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other top banking regulators, asking for an overhaul of their rating system for banks under community-lending laws.

The banking industry maintains that lenders continue to seek qualified borrowers in minority communities.

``Banks continue to reach out to communities, as evidenced by ... increases in (mortgage) applications,'' said Judith Knight, director of the American Bankers Association's Center for Community Development. ``However, as the net is cast more widely, applicants become more diverse, including many who are not (qualified). As a result, denial rates continue to show increases.''

The data were compiled by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which is comprised of the bank regulatory agencies.

The study showed that conventional home mortgage loans, those not backed by government guarantees, issued in 1997 to: Hispanics declined 2.1 percent from the year before, to 132,808; American Indians slipped 1 percent, to 11,254; Blacks rose 2.6 percent, to 139,544, reversing a 1.5 percent decline in 1996 but down sharply from a 9.7 percent increase in 1995.

In each case, the latest figures compared with hefty, often double-digit increases in mortgage loans for those groups in recent years.

Conventional loans to whites rose 2 percent, to some 2.4 million. For Asian Americans, they jumped 12.7 percent, to 103,192.

At the same time, Hispanics, blacks and American Indians at all income levels were rejected for conventional mortgages last year more frequently than white borrowers, the data show.

For borrowers with less than 50 percent of the median family income in their geographical area, 48.1 percent of Hispanic applicants were denied, 57.2 percent of blacks and 55.1 percent of American Indians, compared with 46.3 percent of whites.

As income rose to 50 percent to 79 percent of the median, the denial rates were: 37.6 percent for Hispanics, 45.6 percent for blacks, 43.2 percent for American Indians and 29.4 percent for whites.

At 80 percent to 99 percent of median income, the rejection rates were: 30.7 percent for Hispanics, 37.4 percent for blacks, 34.4 percent for American Indians and 20.1 percent for whites.

Government programs designed to help minorities buy homes, notably the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, have come under fire recently in the Republican-led Congress.

Recently, a House Banking subcommittee voted to adopt an amendment to eliminate the community-lending rules for banks with less than $250 million in assets. Banks in that category represent around 75 percent of lenders that are federally regulated.

The House passed a bill to help credit unions compete with banks, after stripping out an earlier provision that would have required credit unions, like banks, to abide by the 1977 rules. Those rules require federal regulators to consider a bank's lending record to minorities and low-income applicants when ruling on expansion proposals.

by Randy E. Parlor

Many people judge their ability to manage their money by how much money they actually receive from work and other sources in a month. It’s easy to convince yourself that your minimum wage job just doesn’t provide enough to manage in any form or fashion. And those who are on government assistance feel they have an even better excuse for not handling their money in any particular fashion.

However, it behooves each of us to have an active plan for managing whatever amount of income we receive. The LORD does not excuse anyone from His command to know the state of their flocks and herds or better put the state of their income and expenses.

Each individual who prioritizes his or her life to make expenses in line with income and pay expenses in accordance with scriptural priorities will be blessed immensely. However, those who refuse to allow affordability to dictate their purchases and /or who refuse to pay tithes and give offerings first no matter what the current financial circumstance will continue to be in financial turmoil. The LORD is not limited in His supernatural ability to provide your material needs by your perceived lack of income. I have personally seen situations where He caused one person to give an item to another person which that person could not afford but had need of. Numerous times this has happened when no one except God knew the person’s need.

Further, God is not limited in his ability toward those who are rich. There is never a situation where a rich person does not need God. As a matter of fact, the bible warns people about trusting in their riches. God can provide material things for the faithful rich person that he or she will not have to pay for.

Thus, freeing up their money to do other worthwhile things with, such as providing a more comfortable living and educational arrangement for their family, giving to their local church and other local and worldwide church ministries. Starting and maintaining businesses that employs other people thus allowing them to make a living, and /or financing a philanthropic and ministerial calling that God has given him/her. If this man or woman pays no attention to managing their income and does not bless God with it, then it will not last from generation to generation and certainly will not be used wisely to establish God’s covenant on the earth.

The parable of the talents in the book of Matthew and the minas in the book of Luke show that God expects you to properly manage your money and talents according to His commands no matter how much you receive and it shows the different rewards that you can expect to receive when you properly manage as opposed to improperly manage them.

Please read Proverbs 27:23-24, and Luke 19:12-27. May God bless you richly.

by Randy E. Parlor

One positive way to help yourself out in this tough financial time is to bargain shop for every item you buy. This consists of finding items for a price that is well below others normally pay.

In order to bargain shop, several worldly mentalities must be removed and you mind must be renewed in Christ. You cannot be a respecter of persons. This means that you can’t continue in the mind set, “give me goochee or give me death.”

When you are in a position where you cut costs you must realize that there are items that can meet your present need in places other than upscale store, designer label or name brand section that you usually select. For instance, the household cleanser at the dollar store may be just as good as the cleanser you purchase at the well known retailer and same brand blue jeans contain the same quality no matter where you purchase them. Don’t waste money over brand name loyalty when you’re in a tight squeeze and do not absolutely believe that the higher the price the better the quality or service. You must be willing to give some stores in which you did not previously shop a thorough scouring to see if they have what you need at a lower price.Though there can be quality differences in merchandise and services, in many instances the same materials and workmanship can be found in similar merchandise with different labels.

I had the pleasure of working for awhile in a meat packing plant and many different brands of meat with essentially the same ingredients were packed coming off the same processing line. This process works the same way for most types of merchandise. There are different forms of bargain shopping such as purchasing clearance and sale items only, shopping at discount retailers and outlet malls, negotiating prices on medium size and big ticket items no matter where they are sold, purchasing conservative apparel and household items that remain in style for long periods of time instead of faddish things and negotiating discounts on long distance telephone service, ect.

Many sellers will negotiate with you on the price of items like appliances, furniture, cars and homes. When used with the strategy of eliminating unnecessary spending, this technique can save you thousands of dollars per year that you would otherwise have played out by purchasing items that you wanted without regard to the cost. If you follow this strategy in tough times, you will build habits that will pull you out of the pit of financial despair and put you in a place to someday comfortably splurge on that item you desire without bills eating you up and unpaid creditors calling you up.

Please read Exodus 12:35-36, Proverbs 8:19-21, Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 16:1-12.

He may be reached at: 517/393-5081.