SHOULD CHRISTIANS ACCUMULATE DEBT?….. IS DEBT SIN?
We had a season of great abundance in our lives where we thought God opened every door imaginable. We owned over 30 rental homes and 3 apartment buildings in and around Detroit. We even had a debt monster built (Brand new home) on over an acre of land in the country. We had accumulated over $5,000,000 in real estate and assets.
We were so engulfed in our business that we seemed to be slipping away spiritually. Our turning point in real estate was when we found ourselves in one of our rental properties at 1:00 a.m. in the middle of the night with 3 of our babies, one new born at the time, and a guy was beating on the door hard and loud asking if we needed help working on the house. I can remember thinking how foolish I was to have my family in this cut throat city this time of night, working on a rental property.
Shortly there after, we asked God to free us from this rental business with something that could sustain our lifestyle. God being the faithful father that he is, did just that. We slowly began to sell off our property. We went into the wholesale merchandising business and was able to match and surpass our real estate business. Some months sales would be so good that we would earn over $40,000 in sales. Yet again, we found ourselves slipping even further away from God.
The Lord revealed something to my wife(EW Ministries) and when he did, she would not let me rest. She walked past a picture of our home that was hanging on the wall. There was a brass emblem that said “The Bank’s Place, which was suppose to represent our last name. Now she had walked passed this picture hundreds of times as did I. It never really mattered much. But this particular day she said, It was almost as if God spoke to me through the picture and said this house is the Bank’s place“, meaning it belongs to Washington, Mutual, our finance company. At the time we had just completed a home office in our lower level walkout to make it more convenient for our internet business transactions and shipping. As the weeks wore on, my wife came to me with scripture after, scripture, talking about, debt, lenders, usury, slavery and more. She would always point at the Stanley Johnson video below and say “See, This is what I am talking about.”
I hated seeing that commercial and I must admit, it was a bitter taste in my mouth because I knew she was right and that meant we would have to give all of this accumulation up, if we would ever be close to the Lord again. All of this STUFF WAS SEPARATING US FROM GOD. We began to pray and ask God to free us from all of this so that we can do his will. We were living in his permissive will and wanted no parts of that.
As we prayed God began to lead us even more. We knew that we would have to move which meant buying another house. We also knew that we could not go into debt any more with a mortgage. So we said Lord, we need money to buy a house because we no longer want to be servants to a lender. The whole time we had all of this debt we couldn’t sleep nights because our work load had to carry over all day in order to maintain this lifestyle. Our children had everything we didn’t have but they got a chance to see us slipping away. Putting off prayer to ship boxes, skipping over fasting to get customers, ignoring God to market our business. This has got to stop so the Lord invoked a great study about Christians and Debt. Fast forward, we moved to Kentucky into a bigger house (4,000 square feet) that is paid for. We let go of what we thought was a God given blessing but turned out to be something he gave us out of our disobedience. Even though we were making a lot of money while living in Michigan, we were in a gut wrenching amount debt which caused us to have to work, work, work and many times ignore God. He was allowing our disobedience to suffocate us. Covetousness had crept into our heart
All these things had become our gods, and the Lord said chose ye this day whom you will serve. We decided to let it all go, who cares about wealth if it’s going to carry you to hell. I’d rather be poor, and content with food and raiment as the Apostle Paul stated. When we let go and that’s when
the doors opened for us and God gave us the money for both a bigger house and a van to accommodate our growing family. God doesn’t want his people living in debt, he wants us to be free from that burden. If we trust in him and believe that he is able, then he can make us debt free, he will. God is able.
We were so engulfed in our business that we seemed to be slipping away spiritually. Our turning point in real estate was when we found ourselves in one of our rental properties at 1:00 a.m. in the middle of the night with 3 of our babies, one new born at the time, and a guy was beating on the door hard and loud asking if we needed help working on the house. I can remember thinking how foolish I was to have my family in this cut throat city this time of night, working on a rental property.
Shortly there after, we asked God to free us from this rental business with something that could sustain our lifestyle. God being the faithful father that he is, did just that. We slowly began to sell off our property. We went into the wholesale merchandising business and was able to match and surpass our real estate business. Some months sales would be so good that we would earn over $40,000 in sales. Yet again, we found ourselves slipping even further away from God.
The Lord revealed something to my wife(EW Ministries) and when he did, she would not let me rest. She walked past a picture of our home that was hanging on the wall. There was a brass emblem that said “The Bank’s Place, which was suppose to represent our last name. Now she had walked passed this picture hundreds of times as did I. It never really mattered much. But this particular day she said, It was almost as if God spoke to me through the picture and said this house is the Bank’s place“, meaning it belongs to Washington, Mutual, our finance company. At the time we had just completed a home office in our lower level walkout to make it more convenient for our internet business transactions and shipping. As the weeks wore on, my wife came to me with scripture after, scripture, talking about, debt, lenders, usury, slavery and more. She would always point at the Stanley Johnson video below and say “See, This is what I am talking about.”
I hated seeing that commercial and I must admit, it was a bitter taste in my mouth because I knew she was right and that meant we would have to give all of this accumulation up, if we would ever be close to the Lord again. All of this STUFF WAS SEPARATING US FROM GOD. We began to pray and ask God to free us from all of this so that we can do his will. We were living in his permissive will and wanted no parts of that.
As we prayed God began to lead us even more. We knew that we would have to move which meant buying another house. We also knew that we could not go into debt any more with a mortgage. So we said Lord, we need money to buy a house because we no longer want to be servants to a lender. The whole time we had all of this debt we couldn’t sleep nights because our work load had to carry over all day in order to maintain this lifestyle. Our children had everything we didn’t have but they got a chance to see us slipping away. Putting off prayer to ship boxes, skipping over fasting to get customers, ignoring God to market our business. This has got to stop so the Lord invoked a great study about Christians and Debt. Fast forward, we moved to Kentucky into a bigger house (4,000 square feet) that is paid for. We let go of what we thought was a God given blessing but turned out to be something he gave us out of our disobedience. Even though we were making a lot of money while living in Michigan, we were in a gut wrenching amount debt which caused us to have to work, work, work and many times ignore God. He was allowing our disobedience to suffocate us. Covetousness had crept into our heart
All these things had become our gods, and the Lord said chose ye this day whom you will serve. We decided to let it all go, who cares about wealth if it’s going to carry you to hell. I’d rather be poor, and content with food and raiment as the Apostle Paul stated. When we let go and that’s when
the doors opened for us and God gave us the money for both a bigger house and a van to accommodate our growing family. God doesn’t want his people living in debt, he wants us to be free from that burden. If we trust in him and believe that he is able, then he can make us debt free, he will. God is able.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Child of the Kingdom on
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No problem.
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Matthew 6:12 KJV
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Proverbs 22:7 KJV
The rich ruleth over the poor , and the borrower is servant to the lender .
Romans 13:8 KJV
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Nehemiah 5:1-9 KJV
1. And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
2. For there were that said , We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat , and live .
3. Some also there were that said , We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
4. There were also that said , We have borrowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.
5. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.
6. And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
7. Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.
8. And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace , and found nothing to answer.
9. Also I said , It is not good that ye do : ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies ?
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There are more that convinced me that we as Children of God should steer away from debt. Especially when Nehemiah speaks of it as being sold to the Heathen.
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Permalink Reply by James Pierce on
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EW,
I agree that we should not be in debt, but I would never call that sin. At least Torah does not call "being in debt" a sin.
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Permalink Reply by Archbishop Trevor 'Elihu' Greene on
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That speaks of bondage, not sin. Neither OT nor NT says this or hints at this.
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