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chases-almost everything we
needed or thought we needed.
Young couples could furnish
their apartments or bornes within a
few weeks of marriage. Their par–
ents probably started with a hand–
me-down bed and a used dining set
and then accumulated furniture
over
lO
or more years. No need to
wait today. Buy it on credit. Pay for
it over three or four years. Enjoy a
new couch , an entire bedroom
suite and, of course, the ever-pres–
ent brand new television and ste–
reo.
Each ítem seems so affordable–
the furniture, the car, new
clothes.
The first t hing you know, the
used car dealer sends for the car to
be repossessed. A credit collection
agency sends snide and threatening
letters.
Panic. Bankruptcy.
1t
happened to more than
J
,300
American families
every single day
last year.
Credit Buying ls Nothing New
Jt might surprise you to know it's
an old American custom to buy on
credit.
lt
goes back to the very
foundation of the country.
1n bis book,
Buy Now, and Pay
Later,
Hillel Black shows just how
much of a problem this debt men–
ace has been, historically, as well as
in the 1980s. On page 6 of this
most-revealing book, Mr. Black
states: "Being in debt is not new.
The Babylonians, the Celts and
other civilizations extended credit.
Even the pilgrims on the Mayflow–
er booked passage on the install–
ment plan."
Most Americans probably are
not aware that the founding fathers
started the N ew World on money
borrowed to be paid back later.
But, an alarming
new trend
was
noted in the middle part of the 20th
century. As a result of a consurrier
credit explosion, not only in the
Unite9 States but in the whole
industrial world, the total prívate
debt proved greater than the
com–
bined
prívate debt of mankind
throughout history.
Never have so
many owed so much. Never has so
much profit been made out of the
debt itself.
Here we are, living in a world of
spectacular push-button luxury-
16
and much of it
STILL BEING PAlO
FOR
month by month, check by
check, patiently hoping that all this
glittering world we live in will
someday be óur very own.
At the present rate, it probably
never will be! The average family
will continue to go deeper and
deeper in debt in the years just
ahead.
What About You?
The chances are you are an average
American, or Australian, Briton,
Canadian or South African. And
the chances are to one extent or
another you have been caught in
the
swirling vortex
of credit buy–
ing!
But where has it brought you?
The same average family proba–
bly lives in fear of their financial
world closing in someday. After
months of paying for the car, the
television or the stereo, the desi re
to purchase more soon overwhelms
the responsibility to pay off old
debts first.
You are going to have to see
where it is heading and learn it has
to end somewhere. And you will
have to discipline yourself to make
yourself do what is best.
How to Begin to Solve Money
Problems.
While t his flurry of consumer cred–
it buying is going on, let 's stop to
ask a moment- where has God
been all this time?
Are there any laws and princi–
pies from the Bible telling us how
to handle our money?
Undoubtedly, the average man
does not know.
Most people wouldn't know
where to turn in the Bible to find
out if all this credit buying is good
or not! Many would laugh if any–
one even suggested searching the
Scriptures to find how to run a
family budget and handle money
matters.
There is not one single facet of
life the Bible does not touch upon
and, in principie, tell you what to
do. Your personal finances are
included-there is a great deal
in
the Bible
about money matters.
So, the place to start st raight–
ening out your financial problems
is the Word of God.
Go to the source.
The apostle John was inspired to
write in
111
John 2, "Beloved, 1
wish above aH things that thou
mayest prosper and be in health,
even as thy soul prospereth."
lt
is
God's desire we have brimful, j am–
packed lives- lives abounding with
good health and the prosperity to
enjoy that health.
Christ said one of the reasons he
carne was "tbat they might have
life, and that they might have it
more abundant iy" (John 10:1
O).
You certainly cannot have a hap–
py, abundant and prosperous life if
you are up to your ears in debt.
You need to find the way to pros–
perity and abundant living.
Put God Flrst
The first law of financial happiness
and
PROSPERITY
is to
pul
God jirst.
Don't turn to him in a last minute,
last ditch, effort of desperation to
save yourself from disaster. Find
out now what you should do!
Of course, if you are already
halfway down the road to financia!
collapse and ruin, the only thing
you have left to do is try it God's
· way.
If
you are a newly married cou–
ple-or if your debts have not
piled up beyond reason- you need
to learn what to do to avert a
future disaster in your financia!
life.
·
Whether you are now under
deep financia! obligations or have
already undergone bankruptcy, or
if you are just getting started on a
life of earning money and providing
for a family, you need to put God's
way first and foremost in your
planning.
Most people never stop to think
the very soil they till, the factory
where they work, the borne where
they live, in reality all belong to
God! It never enters the mind of
the common man on the street that
the paycheck be receives initially
belongs totally to God.
God gives us the land, the water
and natural resources that make
our jobs possible. He gives us food
to eat, air to breathe and water to
drink so we can work at our jobs.
The universe, the earth and all its
natural resources, yes, even the
very buildings w.e build,
BELONG
TO THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR OF
HEAVEN ANO EARTH.
The PLAIN TRUTH