At the beginning of “Part 1” I talked about this “House Story”. This was powerful training from God that I needed to go through. God certainly knew what He was doing!
In part 1 when I made my “Four Statements to God”, my life seemed to be going very well! We were going to a great church, we had many church friends, Cheri had quit her job and became a full-time mom, we were home-schooling our children, the home school was going great, I was self-employed as a computer contractor, we had a wonderful home, a new van, was making more money in my life than ever before. The future looked bright!
My contracting business was doing extremely well. However, more money was going out than coming in. I made several major purchases for my house on credit. I had many credit cards and got in the BAD habit of making minimum payments on each card. Because it looked like I had so much money coming in, that I just bought what I wanted and figured I’d pay it off later. I was foolish and naive (a very bad combination). When you own your own business, your taxes don’t just disappear out of your paycheck, you need to pay them yourself. Usually, small businesses could pay their taxes monthly, as I did. But then more house expenses came up and I couldn’t pay the monthly taxes, I skipped that month, thinking I’ll catch up later. I got deeper in debt with my credit cards. I was digging a hole of debt that kept getting deeper and I didn’t have enough sense to stop digging! I skipped more monthly tax payments because my credit card payments were taking all my money. My tax guy did my taxes that year and I owed so much, I couldn’t pay it… so that year I didn’t send in my taxes. The following year was worse. I didn’t send in the second year of taxes either. I was getting letters from the IRS that they hadn’t received anything. I was in deep trouble. Between the two years, I owed the IRS $22,000. The IRS didn’t know how much I owed them, but they knew information was missing. I might mention here that the IRS may be slow, but they are relentless. It was only a matter of time. I didn’t know what to do. I was sick. The only way I could imagine paying that IRS bill was to sell my house.…. dear Lord, I didn’t want to lose my house! I had to do something, but I didn’t know what. My wife did not know anything about this. She trusted me with all the finances and look what I did – I wrecked everything!
One day I was casually talking to a co-worker, and he told me about a great stock tip. This big corporation was going bankrupt. Its stock price dropped from $35 dollars a share to $1 a share. Daily it bounced from $1 to $.50. Then from $.50 back up to $1. It did this for a week. He said, “A guy could buy it when it was at $.50, and sell the next day at $1. You could double your money in one day! I, who knew nothing about the stock market, became excited! I watched it, and sure enough, that’s what it did! This is a sure thing! This is Gods answer to my prayers! But I needed money. Cheri had $7000 in stock that she got from her company when she left her job after 18 years. If she would let me use her money for just a few days, I could get out of debt and no one would know. I convinced my trusting wife to let me put the value of her stock into the stock market. She said, “If you’re sure about this, go ahead”. So when the stock was at $.50, I put a small amount in. The next day it went up to $1. I doubled my money. The next day it dropped to $.50. I put everything in. The following day, it dropped below $.50. I was shocked! I thought, I can’t sell, I’ll lose $1000! The next day it dropped again. I thought, I can’t sell now, I’ll lose $2000! That week was a nightmare. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. The stock market is a special arena that fools like me shouldn’t venture in. I didn’t know how to take a loss and get out. At the end of that week I finally gave up all hope and sold what I had. In five days I had changed that $7000 into $900. Oh Lord, how can I tell my wife? She trusted me! Lord, how did this happen to me? Yes, I was foolish, but I wasn’t a bad person and I didn’t mean for all this to happen! What can I do? I was about to lose everything I had up to that point in my life. Let me re-phrase that. My family was about to lose everything we had up to that point in our lives…. because of me.
Then on Sunday morning Tim Hartzell, a Sunday school teacher, announced at church that he was giving a ten week seminar on how to be financially free. Financially free? I just want is to be able to pay my bills. I went to the sessions.
In the first session, he talked about how God wants us to avoid debt, especially consumer debt. If you need something, ask God and let Him provide. If He doesn’t provide, then you don’t need it.
After the second session, I said, “Tim, I have to talk to you, I’m in trouble.” I told him everything, about the tax returns, mistakes, and the stock market fiasco.
He listened sympathetically and told me the first thing to do was be honest with everyone, no matter what. The next thing he said was precisely what I needed to hear. He said, “I don’t know what to say about solving your financial problems, but I do know this:
If you honor God, He will honor you.” (1Sam.2:30)
That last statement was like a lightning bolt hit me! When he said that I knew immediately what my problem was! I was not honoring God! I had stopped tithing because I thought I couldn’t afford it. I was hiding everything because of my dumb pride!
I decided right there that the first thing I would do was honor God and His principles, NO MATTER WHAT! And tithing would be the first thing I paid when I received money, not the last thing. My tithe was the most important financial issue I had – and would always be paid!
The second thing I did was going back to the altar. I remembered initially putting my house on it, but I never let go of it. I guess I never expected God to actually take it. So right then I truly gave it to Him. I didn’t feel very spiritual about it, because I knew there was no way I could save it.
The third thing I did was take the two tax returns and mail them to the IRS…. without money. Now they would know exactly what I owed them. When you owe them money, they suddenly become motivated to move quickly. And I didn’t expect my next letter from the IRS to be a happy one.
The fourth thing would by far be the toughest. I needed to tell my wife. I prayed SO MUCH before that conversation. Something I had not considered came into my mind. What if she walks away? What if I lose my family? How would she handle my telling her that through my foolishness, we were going to lose everything? Suddenly my “house” wasn’t the most important thing.
I waited until the children were in bed. I asked Cheri to sit down, because I needed to talk to her. I had not been myself for weeks, and I felt she knew something was wrong. “We’re in trouble, and it’s all my fault.” I said. I proceeded to explain how through my foolishness, I overspent on the credit cards and didn’t keep up on our taxes. I owed two years of back taxes of $22,000. The only way I could see to pay that would be to sell our house. BAM! I felt like I just drove a nail in my coffin! She thought for a moment and said, “You can use that $7000 of my stock from Republic Airlines, if that will help.” “Oh no” I thought. I said, “There is only $900 of that left – that hot stock tip wasn’t so hot.” BAM! I felt like I drove the final nail in my coffin. I just looked down. I was too ashamed to look her in the eye. She had every right to unload her anger on me! Then, after a few moments, this very exceptional woman said this, “If we have to sell the house, we’ll sell the house. What’s important is we still have each other”. Those two wonderful statements lifted this broken and defeated man up out of despair and gave him hope with wings! She was still with me! With her on my side, I knew I could do anything! Thank you Lord! (I need to inject here, writing about my wife’s response many years ago for my blog today still lifts my heart and brings tears to my eyes. In fact, I just had to get up and go hug her and tell her I loved her!)
It was hard as I told my young children all about this. We put our home up for sale. Because of the size of the debt (including credit cards) we needed a cheaper place to live. For the next couple of weekends, we looked for a place to rent. Then I received an ominous letter from the IRS. They wanted $3900 within 90 days, or they would begin liquidating our assets. Well, the IRS was not hiding their objectives, and nothing about the letter was happy. I did not have the money, and I definitely needed to get the house sold. We lowered the price to below market value, but no one was interested. I remembered someone saying that a bad situation can always get worse. I thought, “If the house doesn’t sell, the IRS takes it, sells it, and doesn’t get enough money to pay the bill. That would be worse.” At the time we were going to a large church. I had not told anyone about my problem. On Sunday, they passed around a prayer needs list. Although I was embarrassed about it, I reluctantly wrote down my critical prayer request – I knew I needed prayer. What I didn’t realize, was they published this list to the entire church. But I was comforted when people came up to me and said they were praying for us.
Then I received a call “out of the blue”. A former business acquaintance (who knew nothing of my situation) told me about a company (who paid well) that needed computer help from someone with my skills. As a computer contractor, I went from one company to another. I sent this company my resume, interviewed, and they wanted to hire me for a one-year contract. AND, they offered me 35% more money than I was making! Wow! That would be perfect! With the additional money, I could work out a payment plan with the IRS and keep my house!! This HAD to be God’s answer to my prayer! BUT, there was just one very small detail. They wanted me to start in two weeks. I had four weeks left on my current contract. I didn’t have a written contract, just a “handshake” deal. If I left two weeks early, I would just be breaking my “word”. It was just a “little thing”. It would mean I could SAVE my house! I talked to two godly men and asked their advice. Both said I should not break my word. Jam.5:12 “but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation”
I agonized over this. But I had told God I would honor Him no matter what! I called the company. I said, “I can’t come in two weeks, because I need to honor my current contract. But I’d be happy to start working for you in four weeks”. They said, “Okay, we’ll think about it”. Two days later they hired another guy. That door was closed. I was crushed. Saving my home was within my grasp, but I let it go.
We were within days of the IRS’s deadline, and an unlikely relative showed up at our house who knew our plight. He said, “You’ve helped me out in the past, and now I want to help you”. And he handed me a check for $3900! I paid that bill one day before the deadline! I was ecstatic! Cheri said, “But we still owe $18,000.” I said, “If God can take care to that $3900, He can take care of the remaining $18,000! I knew that it was that credit card foolishness that got me in so much trouble. Here is where I made a deal with God. I said to Him, “Lord if you would let me keep my house, I promise You, I will never again borrow money, and I will never use or have a credit card”. You never make promises to God unless you intend on keeping them.
The following week, I received another call “out of the blue”, from another former business acquaintance (who also knew nothing of my situation), who told me about another company (who also paid well) that needed computer help from someone with my skills. I sent them my resume, interviewed, and they wanted to hire me for a one-year contract. They wanted me to start in two weeks and they offered me 40% more money than I had ever made in my life! More than the other company! And now I was in the position to give my two week notice! And I did – and I started with that company. I contacted the IRS, and agreed to pay them $2000 a month until I paid off the bill. And it was a joyful day as I took my “For sale” sign down! God honored my decision to follow Him no matter what, and gave me my home back. I remembered my promise to God. I pulled out all of my credit cards and cut them up. And the interesting thing about that unusually high-paying job, was that once the IRS was paid off, that job ended and I went back to the normal paying jobs.
Glory! Only a Good God would be so merciful!
God’s Lessons in This Story
- God did not want my house, He wanted my trust. When I put the house on the altar the first time, I never let go of it. He had to take it away, then give it back…. And also made me consider losing my family. When we left for the mission field eight years later, I was able to leave the house, and put my family’s lives in God’s hands.
- I needed to remove the debt. Many potential missionaries are kept off the field because of debt. When God presented the opportunity to go to the mission field eight years later, I could go. I was debt free.
- For eight years before the mission field, I learned to live on what I had, not buy whatever I wanted. Making that promise to God about no borrowing and no credit cards was a tremendous boost to my faith. I began going through life without the American life preserver – the credit card. Do you really think when you have a problem, God wants you to depend on something other than Him? I want to be careful here. I’m not telling you what to do, I’m telling you what I did. And I don’t regret it. I only carry a debit card. It only works if I have money in that account. If there is not enough money, it doesn’t work. I have story after story after story of while traveling in Mexico and in the United States of problems, car breakdowns, and emergencies that were solved by prayer. Yes, prayer! God loves faith! On the Mexico mission trips I told the people who came on the trips that all problems would be solved by prayer. And I will be publishing those stories – and friends, I have a pile of incredible answers to prayer! Because it works! I remember once leaving El Paso for six weeks on the road. I started with $70. I came back six weeks later with $75. God is good! Without life-preservers, you only have God to depend on. Your prayers then are “more sincere”. And when you learn to pray like that, after a while, you learn to relax. Because you learn that God will always come through – not because He always says yes, but because you can always trust His answer! Glory!
Grandpa Jack's Place 