WesleyGospel Ministries

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. —Proverbs 1:7

He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” —Luke 12:15-21

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. —Philippians 2:3-4

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. —James 3:13-18

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. —James 4:1-10

John Haughey, the Catholic theologian, pointed out that giving to the poor and needy of the Church, from the heart, and not to make a show of one’s generosity to attract the attention and respect of others, is the Biblical cure for competitive greed and self-centeredness. But he implied that this kind of heartfelt, compassionate desire to love your brothers and sisters, and to help them, without a smudge of religious vanity, is a rare thing and can only come from the Holy Spirit (Matt. 6:2; 2 Cor. 8:8; 9:8). Then he points out that for the majority of others, the capitalistic values of self-interest and competition get in the way of this happening:

The enemy of this mode of obedience is a culture that teaches all of us to look out for ourselves and “our own,” to take care of ourselves, to value ourselves in isolation from one another, and to define our individuality in terms of our economic and financial conditions instead of others, their needs, and our faith. Our economic culture foments competition and self-interest. Competition and self-interest are not in themselves inimical (harmful) to human needs or to faith. They are hallowed ways of generating and regulating an economy. They can and usually do, however, go beyond their economic functions and affect the area of personal values and interpersonal relations. When this occurs, a faith that proclaims a solidarity with neighbor or a member relationship to others in the Body of Christ is up against a consciousness already predisposed to the opposite. This opposite is a competitiveness toward one another and looking out for one’s own interests despite of or with a disregard for others.   —The Holy Use of Money, p. 149

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story, p.

Hideo Hatakeda, From the Well to the Sea, p. 11.

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William Matthews, Getting On in the World, p. 204.

Irvin Wyllie, The Self-Made Man in America, ch. 7 to Epilogue.

Paul and Sarah Edwards, Secrets of Successful Self-Employment.

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Business owners are the most frequent of all high-income groups to give credit for their success to their willingness to take financial risk. Senior corporate executives are in second place, followed by physicians… (Thomas J. Stanley, The Millionaire Mind, p. 161).

Wikipedia article about Gabriele Amorth.

These signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues…they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. –Mark 16:17-18

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Spiritual Warfare Scene from The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965):

Exorcism Scene from Jesus of Nazareth (1977):

Exorcism Scenes from the Jesus film used by missionaries (1979):

Exorcism Scene from Padre Pio: Miracle Man (2000):

Exorcism Documentary Trailer for The Devil and Father Amorth (2018). This is about the real-life exorcist that The Pope’s Exorcist film is based on. Russell Crowe plays Gabriele Amorth.

FINANCIAL SUCCESS WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE
(ALL YOU NEED: UNPAID INTERNSHIP AND BUILDING JOB SKILLS)

Harlow Unger, But What If I Don’t Want to Go to College? (Facts On File, 2006), pp. 7-8.

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https://www.multiverse.io/en-US/blog/do-you-need-college-to-be-successful

Other Books About Having Successful Careers Without a College Degree

1. Linda Lee, Success Without College (New York, NY: Broadway Books, 2000): this is the most quoted book on the subject. Lee cites in chapter one that the book which inspired her to write in this vein was Caroline Bird’s The Case Against College (1975).

2. Danielle Wood, The UnCollege Alternative (New York, NY: Harper, 2000).

3. Ryan Craig, A New U (2018): endorsed by Jeb Bush and LinkedIn cofounder.

4. Bryan Caplan, The Case Against Education (Princeton University Press, 2019).

5. John Murphy, Success Without a College Degree (2001).

6. Jason Rich, 202 High Paying Jobs You Can Land Without a College Degree (Entrepreneur Press, 2006).

7. William Bennett, Is College Worth It? (Thomas Nelson, 2013).

8. Adriano Tedde, Marginalisation and Utopia, p. ..

9. Blake Boles, Better Than College (2012).

10. J. Michael Farr, America’s Top Jobs for People Without Four-Year College Degrees (1998).

11. Ron and Caryl Krannich, America’s Top 100 Jobs for People Without a Four-Year Degree (2004).

Here’s every video I’ve done against the theory of evolution. I was recently reminded of this social and intellectual force, as I completed chapter 4 in Irvin Wyllie’s The Self-Made Man in America. It explains how the business world slowly began to abandon Christian business principles like the Golden Rule and replace them with the lying, cheating, and stealing of heartless, hateful corporate Machiavellians during the 1800s. Especially with the rise of Andrew Carnegie, liberal Christianity in the big Northern cities, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) and Descent of Man (1871); and Herbert Spencer’s Principles of Biology (1864): this is where the socio-economic idea of “survival of the fittest” came from: and how it came to be applied to the lower, middle, and upper classes. All of the 19th century Bible-believing Christian businessmen saw evolution as an intellectual novelty, atheistic delusion, pseudoscience, and nuisance; and they still do today. Here are some of my best attempts over the years at refuting this heresy, these “profane and vain babblings,” these “oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21).

I’ve included a presentation by Dr. Jonathan Wells on the “Icons of Evolution.”

I’ve also included a selection from John Wesley’s sermon “On Living Without God” (1790), where he describes the transition from atheism to Christianity, as one in which a person feels the presence of God, and now has his senses awakened to the spirit world. His description of the Atheist is much like today’s naturalistic evolutionist, who distracts his mind with thoughts about animals and geological formations (the natural world), but is completely insensible of the realm of the spirit all around him. Only by feeling the Holy Spirit can such a complete transition from atheism to Christianity be made. For more about this see my video called “Physically Feeling the Holy Spirit.”

On Living Without God – John Wesley

8. Every one of these is in exactly such a situation with regard to the invisible as the toad was in respect to the visible world. That creature had undoubtedly a sort of life, such as it was. It certainly had all the internal and external parts that are essential to animal life; and, without question, it had suitable juices, which kept up a kind of circulation. This was a life indeed! And exactly such a life is that of the Atheist, the man “without God in the world.” What a thick veil is between him and the invisible world, which, with regard to him, is as though it had no being! He has not the least perception of it; not the most distant idea. He has not the least sight of God, the intellectual Sun; nor any the least attraction toward him, or desire to have any knowledge of his ways. Although His light be gone forth into all lands, and His sound unto the end of the world, yet he heareth no more thereof than of the fabled music of the spheres. He tastes nothing of the goodness of God or the powers of the world to come. He does not feel (as our Church speaks) the working of the Holy Spirit in his heart. In a word, he has no more intercourse with a knowledge of the spiritual world, than this poor creature had of the natural, while shut up in its dark enclosure.

9. But the moment the Spirit of the Almighty strikes the heart of him that was till then without God in the world, it breaks the hardness of his heart, and creates all things new. The Sun of Righteousness appears, and shines upon his soul, showing him the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He is in a new world. All things round him are become new, such as it never before entered into his heart to conceive. He sees, so far as his newly-opened eyes can bear the sight,

The opening heavens around him shine, With beams of sacred bliss.

He sees that he has “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;” and that he has “redemption in his blood, the remission of his sins.” He sees “a new way that is opened into the holiest by the blood of Jesus;” and his “light shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

10. By the same gracious stroke, he that before had ears but heard not is now made capable of hearing. He hears the voice that raiseth the dead, — the voice of Him that is “the resurrection and the life.” He is no longer deaf to his invitations or commands, to his promises or threatenings; but gladly hears every word that proceeds out of his mouth, and governs thereby all his thoughts, words, and actions.

11. At the same time, he receives other spiritual senses, capable of discerning spiritual good and evil. He is enabled to taste, as well as to see, how gracious the Lord is. He enters into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and tastes of the powers of the world to come. He finds Jesus’ love far better than wine; yea, sweeter than honey or the honey-comb. He knows what that meaneth: “All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.” He feels the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto him; or, as our Church expresses it, “feels the workings of the Spirit of God in his heart.” Meantime, it may easily be observed, that the substance of all these figurative expressions is comprised in that one word faith, taken in its widest sense; being enjoyed, more or less, by everyone that believes in the name of the Son of God. This change, from spiritual death to spiritual life, is properly the new birth; all the particulars whereof are admirably well expressed by Dr. Watts in one verse:

Renew my eyes, open my ears, And form my soul afresh; Give me new passions, joys and fears, And turn the stone to flesh!

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.                                        –Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)

The rags-to-riches theme comes from the core finance question that is asked by many people: “How do I increase my income?” This is still a question I’m learning to answer myself, after several years of studying personal finance from a Biblical point of view. From what I can tell though, “income” is understood in two forms: wages (or salary paychecks) and customer payments from invoices (or business income). Business success and personal finance books, from the past and present, seem to suggest a both-and approach to salary and business income. Although the preferred long-term approach to success is self-employment, or 100% business income, because of the unlimited nature of customer payments, once your business builds momentum through advertising, projects, and invoices. I suppose there’s no general right or wrong answer that can be made into a universal law. There’s no reason why a person should feel forced into choosing between salary or business income in order to achieve an increase in their overall income. However, one thing is for sure: almost all of the “income increasing systems” that I’ve run across, seem to involve entrepreneurship on some level: whether the second job is called a side-hustle, a small business, a side job, or a side gig–one thing is sure: a second job (salary or small business income) must absolutely come into the picture if you want to experience financial growth. If you decide to just exclusively think of income in terms of a paycheck from one company, and are seeking a promotion for some lucky break: it probably won’t happen any time soon. And you’re running out of time. YOU must make the “break” happen through a side-hustle or almost never experience a “break” at all.

Larry Burkett, Business by the Book, p.

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BOOKS AND AUDIOBOOKS ABOUT INCREASING YOUR INCOME

1. Grant Sabatier’s Financial Freedom.

2. Robert Allen’s Multiple Streams of Income.

3. Paul and Sarah Edwards’ Secrets of Successful Self-Employment.

4. Brian Tracy’s 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires.

19TH CENTURY SUCCESS BOOKS WITH THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC

1. William Mathews’ Getting On in the World.

2. Freeman Hunt’s Worth and Wealth.

3. Orison Marden’s Pushing to the Front.

DISCLAIMER

I am not a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Nothing in this video, should be taken as legally binding investment advice, in the same way that SEC licensed stockbrokers can advise their clients. I am not “selling” any stocks or OTC penny stocks as a broker in this video. The purpose of this video, is only to offer guidance to those who are interested in educating themselves, about self-directed investing and Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI).

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Dave Ramsey usually talks about debt-payoff, budgeting, saving, and investing in mutual funds as the “way” to get rich. Unfortunately, he frustrates and annoys many young men because of his lack of attention to the actual art of money-making. Its always great to know what you should do if you’re already rich in the first place. But the issue of how a person with a low income can become a person with a high income is hardly ever addressed by him (the rags-to-riches question). However, here is one of those rare moments where he talks about it. Just like William Mathews and the Puritans, his recommendation for increasing income is to…

1. Start your own business with the business talents you already have (side-hustle).

2. Start doing commission-based sales (again, as a side-hustle). The example he uses is from a person in the real estate industry (the same line of business he’s in).

BOOKS THAT ARE DIRECT AND
TO THE POINT ABOUT INCREASING YOUR INCOME

1. Paul and Sarah Edwards’ Secrets of Successful Self-Employment (Nightingale-Conant).

2. P. T. Barnum’s Art of Money Getting (Applewood Books, 1999).**

3. James Mills’ The Art of Money Making; or, The Road to Fortune (1872).

4. Andrew Carnegie’s The Empire of Business, ch. “How to Win Fortune.”

5. Richard Steele’s The Religious Tradesman, ch. 4, “Of Diligence.”



** Irvin Wyllie, The Self-Made Man in America, p. 70 says that Barnum’s book taught lying, cheating, stealing as a way to make money.

When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. –Numbers 12:6-8

We know in part and we prophesy in part. –1 Corinthians 13:9

The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. –1 Corinthians 14:3

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. –Galatians 5:22-23

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
–Exodus 20:3-17–

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make any graven images to bow down and worship them.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and mother
(provided they fear God).

6. You shall not kill.

7. You shall not commit adultery
(divorce is allowed for adultery, desertion, and cruelty).

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. –Romans 12:17-21