It’s January 20th today--just about the time most of us are seeing our new year’s resolutions faltering. Some of them may have had to do with exercising more, eating better, or wasting less time. They end up being good intentions that just don’t make it to reality, for very long.

My Christian journey has often been stuck in that struggle between noble intentions and tangible action. Through the Holy Spirit in us, I think we see so many ways in which the world is broken. It can be seen in a photo of the haunting eyes of a starving child, flies buzzing on his head; it can be from hearing the news of almost two dozen Chicago Public School kids killed in the 2008 school year, average age of 16. Someone needs to do something. Lots of people--doing lots more than nothing.

This is where I see the real value of Crown Financial Bible Study. For people stuck in a serious debt struggle, it can be their first foothold to get some traction. For those just getting by, it can help build their savings reserve, that keeps the next unexpected car repair from causing bankruptcy. But, the big picture is more profound. It can help everyday people maximize their time and money and talents, to chip away at those big problems in God’s name. Is this just another good intention? Not really.

If a Crown student frees up about a buck a day, $32 a month, she can feed, clothe, and educate a child through Compassion International. For that child, this is literally the difference between an education with a future, and starvation and illiteracy. Just over three dollars a day can support an orphan or refugee through Crossing Borders. Any amount can drive the mentoring work of GRIP Outreach For Youth forward, providing father figures in a generation that has been abandoned, transforming the inner city of Chicago, one precious student at a time. Even better, if the lessons of Crown create more free time, the graduate can invest more of her time in things that will last forever—the lives and souls of people who need Jesus in their lives.

My biggest nightmare for Crown Financial Ministry is that graduates feel smarter, maybe save a few bucks more, but never see how God is going to use this new found money or time to heal His world and build His Kingdom—a world where things are as they should be. This is why I teach Crown. It empowers my friends at Harvest to invest their lives and resources into making God’s love more tangible in this broken place. That’s a new year’s resolution worth keeping.

Ed Sung
Crown Financial

People say that in most marriages one spouse is the spender and the other is the saver. Unfortunately for my husband, I have always been a spender and he has been the saver. Each time I share my testimony with one of the Crown classes, I reflect on how God brought the two of us together and how much I have learned since then about God's perspective on finances and stewardship.

I grew up having a very selfish and thoughtless view of money. My parents always provided everything I needed, but I never really knew how to manage money or use it in a way to build the kingdom of God. After getting married, I saw how different my opinions on money were from Sol's, particularly in the area of debt. And once I took my first Crown class, I began to understand that there were clear biblical principles that supported being debt-free. I started using a budget for the first time, and investing more in my 401K. But more than these financial benefits, there are other blessings from Crown that I consider even more valuable:

1. Realizing that God is in control of our finances as well as every area of our lives
2. Building closer relationships with other Crown students and leaders
3. Sharing prayer requests and seeing God answer them
4. Memorizing the Word of God and later being reminded of those verses at just the right time
5. Witnessing God's faithfulness to Harvest as over 100 students have taken Crown, including elementary, high school, and college age students.

When I read the Bible, occasionally a verse, sentence or phrase will stand out as though in bold print. I take that as the Lord wanting me to pay special attention to it, to chew on it awhile. The most recent example comes from Romans 12:16 which includes, “Do not be wise in your own opinion.” To me this meant, “Don’t think you know it all. Don’t be conceited. Be humble and willing to learn.”

As a younger Christian, I viewed humility as meaning self-loathing, self-disgust, putting myself down in comparison to others. It took awhile for me to realize that this kind of “humility” actually made self the focus and was self-absorption, not humility. I learned that true humility doesn’t involve comparing myself with others at all, but comes from seeing who I am in comparison to who God is. He is the Creator of the universe. I am His finite creature. Remembering my smallness in light of His greatness is what engenders true humility. And this too is not a self-loathing. Instead, it is a sense of awe at the reality that Someone so great deigns (condescends, stoops down, sees fit) to lovingly involve Himself in the life of someone so small.

As human beings, we all have a deep desire to “be somebody.” It seems that almost every time I do something that makes me feel like I have done something good or praise-worthy, the temptation to cross the line into pride quickly follows. And then a verse comes along that says, “Do not be wise in your own opinion.” And I remember that I am “somebody,” not because of anything I have done, but because I belong to God and I am His child.

Ruth Carr
2008 HCC Women's Retreat Speaker