For those that are not familiar with how these things work, the banks loan the money to individuals and then turn around and sell the loan package to ‘down line’ investors on what is known as the secondary market. It is a bit like a lottery winner having the choice of a lesser lump sum now or a bigger payout stretched out over a long time. The banks sell the loan packages to investors who are willing to give the bank a smaller profit right now because they are willing to take a bigger profit over the long haul. Sometimes they are counting on the fact even though a loan may be for 30 years, most people pay off the loans prior to that. They will either re-finance or sell the home to move somewhere else, in either case the old loan will be paid off or a new loan started- with new origination fees and other exciting ways for the lenders to make money out of the process.

 

   The problem lately has been with the sub-prime loans to people with bruised or tarnished credit. Many of these loans have gone into default with the homes used as collateral having to be repossessed by the banks. The actual money loaned can be recovered because the lenders will only lend up to a certain percentage of the value of the collateral- usually 80% loan to value. The banks get the home back and then sell it to recoup their loss. What is lost in this whole mess though is the value of the long-term speculation of the value of the loan package that the investors were counting on. The investors are losing money in the sense that they were buying or investing based on a belief that the money would be paid back with interest over a long period of time. If that doesn’t happen and they have invested in a large number of these types of properties, they will loose a great deal of money. They may recover the initial amount of the loan but they have lost the long-term incentive that they were counting on.

 

   In this type of climate, the investors who buy the loans from the banks do not want to put their money into this kind of investment. The chance of them getting the return they are expecting over the long haul is more remote. It creates a vicious circle whereby individuals still willing to buy cannot obtain financing simply because the investment money in the secondary market that the banks count on to sell their loan packages to is not available. There is then more competition for less available funds, which will go to the individual who are most qualified as gauged by credit rating.

 

   The driving force behind it all is the desire to invest and make a profit or realize a return on their investment. If there is a profit incentive, people will invest. If there is less chance for a profit, fewer people will want to risk their money; they will take their money elsewhere. It is the difference between being financially ‘smart’ or financially ‘stupid’.

 

   The idea of investment with the expectation of return is well founded in scripture. Jesus used parables of money more than any other single topic. To Jesus, people invested money to make money. It was just common sense. But Jesus used this idea in a way that people often overlook. When Jesus talked about principles of economics, and the idea of investment with the expectation of return, he was NEVER talking about money. He was using the laws of economic reality to convey spiritual truths which are equally valid and real often with direct parallels.

 

   God is the ultimate investor and as with ALL investors, He fully expects a return on His investment. Again, God talks a lot about ‘money’ in the Bible but it is not at all about money! He wants us to make the connection in the WAY we think about investments and apply those principles to the way we conduct our lives in spiritual matters.

 

   God will one day have each and every one of us stand before Him to give a full account of our lives. The Bible says that even every idle word will be judged as to whether or not it was profitable. The idea of the word of God being sown into our lives as an investment is literally on every other page of the New Testament. One of the greatest concerns of Jesus and the Apostles was whether or not there would be a return on their investment. They were sowing seeds of faith and they were praying for a big return.

 

   It is interesting that Jesus talked about money all the time but didn’t own a home or land or have bank accounts, 401ks, or IRAs or even a used donkey of His own. He was even buried in a borrowed tomb. (He didn’t need it very long- just a 3 day rent!) His greatest investment was not His teachings; it was the investment of His own life as he ‘poured out His soul unto death’ (Isaiah 53:12). He considered His life as a grain of wheat. He said if it stays alone above ground- it remains nothing but a single solitary grain of wheat. But if it is planted (invested) in the ground, it will bring forth a stalk of wheat which will have hundreds of grains on it, which in turn can be planted to produce even more and so on!

 

   God has given you breath and a number of days on the earth. He has given you talents and abilities. He has given you intelligence. He has given you resources. He has given you attributes that God calls ‘in His own image’. He has given you opposable thumbs, which are some human’s only visible characteristic distinguishing them from chimps! (Just joking)

 

   God has invested these in you and rest assured you WILL have to give Him an accounting as to what you did with them. This is a date you will not break. You will stand before God and it will not be a conversation about the weather! The first question God will ask you on that day is; “I invested my only begotten son to pay for your sin on the cross- what have you done with Him? Have you profited from that investment yourself? Have you become a return on that investment for Jesus? Have you in turn become a grain of wheat that has in turn invested your own life to bring forth an even greater return?”

 

   Don’t wait for the Day of Judgment to settle this question. Settle it today. What have you done with the investment of Jesus in your life? Are you living for your own goals, dreams and ambitions? Are you living to give the Lord the best possible return on His investment?

 

 

 

Other verses referring to God’s desire for a profit to be returned on His investment in your life are the following.

 

1Corinthians 10:33, 12:7 and 14:6, 2 Timothy 2:14, Hebrews 4: and 12:10, James 2:14 and 2:16

 

Jim Eliot, a missionary to the Aucca Tribe of Ecuador once wrote these lines,

“He is no fool to give (invest) what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose.”

 

He and four friends were later killed by these same people. His wife and others later went in to continue the efforts to share the love of Jesus to the very ones who had killed her husband. Every one of the people involved in the killing became Christians and were baptized in the same river where they had done the killing. Jim did not see his life as a waste but an investment which has now produced a several thousand-fold increase, which is still continuing to this day.