As Margaret has always encouraged me down
through the years of our marriage,
“multiple streams of income; let’s have
multiple checks from diverse places
coming into our household throughout the
month.” Convincingly in love, she says
that she prefers as many checks from as
many diverse places coming into our
household on a monthly basis, so that we
can handle the ubiquitous monthly bills
that come in without fail. I agree with
her and have been able to supplement our
ministry income with some consulting
arrangements, part time jobs, starting
small businesses and whatever I could do
legally, morally, and ethically to
generate more funds. Margaret also
generated income from her needlework
design business (Margaret
& Margaret) that she has had
since 1985.
Over the fourteen years of our marriage, the
Lord has miraculously provided as His
command is for us to simply work as He
ultimately is the Provider. Whether it
is hurricane insurance payments or
selling assets or diverting birthday
money gifts to pay the utilities, we
have not gone without our needs being
met. However, as we age and near the
point where we will have all of our
children through college and graduate
school except Maggie, who at this
writing (2008) wants to go to
Vanderbilt, undergraduate and graduate
school (eight years of private
education), we have finally gotten to
the message preached by many that
diversification is simply wise when it
comes to financial matters. After
all, with the precarious nature of life
and today’s world, depending on one
stream of income for your financial
resources, is just not wise.
Let me give you a brief history of how we got
involved with Mannatech. One of the
benefits of the Internet and having a
presence with our ministry websites is
that people from all over the world
contact us. Back in the Winter and
Spring of 2004, I was contacted by an
American who was living in New Zealand
as the Lord was moving him into a
Messianic understanding of his Hebraic
Roots.
At that time, I was doing some consulting at
Christ for the Nations in Dallas with a
good friend, and as it turned out, this
person from New Zealand was also a
graduate of CFNI. Over the course of
some rather lengthy conversations, he
not only mentioned that he was a
Mannatech distributor, but in a fit of
inspiration, he decided to sign us up so
that we could benefit from the health
products Mannatech produces and
distributes. During the few months while
he and I were getting acquainted, I was
also approached by some other long
standing friends about two other health
related products. First, I was informed
about the significance of essential
oils, and then a liquid supplement that
claims to do many of the things done by
Ambrotose (the technological
breakthrough product patented by
Mannatech). My friend with liquid
supplement decided he wanted to sign us
up for these products, so we let him,
because after all, taking something for
our ongoing health maintenance just
makes sense given all that we knew then.
All of these companies used the direct-selling
method for distributing something that
we were very familiar with, because of
our experience in the mid 1990s. But
because of my proclivity to need to
focus on the ministry and not get
diluted in any other efforts, I simply
put all of these opportunities on hold,
although I thought at the time it would
be a good opportunity to at least get
our products paid for.
During the late Spring of 2004, as I was
pondering all of these opportunities and
trying to sort out what the Lord was
doing with this cluster of
health-related situations, I was struck
by some verses from Numbers 24. This
selection records the third oracle of
Balaam, the prophet for hire, who
despite his attempts was only able to
bless rather than curse Israel:
“And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw
Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the
Spirit of God came upon him. He took up
his discourse and said, ‘The oracle of
Balaam the son of Beor, and the oracle
of the man whose eye is opened; the
oracle of him who hears the words of
God, who sees the vision of the
Almighty, falling down, yet having his
eyes uncovered, how fair are your
tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O
Israel! Like valleys that stretch
out, like gardens beside the river, like
aloes planted by the LORD, like
cedars beside the waters. Water
will flow from his buckets, and his seed
will be by many waters, and his
king shall be higher than Agag, and his
kingdom shall be exalted. God brings him
out of Egypt, He is for him like the
horns of the wild ox. He will devour the
nations who are his adversaries,
and will crush their bones in pieces,
and shatter them with his arrows.
He couches, he lies down as a lion, and
as a lion, who dares rouse him? Blessed
is everyone who blesses you, and cursed
is everyone who curses you’” (Numbers
24:2-9).
What
I found intriguing about these verses,
in light of the health products, is that
for centuries the Jewish people have
begun reciting these verses as a part of
their traditional liturgy, in what is
commonly called the Ma Tovu.
Personally, I always thought it was odd
that Jews would chant some verses
uttered by a false prophet, but then
upon looking at the context, I saw that
God is desperately trying to communicate
some awesome truths to His people—beyond
what Balaam uttered.
This passage makes mention of the
“aloes” planted by the Lord, and the
“cedars” by the waters that he saw in
the valleys of Israel’s ultimate
inheritance. When I connected these two
things to the technological breakthrough
that Mannatech has had with their
Ambrotose, aloe-derived product
and derivatives—already knowing the
healing powers of the liquid gel on
skin—I was excited. My nominal research
about some of the blessings of essential
oils, and in particular, cedar oil, also
got me thinking about how God has made
these plants for healing and optimal
health.
We know that God has in the past allowed the
Jewish people, due to following the
Torah’s prescriptions for hygiene and
diet, to survive some of the great
plagues that have ravaged populations
down through the centuries. The Bubonic
Plague or Black Death that swept through
Europe in the mid 1300s is estimated to
have killed between 30-60% of the
population. Ironically, the Jews were
substantially spared (even though it did
prompt others to actually blame the
Jewish community for the spread of the
disease).
When we fast forward to the present, and look
beyond to the future plagues and
pestilences that the Book of Revelation
describes, (Revelation 9:18; 18:8), it
is not too difficult for me to conclude
that the Lord is in the process of
preparing a people for the horrific
things that will take place at some
point in the future. Of course, we do
not know when that is, but for me and my
household, I want every one of my
children, and/or grandchildren or
great-grandchildren, to be taking health
related products so that they can endure
whatever might come (Daniel 12:3).
Beyond the obvious need to get the proper
supplements into our bodies in order to
optimize our health, is the opportunity
to have greater financial freedom.
Having considerable experience in
various business enterprises, I have
always appreciated the wisdom of
leveraging one’s time by using “Yeshua’s
marketing methods” (if you will) of
making disciples or replicating yourself
in others. Obviously, in the direct
selling business model, we are
essentially being compensated for
advertising or explaining how the
products work and setting up a referral
business. By referring people to the
products and encouraging them to use
them, we are simply expanding our
business and helping others expand
theirs. What is especially rewarding is
that by helping people with their health
(or even business), you develop
relationships that allow you to speak
into lives. This could be the ultimate
reason for you to even consider this
opportunity, apart from the basic
premise of getting your family and your
own health in order.
Let me close with this these two thoughts that
have been circulating in my mind for the
past few weeks. First, remember that at
the end of you life, you are going to be
the sum total of all the choices and
decisions you make given the
circumstances of your life. Finally,
consider praying that God would allow
you to be available so that He can
accomplish through you all that He has
created you to achieve. You do have a
free will to choose what you will do
with your life, but in the end, it is my
prayer that we will all choose to let
Him use us as we choose to serve Him.
Choose wisely. Diversify, diversify,
diversify!
