Many believers say the Bible has an answer for any problem, even money and finances. As millions of Americans try to dig out of debt during a tough economic climate, one Maryland woman said she needed to look no further than the Good Book for her financial guidance.
Katrina Clements said that at her worst she had $500,000 in credit card debt. Clements said at the time she was earning $30,000 a year as a nurse and would use one credit card to pay the other while enjoying buying whatever she wanted.
For more than 10 years, her debt went up and down, taking a toll on her marriage and her life.
Now debt free, Clements said she has found relief through the church and God.
Clements pastor, John K. Jenkins, of the First Baptist Church of Glenarden said, "I have accumulated this bottle of cut up credit cards from people who have been delivered from the credit card demon. God wants us to have money and not for money to have us."
Clements said Jenkins' teaching changed her life. Down from half a million dollars in credit card debt to $30,000, Katrina took the church's financial freedom class. She said that about year later, she was out of debt, and credits the change to tithing, giving 10 percent of her earnings to God first then paying bills.
"Just because we're broke doesn't mean God is, it doesn't mean his laws are broken they still stand and our job is to be obedient to them," Clements said.
For nearly 20 years, Pastor Jenkins has taught that like life, there is also biblical order to money management and if it's followed, believers to prosper.
"I know what the application of these principles has done in my own personal life, and how it blessed me and how I got the victory and freed from it. I know what's going to happen in their lives," said Jenkins.
New church members continue to cut up their credit cards at the alter, just as Katrina did. Then she called her creditors, got her interest rates reduced or in some cases cut completely. Clements also drastically changed her spending habits.
"Not just below your means, but well below your means, people don't like to hear that, they don't like to hear it but they also don't like to hear that they are deep in debt," she said.
Jenkins and Clements call what happened with Clements' debt supernatural, and credit the quick turn around to her following a Godly order of money management.
Clements has written a book about her experience called "Out of Debt, Out of Bondage." You can log onto outofdebtoutofbondage.com" to order a copy. The book is also available at the church's book store, but keeps selling out.
