Faith Corner

There is no question that I have enjoyed many blessings in my life….and certainly no question that I would not have been able to enjoy any of them without my deep and abiding faith in the Lord. 

Faith Corner is a forum that allows me to share my hopes, dreams, successes and failures with all of you and how I walk through it all with faith as my rock and guide in my quest to be a fully formed human “being” instead of a human “doing”.

I would love to walk this path with each of you, and welcome your stories – whether they are born of inspiration or desperation – so that we may all learn from each other.  I have included some of my stories below, in the form of letters, and invite you to read them and learn from them. 

Thank you for visiting and may you be a blessing in the lives of everyone you love.

I have learned some very valuable lessons from my experiences of the last couple of years and I’d like to share them with you:

1) We need to be fully obedient to God. On occasion, I have not done what I felt God speaking to my heart because it made no sense to me. For example, I had a home that God put on my heart to give away. It was a very expensive home and I bargained with God to give away a cheaper home instead. I thought about how my banking relationships may be compromised if I were to give away this particular home. I reasoned that God would not want me to jeopardize my entire business that He blessed me with by doing something that others would see as a very foolish business decision. So I didn’t give the home away.

I continued to feel conviction, but ignored God speaking to me. I thought I couldn’t hear God as clearly as in the past, but the truth is that I was hearing from Him - just not what I wanted to hear! After two years of dealing with this home (things certainly were not blessed with this home), I sold it and gave all the proceeds away. This was very freeing and satisfying since I felt like I was doing what God wanted. The money from the house has changed the lives of many people and nothing in this world gives me greater joy than making a difference in the life of someone else.

2) Through my experiences, I have come to believe that God does not bless us to indulge ourselves. From a financial point of view, I have been extremely blessed and have more than I need. I wholeheartedly believe that the reason I have been blessed is to bless others. God has clearly spoken the fact that it’s not for me. I’ve searched and searched in the Bible for justification to indulge myself, hoard and squander my blessings on myself, but cannot find it in scripture. I hear it from many preachers, particularly those who are on the television, but I can’t find any instance in the Bible where God has blessed someone with wealth so that they can fill their lives with material things.

I love Corvettes. I could go to the Chevrolet dealership and pay cash for one today if I chose to buy one. But when I think about what Jesus would do, I can’t reconcile that Jesus would buy a Corvette when there are so many other needs around Him. I can’t see how spending $50,000 on a car could in any way, shape or form further the Kingdom of God.

I see my wealth as giving me a platform. If I weren’t financially blessed the way that I am, no one who comes to Flipping Homes would listen to me. I believe that God blesses me so that I can be a voice in this industry and He know I try to do the right things with what he has blessed me with.

3) The Bible talks so much about money (it’s discussed more than anything else) because it’s the number one thing that competes with Him. Money is necessary and not evil unto itself, but it is extremely difficult to understand. It is something that you cannot master, unless God himself is your master. If God is not your master, money will master you. It will consume you. If you think about money all the time, it is your god. If you are in debt, you are a slave to money, and it is your god. If you spend more than you make, money masters you.

I have made a decision that this year is going to be the year that I completely release myself from the bondage of money. My wife and I have no personal debt, but my business does have debt. In my pursuit to make more, I leverage deals. I borrow money to build new homes, rehab homes or do land developments. In 2006, I intend to free myself from all of my debt, including my business. I will not borrow money ever again to do a deal. I’ll do all of my deals with cash. This will certainly limit the amount that I can do, but that is OK. I’ve wanted to slow down for quite some time so that I can give more of myself to others. My wife and I will keep only what we need and will give away the rest. It is my hope that I can give away 90% of my income in the upcoming years.

Please understand that I don’t say this to convict or judge anyone else. This is what God has put in my heart. I had to borrow money to get to where I am today. It was used well, but did distract me from Him. The Lord has revealed that my business debt consumes me and steals me away from Him. He has blessed me in such a way that I do not need to borrow any more and that is what I’m committed to doing.

I’d also like to say that I intend to give much more of myself to this website and to those around me in need. Please do not take this as an open invitation for the visitors of this site to ask for handouts. The Lord has already put on my heart where he wants my financial resources to go, so please don’t solicit me for gifts. I will be here to put my heart and soul into this website because I want to be as excellent as I can be and earn the respect of those who come here to visit. Hopefully, I’ll earn the right to tell visitors why I do what I do.

I pray and hope that you all pursue God with ALL of your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. You can do amazing things with Him.

Blessed Investing,

Steve Cook

I often encounter people who believe and wonder why God isn’t blessing them. The three most common scenarios that I come across in my conversations with people are the following:

Scenario 1: A friend wants to make twice as much money as he currently makes. He believes the solution to his desire is to tithe more. Because the Bible refers to tithing or giving back to God only 10% of our income, my friend expects that God will double his income if he gives 20%. 

Scenario 2: A couple has spent years living a reckless financial life. They are in debt, losing sleep at night, and riding a sinking ship. They turn to God to ask for relief and can’t figure out why they are struggling months down the road. Unfortunately, they are losing faith in God. 

Scenario 3: A woman says that if God will bless her, she would be extremely generous and would give back. She doesn’t understand why God won’t give to her so she can give back.

What do these three scenarios have in common? Each is bargaining with God. In the first scenario, my friend is giving more to get more. I believe that God doesn’t need his money, but giving is an act of faith and reveals one’s heart. We can’t “buy” what we want from God – that only cheapens God and His wisdom. The couple in the second scenario turns to faith to get out of debt. Although I truly believe God can do anything, assuming God will always bail us out of our problems is presumptuous. My personal experience has taught me that God uses all trials as learning tools and the lessons we learn through those problems end up being blessings. Of course, no one wants to go through tough times to get to those valuable lessons, but it’s a way to grow in our faith and to trust in God. In the last case the woman is asking for more so she can give more. Unlike my friend in the first scenario, she wants her money upfront and then she’s willing to give! The question that comes to my mind is “What is wrong with giving now with what you have now?” If we have $10 in our pocket and we won’t give away $1, why would we suddenly give $1,000 away if we had $10,000 in our pockets? In my opinion, it’s a “heartset.” Giving to get isn’t God’s idea of giving. Giving with the expectation of getting nothing in return is more the idea. 

This verse puts into perspective the scenarios faced above:

Matthew 6:33 (CEV): But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what He wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.

Do you see yourself in any of these scenarios? I was once in the shoes of everyone mentioned! I used to bargain with God all of the time. I’d say, “God, I’ll give you this if You will give me that.” I also expected God to just bail me out of my situations. Then one day God finally got a hold of my heart and I realized that I needed to give to and love God unconditionally. He wants my heart, not weasel clauses or contingencies attached to anything I do or give. He also revealed that I needed to learn from my poor choices. Therefore, I worked hard to get out of debt and fix my credit. I sacrificed for years to make it happen and, in the end, have so much more of an appreciation for all that God does for me. 

Yes, I have been blessed beyond all I could ask for or imagine - with a successful business, awesome friends, and a wonderful family. But we’re all blessed in some way or another. I encourage each of you to look at your blessings, not in comparison to anyone else’s, and take inventory of how God has blessed you.

It’s been awhile since the last one of these that I have written. Actually that is the way that I have started out most of the ones that I have written but never completed and posted on the site.

In any event, many things have happened since I last wrote something for the Faith Corner of this site. First, I have been blessed with a wonderful wife Micheleen. In the midst of all that I do, I must admit that I’m not the easiest person to get along with at times and I certainly do not deserve her. She is truly a blessing to me and I don’t know what I would do without her.

Flipping Homes has grown tremendously, and I give all glory to God. I followed where the Lord was leading me, and he continues to provide and bless the web site. A little over a year ago, the Lord put it on my heart to bring more “giving” people together under one roof. Hence the birth of REI Place. I didn’t quite know how to make it work. It was an idea given to me, however my first thoughts were to own the site and give the others a cut. But then I realized that the people who I needed to have on board were all going to be entrepreneurs who did not want a boss, and I didn’t want to be a boss. So after much prayer I decided to bring on 3 people who would all be equal owners. William, John and Hal have been an awesome addition to REI Place. The fruits of our labors are great.

I appreciate all of your support and testimonials. Often it is overwhelming to see how God is moving in the lives of those who come to the site. Often people credit me with the positive changes in their lives, but I can assure you that I have done nothing. It is all in Gods hands. I especially like the emails from those who have given their lives to Christ or rededicated themselves to serving the Lord. God will do wonderful things in your life if you will only yield to his calling. 

Because of the growth of Flipping Homes, I have had to hire an employee. Most of you who have been following me for some time now, know that it is a stretch for me to hire an employee. It is the last thing that I wanted to do. Randy to date has been a God send. He doesn’t know it, but the little things he does so far have enabled me to do more writing, improve products, write more products, and most of all see more homes and make more offers again.

Managing Flipping Homes and my real estate business has been a chore. Both of them are very viable businesses which require a lot of attention, I’ve been doing both, and I’ve learned some hard lessons from not staying on top of things as well as I should have. Again, I give the glory to God for seeing me through and providing. I believe that He wanted me to experience the tough and rough times over the course of the last couple of years so that I could become a better teacher. I’ve learned one huge lesson over the course of my investing career.

The lesson that I have learned more then anything is that when the Lord puts something on your heart, you need to come up with a plan and put it into action. Those of you who feel that God is calling you toward a career in real estate investing, you need to put a plan into place and follow it. I’ve learned how to plan properly, how to make things happen. I’m not an expert at it, but I’ve learned how to do it. As I improve it is something that I’ll be sharing with you all. 

I have also learned through experience a lesson that I have always known, and that is “money isn’t everything”. I talk with people all the time who just think that if they had more money everything would be great. Well I can assure you that if you can’t manage the money that you have today, life is only going to get worse when you have more money. For some reason or another if someone has 3 children and you talk about them having 10 children everyone around shrieks and shudders. They don’t believe that they can handle that many more children. However when it comes to money people seem to think that more is easier- it may be easier to write a check.

In Luke 16:10 the Bible says “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…” Rather then asking for more money, I prayed for an understanding on how to handle what the Lord was blessing me with. It has been awesome ever since, and as I do the right things with what I’ve been trusted with, I’m blessed with more. But I can assure you that it was not until I learned to manage a little before God opened up the flood gates to more.

God is not a cosmic automatic teller machine. If he provides and you go into debt, or you are not generous with the little He trusts you with, then He will not trust you with more. God promises to provide our needs and that he does. He does not promise to give us more of our wants. He does this, but he does it for those who have demonstrated that they can be trusted with a little. 

I had met a couple that made $200k per year between the two of them. They were always in a bar and I asked them why? They told me that they didn’t want to go home because the bill collectors kept calling. I was flabbergasted at the statement. They told me that if they could just make $30-40k a year more that everything would be OK. Now I know most of you are sitting there with your jaws dropped. This couple was 28 and 30 years old. I told them that they wouldn’t get out of debt if they made more money. I informed them that they needed to learn to manage the “abundance” they already had. They had a lot of money, but they may as well have had $20k per year because they didn’t know how to manage $200k and life was not fun or easier for them. In fact their problems were greater then most.

I knew they were young so I used that to finally get them to see the light. I asked them how long ago it was that they were making $40k per year. They said it was about 5 years ago, and by their own admission they admitted that life was great then. I said “OK, if you were able to live off of $40k a year then, you can do it now. Learn to live off of $40k a year and you can save over $100k per year.” They got it, but didn’t like my solution. They still wanted more money, but it wouldn’t have done them any good. They would have spent 110% of whatever more they made.

Well I’ll wrap this up. I’ve just had this on my heart for quite some time. I really don’t want to appeal to greed and egos through my website. Instead it is my hope that everyone who visits will learn to use real estate investing and its rewards to live a better life.

Blessed Investing,

Steve Cook

I have a testimony that I would like to share with all of you. This came about back in the summer of 1999. At this time I was doing some very heavy marketing for retail buyers and the phone was ringing off of the hook. I had developed a database of 700+ potential buyers in a short period of time. I knew I couldn't sell them all homes, but I wanted to be able to sell some. I was turning homes so quickly and just couldn't supply them all with homes. In fact, people started getting mad at me, because I had nothing to show them.

So one weekend I just got on my knees and prayed. I got a list of homes, and made 40 offers. When I made the offers I just looked up and said "Lord, you know what I need. I trust you, and know that you will give me what I can handle". On Monday afternoon following the weekend, my realtor called me to tell me that I had 9 of my offers accepted. They didn't even counter offer on them. They all accepted my first offers. Over the course of the next two days I bought 3 more of them. I had never bought 12 houses in 3 days before, nor did I ever get 12 of 40 offers accepted before. In fact I have never even come close to that.

I had people telling me "slow down, don't you think you are taking on to many"? I just replied "I prayed for them and the Lord wouldn't give me more then I can handle. I sold every one of those homes within the next few months. Since then I have always tried to make it a point to pray when I make my offers. I just tell the Lord that He knows what I need and what I don't and I trust that He will give me what I need and keep from me what I don't.

Moral of the story: Pray when you make offers!

Blessed Investing!

Steve

I come before you all today at a point in my life where I'm just beginning to climb out of a spiritually low season in my life. No I haven't turned from my faith, but I have felt distant from God. It is times like these where journaling really helps. You can take the time to go back and see where and how God has worked in your life, and open your eyes to realize that he is still and will always be there, you just need to take the time to recognize it.

Lately I just haven't had the "joy" of knowing Christ in my life. I've been praying to get the "joy" back, to have a fire lit within me again, but it constantly seems to be quenched. I'm going to reveal a lot more to all of you about my testimony and the way God has acted in my business, and hopefully it will provide some insight or direction to some of you of where the Lord may want you at this time in your life.

I was not a follower of Christ when I first started investing. I did a number of deals and I made a living, but not much more. After investing for about a year and four months I came to know the Lord. Not only did my life change, but my investing changed. My whole attitude about investing changed. I no longer invested for me, but I pursued my career in investing with the intent of helping others. My business soared, I was doing well, but I didn't care about what it was doing for me. I felt blessed just to have the opportunity to help others. I liked helping, but I wanted to do more.

I prayed a lot about this, and where God wanted me to be. It was revealed to me through a "Spiritual Gifts Survey" that my gift was "giving". I never imagined that my gift would have been "giving" but then when I had the time to step back and take a look at my life as a whole it all fit together. The joy of knowing that God had me here and was blessing me so that I could give to others was so awesome I can't even put it into words.

I began looking for opportunities to give. I gave of myself and monetarily, and I gave way above what my flesh was saying was too much simply because I trusted that this is what God wanted me to do and where he wanted me in this world. I trusted that he wanted me to just give freely of my self, my resources, and that I couldn't give too much because He would take care of me.

I began giving more then I was keeping monetarily and the abundance at which deals and profits came together just grew more and more. I took so much joy in being able to further His kingdom.

Lately I have become so busy with my investing and with Flipping Homes that I have been losing track of what the Lord has me here for. My "joy" had been watered down. I have still been faithful with giving, but with the wrong "motives". I have been giving for a while out of obligation and because I was supposed to, not because I wanted to give back to the Lord what he has so graciously trusted me with.

My businesses have been very successful. I'm still blessed with an abundance, but the "joy" in my life doesn't come with abundance of material things. It comes from knowing and being close to God, living my life for Him. I can attest to the fact that money does not make you happy- for me it is giving back because God loves me and trusts me with his resources that makes me happy. God loves all of you, and expects me to do the same. He expects me to help and give back to all of you with the same "joy" that He helps and gives to me.

I prayed last night that God would reveal to me how to get back to a close relationship with Him and he did. He also put it on my heart to write this testimony for the Faith Corner of my site. Although we go through seasons of ups and downs, He is a good God, He's and awesome God, He is faithful and just and we should all remember that.

I apologize to all of you, for the lack of joy I have demonstrated in helping and giving as of late. I know it is a season in my life, and not one that I want to stay in for very long. I also write this to hold my self accountable to who I am in Christ, not that I expect you to hold me accountable, but the fact that this testimony is out there for all of you to see is something that I know.

Thank you all for your part in my success. May God bless you all as he has richly blessed me.

In Him,

Steve
8/2002