And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
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A few days ago, we received a notice that attempt was made to deliver a letter requiring receipt signature and we could call at post office to receive this letter.
We were terribly shocked at contents of letter.
It turned out to be concerning house in Lubbock, Texas, which belongs to ministry and is non-profit status. This house was put up for sale when I moved to Colorado February 24, 2019.
The tax office in Lubbock has changed the house from non-profit to tax status, requiring payment of almost $10,000 per year in taxes.
Pam Padgett and I went into shock!
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One thing I heard is Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
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We had to live with this problem overnight since we received the letter too late to contact the tax office in Lubbock, Texas.
I prayed a lot that night.
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When Pam called the tax office, she found they had a form for non-profit tax exempt status that was supposed to be filled out every 6-years and had not been filed by us.
The tax office did not send me this form nor tell me about this form during the 15-years I lived in the house. I didn't even know this form existed.
In our appeal, we hope to settle this matter and resume non-profit, tax exempt status on the house until the house sells. Otherwise we would be charged approximately $800 per month taxes which we could not pay!
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The Texas house has been on the market for the past two months, without anyone asking to view the house.
This is very strange.
Realtor didn't understand and certainly we didn't understand.
Pam had something called to her attention by God: She heard: "Did that (listing of house) say 2 bedroom?"
Pam thought, "Surely not."
But when she looked at the listing it did say 2 bedroom. It should have said 4 bedroom.
Of course no one would want to view a 2 bedroom house in this area!
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The tax problem along with that thought concerning the number of bedrooms listed, caused us to look more closely at the house description.
When I did that, I saw a number of items the realtor failed to tell about in the listing.
Thus the tax problem may result in the actual viewing and sale of the house!
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I have another example of evil things working for good in the long run.
Several years ago, I offended a man and he turned me in to USA Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ask that they investigate me for tax.
Two IRS agents came to my house. I told them immediately they could have all my cancelled checks and bookkeeping for myself and the ministry which is non-profit.
They were shocked that I would let them have all my cancelled checks.
I told the agents that if a mistake had been made, I would pay whatever they said to pay. But it would just have been an error, nothing deliberate.
They found no problem.
However, one agent noticed I was not listed for social security.
I explained to him that when ministry was started in 1979 and tax papers were set up, I signed a "vow of poverty" which would exclude ministry from paying social security tax on me because ministry at the beginning just didn't have any money to pay.
This meant I could never draw social security payment nor could I receive hospital payment should I need hospital!
Once you signed vow of poverty, you could never go back into the social security program.
Agent said vow of poverty papers were never filed with IRS so if I wanted to do so, I could now buy back into the social security program!
I was delighted to know this! I did want to buy into the program and I wrote a check immediately to allow me to do such.
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A decade later, they began sending me monthly social security checks of $504 per month.
Then a few years after that, I fell, broke a hip, had surgery, spent a month in rehab-hospital and all costs were paid in full by Medicare and supplemental hospitalization. (This cost would have likely been $50,000 or more.)
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to HIS purpose. (Romans 8:28)
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I haven't taken any salary from ministry in over 20 years. I am able to live and pay my personal expenses from my social security check which is now $ 804 per month.
Our offerings have decreased greatly due to death of former radio contributors who grew old.
So the social security checks help a lot.
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We were spending $400 a month to advertise blog to help people find our writings. I have reduced that to $20 a month. That will still help a few people around the world to find our writings.
(Since I've been writing the blog, no one has ever sent an offering. We have had 894,183 page views since March, 2012.)
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