Debra's Storefront

Debra Lohrere's Blog

• New Artwork

  2008 Feb 17

  I have just added a new piece of artwork that is available as a print to my Lulu storefront.
  The artwork is entitled "The Ranges" and depicts a river running through the beautiful Australian countryside amid the gum trees.
  The original oil painting that this print is taken from is 20” X 24” (50cm X 60cm)in size, painted on stretched canvas.
  The original oil painting is available for sale for $330US unframed, delivered anywhere in the world.
  If you are interested in purchasing my original artworks they are available at my new site http://www.gallery-of-oil-paintings.com/
  

• New piece of artwork available.

  2007 Nov 28

  My latest painting that I have added to my artwork that is available through Lulu as a print is called "Horse Country".
  The original oil painting was completed in October 2007. It is inspired by the beautiful Australian farmland. I lived on a farm as a young child and have always loved the beauty of the Australian bush and the lovely flowing mountain ranges and hills.
  This picture captures just a little of the farmlife feel, with a couple of horses in the paddocks of the farm. The original oil painting is 40" X 30" (100cm X 75cm) and is available for sale at $1500.00US through my Yessy Artwork page at http://www.yessy.com/DebraLohrere
  
  
  
  

• My artwork now available on Lulu.

  2007 Oct 15

  I am pleased to announce that my artwork is now available through my Lulu.com storefront.
  
  These prints are taken from my original oil paintings. There are various subjects including Australian landscapes with gum trees, seascapes, stonework buildings and more.
  
  I love to paint beautiful scenery, and especially like to paint many of the historical Australian buildings, as they have such a wonderful character to them.
  
  I have been painting for many years and have exhibited paintings in numerous art shows.
  
  Some of my artwork is being sold with full resale and reuse rights, when you purchase a download copy.
  
  Selected original oil paintings are available for sale at my own website, for those who prefer original oil paintings over prints. You can view these at http://www.investmentpropertybooks.com/artwork.html
  
  
  

• What is the best type of investment?

  2007 Jul 08

  When people look at investing, there are three main areas to choose from; shares, property or cash deposited in interest bearing accounts.
  
  Why has property proved to be the most effective choice?
  
  In Australia and many other places around the world, over the past 50 years property has averaged 10% p.a. compound growth. (Carefully selected properties have averaged even greater returns). Not forgetting that investment properties also generate an income from rent.
  
  Median priced property in Australia has averaged growing at 2 – 4% p.a. higher than inflation, making it a very solid investment.
  
  One of the most effective ways to build riches is to accumulate a portfolio of investment properties (over the space of 7 to10 years) and then let the power of Compound Interest work to your benefit.
  
  The main reason that property can be utilised more effectively than shares as an investment, is due to the added benefit of being able to highly leverage an investment property.
  
  Leveraging is where you use a small portion of your own money along with a large portion of someone else’s money (a bank loan) to secure an investment of a far greater value than you could have, using only you own money.
  
  If you invested $10,000 directly into shares that were growing at 10%, then in 7.2 years they would be worth around $20,000. On the other hand if you had used that $10,000.00 as 5% deposit on a $200,000.00 property and borrowed the remaining 95% plus establishment costs. If this also grew at 10% then in 7.2 years your investment would be worth $400,000.00. Meaning that by leveraging your investment you have gained an additional $190,000.00.
  Compounding has an even greater power, the longer it is allowed to work. With the above example, if you were looking at a 21.6 year period, then the results are quite staggering.
  The un leveraged shares would be worth $80,000 and the property $1,600,000, a differential of $1,520,000.
  
  It is possible to borrow 100% of the purchase price of a property plus expenses by securing the deposit against your own home, so that you don’t need a cash deposit.
  
  Isn't going into debt a bad thing?
  
  There are two types of Debt. Good Debt is where you borrow funds to secure a capitally appreciating, income-producing asset. Bad Debt is where you borrow to buy a capitally depreciating, non-income producing item such as a car, boat or holiday.
  
  There are many different strategies for property investing, which suit different people depending on their current income or financial position.
  
  A combination of using Good Debt to buy property and then allowing Compounding to do its work – seems to be one of the most effective way of creating wealth. But this is definitely not a “Get rich quick scheme”, on the contrary it is a “Get rich slowly” scheme which works most effectively over a 10 to 20 year period. It takes patience and perseverance, but after having spoken to dozens of other property investors, many of whom have become multi millionaires within the space of 10 to 15 years, I am certain that it is worthwhile.
  
  

• Book Review on Christian Investing and Money Management

  2007 May 24

  I am really pleased to advise that my book "Christian Investing and Money Management" has received some wonderful publicity via a review in the Australian "Christian Woman" magazine in their May/June 2007 edition.
  
  They had a nice color image of my book cover and the review was about 1/3 of the page in size, which I was really happy with.
  
  They did well to capture the essence of the book "...Lohrere believes that in becoming financially independent Christians can be good stewards, making them better able to benefit God’s kingdom – funding missions, feeding the poor and supporting other evangelistic ministries..."
  
  They also made a nice comment on my writing style "...Lohrere’s writing is easy to follow and convincing...A Book to provoke thought."
  
  The writer of the article made a comment which indicated that she was anti-property investing, but overall I was very happy with the review.
  
  "Christian Woman" has a readership of around 40,000, primarily in Australia and New Zealand.
  
  The review included a link to my website http://www.investmentpropertybooks.com/christianbooks.html where people can order the book online for delivery in Australia & New Zealand. The website also has the link through to my Lulu page for all international buyers.
  
  It is so nice to see that after all the hard work and hours of researching and writing, that my book is getting some recognition in the media.
  
  
  

• The Power of Worship

  2007 Apr 26

  When we sing praises to God and worship Him it opens up a window to heaven. As your praise reaches the heart of God, it becomes a two way stream of communication. As you touch God with your praise, his Holy Spirit touches you and ministers to you. Praise and worship can also open the door to blessings from God.
  
  We praise God because he is worthy of all praise. He is the maker of Heaven and earth and the entire universe. He has given us life and through his son has saved us from eternal damnation. He loves us completely despite of our short comings and sinful nature.
  
  Probably the best examples of how to worship the Lord can be seen in the life and Psalms of King David.
  
  God described David as “a man after his own heart”. David loved God and God loved David. David had a wonderful musical talent and regularly came before the Lord in songs of love and thanksgiving. He danced and played music to praise God. In (2 Sam 6:14-15) it says “And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet”. (KJV)
  
  David wrote beautiful words to express his deep devotion and love for God. David actively pursued God, and desired to have a close personal relationship with him. This is demonstrated in (Psa 57:7 –10) where he writes “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds”. (KJV)
  
  When we praise God we are allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through us directly to our Father in Heaven. The Holy Spirit’s presence can be felt right inside of us and surrounding us as we speak to the Father through him. I have heard many times of healings taking place when people have been worshiping God, and I believe this is because the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon them and ministers to their needs while they are praising God.
  
  There are several different Hebrew words used in the Bible to denote praise and worship. These can be translated into the following English meanings.
  
  Worship - To fall down prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God), to bow down, crouch, fall down flat, humbly beseech, make or do obeisance, do reverence or to stoop.
  
  Praise - Literally to use (that is, hold out) the hand; to revere or worship (with extended hands); intensively to bemoan (by wringing the hands): give thanks, rejoice; a celebration of thanksgiving for harvest, to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration) or congratulate.
  
  The main difference between worship and praise is that we worship God for who He is, and praise him for what he has done.
  
  You will see that many of these translations display the theme of humility – of coming before God in subservience and in reverence of his awesome power. We are not praising Him as we would a child who has done well, from the viewpoint of someone who is older and wiser – we are to praise Him out of our total unworthiness to even be in his presence. In humility we need to grasp the magnitude of His awesome power, love and grace and praise Him for them. We need to praise Him for loving us despite of how unworthy we are of his love. We need to lift his name on high, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.
  
  

• What is Daniel’s 70 week prophecy?

  2007 Apr 26

  The prophecy in Daniel 9: 24-27 reads:
  
  "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
  
  Daniel had been earnestly praying for his people, the Jews, who were in captivity in Babylon when he was given this vision.
  
  It is the most amazing and accurate prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. The timeline begins in 457 BC with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple. Ezra 7:8-17 shows that the decree went out in the seventh year of the reign of Artzxerxes, so history can confirm the year.
  
  In Bible prophecy they work on the day for a year system, Ezekiel 4:6 “...I have appointed thee each day for a year” so therefore 70 weeks, 490 days is 490 years.
  
  This prophecy is split into three sections. Seven weeks (49 years, which is the time it took to rebuild the temple), 62 weeks (434 years) till Messiah the Prince. This takes us to the year the year AD27, which is the year that Jesus was "annointed" and began His ministry, and finally there is another week, 7 years.
  
  It says that in the midst of the final seven years the Messiah will be "cut off, but not for himself" (showing that Jesus would die after 3 1/2 years of ministry) and would cause the "sacrifice and oblation to cease". Jesus' one time perfect sacrifice on Calvary put an end to the need for animal sacrifices once and for all.
  
  What happened in the final 3 1/2 years of this prophecy? The gospel message was still preached exclusively to the Jews, but at the end of this period, Stephen was stoned, marking the final decision of the Jewish leaders to reject Christ as the Messiah and from this time on the gospel was taken to the gentiles.
  
  This prophecy also predicted the destruction of the temple “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” which occurred in AD70, and signified the final “desolation”. The destruction of both the first and the second temple were both as a result of the people’s rejection and disobedience to God.
  
  This event signified that the sacred appointment of the Jewish people as God’s chosen ones was forever annulled. Through Christ a new covenant was made, that all who followed Him would be called the children of God and seed of Abraham. Galatians 3:29 “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
  
  What a wonderful display of the power of God these prophecies are. To foretell almost 600 years ahead of time, when He would send His son to this world to die for our sins. How Jesus would “confirm the covenant” and cease the need for performing the sacrifices that had been put in place as a shadow of the fulfilling work of our Lord.
  
  All Bible references are from the King James Version.
  
  

• What does Christian Stewardship encompass?

  2007 Apr 26

  The Biblical principle of stewardship of our finances encompasses three separate points. Firstly it relates to good money management. We need to be careful not to squander the resources that God gives to us. We should learn good money management techniques, and learn not to be susceptible to impulse buying.
  
  The second aspect of stewardship is related to investing to make the resources that God gives to us grow, so that we can sow more back into the Lord’s work. In the parable that Jesus told about the three servants who were given gold coins. Two of them invested the money and gave their master more than He had entrusted them with. The third servant went and buried it for safekeeping – and the master was angry at that servant for not putting the money He had been entrusted to use.
  
  The third aspect of stewardship is giving. We have been commanded to “Give tithes and offerings to the Lord”.
  
  We have been instructed us to be good stewards and to use what God gives us wisely.
  
  I believe that God wants to bless his children and to bless them abundantly.
  
  Don’t we want the best for our own children? We don’t want them to struggle financially and have the pressure of trying to make ends meet.
  
  I am sure that our Father in Heaven is exactly the same. He wants us to put Him first in our lives, and in turn wants to bless us.
  
  God wants us to be financially secure not just so that we don’t have to struggle with financial pressures – but also because prosperity allows us to bless others more.
  
  When we wisely invest our finances we will have more available to effectively support the missionaries in the field, to finance Christian satellite TV stations and to support the needy in our local community.
  
  A wealthy person has far more power to aide the needy financially than the best-meaning poor person.
  
  I believe God is calling us to embark on the road to financial security so that we can be in the position to fund the resources needed to assist in the great revival.
  
  Some Christians believe that it is wrong to desire wealth, but at the same time they try to give whatever they can. They fail to see that they would be able to give far more generously if they possessed invested what they had and increased their finances.
  
  We need to remember that our finances belong to God. He is our master and we are just the caretakers. We should do our utmost to carefully manage and increase what He has given us, and be open to Hearing from the Holy Spirit to guide us in the direction that He leads us to sow these finances back into.
  
  God is calling us to be proactive with investing. He wants us not only to have faith and believe that He wants to bless us, and to openly and joyfully accept what He wants to give us, but to also seek the wisdom and knowledge that are required both to create and to manage wealth.
  
  With more wealth comes more responsibility. But I believe that as we take care of the little that God has given us, and are faithful in giving as He directs – He will Help us learn what we need to know and will Help to point us in the right direction so that we can continue to create more and use it wisely.
  
  He wants us to become wise investors, and to find out as much knowledge as we can to enable us to make wise, well informed decisions.
  
  At school we were taught skills to enable us to leave school and get a job and earn a wage. But we were never taught how to manage our finances or how to build wealth. We were not taught how to invest.
  
  As good stewards, we need to self-educate ourselves about how-to and where-to invest our resources for the most effective growth.
  
  

• What is the Mark of the Beast in Revelation?

  2007 Apr 16

  It is a common misconception that when the Bible refers to the Mark of the Beast, that the beast is Satan. A beast in prophetic terms is a religious, political or regal ruling power. Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces”.
  
  Daniel 7:17 “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth”. Revelation also clearly shows that there is a distinction between the devil and the beast. Revelation 20:10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever”. The second beast referred to in Revelation is a false religious system with political power.
  
  The fifteenth century protestant reformers, such as John Wesley, John Huss, Martin Luther, John Calvin, as well as the translators of the King James Bible, Charles Spurgeon, Sir Isaac Newton, and many others all clearly stated that the fourth beast or “little horn” power of Daniel 7, which also correlates to the first beast of Revelation, could be identified as the unbiblical system of religion which was ruling as a religious-political power at the time. The Christian church had managed to mix some pagan traditions and ideas, into Christianity and had began to follow traditions, rather than the scriptures in the Bible. During the dark ages of the inquisitions, millions of Christians and Jews were killed as ‘heretics’ for not bowing down to all of the precepts of the church of that day.
  
  The Bible also tells us that the “little horn” power of Daniel 7:25 would “think to change times and laws”.
  
  One of the most notable changes implemented by the church of the third century was the changing of the day of worship that God had implemented, the seventh day Sabbath, with Sunday worship.
  
  "Sunday is our mark or authority...the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact." Catholic Record of London , Ontario, September 1, 1923.
  
  Revelation predicts that at the end of time a second beast will arise that will be an image of the first beast (another religous-political world power), carrying out the same persecuting acts and holding the same false doctrines as the first. Revelation 13:12-13 “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” Revelation 13:15-17 “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
  
  This shows that anyone who does not take the mark of the beast will be persecuted or killed. Then it goes on to speak of those true followers of God, who do not take the mark of the beast. Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
  
  It is interesting that the differentiating factor is that those who are saved will be “keeping the commandments”, and that the “Mark” of the former religious-political system is that they changed the fourth commandment, the Sabbath to Sunday.
  
  It seems then that the new religio-political system, when it comes to power will enforce, upon consequence of death, the observance of worship on the counterfeit day, the day on which the pagans worship the sun god.
  
  Those that stay true to the Bible based teachings and keep the commandments have the following promise to look forward to. Revelation “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
  
  All Bible references are from the King James Version.
  
  

• Australian distributor for Christian Investing and Money Management

  2007 Apr 08

  Just a quick update on "Christian Investing and Money Management". As announced in a previous post this book has gone onto Global distribution through Ingram, however due to popular demand from Australian Christian book shops for a local distributor, I have now registered an ABN and am acting as the Australian distributor for this book. Book shops can contact me through my website at http://www.investmentpropertybooks.com/christianbooks.html for wholesale pricing.
  
  I am also selling this book for delivery in Australia and New Zealand from this website, with delivery within 14 days of payment. I have credit card facilities via Paypal.
  
  I have been very happy with the support I have been getting from local Christian bookstores, they have been great.