Selling your home? Bury Joseph.

[greatestislove]

We are selling our home and have had it on the market for a few months with a reputable realtor.

My in-laws are Catholic and are insistent that we bury a statue of Saint Joseph in the yard so that it will sell.

Do a Google on "sell home saint joseph" and you will get over 100,000 hits.


I have said no - we will not do this. It is clearly idolatry (in my eyes).


Has anyone else heard of this? Do you agree it is idolatry?

[LisaAnn]

:twitch

I've never heard of it but agree that it is definately idolatry. If it is the Lord's will that you sell your home then it will sell............no matter WHAT you bury in your yard.

[antitox]

If you're going to sell the home, just pray and trust the Lord. It certainly doesn't require a statue in the yard. That would be using a statue as a charm. God really hates that.

[†MARANATHA†]

:crazy

[antsinmypants]

I've heard of this, and I've heard that people who do it sell their homes almost "immediately"..

However I do feel it is Idolatry and I'd steer clear of it.

[Harley]

Interesting... would it be idolatry or superstition? Either way I'd agree not to do it

[BHiles]

It is Idolatry. The reason:

If your Home sells who is to get the praise? Joseph. This takes away glory and praise from our Saviour whom all praise and worship is due.

[seachelle76]

One of my Catholic co-workers sold her home recently and she and ALL of the other Catholics at work raved about the effectiveness of burying a St. Joseph statute in the yard. They all claimed that their homes sold right away. Another co-worker who wasn't Catholic even said her realtor told her to do it because he was convinced it worked.

Whether it works or not is beside the point. It sounds demonic.

[Bone_Mender]

I have heard of this GIL. When my folks were moving to GA about 16 years ago, my dad moved ahead of us to take his job offer, while my mom and I stayed behind to sell the house. We had catholic people telling us this garbage too. It supposedly works almost immediately, but like others here, we viewed it as Idolatry and refused to do it. I think it was a test of faith. We held onto the Lord and the house sold about a month later. I don't know how it would have effected us if we had jumped on the bandwagon like so many suggested?

Anyway, I'd steer clear of it.

Peace,
Bone

[Caligirl]

I never heard of that either till my neighbor mentioned it to me. Our neighbors were selling their house and my other neighbor told me that they need to put that saint joseph in the window, that is how they sold my house that I live in now. :twitch
I said "WHAT"! She told me that as soon as they put that saint out and prayed to him, we came in and bought the house. :freaked

Well what that convo did, opened up the door to some great witnessing.
I then went on to tell her how we pray, never to the saints, but to our Father, through Jesus.

She knew that I wasn't a catholic so wasn't surprised that a non catholic Christian would think differently but she listen to how Jesus answers our prayers and the seeds were planted. I tell her many things now about how Jesus works. She seems to always want to listen.

[greatestislove]

I think it was a test of faith.


I'm thinking the same thing.........





"Let it go" - my new motto with regards to this. :thumb

[Harley]

It is Idolatry. The reason:

If your Home sells who is to get the praise? Joseph. This takes away glory and praise from our Saviour whom all praise and worship is due.
Makes sense -

I was thinking that those who do it are using a physical object to somehow change the outcome of an event. I suppose if they claim to be giving God the glory for it - that would make it a "Christian superstition"... but I'm splitting hairs on this one.

I have never heard of this before this thread.

[funnyface]

When my dh was unemployed a catholic friend whose family was trying to convert us, gave my dh a statue of Joseph and a prayer and told him to pray to Joseph for employment. He claimed it had worked for him. The whole conversation made us so uncomfortable that the statue ended up in a bureau drawer pretty quickly. No longer have the prayer but it was something along the lines of this. (http://www.webspawner.com/users/joseros/)

[Hyssop]

I've heard of this, and I've heard that it "works" - personally I think it is right up there with superstition/demonic/witchcraft and would advise people to not be tempted to go there. It is putting an idol of sorts before God, IMO.

Things may"work" that have nothing to do with light-only darkness.

[Chim316]

It is Idolatry. The reason:

If your Home sells who is to get the praise? Joseph. This takes away glory and praise from our Saviour whom all praise and worship is due.
:nod


The statue will not work, but this will.

1. Bury $10,000 and all your jewely in your yard.
2. Mark the spot with a shovel.
3. TELL ME WHERE YOU LIVE!
4. Then........

For some reason I don't think you're believing me.

[SeaDreamer]

would advise people to not be tempted to go there. It is putting an idol of sorts before God, IMO.


Was this directed at ME? ;):

[Hyssop]

Was this directed at ME? ;):

YOU, YOU! Yes YOU! <Bwahahaha>

[StinkerBell]

What if you bury a statue of Jesus?....:noidea I am not catholic and never heard of this at all...

[blitzkreig]

Exo 20:4 You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Some folks must get bogged down in Geneis and never get this far ... or perhaps they just don't care? :noidea

[Big Daddy]

You ever see the little statue of Christ all dressed up, holding the little ball in His hand? (has a name, but forget)
There is a "custom" that if you face this statue to the front door in your house, you'll have no money trouble.

Ever hear that one??

[blitzkreig]

When I was a kid one of our neighbours had a 4" tall plastic Jesus taped to the dash of her car. Even as a kid I was amazed. Their home was filled with pictures and teeny tiny plastic moldings of all sorts of pseudo biblical "things". I'm sure the poor old dear had her heart in the right place. But I am pretty sure they (her and her son) never had the benefits of actually reading the Bible.

[mamacags]

OK confession time, I did do this 4 years ago when we were selling our house. At the time I was at a really low point in my walk. Problem is the house sold right away after doing it.:faint

I never did feel right doing it though. If my hubby wanted to do it it would be his call, he is Catholic and they believe a lot of stuff I do not.

[blitzkreig]

Problem is the house sold right away after doing it.:faint That wasn't the question nor the test. Satan delivers. Never delivering would sully his reputation. He just looses in the end.

Scripture makes pretty clear that in end-times the antichrist will do many many miracles. Many otherwise very "worthy" will be deceived. And they will plead "Lord, lord... did I not ..."

It is wise to verify the Scriptural support for any such action ...

[Big Daddy]

You brought back great memories of my youth.
Was a Catholic ya know.

Not to be disrespectful or mean, but my sister and I always get a good chuckle over the "Jesus/Mary on a half shell" people put in their front yards.

You've seen'em. A statue of Jesus or Mary standing in a half sunken bathtub to resembles some kind of homemade shrine in the front yard.

We'd be driving by in the car and cooly point out to the other, "Hey look, Jesus on the half shell"

When I was a kid one of our neighbours had a 4" tall plastic Jesus taped to the dash of her car. Even as a kid I was amazed. Their home was filled with pictures and teeny tiny plastic moldings of all sorts of pseudo biblical "things". I'm sure the poor old dear had her heart in the right place. But I am pretty sure they (her and her son) never had the benefits of actually reading the Bible.

[mamacags]

Yeah Big Daddy my MIL has one outside here. :rolleyes


Blitz I wasn't advocating it:tsk I think it is weird, but kinda like global warming, it is only true if you go out of your way to make it true

[blitzkreig]

Blitz I wasn't advocating it:tsk I think it is weird, but kinda like global warming, it is only true if you go out of your way to make it trueOh no please... I wasn't in any way suggesting you were supporting it. I just am (as you seem to be) amazed at it.

It is so foreign to me. I'm not altogether sure why it is "foreign" except I was shown that it was NOT the way. And Scripture.

[Steffie]

Makes me curious who started this superstition...or whatever it is. What does Joseph have to do with selling houses?

[Hyssop]

Makes me curious who started this superstition...or whatever it is. What does Joseph have to do with selling houses?

The same thing rubbing a blue dot has to do with making you rich. :confused

No, that's not right :confused

[greatestislove]

mama,

It takes courage to jump in here and admit that you actually did that to sell your house. I was hoping someone would...... and the explaination is pretty much what i expected. Thanks for responding. :thumb

Steffie, it all comes from the fact that Joseph was a carpenter....a builder.......therefore, in Heaven he helps people sell their homes - perfect sense. :wacko

[Candi]

When I lived with my dad and step mom and they were trying to sell their house without luck, a catholic neighbory lady came over with one of those little statues and buried it in our back yard. The house did sell, but I don't think we gave that statue any thought.


That was some 25 years ago....and I'm sure that statue is still there...
Makes you wonder though, what little things could be buried in any yard...hmmm.

[barb43]

Being an ex-Catholic, i've heard of burying a statue in the yard, also putting one inside the walls somewhere in the house. Have never done it tho', and don't plan to. And yes, ds had a statue of Jesus on the cross, about 6" tall, and Jesus glowed in the dark :redface - this set on the windowsill by his bed when he was a small boy (before that, we had a St. Michael medal pinned to the padding in his crib :doh).All i can say is that i've been convicted to stop doing a lot of things over the years . . . and i'm no longer Catholic.

funnyface, those are the same prayers used in Marian worship (yeh, i'll probably get flamed for using that term) when saying the rosary . . . it's just Joseph is substituted where Mary goes.

[greatestislove]

no :flame :flame allowed :heh :thumb

[funnyface]

funnyface, those are the same prayers used in Marian worship (yeh, i'll probably get flamed for using that term) when saying the rosary . . . it's just Joseph is substituted where Mary goes.

Yeah, I noticed that. Only because at the same time we were given the Joseph statue and prayer, we were given rosaries and books on how to pray the rosary. Saying any prayer not directed to God and sometimes not mentioning Him at all made me extremely uncomfortable.
The good thing about it all is that we get to have some really great conversations with the other couple now! :clap