Generous Living

This past Sunday I shared 7 reasons or excuses why we don’t give to God. I got the idea from this website http://www.generousgiving.org/ . They actually list over 40 reasons that we give to avoid following God’s commands. If I didn’t hit one that you use, check out the website and they may cover it. Or contact me and we can dialog on it.
I have to admit that I have struggled with giving. This past week, I looked at the bank account and realized that if I gave what I had written my check out for, that I may not be able to cover all my bills. This is where the rubber meets the road. Would I re-write the check and then get up on Sunday as a hypocrite? Or would I stay the course and trust in faith that God would meet my needs. I can’t say that the struggle was over in only a moment. It took a few minutes before I remembered all that I know about God and decided to follow through on what he has commanded me to do. To honor him with the first fruits. So, if you are out there and think you are the only person who struggles to give at times or to even give at all, know that you are not alone.
Let me share one last story. A few years ago while attending Hope Chapel in Pine Hill, NJ they had a challenge. It was a challenge to start the year by tithing and seeing how God would work in your life. I decided that I would take this challenge. I came to the point over many years of starting and stopping that I needed to be faithful in this area even if I didn’t see and financial results. I made the decision that I would give even if it meant giving up things that I thought I needed. We ended up having to sell our house at that time because we could not afford it. Not the financial blessing you normally hear about from preachers who claim that God is required to bless you financially when you give. But through that process God has taught me first of all about what I need. And that is ultimately a relationship with him. Everything else is secondary to this ultimate over-ruling need. He has increased my faith in this area and I know that if I am a good steward of what he has blessed me with, then my needs are met.

The downward spiral

2 Timothy 3:1-17 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.


How much does this passage speak to us today. People will be lovers of themselves. We see this all over the place. It is plastered on every magazine cover. People just love themselves, they spend billions of dollars every year to "improve" themselves. We can see the love of money wherever we go. It is what has gotten our nation into it's current economical problems. Boastful, who hasn't seen a boastful football player? Pride seems to be growing all the time. You just have to watch 5 minutes of a news show to see how abusive people have become. We all can tell stories of kids who have become so disobedient to their parents that the stories don't even shock us anymore. Everyone seems to be ungrateful. There are very few people who even strive to be holy or loving or forgiving. Slander is all around us. Few show any signs of self-control. Brutality is one the rise. People hate the good things and love the bad. Treachery is all over the place, look at the rise of attorney's who sue each other because of broken contracts. People act without thinking; they are conceited, thinking only about themselves and what makes them happy right now with no thought to the future. Pleasure has replaced God the Father as the god of many people. What is the antidote for this? Paul tells us in verse 14

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Continue in what you have learned. Don't give up on it. All scripture is God breathed and useful for counteracting the affects of the world. Be equipped for every good work by spending time learning and applying the Word of God.

Direction

This past Sunday I was able to take a few minutes and begin to share what God has put on my heart for the future of the Edge Church. The one thing that I wanted to get across is that we live in a faith community that needs to interact with the larger community around us. The Edge Church needs to be part of the larger community of Atco/Berlin if we are to fulfill the plans that God has for us. A fellowship of believers where everyone is accepted just as Jesus accepted each on of us where we were. Yet, it is also a fellowship where people are challenged and encouraged to become the people that God desires. We need to being by taking our loving relationships outside our current community of faith and into the larger community that we are a part of already. Over the coming months we have many decisions to make. Such as, where will we meet in 2010, how will we begin to reach out to the world around us? All these decisions need to be made in light of this plan that God has for us. I encourage you to pray about how God can use you as part of His plan for the Edge Church.

Follow Me

Jesus calls follow me to those he desires to be his disciples. He gives no promise of how great our lives will turn out. He just calls each of us to follow him. To stay with him when the road is dark, when food is scarce, when trouble seems to be all around us. He calls us to follow him. To spend time with him, to learn his ways and put them into practice in our own lives. As we examine his life, we are encouraged to be like Jesus. We can respond to others the way that Jesus did. When people full of problems and pain come to Jesus even when he was tired, he responds with compassion. We can do the same. When people come to Jesus seeking God, he responds by showing them the Father, we can do the same. Jesus’ call to follow him isn’t just for us to walk behind him but to live our lives as he lived his.

I have found that he calls me into areas where I don't feel comfortable or confident in my own abilities. He calls me to places where I need to depend on him at all times. Where has Jesus called you to follow him? I encourage you to take that chance and see what God wants to do through you.