A giver or stingy? (please read and share)

As a follower of Jesus, I believe we are commander to give a portion of what God has blessed us with back to God. Many scholars teach the stating point of this should be 10% and I think this is a good starting point. I heard a sermon yesterday by Johnny Hunt that really spoke to me and I wanted to share some statistics with you from that sermon. 

First let me a share a some scriptures with you about giving(tithing):

Genesis 14:19-20
19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor[a] of heaven and earth;
20 
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Genesis 28:20-22
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

2 Chronicles 31:4-5
4 And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the Lord. 5 As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.
Proverbs 3:9-10
9 
Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
10 
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Malachi 3:8-12
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer[a] for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Mark 12:41-44
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.[a] 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Hebrews 7:1-2 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

Luke 16:11
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

The verses in Malachi have always spoken very loudly to me! Obviously we see God desires us to tithe or give a portion back to Him.

Have you ever heard someone say…”if God was good then how could he allow people to starve???” Well Johnny Hunt shared a good insight to this….God is good it is the stingy Christian who people are starving! Ouch! Harsh but true when we get down to the true numbers of things. 

As we seen in the verses of Mark 12 above, It does not take money to give money away; it takes faith to give money away. Think very carefully on the following statistics which are the latest we have right now:

Today the average believer gives 2.3% to charity. This is to all charity not just the church…like Red Cross, Cancer research, and the church.

In the Great Depression era the believer gave 3.3%!!!! What? Gave more when they had nothing!

Only 5% of believers give 10% or more. This says much about our faith in our God!

Giving is a heart issue, not a money issue! Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now think about this: If the minimum giving of all church goers was 10% we would receive $165 billion additional money.

What could the church of God do with this?

$25 billion could relieve global hunger, starvation, and deaths from preventable diseases in 5 years!

$12 billion could eliminate illiteracy in 5 years!

$15 billion could solve the world’s water and sanitation issues, specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than a $1 a day! 

$1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work!

$100-$110 billion would still be left over for additional ministry expansion.

These numbers blow my mind away! 

So let me ask you, if you claim to be a follower of Christ are you a giver by God’s standards or are you a stingy Christian? Remember everything we have is a blessing from God….are we sharing these blessings thus fulfilling Galatians 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Tom

Help!

Wise Counsel

With the rise of social media I see lots of folks making big mistakes! Discussing personal issues with anyone and everyone. This is not wise! Even outside of social media we often talk about our business with unwise people.

Thomas Kempis warned us against this: “Do not open your heart to every man, but discuss your affairs with one who is wise and fears God. That is some great advise. Find a true man or woman of God for counsel who will advise you by the Word of God for that is where the best answers come from. 

Look what God says about counsel:

#1 Seek God’s Word and have a proper fear of God!

Proverbs 1 1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.

#2 Find that wise counsel.

Proverbs 24:6 for by wise guidance you can wage your war,
and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is God breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteous.

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “bad company ruins good morals”.

So find those godly, wise counselors! Live for the Lord for this is truly wise!

Tom

Humility?

Humble???

Interesting how much God talks about being humble vs. being prideful in the bible. Search it out sometime. Obviously it is very important to God....our attitudes is a sign of our hearts!

Thomas Kempis said this “The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.” Think about that. It is so true. So are you a humble person or are you full of pride? Be honest with your self. 

Here are a few verses to think about:

Psalm 31:23 Love the Lord all you Saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Job 22:29 For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;
but he saves the lowly.

Psalm 25:9He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.

Psalm 149:4 For the Lord Takes pleasure in his people; He adorns the humble with Salvation!

James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Pretty plain and simple, huh?

Are you humble? Only with the help of the Holy Spirit is true humility possible!

Tom

Man or Jesus?

Is God seeking you?

Chew on this today:



John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

This verses tells us God is seeking people. What kind of people? People who will worship Him in the Holy Spirit. You only receive the Holy Spirit when you have received Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life. So do you qualify?

Second, the Father is seeking those who are truth. This also can only be had through “The Truth” which is Jesus. Remember John 14:6? 

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus identifies Himself as “the Truth” here. So do you seek to follow the Truth and be truthful everyday?

God wants you but you must be willing to submit to His conditions!

God is seeking, I hope you want to be found!!! 

Tom

You can’t out give God.

Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Everything you have is from God. You are blessed because of Him. God tells us as you can see to give back to Him a portion of what He has blessed you with. Are you? God even tells you in this verse to put Him to the test! Do as He says and give to the church and see that you will have even more! 

I can say for myself that God has blessed me and I will always give back to God! Every week! After all, it is His anyways and I want to be obedient to Him!

Think on what you are giving to God, are you being obedient? If yes, great! If no, no better time to start than today!

Tom

Love deeply!

People will let you down!

The earlier in life we learn this truth the better off we will be in life! People will let us down. We are not perfect and we will fail! 
Thomas Kempis put it like this: “Vain is the man who puts his trust in men, created things.” Amen to that!

I have good news though there is ONE whom we can put our trust in and He will never let you down and He was never created!!! He has always been! That man is Jesus!

Hebrews 13:5c “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Psalm 9:10 And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Now as followers of Jesus we should strive to never let anyone down and be a people of our word! But let us know Jesus never does let anyone down who follows Him! All glory, honor, and praise to Jesus my King!

Tom

Are you confident?

A little church jam!

I love this new song by Zach Williams called “Old Church Choir”! Turn it up and worship the Lord this morning!



Tom

Are you in the dark?

John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

You need to ask yourself this morning am I walking in the dark or can I see? We make it very difficult when God has made it very simple to determine where we are in this thing called life. 

Jesus tells us plain and simple in the verse above if you follow Jesus you are in the light, if you follow the world/devil you walk in darkness. The light is available to all!!! Thank you Jesus! Read John chapter 3 for a complete understanding.

John 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 

So this morning where do you want to be? You have a choice...Go with Jesus you will not be disappointed!

Tom

True Freedom!