From this weekend: God does not want your money—God want us to have a faith in Him that is BIG enough to part with some of it—to right the priorities of our lives—and begin to live our lives as if we do depend upon Him. If we have enough faith to trust Him with a commitment to give—God will shower us with blessing. We KNOW this is TRUE—we see it over and over again in Scripture—and we hear others speak about the faithfulness of God—we want to take a step, but we do not know how. Let me share some suggestions on how you can TILT the FLOOR in this area of your life: RE-ORDER your PRIORITES. If this area of your life is upside down—make a choice of faith to re-order you priorities—GIVE—SAVE—ELIMINATE CONSUMER DEBT—LIVE BELOW your INCOME. And put this decision into action. TAKE Financial Peace University. We offer it here twice a year—it is a very practical way to learn how to manage this area of your lives. The truth is that many of us were never taught how to manage our finances—and the prevailing culture—even our government with its escalating debt—has not helped us in this area. We need to take control in this area, and bring it under the Lordship of Jesus—learning to live within our means. The next class will be offered starting January 6. DE-CLUTTER and SIMPLIFY. We have too much clutter in our lives—we fill every moment with activity—every season with amusement—every closet with the STUFF that we think will make us happy—and the result is that we are too busy—too stretched—too cluttered—to be able to be fully present for those we love or to be still and know that the Lord is God. What would happen if we would stop doing 40% of what we do in our spare time—and invest it in the relationships that give us life? What would happen if we would go through our closets, basements and attics—taking an inventory of what we ALREADY have—and stop feeding our addiction to MORE STUFF? CHOOSE to TITHE. Decide—I am going to take God up on this test—take the leap—right to the edge of yourself where faith and fear meet—and choose faith. Test God in this—it is not faith until you swallow hard when making the commitment. Some of us are at the tithe and know that this promise is true—God always does more with our 90% than we can do with our 100%, but many of us just cannot wrap our heads around taking a step that big—we believe—but we need help with our unbelief. TAKE a STEP. For the over forty percent of us who dont give anything at all to the offering collected each week, the task of fitting this expense into our spending budgets may seem daunting. In order to have a starting point, I challenge you to to commit to fasting one purchased beverage each day—or the equivalent of $1.75—and redirect those funds instead toward their financial giving. If everyone who does not presently give would take this step—our giving would increase $900,000—it REALLY is that SIMPLE. Consider AUTOMATIC WITHDRAWAL. We do this with many other important commitments—mortgages—insurance and car payments—why not do this with the gift that should be made first? I have my tithe deducted from my pay twice a month—it was a conscious decision—to give it to God first. My offering is given whether I am in worship—or not—because Jesus is Lord of my life whether I get to worship or not. We have MORE THAN ENOUGH—if we will GIVE TOGETHER. We are in the middle of some very exciting things here at Reynoldsburg United Methodist Church—God is calling us to the very edge of ourselves—where fear and faith meet—and He is asking us to take a step forward in faith. That will not happen in all the fullness that it can without all of all taking a step forward in this area of our lives. God is faithful—He can be trusted—He keeps his promises. If we are faithful—the will be MORE than ENOUGH. It REALLY is THAT SIMPLE.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:42:55 +0000