Good Tuesday morning, my friends.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me." (Isaiah 6:8)
What is one of the most effective ways to be "sent" to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the sick and imprisoned? How about through the resources God has given us? Why do you suppose He gave us those resources in the first place?
A number of years ago, my wife called me to tell me about a woman she had become aware of who lived in our area. This woman was in need and Rosemary felt the Holy Spirit prompting her to help out. And it wasn't just a general "give something to this woman" it was "give X amount of money to this woman" - a very specific amount. It was more than we were used to giving at the time and was a stretch for us. We agreed to trust God on this and Rosemary went to a bank machine (still arguing/negotiating with God all the way according to her), withdrew the money, found the woman and gave her the cash. That was an emotional scene as you can imagine. And that was the end of the story. Or so we thought. The following Sunday in church a friend of mine came up and gave me an envelope that contained, as I discovered later when I opened it, a Thank You card. His car had been out of commission for a few weeks and I had been taking him to/from work most days. (Honestly, it was a blessing to me to have him with me as we discussed faith, life, family, etc.). And in that card was some money. well, not just some money, rather the EXACT amount of money that we had, kicking and screaming, given to the woman in need.
We both felt God was saying to us "Go ahead - try to out give me!". Or as the prophet put it:
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. (Malachi 3:10)
I have a Lenten challenge for you. Decide that from now until Easter you will give a certain percentage of your income, more than you are currently giving, and see what happens. See if you can out give God. I promise you won't regret it.
God opened our eyes that day. We are now determined to give of our "first fruits" to His kingdom. We set aside a percentage of our income and actually put it into a separate bank account whenever we get paid. We call it "God's money". With it we support our church, give to various ministries, support missionaries, and even a widow in need. What a blessing it is to us! That model may not work for you, but come up with your own. (By the way, the blessing for us is not that He has given us more money. Rather has shown us ways to reduce our expenses - to examine where we have been spending our money and look more at His priorities than ours - and in doing so gradually increase the amount we can give.)
Allow God to send you, to send your resources, to where they are needed. Store up treasures in heaven.
Grace and Peace be yours in abundance,
Bruce
Lord Jesus, you are my everlasting life. May the light of your word and truth free me from the sin and lure of this earth. I freely give you my heart so that you may fill it with your love and from this day forth, I may desire you as my Treasure and my All.
Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we beseech thee, faithful stewards of thy great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
O merciful Creator, whose hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make us, we beseech thee, ever thankful for thy loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
OK ... here's my testimony. I got convicted to start tithing relatively late -- age 44 or something -- but have done so without fail ever since. In 2004, I determined to go to a particular church convention in Los Angeles the following year, but as the date drew nearer, I was working a part-time job that barely paid the bills and had no idea where the funds were going to come from to get me from Vancouver to LA and back and stay there for a week. Early one morning, I was walking to work and I passed a man on the street. He was Native, unshaven, but while he looked very much like someone I'd meet on the Downtown East Side, he didn't say anything or beg money. I kept on walking. The Lord said, "turn around and give him twenty bucks." And yes, I argued with God for the next block or so, including (I love this part) saying, "is that You, or the devil, trying to separate me from my money?" The Lord replied, "you've been reading My word since you got up and praying as you walked along! Who ELSE do you think is talking to you?"
ReplyDeleteSo I spun around, ran back up the street to the guy, handed him the twenty and said, "the Guy I work for told me to give you this."
Then I walked away, before he had a chance to say anything.
I'd been auditioning for TV commercial work on the side, and was waiting for word on one of them; but I'd heard nothing, and my agent had said that if they didn't call by Friday, I didn't get it. It was Saturday when I had this incident with the twenty-dollar bill.
Over the weekend, I moved, my phone was out of service and I didn't have a cell.
I called my agent on the Tuesday morning, and he practically shrieked at me. "WHERE THE *&%)! HAVE YOU BEEN? They want you for the commercial!"
I did the spot -- for ESPN's Great Outdoor Games: I played a guy almost drowning in a lake, rescued by a "wonder dog". The job paid way more than I needed to get to LA.
And as it turned out, there were messages at that conference that I needed to hear and still turn up in my own sermons today.
And it wasn't until just before I left for LA that the Lord reminded me of the guy on Granville Street and the $20 I nearly didn't give him.