The LORD gives

When’s the last time you received a great gift? My mom and sister got me an iPad a few weeks ago. I was shocked. It’s great when someone gets you something just because they love you.

It’s fun and exciting when someone gives you something. The other day as I was reading through the story of Noah, these words pierced my heart, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” For some reason this hit home for me. God is a giver. When I open up my refrigerator, I don’t think, “Wow! God you are a giver!” After reading this and several other passages I became keenly aware of how often I attribute hard work to receiving and forget that God is the giver of all good things.

Ask God to speak into your life as you move through these verses this morning.

Growing up, my dad would sometimes set a rule in our house, that I, in my 12-year-old wisdom, felt was foolish. So instead of obeying, I would push the boundaries and see how close I could come to not obeying and not get in trouble. On a couple of occasions where I was pushing on those clearly defined boundaries, my father would say, “Don’t test me on this.” In other words, he was going to punish me if I crossed the line; if I gave him a test to see what would happen, he would pass it with flying colors and a few swats on my behind.

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” — Proverbs 11:24

Christmas is the “season of giving” and the time to remember the greatest single gift ever given — God offering up His one and only Son that we might gain access to Him. I was thinking about that glorious child being born in an animal’s feed trough. What a glorious gift wrapped in the simplest of adornments.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to preach on giving. As a pastor, I wasn’t really thrilled with this opportunity because it can seem to some, a little self-serving. It would be like a politician standing up and talking about how important it is to pay taxes right before he or she raises taxes again. After all, I want people to give to the church because it helps fund the work and ministry of the church which also happens to include my salary. It can get a little tricky.

 Money matters

Basically when it comes to money and possession, all of Scripture’s teachings boil down to this:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also — Matthew 6:19-21

Are you an owner or a steward?

I think that the biggest struggle I have when it comes to my relationship with this world is the tension that arises over the issue of ownership. I want to be the owner, but the Bible says I’m not — I’m not even a renter! I’m a steward.

(If you want a great word picture on what a steward is, you must watch one of my all-time favorite movies, The Count of Monte Cristo, 2002 version. You’ll see a man whose life is spared and how he becomes another man’s servant. That is the picture of stewardship!)

 Give:

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion" — 2 Corinthians 9:7

As you head out to worship the Lord in His house today, I want to remind and encourage you to give generously at the church where you gather. Remember God’s stern warning AND promised blessing to Israel concerning this matter:

“I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.

   “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

   “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

   “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty — Malachi 3:6-12

The final day of Philippians!

Read it.

Experience it.

Live it! 

Jeremiah 18:1-9

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:   “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”   So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, SHAPING IT AS SEEMED BEST TO HIM.

Then the word of the Lord came to me:   “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? ” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."