Endurance
By Denise Shoemaker
I freely admit that I am not a fan of winter. I do enjoy wearing sweaters and drinking hot chocolate, but that’s pretty much where it ends. Toward the end of November or beginning of December, I start preparing for the season by reminding myself I’ve gone through this many times before and always survived.
When March finally arrives, I begin to feel hope. The color green (one of my favorites) begins to show up again, and the wind starts to have a little warmth in it. I enjoy the feeling of renewal and growth and look forward to turning onto my street to see our Bradford pear tree blooming for that wonderful few days to signal spring is definitely here.
Both of these time periods involve necessary changes taking place in nature. Although I don’t like each of these changes, they benefit me. The spring season I enjoy can only happen because of the winter season I endure.
This routine occurrence in nature is also routine for the lives God has planned for us. In Hebrews the word endure shows up quite a few times. We have the example of Abraham.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise” (Heb. 6:13-15).
Hebrews 10:35-36 encourages us—
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
God fulfills a little promise for me just by melting the snow—how much greater are His spiritual promises!
Denise Shoemaker teaches seventh grade English in Bolivar, Missouri.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Give and It Shall Be Given Unto You
Give and It Shall Be Given Unto You
By Holly Davis
God taught me to tithe shortly before I graduated from college. I had just started attending Abundant Life Covenant Church and was still new in my walk with the Lord. My dad instructed me to go see Phil Walker, a deacon in our church who helped others learn to use a budget. I had never attempted this before, but Phil laid it out very clearly. The first thing he taught me was to put the tithe at the top of the budget. He read to me Malachi 3:10—
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the LORD of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
He explained that it all belonged to the Lord, but He only asks us to give a tenth. I began practicing this, and the Lord proved over and over that He was my provider.
When Ben and I were married, we continued in this obedience of putting the tithe at the top of the budget. This was tested even more because of our low income and financial responsibilities. Seemingly there was always more month left at the end of the budget, but as we remained faithful He worked a miracle every month. To this day we have never been late on a bill.
As time went on God gave us the faith to give offerings on top of the tithe. Malachi 3:8—“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, in what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings.” The Scripture said to give tithes and offerings. We began to realize we could never out give God. As we sought the Lord’s direction, there were times our offerings were bigger than our tithe.
There was an occasion that God spoke to Ben and me separately to give our entire tax return. Because of an excessively large medical bill from the previous year that we were able to claim, we ended up with a larger than normal tax return the following year. The Lord had shown us how to get the larger tax return, but after we received it, He asked us to give it away. We had that money already spent in our minds in order to cut a chunk out of the medical bill. This required a deeper level of trust than we had ever known. We obeyed and shortly after that a couple from church pulled us aside and said the Lord had put it on their hearts to give us a large sum of money. They had no idea we had just given our tax return to the Lord, but the Lord knew. We were very humbled and blessed. By this act of generosity God birthed a vision in our hearts that we would one day be the ones able to help others in this way. Luke 6:38—
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
God has proven Himself over and over as we have obeyed and given Him our first fruits. He has shown us to tithe not only our money, but also our time and resources in order to further His kingdom. He is the abundant provider that faithfully meets all of our needs.
Holly and her husband Benjamin serve as pastors at Abundant Life.
By Holly Davis
God taught me to tithe shortly before I graduated from college. I had just started attending Abundant Life Covenant Church and was still new in my walk with the Lord. My dad instructed me to go see Phil Walker, a deacon in our church who helped others learn to use a budget. I had never attempted this before, but Phil laid it out very clearly. The first thing he taught me was to put the tithe at the top of the budget. He read to me Malachi 3:10—
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the LORD of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
He explained that it all belonged to the Lord, but He only asks us to give a tenth. I began practicing this, and the Lord proved over and over that He was my provider.
When Ben and I were married, we continued in this obedience of putting the tithe at the top of the budget. This was tested even more because of our low income and financial responsibilities. Seemingly there was always more month left at the end of the budget, but as we remained faithful He worked a miracle every month. To this day we have never been late on a bill.
As time went on God gave us the faith to give offerings on top of the tithe. Malachi 3:8—“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, in what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings.” The Scripture said to give tithes and offerings. We began to realize we could never out give God. As we sought the Lord’s direction, there were times our offerings were bigger than our tithe.
There was an occasion that God spoke to Ben and me separately to give our entire tax return. Because of an excessively large medical bill from the previous year that we were able to claim, we ended up with a larger than normal tax return the following year. The Lord had shown us how to get the larger tax return, but after we received it, He asked us to give it away. We had that money already spent in our minds in order to cut a chunk out of the medical bill. This required a deeper level of trust than we had ever known. We obeyed and shortly after that a couple from church pulled us aside and said the Lord had put it on their hearts to give us a large sum of money. They had no idea we had just given our tax return to the Lord, but the Lord knew. We were very humbled and blessed. By this act of generosity God birthed a vision in our hearts that we would one day be the ones able to help others in this way. Luke 6:38—
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
God has proven Himself over and over as we have obeyed and given Him our first fruits. He has shown us to tithe not only our money, but also our time and resources in order to further His kingdom. He is the abundant provider that faithfully meets all of our needs.
Holly and her husband Benjamin serve as pastors at Abundant Life.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
TITHING, AN ESSENTIAL
I want to share some thoughts that I seem to have been given lately about tithing—the giving of a tenth of our increase, by faith, to God. In doing so, it is not my intention to downplay any other aspect of a faith relationship with our God or the other related ways He often subsequently chooses to employ in His ultimate goal to build in us a character imaging that of His Son.
…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6a).
According to my understanding of things, it is God who initiates a covenant relationship with us, giving us His faith in order that we can believe, begin to worship Him, see His invisible kingdom—even enter and partake of that secret kingdom. Using patterns in Scripture, He also grants us wisdom to understand ways to worship.
The way I see it, the tithe is an essential form of pure worship—believing God, holding Him in reverential awe—a demonstration of a genuine perception of our dependency upon and a proper fear of our God, the God of the Bible.
I have a strong desire not to overstate things here. Even so, I have come to see that the tithe is key to just how deep our covenant relationship with God may go. The reason it is key has to do with money and what it is used for in our daily lives.
Quite a few years ago, the noted behavioral scientist, Maslow, developed his “Hierarchy of Needs Theory.” In it he contends that our elemental needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and freedom from harm must be met before we can become able to pursue our higher needs.
John’s gospel account of the miracle feeding of five thousand and what followed comes to mind here. Jesus was forced to flee the crowd before they took Him by force and made Him king. What Jesus says to them when they caught up to Him the next day is quite telling—
Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs (miracles), but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26).
Money is the medium of exchange that we now use to feed, clothe, shelter, and protect ourselves. It’s what we use to meet those threshold needs of Maslow’s theory.
I contend that in the same manner, God has designed things so that the genuine faith tithe becomes the threshold that, once to-the-point-of-no-return it is crossed, can lead us to a much-to-be-desired deeper relationship with our God. I have come to believe that true all-encompassing prosperity is tied to such a relationship with God and thus with one another.
It seems to me that the Psalmist David had been given to understand this when he penned the following verse—
Who is the man that fears the Lord?
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him;
And He shall show them His covenant
(Psalm 25:12-14).
Michael Lawrence owns and operates Lawrence Electric Company and is a freelance writer.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Diligent, Disciplined, Deliberate
By Shari Tyson
Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (NIV). Because this verse has come up in our pastor’s messages of late, I have been thinking more seriously about the profit of being diligent. In that process, Holy Spirit has shown me two companion attributes that allow diligence to lead to sustained prosperity, and those attributes are being disciplined and deliberate.
For example, I can be very diligent to learn what God says about the power of the spoken Word. However, if I am not then disciplined to be very deliberate in my choice of words when I speak, that diligence will not profit me as it should. As that verse in Proverbs says, haste leads to poverty and is surely the opposite of being deliberate. I can’t run off at the mouth in haste (leading to poverty) if I am being diligent to discipline myself to be deliberate with my words (leading to profit).
Diligent, disciplined, deliberate—three words that may be interchangeable or three words that must be inseparable. Just something Holy Spirit has given me to think about.
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