Ob-ee-dee-nce
[note: this article intended to encourage/enrage those of us who are striving to walk the Christian life by giving money] My friend Dion ran an interesting series on forking over money to a local church.
I’m not sure I can run a full-blown 3 part series of in-depth thought… wait… maybe… nope…I can’t…Give because God asked you to (gotta love the K-ster’s frankness).
This is particularly easy to:
- Do, but not as an act of worship
- Justify away, and not do
1. Doing and no worship. I fall into this one the most. This goes like this… we setup a direct deposit account for all giving. When I get paid, we never even see that money in the first place and just write checks throughout the year against it. The downside is that I can forget to bring my soul to the obedience portion. Right now, I can’t really see a problem with that because a) the worship for me came when the decision was made to give and how much and to fill out my form, b) obedience for me is not defined by emotion per se, but rather TRUST that doing something God’s way is best, even if I don’t want to.
- It is very easy to come up with reasons why I wouldn’t have enough money, let’s see:
- Need to buy a lunch because it’s too crazy in the morning
- Need to go out to dinner because it’s too crazy in the evening
- Need coffee in the morning to get me up
- Invisible Fencing needed to keep dog’s health up
- ReplayTV needed for when our old one dies
- ReplayTV for the bedroom
- Cable probably has better channels with the higher packages
- Internet (eek) could be faster
- MacBook Pro
- Rackmounted Servers so that I can get them off the floor
- Better all-in-one printer so I can get that off the floor
- A fourth iPod
- A fifth PC
- Another LCD for the bedroom
- Yet another shelving solution for my crap, er, stuff
Just in the making of my “wish list”, is rather annoying… my interests, and passions are totally selfish! Some of the items on here are totally bogus, some are what I’m seriously considering…Have you ever considered what is on your “wish list” compared to what’s on God’s “wish list” for you? If you’re not currently giving a portion of your gross income, I’d highly encourage you to take your “wish list”, even your “need list” to God in prayer.
Feel a struggle comin’ on? I sure do. Obedience baby!
Author: Brett Veenstra | Category: Disciple | Comments(2) April 2006
We put our money where our passion is. I think that people don’t put their money towards God shows a lack of passion for God.<br/><br/>People care more about their computers, their entertainment system, their new home, and so many other things than they do about God. If most people made an honest priority list God would fall way down on that list when he should be at the top.
Thanks for the comment Matt!<br/><br/>That’s why I think giving is actually so cool… I can think I’m doing steady on the Christian walk, but if I want a real heart check, I ask myself the money question… ouch.