God’s word has a lot to say about money. He tells us what we should do with it: how we should spend, how we should save.

Blessing or cursing? 

Money isn’t evil — it’s the love of money that is evil. When we hoard it up on ourselves, when we don’t honor the kingdom or support our local church with it, that’s when it becomes evil. God’s word teaches us if we will give the first 10% (tithe) to the church, the rest will be blessed. If we don’t, it has a curse on it. So many are cursed with a curse of poverty. They always lack: they will always be in a situation where they will never have enough. Something will always be off. Even if they have a lot of money, there will be no fulfillment in their lives. 

Right priorities:

The first thing we need to get right with God is that the first 10% (tithe) belongs to Him. The rest will be blessed, and we can do with it as we please. I would hope that we would save at least 10%, then live off the 80% left. God wants us to do only well. He wants us to be blessed. He wants our children and families to be blessed. That begins with us receiving Jesus into our hearts and being born again. Then we begin to follow Him and serve Him. Part of that is honoring God with our money and recognizing He is the owner of everything.

So let’s be faithful with tithing and really experience His blessing in our lives.

Just a thought,

PSS

In life there will be things we like and things we don’t like.

The good and the not so good:

In our job there will be things we like about it and things we don’t like about it. When I worked at UPS, I didn’t like the job but I did like the paycheck. No matter what we do, we will find this is true. So what do we do?

Perseverance:

We persevere: we make ourselves do what we don’t like to do. Sometimes we endure so that we can succeed in life — be successful at our job. What we learn is that nothing is perfect. We can always find fault if we want to.

Focus:

So, what is necessary is an attitude adjustment, so that we don’t focus on what we don’t like or what we think is wrong. We focus on the bigger picture. When I worked at UPS, I had to focus on what they payed me and on providing for my family and paying my bills. When we focus on the immediate, we lose our perspective on what is important. We look so much for perfection and we believe we have to, are supposed to, like everything. We are not and we won’t. If we want to find fault, we will.

Just look to the big picture, the benefits, instead of always what’s wrong. It will help us and benefit us.

Just a thought,

PSS

Fake Faith

Materialism: a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.

Material mindset:

This is really the thing that defines our society as a whole. This mindset has also crept into the Church as well, where people seek to possess things, to have more stuff rather than have a true relationship with God.

Needs vs wants:

God promises to meet our needs if we seek Him first — if we make a decision that He comes before anything else. So many get discouraged, maybe even disillusioned with God, because they don’t have everything they want. There is a difference between needs and wants. A need is a basic necessity of life (food, clothing, shelter). A want is anything outside of a need.

Biblical mindset:

You can’t allow yourself to be disappointed in God because you believe He hasn’t lived up to what you think the Bible teaches. So much of what we believe is not biblical. I call this a fake faith. A fake faith is believing in something God never said. God will perform only His word. He can’t perform someone else’s word — only His. Much of what people believe today about God is not in His word, made-up fables that cause people to be discouraged. God promises to meet our needs if we keep His word. His word teaches we must tithe (10% of our income goes to the Church, nowhere else), then give offerings. His promises are conditional — certain conditions have to be met, then He becomes your provider.

Let’s learn what the Bible actually teaches and then become doers of that. I believe what we will discover is a very loving, merciful God who does care about us.

Just a thought,

PSS

On Making Mistakes

We live in a fallen world where every kind of evil imaginable goes on.

Recognize the mistake:

No one is perfect: we all fall short at times. Everyone will make a mistake — a bad decision — and probably more than one. So, knowing that, what should be our response? Firstly, we have to recognize it and realize it was a mistake — a bad decision. Once we do this, we get to choose to continue down its path of mistakes or repent.

Repent:

Repent basically means to change. I was going in one direction, now I’m going to go in another direction — change of mind, change of action, change of direction. It’s always our choice. We shouldn’t allow our lives to be defined by a few bad choices or decisions. We repent to God and ask for His forgiveness and thank Him for being merciful to us. Then we decide to do the right thing. 

Do the right thing:

The reality is, none of us will be perfect in our service to God. The Bible teaches us that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let’s purpose to do the right things and, when we don’t, pick ourselves up and begin to do the right things. It’s never too late to start pleasing the Lord, and if you have blown it, nothing would please Him more than for you to repent and begin again or keep serving Him.

He is merciful and long-suffering. We can count on God.

Just a thought, 

PSS

There are consumers, and there are contributors in this world. 

What can ___________ do for ___________?

John F Kennedy, at the end of his inaugural address, coined this saying: “My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” This was 1961. Since that time, our society has shifted from asking, “What can I do for my country?” to, “What can my country do for me?” The way people are today, if the Church quoted this expression, it would go something like this: “Ask what my church can do for me — ask not what I can do for my church.”

The world’s view:

Our society is more of a consumer society. See, consumers focus on self; contributors focus on others. Consumers think small; contributors think big. Consumers lack vision; contributors see the vision. Consumers lack values; contributors know what’s important. Consumers are maintainers; contributors are multipliers. There is a big difference.

God’s view:

The word of God says that the world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. A consumer is stingy; a contributor is generous. God’s word goes on to say that if you help others, you will be helped. 

We should all strive to be contributors with our lives. We should all contribute to the church — serve, give, attend. If we do this, we release God’s hands to bless us and help us.

Just a thought, 

PSS