The Lord Loves a Cheerful Giver

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:16-17 ES)

This upcoming month, you will hear much about stewardship. Part of this is practical: the church has bills that we’ve got to pay, and we have to come together to be faithful in meeting our obligations with the power company, lawn care folks, maintenance workers, and the like. Yet another part is necessarily spiritual, as James reminds us here. We have been given much by God. And as we have been given much, we ought to give with worshipful expectation that God will be glorified through the work of His church. The Lord loves a cheerful giver, and while this does speak to the giving of our finances and material goods, there are other gifts we ought to consider when we ponder what it means to be good stewards.

Have you sat down and thought through how you spend your time each day? There are few greater gifts we have been given by the Living God than the gift of life. With each day that we are blessed with we ought to consider our time, steward it wisely, and ask ourselves if we are honoring God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In the frantic “rat race” pace of our current age, we often forget that God has commanded us to rest, and that part of being good stewards of our time and being faithful to God is to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (that is, set apart). Part of being a good steward is to examine how you are using this gift of life to honor God. Am I wasting my time with endeavors that don’t bear the fruit of the Spirit? Am I failing to honor God’s call to worship Him by resting from my labors? How am I worshipping God in my life, and am I being a good steward of this gift of life?

You may say, “Preacher, you do not know what I am going through. I can’t give even a penny without going bankrupt.” “Pastor, you don’t understand. I’m slammed at work, there’s a project looming overhead, and we’re in crunch time to get it done. How do you expect me to rest this week?” To you, I wish to encourage and remind you that your Father who is in heaven knows your needs in this life and the next. Part of our giving is to give worshipfully, trusting that God has given us out of His wondrous providence, and placing our faith in Him that He will continue to meet our needs now and forever. As it comes to stewarding our time, I ask you, did God, in His foreknowledge, giving the command, say, “Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy...except for Mary Sue. I know you have a lot on your plate. You can make up for it next week”? Did God command “love your enemies, but only when it’s convenient for you”? If He has, then show me chapter and verse and I will happily repent of my error. But in my Bible, the word is clear. We’ve been given time. And as we are to steward it well in our work, we are also to worship Him by our rest.

This month as we talk about stewardship, much of that conversation will naturally shine a light on our financial giving, and the effectiveness of our church’s stewardship in using those offerings to the glory of God through various forms of ministry. Yet let us also ponder how to be good stewards of all that God has blessed us with. That He may receive all glory, honor, and praise, now and forevermore.

Amen.
Brother Matthew

A Follower's Thought

My family and I went camping at Wind Creek this past Saturday a week ago. The weather that Saturday morning was wonderful! You could feel the cool air of the fall season, my favorite time of year. I got up early that morning, got me a cup of coffee and my Bible, and went down by the water to have my alone time with God.

I opened my Bible to James 4:13-15 and read. "Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money. Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.'" As I sat there contemplating what I had just read and watching the sunrise, I noticed the mist rising off the waters of Lake Martin. I thought about how we are like that mist rising. Then I asked myself this question. What is my life? James 4:14 said that my life is a mist that appears then vanishes. At that very moment, I watched as the mist danced across the water, rise above the waters, and vanish. I thought to myself, that is what my spirit will do one day when my time on Earth is done. My spirit will rise up to meet my Savior, Jesus Christ!

You know, we go out into the world and make all kinds of plans for our future. Yet, God's Word says, we are not promised tomorrow. I'm not saying it's a bad idea to plan for our future, but I do believe we need to consult Christ on our plans and put God at the front of our plans. I pray for guidance for myself and my family's future, as we all should. I ask myself this question. God, is this really what you want me to do, or is this really what I want you to do? So, I" ve learned to say, God, your will be done, not mine. After all, I'm just a mist rising off a lake. Here for a little while, then vanishing. Whether it be today, tomorrow, or anytime in the future, none of us knows when our time on Earth is up. I pray we all will rise like the mist into the Heavenly Realms to be with our Jesus.

God Bless. To him be the Glory!

Correll Pritchard

A Follower's Thought

I was sitting here this morning thinking about what I could write down to encourage people today. I was reading over an old devotion that I shared a few years ago with our staff. It came from James 3:1-12. It says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistake in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships, though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is set on fire by hell. Every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue. A restless evil full of deadly poison. With it, we bless the Lord and Father, and with it, we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine yield figs? No more can salt water yield fresh."

Wow! That was a mouthful! A wise person once said, as you go through life, you are going to have many opportunities to keep your mouth shut. Take advantage of all of them. You know, it would be nice in our walk with Jesus, if that walk came with a total makeover of the mouth. I believe that makeover is possible, but it can be a huge battle for us as Christians. You see, we are in a constant battle between our flesh and our spirit. The tongue is one of those major battles. I believe that the hurtful and unkindly comments that we sometimes can say is really a heart problem. Our tongue and mouth is just a vent from our heart. If I can change my heart first, my tongue will respond with kinder words to build up someone, not tear them down. How can I change my heart? By renewing my mind in Christ, Jesus daily. How do I do that? By reading God's word every single day. By praying to God to guide me every single day. And lastly, by fearing God. You see, we are all going to be held accountable by God for what we say. In Mathew 12:36-37, Jesus said, "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words, you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned." Those words right there, motivate me to try and bridle my tongue each day. Does that always work? No, but I wake up each day reading God's word and praying to him to help me fight my flesh. I'm not perfect. None of us are. We must rise each day, knowing through faith that the blood of Christ washes our imperfections away. I want to close by saying these words that I read somewhere in a book. It goes like this. "On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab, gray slate tombstone. The stone bears an epitaph not easily seen unless you stoop over and look closely. The faint etchings read: 'Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Arabella Young, Who on the twenty-fourth of May, began to hold her tongue.' That is all that will happen to us someday when we die. It will just be a lump of clay. And on that day, we will hold our tongue."

Let's hope that we learn what that woman never did, to tame our tongue.

God Bless.

Correll Pritchard