This week we’re learning that our money, our time and our natural skills are  resources to be used in ways that will allow God’s purposes to be realized. Amazingly we are given total freedom in this. There are no set rules or specific suggestions, only the objective.  The challenge is to use our imagination and our creativity in thinking out how we will apply our money, for example, to this purpose.  As we learn more about God our awareness of the opportunities to use our money in this way will increase….charities, individuals, families and church ministries will all show us ways we can make a difference.

I have seen three steps many Christians move through as they grow in generosity.

It begins with casual giving.  This happens at the checkout counter in a store when they ask if you’d like to give a dollar to this fund or that.  It also happens in a church service when a plate is passed, and you look to see what you can give today.

But often we move from there to another type of giving: responsible giving.

I know of one person who’d grown up going to church, but as an adult, was asked to join the advisory board.  She accepted, and figured it would be a good idea to be at the annual meeting for the first time in her life, since she was on the board now.  Well, the next day, she reported that it was a huge eye-opener.  As she saw the budget, she looked at her own givings, and explaimed, “I just realized I’m the biggest cheapskate here!”

She had just become a “responsible giver”…someone who looks at the budget, and says I’ll do my part of the good work that’s happening here.  Looks at world, says I should help.

Finally, many Christians move from responsible giving to proportional giving.

This is where we don’t just do our part, but instead we looked at our budget, figured out a percentage we would give every month, signed up for pre-authorized giving, and stuck to it.  We have plans for our money…work on the house, new roof, etc. but we’ll have to save up for it, because we make sure our tithe comes out first.

What percent? There are several places in the Bible that talk about tithing—which literally means giving 10% to God’s work. It’s something from the Old Testament, when God’s people, the Israelites, were to give 10% of everything to God – crops, animals, everything.  Is that the rule or percent?

But we have to remember how Jesus treats many Old Testament laws – he steps them up and makes them more challenging to our hearts.

He says his disciples’ “Righteousness is to exceed that of scribes & pharisees. – Matt 5:20

For example: The Pharisees and scribes avoided murder (one of the 10 commandments)…so Jesus wants his followers to not only never murder, but to also avoid anger.  He shifts them from doing the bare minimum, to an actual change of attitude.

In the same way, if the Pharisees give 10% because they have to, what do we give if Jesus always calls us to have a change of attitude?

It’s to give, not until it hurts, but until it feels good again…until our attitude has changed from one of giving what we have to, to one of giving generously, because we love to give.

How do you choose your level of giving?  Only you can decide, but identify where you are today, and challenge yourself to the next level…today, not tomorrow.  Jesus always said those who were faithful with a little, are the ones he trusts to be faithful with a lot, so start where you are, no matter your income, no matter how little it may seem, because if you give generously out of love, it’s important to God.

Just to be clear – I’m not just saying this to boost Redeem the Commute’s income!  I am encouraging you to give generously to God’s work – whoever, wherever, however it is done.  So long as it is work consistent with God’s plans for this world – so long as it is kingdom work.

Giving to Redeem the Commute, helping us become a new kind of church is a great way to do that.  We need your financial help to keep helping marriages and families, and developing a community that can do that for the long term.  You can give at https://www.redeemthecommute.com/donate/

But God’s work is much bigger than any one ministry!

Please give to a variety of ministries.  Perhaps you can find balance by giving to Redeem the Commute as your church, and a Christian relief charity like World Vision, and a medical charity that’s consistent with God’s kingdom plans to heal the sick and hurting.  And of course you want to be ready to help people in your life in need when they ask.

In the final analysis, stewardship is about the overflowing of a grateful heart in response to all that Jesus has done for us…..and so determine how much to give by determining what God has given and done for you.  Then decide how you can say thanks.

Remember that we were made to be givers, but we have been socialized by a world that has lost its direction into believing that we are supposed to be keepers.

Challenge: Map out what you can give away every month, and the right blend for you.  One suggestion is to set up a monthly gift to RTC at https://www.redeemthecommute.com/donate and a monthly gift to your other charities, and a savings account so you are saving for the future needs of your family and others you know who may need your generosity.   Go to http://www.mygivingmoment.ca and register your moment there!

Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - October 22, 2013

Tuesday - Study It - Becoming Like Family

We asked yesterday if you could list of what comes to mind when you hear the word “church”. Our lists probably included buildings, events and services. It may have included organ and choir music, stained glass windows, dusty books, bake sales and more. It may evoke good experiences, or bad ones. But not how the Bible usually sees “church”. Church is described in several cases as a family. This is why our vision is to become a church made up of many groups who are “like family” with one another. But you might immediately think this means something strange and cultish, usually because our ideas of family today is pretty narrow. We think of family as the nuclear, immediate family in isolation. But in Jesus’ culture, in some cultures today, and not so long ago in Western culture, the family was the word used more naturally to describe an extended network of relations, often living in the same area. That was the context for family in Jesus’ day, and Jesus had plans to develop a new kind of extended family. Here’s a striking moment when he described his plans to create an alternate family: Matthew 12:46-50 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” On the one hand, it seems Jesus just put down his mother. I just saw “Guilt Trip” where Barbra Streisand plays Seth Rogen’s overbearing mother. She calls several times a day, tries to get him to drink water constantly, and so on. In the middle of their road trip, he finally snaps, and tells her off. It seems like that might be what Jesus is doing to his mother here. Is he putting her down, in his plans to join another family? Look at it another way. Jesus is actually elevating his disciples to family status. His followers, fellow practitioners of his kingdom, are his family. She’s not excluded. Later in the story of Jesus’ life and death, we see Mary his mother appearing as a devoted member of this extended family, and Jesus even assigns one of the disciples to look after her after his death, saying he’s her new son, and vice versa. Jesus isn’t narrowing his definition of family to exclude blood relatives. He’s broadening it, to include his extended family of followers as if they are blood relatives. Question: Imagine your immediate family suddenly adopting a dozen new members. How would it change your way of life? What would be the pros and cons?

Related Topics: Church, Family, Parents, Siblings | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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