AN ACT OF WORSHIP

“But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.”  (John 4:23)

One of the ways we get to worship God is through the giving of our tithes and offerings. We worship when we give our hearts back to God through singing His praises, when we surrender our will to God’s ultimate design for our lives through prayer, and when we offer our tithes to Him for His glory through giving. Through financial giving we praise God for the blessings of having the financial resources to offer back to Him that which He has already given us.

Think about the relationship this has to singing. God has given us voices that, when utilized through spirit and truth, we offer our praises back to Him through the voices that He has already bestowed upon us. In the same vein, God has already blessed us with financial resources to live our lives, and through giving the tithe back to God, we praise Him in an act of worship. The emphasis is not on the money. The emphasis is on our hearts in worship. 

-- Kim Arnold

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GIVING TO THE LORD’S WORK

“Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the best part of everything you produce.
Then He will fill your barns with grain,
and your vats will overflow with good wine.”  (Proverbs 3:9,10 NLT)

The only investments I ever made which paid constantly increasing dividends are those I have given to the Lord's work. Pastors do their congregation a great service by helping those in the church understand God's truth about money, time and giving.

-- J. L. Kraft, Founder of Kraft Foods

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ONE FAMILY IN CHRIST – Part 3

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”  (2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV)

Another characteristic of the family is its willingness to share. The early church went so far as to have its members selling their property, each refusing  to claim as his exclusive property what had belonged to him before. They had all things in common. When the one part suffered the whole suffered with it and when one part prospered then the whole prospered with it. There was a mutuality in the relationship in which all gave and all received. Some gave more conspicuously in spiritual things while others gave in material gifts. Hence the collection for the saints was a deeply spiritual exercise. In a happy family you don’t receive in proportion to your input. You receive in relation to your needs, the ones who make the least material contribution often being the ones who are most cared for -- young and aged.

How I pray that in our church we can learn to emulate a true family, emulate the divine generosity of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, although rich, for our sakes became poor that we through His poverty might become rich.

How I pray for the day when the… church would be marked by a membership that knows that all things come from God and all belongs to Him, that we have the privilege of being His stewards and that the very least we should give in thanksgiving for God’s abundant and limitless generosity is the tithe.

-- Desmond Tutu in The Rainbow People of God

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