Chapter
Three
God’s
economy is not like ours!
One of the things about the Church
that has always amazed me is that we always try going to the world for our
methods of operation. If the world is
indeed upside down, then so are their methods and they could even be
destructive to the church.
The goal of the world is to gain
profit and get more things. The Bible
tells us that we are to give to others as God has already given to us. The difference between the world and God’s
methods is found in both their source and distribution.
“9 You
visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full
of water; You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it. 10 You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers, You bless its growth. 11 You crown the year with Your
goodness, And Your paths drip with
abundance.” (Psalm 65:9-11 NKJV)
Source
The world sees wealth and prosperity
as being created by the skills and knowledge of a human being. To get more one just has to work harder, better,
or smarter. To get more, one must do
more.
This basic concept gets more
complicated as we decide who is to have power over the economy. Is it to be the workers and owners in a
capitalistic society? Or will it be the
government in a communistic society. In
truth, every government is somewhere on the scale between the two with no one
being totally one or the other.
But the real trouble is in the
assumption that wealth and prosperity are created by man. More than anything else, this assumption
makes the economy unmanageable. Like our
own finances are unmanageable. Those
“acts of God” have a way of ripping through the best laid plans of human
beings.
If God is the source of all things
then we who are of God would be foolish to turn to a bankrupt system to fund
our ministry.
“Ask,
and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened
to you.” (Matthew 7:7 RSV)
Scripture teaches
us that God is the source for all our needs.
Through God, all the resources of heaven and earth are at our
disposal. Not just the use of money, but
so much more!
Money received
through worldly means usually carries with it a sense of ownership by the
giver. They believe that since they gave
the money, they should be able to decide how it is spent. Often churches are so bound up by money which
has been given that they struggle financially.
When the source
of resources is God we have many more possibilities with fewer strings
attached. Many times I have seen God
provide in unusual ways. Usually through
the church coming together to meet needs.
Miracle Sundays and miracle gifts are not that unusual. The wonderful things about these “miracles”
are they not only provide ministry, but they glorify God!
Gifts for tax
benefits or to get a committee off your back carries little blessing and often
are used to meet unnecessary wants.
After all, some of our spending items are often more worldly than we
like to admit.
Distribution
That last thought
brings us to the question of how the blessings are to be distributed. Church budgets are interesting more for the
what they spend on, than for the how much they spend.
It is challenging
to look at our own checkbook to see where we are spending the most money to see
what is most important to us. It would
be interesting to have churches do an honest check over their budgets and
expenses to see where the money goes to show where there hearts are.
Recently costs
for a church to have a preacher have been rising faster than the giving in most
churches. This causes the church to look
for areas to cut, and that usually is program expenses. We would never think of cutting comfort, but
usually it is money for missions or program that grows smaller each year. It is easy to forget that the program and
missions funds are not only the reason we are here, but they are the future of
the church. That is why many churches
are slowly dying as their outreach and influence in the community lessens from
year to year.
Solution
The solution is
actually quite simple. If every member
lived out their Christianity and gave the tithe (10%), plus a love offering to
meet special needs, then churches would have more than enough to meet their
needs and the needs of their communities.
We must trust in
God, and love Him enough to give as we have been given to. Then the blessings would roll through the
Church into “all the world”. God would
be glorified and lifted up and then all would be drawn to Him. Money given from a joyous and loving heart
carries a blessing with it. God can
multiply both the gift and the giving as He did those loaves and fishes to feed
many from the small gift!
Do we really “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow”?
Do you trust God will provide for you or are you trusting in
yourself, family or the government?
(There is an old saying that what you look to for sustenance and
protection is your god!)
Should a church budget for the money or for the mission? What would that mean?
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