Giving to God

How do you view giving?  Some view it as an obstacle, burden, or punishment.  Some, obviously need to change their whole attitude about giving to God through their local church.  Churches suffer today financially because only 9-10% of all Christians tithe through their local churches (though 17% say they do).  The reason for this:  GREED and COVETOUSNESS.  As Christians we need to be tranformed from attitudes of greed to generosity, from attitudes that give grudgingly to an atttitude of giving liberally, and from an attitude of stinginesss to one of sharing.  According to 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, our giving should be done gratefully (v.1), sacrificially (v.2), eagerly (vv.3-4), worshipfully (vv.5-6), and exemplary (vv.8-9).  Our giving is a reflection of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ.  You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving.

Where Is Your Treasure? Matthew 6:19-24

Have you ever played the game, MONOPOLY?  Monopoly is the game where players accumulate property, build houses and hotels, and then wait for the other players to land on their property so they have to pay up.  Eventually, you hope to bankrupt everyone else and take all the money and property.  But, regardless of who wins the game, when the game is over, the board is folded up, all the pieces put away, and the lid goes on the box.  It has only been a game.  This is exactly how it is in this "more is better" society in which we live.  When our life is over, the game pieces are put away and the lid closed on our coffin.  At that point, it won't matter who owned the railroads and Boardwalk.  Earthly wealth doesn't guarantee earthly happiness or heavenly treasure.  As Christians, we ought to spend our lives laying up "treasures in Heaven."  The treasures we send on ahead to heaven are mothproof, rustproof, and burglarproof.  How, then, do we make deposits on earth that yield heavenly dividends?  We store up treasuress in heaven by investing our money in that which lasts for eternity --- the lives and souls of people!  Everything else will decay and/or disappear.  As missionary Jim Elliot once said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."  AMEN!