Thoughts for Church Leaders - 04/08/2013

Do you ask your members to give an offering or to offer worship? Worship requires that we become the offering!

Larry

Another Snow Storm

Another Tuesday and another projected snowstorm. Rather than focus on my disappointment, I choose to remind myself that God is in control. I will continue to prepare for the opportunity He will set before me. Thanks for your prayers.

Larry

Generosity-Ownership-Stewardship

Here's something that just came to me last week and I wanted to share it even though I'm still researching it. The issue of stewardship versus ownership presents an interesting quandary regarding what our generosity reflects. Sometimes a discussion regarding generosity can seems to focus on the benevolence of our heart.

While God's end goal is the transformation of our hearts. The first step in that process may be our simply obedience. If we accept the fact that God is the owner and we are simply stewards of His possession, then our primary job is to be responsive to His directions, preferences and prompting for the use of his possession.

Faithful stewardship requires that we manage His possession in manner that reflects the heart of the owner, even if that does not yet reflect our own heart. The owner is generous. While we are getting there we should still act as faithful stewards. The priority of our giving should be to respond to God's will rather than our own.

However, God desires that over time our heart would reflect His heart. It is far easier to execute one's stewardship when your heart is in it. God gives His possession to us as part of His plan to transform us to become like Him, to make us generous. He enriches us that we may abound in good work. He enriches us to increase the harvest of our righteousness. He enriches us that we would become generous.

2 Cor 9: 8-11

Larry

Why Did Jesus Ask Him To Give

Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10: 17-22; Luke 18:18-23

In this familiar passage of scripture Jesus encountered a young rich man who asked how to obtain eternal life. Jesus initially gave the expected Jewish response. The man should keep the commandments. The man replied that he had done so. Maybe he knew this was not enough. Maybe that was what prompted his inquiry. We don't know. What we do know is that Jesus declared the insufficiency of the man's efforts and challenged the man to give sacrificially. Jesus' response baffled His disciples and still baffles believers today. Why did Jesus ask the man to give sacrificially? We often discuss the impediment that material wealth presents to our pursuit of God, but I believe the passage reveals more.

• Mark states that Jesus looked on the man and loved him. Jesus' request seems directly connected to His love for the man.

• Jesus saw the man's need. The man desired eternal life but was found lacking. Jesus did not request that the man give because of Jesus' need but rather as a result of the man's own need. The man needed to give to obtain the fullness of his goal. Jesus explains in John 17:3 that eternal life is our coming to know the Father (the only true God) and the Son. As we grow in that knowledge we discover that the Father and the Son are sacrificial givers.

• Giving is an integral part of God's redemptive plan for believers. It is a requisite component of discipleship. Notice that Jesus instructs the man to give "and come, follow me." More than simply saving us from the penalty of sin, God want us to grow. He is conforming believers into His image.

• Jesus wanted to bless the man. Jesus spoke from an eternal perspective. Our actions on earth have eternal consequences. Our giving on earth reserves treasure for us in heaven. Jesus encouraged the man to trade temporary earthly possessions for eternal treasure. Through his giving the man wouldn't lose, he would gain.

How transforming would it be if we could help people realize that God's plan for our sacrificial giving flows from the fact that He loves us, that He knows what we need, that He is revealing Himself to us and conforming us into His image and that our giving is intended to bless us.

Prayer Request

More Than The Gift’s presence on the internet has been facilitated by my use of Apple products. Over the past 2 years years the web message has reached:

53 States or U. S. Territories
93 Countries Outside of the U.S.A.
6 Continents

My prayer is that God uses the information to change perceptions, hearts and behaviors. While I’ve received over 20,000 hits, I’m aware most viewers pass by too quickly to grasp the distinctiveness of the message. However, on average, every other day someone chooses to spend an hour or more reviewing my sites, considering what God has given to me to share. I thank God for each seed planted but especially for those that take root and grow. I can’t express how humbled I am that God allows me to participate in His plan to draw us closer to Him and closer to each other.

The immediate hurdle before me is this: midyear Apple will cease support of the primary software I use to create my website and post my podcasts, iWeb. I don’t fully understand what this will mean other than knowing that my process for communicating my messages is about to change drastically. I know other software tools exist, but the great benefit of the Apple tools were their simplicity. Their ease of use and seamless integration allows me to focus on content rather than technical issues. All of the Apple products were linked so I’ve never had to worry about coding/upload/import issues. I’ll spend the next few months planning and praying about the transition. I have no doubt that God will get the glory. I don’t ask that He protect my comfort zone. I simply ask that I remain in His will. Please join me in prayer.

Your Brother In Christ,

Larry

The Three W's of Acceptable Giving

By now it should be clear that I believe the modern church suffers from a lack of a comprehensive discussion regarding God's purposes and plans for our giving. Yet, from a practical standpoint, I am aware that people also suffer from communication overload. The more we are bombarded with messaging the harder it becomes to discern that which is important from that which is simply media hype. Understanding God's purposes and plans for our giving is important but I understand the crowded context in which that message battles for attention. Today, I offer at bite-sized message for sharing and personal consumption.

Some of us wonder what makes offerings acceptable to God. For ease of reference let me suggest that acceptable offerings are characterized by "3 W's": Willingness, Worship and Worth.

Willingness

God seeks a voluntary yielding of our gifts. 2 Corinthians 8:12 states that our offerings can be accepted if there is first a willing mind. Whether the willingness is our inward desire to give or simply our desire to obey God's call for us to give, each represents a willingness. Each honors God and is honored by Him.

Worship

Sacrificial giving was intended as a part of our worship, not as a separate act. Matthew 2:10&11 illustrates it best. The Wise Men came to worship Jesus and as a part of doing so they opened their treasures to the Lord. The altar was intended as both a place of worship and sacrifice.

Worth

For our gifts to matter to God they must first matter to us. In 1 Chronicles 21:24 King David declares " I will not ... sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing." The Old Testament traditions of temple sacrifice required that the animal offered be an animal that the giver owned rather than a wild animal. The term sacrifice symbolized that the offerer gave up something, "sacrificed" something of worth to them.

The Gift of Worship

The Christmas season offers a great context to consider our offertory giving. On Christmas Day we celebrate God's gift to mankind. However, in addition to the gift of His son, God granted another gift. He extended the opportunity for us to recognize who Jesus is and respond to Him. In the biblical record we see this gift received by the shepherds, by Simeon and the Magi. Each responded in their our way; the shepherds responded with witness, Simeon with praise and the Magi with worship.

The response of the Magi seems particularly instructive in respect to our giving. The Magi's acknowledgement of who Jesus is led them to extend themselves in worship. They extended themselves beyond the point of personal convenience. Their worship extended beyond simply verbal expression. They extended their physical selves and their physical possessions. They saw a connection between their worship and their giving. Their giving was an extension of their worship, not a separate activity. Their giving flowed from their worship.

This year, let Christmas remind each of us of that wonderful connection. Let us extend our offertory giving beyond the content of the gift. Give more than the gift. Give worship!

Internet Bible Study - August 2011 - A Question of Motive

Giving offertory gifts that are valuable is not enough. God wants more. Why we give is as important as what we give. This discussion reviews Jesus’ teachings about improper motives for giving. The examination explores the roles of both the individual giver and the local church in protecting the purity of our motives for giving.

Reference Scripture:

Matthew 6: 1 – 4 (acts of righteousness before men)

Supporting Scriptures:

2 Corinthians 9:7 (give what he has decided in his heart)

Genesis 3:1 – 6 (Eve wanted to be like God)

Isaiah 14: 12 – 14 (Lucifer desired to be like God)

1 John 2: 15 – 16 (pride of life)

Proverbs 16:18 (pride before destruction, haughty spirit before a fall)

Click on the link to the Internet Bible Study (located in the right margin of this blog) to review the full text of the lesson.

Don't study alone. This is the worldwide web. Invite a family member, friend, someone from another state or another country to join you.

Ask questions! Make comments! Let's create a worldwide conversation.

Praise Report

I apologize for my absence. Over the summer, God granted me opportunities to teach the More Than The Gift message at both my current church (Wheaton Bible Church) and my former church (Second Baptist Church of Wheaton). Each opportunity was a multi-week series. I've been busy formatting the material into modules suitable for bible classes. I believe that God uniquely blessed each session . I want to thank Elder Mel Preiss for inviting me to teach the Covenant Class at WBC. They have posted portions of the lessons on the Internet. I also want to thank Pastor Kevin Williams for inviting me to share again at SBC. The More Than The Gift Ministry was birth at SBC and this message is uniquely theirs. Please pray with me that the seeds planted will bear fruit.

I believe that these types of opportunities will increase in the future and that God is preparing me for the next phase of this ministry effort.

Your Brother In Christ

MTTG Bible Class

Pastor Kevin Williams recently invited to teach a Bible Class series on the More Than The Gift principles at my former church (Second Baptist Church of Wheaton). It’s a 4-week series (6/29. 7/6, 7/13 & 7/20) on Wednesday nights (7-8:15pm). This is where God gave me the individual scriptural messages, but I never completed my effort to help them connect- the- dots between the messages. It has been over 10 years since this process began. I thank God for His faithfulness to His message for this congregation. Please join me with your prayers, presence or both.

Second Baptist Church of Wheaton

1520 Avery Ave,

Wheaton , IL. 60187

Your Brother In Christ,

Larry

Wheaton Bible Church

I am humbled that the director of finance at my new home church (Wheaton Bible Church) felt led to write an article featuring excerpts from More Than The Gift. The article will appear in the Summer edition of the church magazine. In addition, in June I will teach a 3-week series from "More Than The Gift" to one of the adult community classes.

Please join me in prayer that God prepare the message, the messenger and the soil of the hearts of His people so that the seeds planted will bear fruit that blesses His kingdom and bring Him glory.

His message continues to advance bit by bit. Matt.13:33 The kingdom of God is like yeast....

Book Signing - May 12, 2011

Inner-City Underwriting Agency is hosting a joint book signing at its office on May 12, 2011. The event will feature the Christian writings of two of the firm's constituents (Dr. Jennifer Moore and myself). I want to thank the firm's president, Matthew Cooper, for his hospitality and faith in the message God is sharing through us. Please pray for God's presence and blessing during the event.

Monday's Meditation - May 2, 2011 - Our Preparation For Our Inheritence

A new podcast has been published to the More Than The Gift website and iTunes Store:

Our Preparation For Our Inheritance

When our twin sons were infants, my wife and I researched investment options to save funds for their future. One very interesting option was a gift trust managed by a prominent investment firm. This investment had a remarkable track of performance. It had increased in value by more than 20% for each of the preceding 10 years. However, there was one characteristic of the trust that concerned us. It was an irrevocable trust, which required that any contributions we made become the permanent property of the trust for the benefit of our sons. We could put money in but we couldn’t decide later to take it out. At the predetermined time the trust would be available for our sons to use as they wished. We could not decide to withhold the funds if they made poor choices. That was a very scary thought because in spite of our love for our sons, we knew it was impossible to predict whether our infant sons would become wise stewards as adults. We had no desire to pre-fund unwise choices they might choose to make later. Prudence suggested that we invest the funds in a manner where we would retain control over their distribution. So, we chose not to commit substantial treasure to our sons’ ownership prior to their developing and demonstrating the judgment to handle it. However, we simultaneously committed to using a weekly allowance to help them acquire and demonstrate that judgment. While their allowance was small, it seemed big to them. It gave them the opportunity to acquire basic skills for handling wealth by practicing with a small amount. Handling their allowance was a foundational step in preparation for incremental increases in responsibility and eventually receipt of their inheritance. When I think about it, it becomes clear that God gives each of us opportunities for earthly stewardship to prepare us in very much the same way.

This podcast is a continuation the series of podcasts regarding the theme : "What Our Giving Accomplishes".

As always, I invite you to receive Monday’s Meditation as “food for thought “ for the week, then let it become “fuel for action” for the weekend and beyond.

The is audio podcast is available on my website: morethanthegift.net and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog.

After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.


Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.



Keep praying with me!

Monday's Meditation - March 28, 2011 - The Giver's Reverence

I was curious about the background of the Halloween tradition. Given its name, I never quite understood what it was really about. The root word "hallow" means to make holy, to sanctify, to set apart for God. Although the costumes, candy, dunking for apples and carving of pumpkins may be fun, our celebrations often do not make clear what (if anything) is being hallowed. The observance does not have a simply heritage. It evolved from a mixture of Christian and non-Christian traditions. The emphasis of the modern celebrations clearly reflects more of the non-Christian traditions, and because we have lost sight of or are unfamiliar with the original intent, many of us fail to fulfill the godly purpose in the Christian portion of the tradition.

While I considered those thoughts, Deuteronomy 14: 22&23 came to mind. This passage begins with an instruction that could easily be paraphrased “Be sure to hallow a tithe of all you produce each year” and the passage ends by explaining the purpose “ so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always”. Reflecting on this passage, I realized that our reverence for the Lord is enhanced as we hallow our offertory gifts to Him. As I think about offertory giving in our churches today, I wonder how often givers consider their gifts as holy, sanctified, specifically set apart for God. I wonder if our approach to giving helps us to learn to reverence the Lord. I wonder, if as with Halloween, many of us have lost sight of the intent and therefore fail to fulfill God’s intended purpose for our giving.


In today’s episode, we continue to affirm the importance of what our giving reveals.

As always, I invite you to receive Monday’s Meditation as “food for thought “ for the week, then let it become “fuel for action” for the weekend and beyond.

The full audio podcast is available on my website: morethanthegift.net and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog.

After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.

Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.



Keep praying with me!

Monday's Meditation - March 7, 2011 - The Giver's Gratitude

Ten lepers stood by the side of the road, at a distance, calling in a loud voice to Jesus for mercy and grace. Ten lepers demonstrated their faith by following Jesus’ instruction that they behave as if they were healed even before their healing visibly manifested itself. Ten lepers received a miracle and yet only one returned to acknowledge his healing. Only one threw himself at Jesus’ feet. Only one used his loud voice to render praise and thanksgiving. Seeing this, Jesus asked his disciples “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” This biblical story reminds me that each day, each one of us should consider whether we are more like the "one" or more like the "nine"?

In today’s episode, we continue to affirm the importance of what the gift reveals, even though God is actually interested in more than the gift itself.

I invite you to receive Monday’s Meditation as “food for thought “ for the week, then let it become “fuel for action” for the weekend and beyond.

The full audio podcast is available on my website: morethanthegift.net and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog.

After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.


Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.


Keep praying with me!

Monday's Meditation - February 28, 2011- The Giver's Love

It was February of 1999. For several months, I had shared a series of instructional thoughts on giving with my local church congregation just prior to the collection of the offering during Sunday worship service. As I sought the Lord for guidance concerning what to share for the upcoming Sunday, I was drawn to the spiritual symbolism embedded in our Valentine’s Day tradition. A clear and simple principle emerged. Love gives.

In today’s episode, we begin to affirm the importance of what the gift reveals, even though God is actually interested in more than the gift itself.

I invite you to receive Monday’s Meditation as “food for thought “ for the week, then let it become “fuel for action” for the weekend and beyond.

The full audio podcast is available on my website: morethanthegift.net and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog.

After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.


Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.


Keep praying with us!

Monday's Meditation -February 21, 2011 - The Gift and The Giver's Faith

There is a big difference between talking about faith and applying it. If God gave a college class in faith, it would be entitled "Applied Faith" rather than "Faith Theory". God wants faith working in every aspect of our relationship, even in our giving. As Hebrews 11: 6&7 remind us: without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

In today's podcast episode we continue to examine why I believe that even though God gives us scriptural instruction to give offertory gifts, He is actually interested in more than the gift itself.

Receive Monday's Meditation as "food for thought" for the week, then let it become "fuel for action" for the weekend and beyond!

The full podcast is available on my website: morethanthegift.net and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog.

After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.

Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.


Keep praying with us!

Monday's Meditation - February 14, 2001 - God's Interest In More Than The Giver's Hand

God is spirit. He has no temporal needs. God is the creator, sustainer and owner of all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. His ownership has not diminished with time. His wealth is immeasurable. Yet, He still asks for our gifts. What could God possibly be seeking from us?

In today's podcast episode we continue to examine why I believe that even though God gives us scriptural instruction to give offertory gifts, He is actually interested in more than the gift itself

Receive Monday's Meditation as "food for thought" for the week, then let it become "fuel for action" for the weekend and beyond!

The full audio podcast is available on my website and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog.

After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.

Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.


Keep praying with us!

Tithing Times 10

Through the messages of the More Than The Gift Ministry, I've tried to redirect our focus away from arguing over tithing. It saddens me that we often fail to see the irony in trying to benchmark how little we can give to the God of the universe, the Great I Am, our Lord and Savior. Today's sermon at my church (Wheaton Bible Church) centered on Ephesians 5: 1 &2. As Pastor Bugh touched on these verses this morning, the core message of my ministry kept resonating within my soul. God desires more than a tenth and more than a material gift. He desires that we would give our total selves back to Him as an act of love. He leads by example and asks that His beloved children would follow that lead by mimicking the actions of His Son. The ESV translations of these scriptures read:

Ephesians 5:

1) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2) And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

He gave Himself up for us because He loves us. The question each of us must answer is whether we love Him enough to give ourselves back to Him in return.

Prayer Request

A few weeks ago, I heard a brief discussion on offertory giving on a morning Christian radio show. The host seemed a little frustrated by the divergent positions taken by the different guests that had appeared on his show over time. As you probably know by now, I believe that the messages God has given me help harmonize some of the divergent views. I felt led to share a copy of my Internet Bible Study entitled "God's Plan For The Financial Support of His Ministry". I sent it to the show by email. I wasn't motivated by self-promotion. I simply wanted to bless the host. I knew my email would be screened and might never get to the host but I felt led to send it anyway.

Last week I received a response from a staff assistant acknowledging receipt of the material, thanking me for it and promising to pass it along to the entire team. So, I solicit your prayers that this excerpt will be a blessing to the staff members of that show.