Bondservant of $

I was reading some statistics recently on the amount of debt that we as Americans are incurring on a daily basis. We save an average of -3% of our income each year! Not only are we not saving anything for the future, we are going further, and further into debt. Our materialism has spiraled out of control, to the point where we no longer have any plans beyond the satisfaction of our immediate desires.

This is a sad condition for our country, but the real tragedy is this same materialism has taken hold of the American church. According to the Barna Research Group, the average church has 6% of its members tithing. These numbers represent an alarming philosophy of our personal finances. As Christians, we should recognize that we are merely stewards of the money God has given to us. We may claim that we “earned” the money at our jobs, but who gave us the health to perform that job, and the mind to excel?

The tithe is a physical representation of the surrendering of our lives and resources to God. It is a way to demonstrate our money is not our own. In reality the church does not need your money, when God moves He provides, and if you are lucky enough to attend a church where God is moving, He will provide the resources to continue in obedience. God certainly does not need your money, and I hope our pride has not allowed us to believe that we are doing God a favor by tithing, or that we expect something in return for our “sacrifice.”

The tithe is worship, and when we are so overwhelmed with debt and materialism we are not able to tithe, we rob God.

The God of Angels and Ice Machines

Every morning at work, a group of my co-workers and I meet for prayer and devotions. At the end of our time together, we take prayer requests for the various activities or concerns we have for that day. During my time as a Christian, I can look back on my life and see how different my prayers were as a child, than the prayers I have prayed as an adult.

When a child prays, they pray for everything that is on their mind. From their teddy bear and toys, to their mommy and daddy. Yet how many times do we as adults only think to bring the “big” things to God in prayer. Do we think that He does not want to be bothered by the minutiae of our day? Does God even care that my ice machine doesn’t work?

Let us take a step back and look at the big picture. What is the primary reason that we have for existing? We are made to glorify God. Everything that He created exists to glorify Him. So, how many times do we give Him glory, and credit, for the blessings that He provides for us each day, even the small things? Are we arrogant enough to believe we can handle all the small things and then leave the big events for God? We know that we cannot control certain things, such as the weather, or unforeseen tragedies, but do we think that we have enough power to control whether or not our car runs? When the car breaks and we fix it, do we give the credit/glory to ourselves and not to God? Imagine if we gave the glory to God for EVERYTING, even the seemingly insignificant blessings, such as a parking spot, or a double coupon day at Kroger.

What would happen if we started acknowledging all the small blessings that God provides? How many larger blessings would God heap upon us if He knew that doing so would bring Him glory, because we would make sure that all the credit and glory went to Him, every time? How easily we forget that we serve the God of angels and ice machines.

Discipleship

We are a part of a small group in our church. This small group has been wonderful. We are so blessed by the couples who share two hours of their lives with us every Sunday night. It was at this small group that myself and a couple of the men in the group began to discuss the church, not specifically our Church, but the American church. There were three of us in the discussion, all of us either having obtained, or are almost complete with, seminary degrees so we have spent many hours with future church leaders. As we began to lament over the various shortcomings of the churches in America (two of us have traveled extensively to various churches all over the east coast, so we have a very broad sampling to base our findings upon) we noticed that they all had something in common, lack of discipleship. If you think about it, how many churches have "revivals" where they try to witness to everyone in town, which is a good thing, but if someone comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ at one of these revivals what happens next? Does the pastor just put another "knotch in his belt" so that he can discuss the conversions at his next pastoral luncheon? What happens to these brand new Christians after their initial decision to follow Christ? Are they just given a Bible and a pat on the back, a heartfelt "good luck with all that" from a deacon?

Here is a relevant analogy. When a woman is pregnant, she is very conscious about herself and how every decision that she makes might have an affect on the baby. Well what happens when the baby is born? Does she leave it to take care of itself? Does she throw it some cheerios and a couple of diapers, a heartfelt "good luck with all that". Of course not, she spends time nurturing, feeding, teaching, protecting that newborn until it is old enough to function on it's own. What would happen if a church looked after their new born Christians like that? Can you imagine if we took the time to teach, train, and protect these impressionable and vulnerable believers from attack from the Evil One? Why don't we do this? What is holding us back?

I submit that the reason is because the vast majority of church members are they themselves spiritual babes. Babies cannot train or nurture other babies. There are FAR too many in our churches who are still sucking on a bottle, when they should be cutting, grilling, and eating their own steaks. We need to hold our church members to a higher standard of growth. The Bible is not silent on what a mature believer looks like, nor is it silent on the need to call everyone who claims the name of Christ to spiritual growth. This comes through discipleship, and it starts with pastors. The need is great for these leaders to point to a Biblical standard and say, "Look, this is what the Bible says we are going to do, and so this is what we are going to do, and if you have a problem with that standard, take it up with the author". That might (gulp) offend people, and they might leave the church? Well, what are we here for, are we here to make everyone happy, or to be obedient. I would hope that obedience is our singular focus, but are we ready for what that obedience will cost us? Find out what your flesh thinks, then do the opposite.