This series is exciting! It has provoked such good discussion. The comments and questions are pouring in from folks stopping by the office, e-mail, phone calls, and comments before or after services expressing how good this study has been for their spiritual life. Let's all grow this month!
Let's believe God. If He says it is more blessed to give than to receive ( Acts 20:35), let's take Him at His word! If He declares it is possible to be generous and cheerful in our giving ( 2 Corinthians 9:6-7), let's take God at His word. If God expects us to give our firstfruits to Him ( Matthew 6:33), let's take God at His Word.
In this issue of Freely You Have Received Freely Give you will read of the "Money Back Guarantee." This lesson is designed to challenge us to view our giving as a type of loan to God. God always pays back his loans with increase! Do you believe God? Let's take God at His word!
Please sit down (with your family) and study the passages, pray, and meditate on (or discuss) God's instructions for us as His stewards.
Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2
Firstfruits
Jericho was the firstfruit of the Promise Land' therefore, God required Israel to give the riches of this land into His treasury ( Joshua 6:19). The second city of Ai could be theirs ( Joshua 8). Achan had wandered in the wilderness for many years without many possessions or a place to call home. He coveted and kept God's portion which resulted in a deadly punishment ( Joshua 7). God demands we give of our firstfruits ( Matthew 6:33). Isn't it interesting God never asked us to do something He wouldn't do Himself?
"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 15:20
The above article appeared in the Mt. Juliet Messenger on September 19, 2004
Stewardship in September continues to be an "active study." How many times have we heard in a closing prayer the request, "Lord, help us to take what we have learned today and apply it to our daily lives." This series is designed to do just that! In this series we have the opportunity to discuss and learn in Bible classes, to be exhorted and challenged in sermons and to receive a lesson in the mail each week which will inform and help us to investigate our own lives. Let's apply it!
Do you believe God? Do you believe it is better to give than to receive ( Acts 20:35)? Do you believe it is best to give generously of your first fruits ( Matthew 6:33; 2 Corinthians 9:6-7)? Do you believe it is possible to rob God ( Malachi 3:8)? Let's believe and apply it!
In this issue of Freely You Have Received Freely Give we will read of God allowing us to use or borrow things on the earth which actually belong to Him. Another short article teaches one of my favorite verses. A man turns to Jesus saying "I believe; help my unbelief ( Mark 9:24)!" Isn't this what this study is all about? Isn't that what our Christian journey to Heaven must be about? None of us has reached perfection on earth. As the great apostle Paul revealed about himself,
12 "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." ( Philippians 3)
Let's help our unbelief. Let's use God's teachings as our goal and press toward the prize! To give as we should financially will require us to first give ourselves to the Lord (2 Cor 8:5). Let's apply it!
"Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful." 1 Corinthians 4:2
Let's apply it!