Praising God Through Abundant Giving

Several weeks ago, the congregation was presented the new budget for 2008. It reflected an increase of about 14% over the previous budget. This comes at a time when most of our families are experiencing serious belt-tightening. The elders are keenly aware that there are fewer and fewer discretionary dollars in our family budgets, but we also know the Mt. Juliet congregation and her love of God. In one of our recent daily Bible readings an account is given of Moses directing the building of the tabernacle. He speaks to the children of Israel, saying, "This is the thing which the Lord commanded - Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet thread, etc." ( Exodus 35: 4-9) It is interesting that God is now commanding the people to offer the things the Egyptians had given them when they came out of Egypt. The truly exciting part of this account comes when the craftsmen, who were doing the work, spoke to Moses saying the people were bringing too much. So Moses gave a commandment, "Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. And the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done -- indeed too much." ( Exodus 36: 4-7)

The 2008 budget is not beyond our reach. It will take the cooperation of the entire congregation to meet the fiscal challenges. We clearly understand that our membership is made up of hard-working families, who love God and can be counted on. Have you noticed that we seldom speak publicly about our finances? That is because you, like the children of Israel, are doing a wonderful job of giving to the Lord.

The elders request that you pray about this budget as we set our priorities to give abundantly to the Lord.