Kingdom Living requires Kingdom Giving

This writing is about stewardship in God's economy. Fancy title for TITHE. One cannot walk with Jesus without dealing with how do we spend our money, how do we contribute financially into His kingdom through our local church, again another way to say " do you tithe".

Over the years I understood that according to the scriptures we are to tithe from the first fruits, this is 10% from our gross income. But for many years I looked at my debt and looked at my net and said " there just isn't enough" so I gave 10% of my net and called it a tithe. When the company I had worked at for many years decided to close its doors, I found myself 56years old and out of a job. I decided to become self-employed by cleaning houses and would also do cakes for different celebrations. I knew that in order for me to be successful at this I would have to tithe from my gross income. So I began my adventure, following Jesus and depending on Him to provide for my income. I tithed and when it seemed so small I would add an offering on top of it. But my finances were little and I seemed to be always living the "not enough" or "barely enough".

I would  pray that God would lead me and show me what I needed to be doing. People would testify how God was blessing them abundantly because of their tithing, and I would weep" Lord what is wrong with me, where is my sin." I reasoned since I  was struggling just to stay afloat then there must be sin in my life. I would listen very closely to each sermon hoping with each one I would understand what I was doing wrong. I prayed" Lord show me my sin so I can repent and turn from it." Then finally early one morning when it wasn't quite morning and I was not asleep yet not fully awake, God spoke this word to me.

"It is easy to serve me, it is easy to praise me, it is easy worship me, it is easy to give when you are on the mountain top. But I am looking for a people who will serve me, praise me, worship me and give when you are in the valley as well as the mountain top."

I knew this was for my growth for me to learn how to trust Him and not myself. For me to say this was easy to digest would be a lie, yet I knew I wanted to be a person who would keep on keeping on believing and trusting in Jesus and Him alone.

Eight years have past and I am still living in the "not enough" and the "barely enough". Sometimes I think if I hear Malachi 3: 8-11 one more time, or hear someone say "well I always tithe and God always meets my needs." I could scream. Does anyone understand what I am saying?

Yet, I remember the word God gave me and I cling to it. I know and believe it will not always be this way. Even now I am brought to tears, because there have been times when I just had to pay the bill and when I did that the tithe was gone and all I had was an offering. I would try to catch up but couldn't because then another bill or gas or groceries would take some more. I grieved because I felt like a failure. I would daily pray" Lord give the wisdom in how to use my money wisely". Then I would tithe and things would be fine for awhile. Then it would happen again. "Lord what do I do" finally He would say "Just as my mercy is new each morning, begin again anew". So I did.

3 John 2 says: "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers".

This is saying God does not want us live in lack in any part of our lives. Lack came into this world at the fall of man. Jesus has redeemed us from that. I believe this completely and absolutely, I may be in lack now but this is not forever, God will and is going to bring break through into my life. I just need to remain steadfast in my walk, in every area of my life: in my service, in my praise, in my worship and in my giving. God sees my heart He understands my desire to give and give some more and when I fall short He loves me and picks me up and says "begin again" and I do.

Do You Know Him 2012

Jesus Wept

In today's post I want to talk about the grief that will come into every christian's walk at some point. Grief can come in with the death of a loved one, the death of a marriage, the loss of a job, with children who have left you and the Lord to wander in a wilderness of their own making. Many things come into our lives to bring on grief, but today I want to talk about our grief in death of a loved one.

The most comforting verse in the scriptures at a time like this is: John 11:35 "Jesus wept" You see Jesus's good friend Lazarus had died, Jesus knew this and He also knew He was going to raise him from the grave, to show that He had authority over death, yet when He arrived He saw how his sisters, Mary and Martha were grieving, and feeling their grief Jesus wept with them. You see even when we don't understand and He does, even when we are in a dark hole, He feels our sadness He feels our sorrow and He weeps with us.

Christians should never get lost in our time of grief because it can bring a spirit of grief into our lives which will attempt to control us and bring in deep depression which will be hard to climb out of. We should always see the hope we have in Christ that one day we will see our saved loved ones again. Don't allow yourself to focus on regrets, or the whys or the what ifs. Just remember God is still God. He was with you before they died and He is with you

Going back to my early childhood; I was only 8 years old when the daddy I loved dearly died of cancer at the age of 40. In 1956 death was never really explained to children so I believed that since God had killed him He might kill me also. Now I know it is not God who kills; yet at 8 I could not see the difference. I decided I wanted no part of God and church I refused to go back to church until I became a teenager and then I went for the youth. I never really understood the gospel nor was I saved.

In an earlier post I shared how as I grieved in the death of my marriage I reverted back to the 8 year old and again said I want no part of God or church. My grief pulled me away from the loving Father into self and "poor little me".

Now I come to 2009 I am saved walking with Jesus and my mother who had been living with me for 10 years, was dying at age 93. How will I respond? My sister and I knew mother's wishes, so we made the decision to let her go at home. Mom was dying but not from any disease it was her time she lived long and was loved much. She was a hard working woman who cared for her family and helped us in more ways than I can tell. She had always been one to laugh and cut up with everyone, so it was hard to watch her drift away the last few months of her life. I sure am one who could have many regrets and satan likes to put them in my mind from time to time (like right now). No matter what difficulties we may have had from time to time I loved her and she knew it. From time to time I will say Jesus tell momma I love her and I know He does. All I can really say about grief is when it comes into your life hang on to Jesus He alone truly understands and the comforter, the Holy Spirit, will wrap Himself around us to get us through the moment. Remember the good memories and let Jesus get you through the sad memories.

Isaiah 53:3 " He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief...."

Let Jesus take your grief with Him on the cross and He will restore your joy. Everyone walking with Jesus will experience grief and He is the same, He will not leave you nor forsake you.

God bless each one who reads this post.

In the Potter's Hand

To walk with Jesus requires self-denial, it requires agreeing with God that He is the Potter and you are the clay, to seek God and Jesus actively each day. Is walking with God and Jesus in this way easy I would say No, but is it necessary for spiritual growth I would say Yes.

Matthew 16:24-25 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. But whosoever desires to save his live will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

To deny yourself is to put aside my desires my way for the Kingdom of God. The cross is always a symbol of suffering and yes, the scriptures teach us that anyone attempting to live a godly life will be persecuted. It is also more than outside persecution, giving up of self can really hurt. It is saying Lord purge me, change me, mold me as you will, not my will but yours be done. You are the Potter I am the clay make me into the vessel of your choice to serve you as you desire not as I desire.

Isaiah 64:8 But now O Lord, You are our Father, and we are the clay, and You are our potter, and we are the work of Your hand.

What a marvelous place to be in the hand of a living God. Yet, so often we want to be the potter and shape our own lives.

In 1974 when I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior I set out to love Jesus and to learn what I didn't know about His holy Word. Looking back I see I learned what a lot of terms meant: Lost, Sinner, Saved, Redeemed, Justification, Sanctification, Glorification, Propitiation etc. But I didn't absorb or learn how to really walk with such a Holy God. But by 1998 I was getting ready to understand, walking required something from me.

Ephesians 4:22-24 explains that we are to put off the old man according to our former conduct. We are to put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness and we do this by the renewed spirit.

You see my responsibility was to stop behaving like I used to and as I applied the Word of God into my life my mind and spirit were being renewed and the new man created by God would come forth. If you think that this is easy or quick,well think again. Yes, God will take away certain things from us immediately but not everything. It is our job to deny self and pick up our cross and follow Him. He will not force us to change yet He will help us by exposing little by little the areas in our life that need immediate attention. It will take a lifetime of walking, praying, studying and obeying to even come close to getting the junk out of our life.

The hardest thing for me has getting control of my temper, it is now 2012 I am beginning to see some victory in this area. Remember I said "some". I am not who I was and yet I am not the finished product either. Here is a verse that just this last week God gave me some new insight and I will share this with you.

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath,But a harsh word stirs up anger.

I have always looked at that verse as if I came into contact with an angry person and if I replied softly that their anger would cease. Yet, God said to me "Linda, when you become angry and you speak harshly it stirs up the anger inside of you and it kindles a fire you cannot control. But, if when you speak softly instead of harshly then the anger will disappear within you. This is about you Linda, not the other person Oh they may still be angry, yet you have not only stopped fueling their anger but you have stopped fueling your own anger and God's peace will remain in you in this situation." Losing the peace of God in bad situations can bring many regrets your way, trust me I know this for I have lived with many regrets. Yet, God has showed me in this last year I do not have time for regrets, they have been forgiven and washed in blood of Jesus, so move on you can't change the past but you can change the present. Worship God and learn to walk with Him by denying self and seeking Jesus. Your walk is just beginning enjoy the journey

Update from my last post: I told the story of how the Holy Spirit guided me to stop littering and be aware of the trash that was being thrown out in parking lots. It was a lesson I have been obedient in some 15 yrs later. God showed me just this morning why I had to learn this lesson. Are you ready, after the company I worked for closed, God led me to cleaning other people's homes as the source of my income. If I had not obeyed and picked up the first piece of thrown away paper, where would I be today? God has a reason for instructing us and that is to lead us to His plan and our next step.

Restored, Refreshed, Recomissioned

Isn't it wonderful that we have a God who restores, refreshes and recommissions. I was restored at the moment of repentance, I was refreshed as I sat in His house, as I studied His Word, and as I built our relationship in prayer.

I began to pray to serve my Lord and to use the gifts and callings He had placed in my life. To walk with God I had to understand the gifts the Holy Spirit had placed in my born again spirit. I already understood that I had the gift to teach His Word, and God was motivating me to study His Word so that I might teach it to others. The opportunity presented itself in the ladies Sunday school class I was in so that I was a co-teacher with one of the other ladies.

Obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit is also necessary in your daily walk (that is an area that I am truly learning more in today, and will speak more of in a later post.) Sitting in church one day they announced that they had a need for a director in the Awana children's ministry; which I promptly ignored, Then God said in my spirit "you do it" and I argued (I do that well) that surely Lord you did not want me to do that I reasoned it was just me wanting to do it and tried to dismiss it. But the Lord said "if it was something you wanted to do there would be no argument", So at invitation God said go tell him you will do it and me being me said do I have to in front of every one can't I do it after church? God said "I will not ask again" so I obeyed and was blessed to be director of the ministry for 8 years and learned how much I enjoyed sharing the Word and Jesus with children. If I had not been obedient to study, to take the position where would I be today? Through prayer God said Linda I want a ministry to begin at an assisted living near our church, so I obeyed and we not only went once a month on Thursdays, but had weekly bible studies and even began a Sunday school class there. A ministry I was a part of for more than 8 years and even though I have since left this church the ministry still continues.

I am going to back up a little, the very first time I remember the Holy Spirit saying to do something was in the parking lot where I worked. You see like some people I didn't mind throwing trash out on the parking lot after all they had a sweeper come every night to clean up. This time when I threw a piece of paper down God said "pick it up" and believe it or not I did any time I would start to throw down something the Holy Spirit would say " don't do it" and I didn't, then I started picking up other people's trash along the way. What if I hadn't obeyed, where would I be today? Fifteen years later I am still obeying this one.

John 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.

John 15:12" This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you."

The entire bible is the Word we are to live by completely and absolutely. Yet we do this in a love relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and that love relationship extends to everyone around us. Let us love one another forgiving one another as Christ has loved and forgiven us.

Today's post ends with two thoughts:
1.Learn what your gifts and callings are. Put them into practice in your life.

2.Obedience to the Holy Spirit's direction is crucial in your daily walk