We want to be a church known for generosity.  Yesterday we saw two principles that a relationship with God teaches us about generosity, and we’ll see two more today.

What we have is not as important as what we keep

The third principle of stewardship has to do with attitude.  This is a far more important consideration than how much money we happen to have.  Stewardship has far more to do with faith than it does with money.  How we look at what we have is far more important that how much we have.

Peter Marshall, who was chaplain of the United States Senate for many years, shared this true story:
There was a man who struggled to give even though he had a large income. He had long been taught to give 10% of his income away, which is called a tithe.  The man said to Marshall, “I have a problem. I used to tithe regularly some years ago, but…but now…I am earning hundreds of thousands a year, and there is no way I can afford to give ten percent to the church.”

The chaplain said they should pray about it and led off, “Heavenly Father, I pray that you would reduce this man’s income back to the place that he can afford to tithe.“

Like the senator, one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is that we will begin to give more generously when we have a little bit more.  This is simply not true, the day never comes.  Jesus said that those who are faithful when they have a little will be faithful when they have a lot.

The time to learn giving is when we have a little.  It becomes increasingly difficult as our prosperity increases…remember those cords around our hearts.

How much we give is not as important as how much we keep

One day as Jesus sat in the temple with his disciples people came by with their offerings for the temple. Some of the people were quite rich, and they made sizeable donations.  Among them was a poor widow who dropped in her gift of only a few pennies.  Perhaps someone laughed…Jesus pointed out that this widow had actually given more than all the others.

Seeing their surprise at his remark he explained that all the others given from their wealth.  They still had lots left. But this woman had given out of her poverty.  She had nothing left.  In the eyes of God her gift amounted to more than theirs.  God evaluates things differently from the way we do.  In this matter of financial stewardship it is important for growing Christians to remember how much we hold back is far more important than how much we give.    Once again the issue comes back to whether or not we will allow Jesus to free us from the power of money and are we willing to trust God.

These same questions apply to how we use our time and how much of our time we are using to further God’s work around the world.    How much time do we keep for ourselves and how much time do we give to God and those he loves?

Think of a child’s allowance.  The parents don’t really give a child money because he needs it.  They provide everything he needs.  And they don’t ask him to give to charity, buy gifts for others, etc. because he has too much.  They do it to teach him something, to shape and guide him for the future.

Question: Based on these two stories, what do you think God is training people for?  What’s the end goal?

Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - March 24, 2014

Monday - A New Idea - Reset Society

Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the daily challenges. We’re in the middle of a series right now called Reset, where we look at how following Jesus resets our thinking about various topics in life. This week we’re thinking about how Jesus resets our view of society’s divisions. The daily challenges are meant to help us explore what it means to follow Jesus, even in the midst of a busy commuting lifestyle. We have a rhythm that we follow each week to help us explore our topic. We introduce the idea on Monday, then Tuesday’s we study it in the Bible. Wednesday’s we try to let the Bible’s teaching sink in, and change and transform our thinking. Thursday’s we try to act out what we’ve been learning. Friday’s a day for prayer and reflection, and then Saturday’s a day for rest. Sunday is a day for community, because even when we are scattered and busy, it is important that we come together as one community to explore Jesus and what it means to follow him in one place. That’s why this Fall we’re planning to launch a new worshiping community in Ajax called Redeemer Church. Stay tuned for more information. Shortly after moving to GTA, my wife and I had dinner with some new friends. We had just moved from a small community in eastern Ontario, a mostly monocultural community where a handful of people had been to university. We found ourselves at dinner with two people from South Asia, one from Finland, and one from east Asia. 3 of the 4 had PhD’s and the fourth had an MBA. After dinner we realized we really had arrived in the most multicultural city in the world – meeting men and women from every continent, of every class and education. Ajax is this in microcosm. Ajax has the highest number of culturally visible population; 32,005 residents or 36%. Also, 17,055 who speak another mother tongue. We may be used to such diversity here, but think big picture. We have a daily experience that would have required a lifetime of travel just 100 years ago. Whether we were born here or moved here, we encounter people who look different, sound different, have different traditions and cultures than ourselves every single day, and may not even notice. Sure, it’s not all harmony. There are divisions here and elsewhere in the GTA, but by and large in Canada there is little tolerance for discrimination based on race, gender and social class. It still happens, but when it comes to light, most Canadians react with disgust. It hasn’t always been this way, and isn’t this way everywhere in Canada or in the world. Just look at the divisions in Ukraine between those who identify with Russia, those who identify with Ukraine. Examples abound like this one. North American history was quite different just decades ago – with segregated schools, buses, and not long before, slavery. Add in gender, class discrimination around the world, in our recent history, and still today in Canada, and we can see there are many divisions in our world. What does a follower of Jesus do with these divisions? Is Christian just one of those divisions? To be Christian, do we say we are nothing else? Does becoming a Christian mean every culture that doesn’t have a long Christian history is suspect? Some missionary efforts have indeed gone this way – bringing western culture with Christian faith as one package with no distinction, to which others must conform. That’s been terribly damaging, and doesn’t even take seriously Christianity’s history as a global and multicultural phenomenon. Question: When you picture a Christian, what kind of person comes to mind? Do they have a certain ethnicity, social class or gender? What experiences led to that?

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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