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
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Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the daily challenges. Normally, we follow a weekly rhythm that helps us explore a different topic, and how following Jesus impacts that topic. This week’s going to be a little different. We’re going to be taking an opportunity to just see where we are as a community. Now, you probably know us as a mobile app and website for busy commuters, but we’re also trying to become a church community. As we explore what it means to follow Jesus as individual people engaged in a busy lifestyle, we want to make sure that we’re not completely disconnected from one another, and that even though we’re usually quite scattered as a community, we want to take time to gather as well.
As a gathered community, we want to make sure that we are committed to some of the same things in common. That’s why through this week, this week alone, it’s going to be kind of a special week. We’re going to be looking at each of the things our community is committed to one by one, and see how we’re doing as a community, by hearing the stories of individuals who are a part of our growing online community or our in-person courses who are seeing their lives changed. We hope that will inspire you to see some transformation in your own life as well.
Now, the five things that we’re committed to as a community start with being committed to growth in discipleship. We have some common content to learn together. We also want to be committed to God in worship, committed to generosity in our resources, committed to grace in our lifestyles and witness, and finally, committed to groups and community. We’re going to be looking at each of those points one by one this week. Today, the Monday, we’re going to start by looking at growth in discipleship. Each day, we’re going to tell you the story of somebody, a real person, who is in one of our courses as a community or engaging in our online content.
The firs story we have is about somebody who came to us through our Christianity one on one course. After having discovered it online, and taken a few of the courses through the app, she decided that she wanted to come and try that in person when we offered a course in Whitby last fall. After the course was over, she met with me for coffee, and told me that she decided to do something really important in her life. Back when she was in her early 20s, she decided that she was an atheist. She very publically cut all ties that she had to the church, to her family’s Christian faith and to God himself.
She made it very clear that she was an atheist now. She said after taking the Christianity 101 course, she decided she wasn’t an atheist anymore, and is looking for a way to make that public, just as public as she made her atheism back in her 20s. What happened? What made her say those words and decide to take public action declaring such a significant change? Why would she go back on her words like that, and risk the embarrassment of letting everybody know that she was wrong?
Well, as a follower of Jesus, I believe that it’s the Holy Spirit who can grab hold of our hearts, and transform them to be open to hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works behind the scenes, and sometimes very publically, in this kind of transformation in a story like the one I just told you. I’m sure the particular content of our courses had some impact, but through it all, the Holy Spirit was guiding, and directing, and teaching, and helping just open her ears to hear the good news, and opening her heart to actually be transformed by it. The Holy Spirit is behind every story of transformation that we hear from in the Bible or in life today.
The Holy Spirit uses all sorts of resources in his work. That includes things like routine and just learning some habits of discipleship. One of those that we use in our community is this daily, weekly rhythm of discipleship that our daily challenges follow. Every Monday, we introduce a new idea. Every Tuesday, we study the Bible. Every Wednesday, we allow it to grab our hearts and transform us in some way. If we’re trying to live differently on Thursday, and Friday is our day of reflection, this whole rhythm and routine comes from the way monks and nuns used to order their lives as a community.
Even if they were a part, even if they were traveling, they knew they were in sync with the rest of their community because they had this regular rhythm of prayer and learning that they were engaged in, whether they were gathered or in scattered mode. Now, the story I told you today is just one story that I happen to know because I met her in person, but there have got to be other amazing stories out there. What’s your story? We know that the mobile app for Redeem the Commute has been installed on mobile phones and tablets over 1,200 times. We know that hundreds of you are using and accessing our content each month.
We’d love to hear from you and hear your story. How is God speaking to you? How is God’s Holy Spirit working in your heart, in and through the rhythm we’ve developed as a community, or through the content that you’ve been hearing, or watching or reading on Redeem the Commute? Well, I’d love to hear your story. There are a number of ways you can communicate that. One, come out and meet me at the Coffee Hours, or check the app or website live events listings to see when our next Coffee Hours are. It’s a great opportunity to just connect with me, tell me what you’ve been experiencing, see if I can have any help or advice for you.
Another way would be to fill in some of the one-question surveys we’ve got going on right now. When you open the app, it’s going to be asking you a simple question. I’d love to hear your answer because we’re trying to get a bit of a read on our community, our people being transformed by the contents that they’re hearing. We’d love to hear what you’ve learned, and what questions you still have to see if I can help you find answers to any of those questions still. We’d love to hear if this is content that you’re hearing and exploring for the first time in your life, or maybe if you’ve explored Christianity before, and you’re just looking at it in a new way at a later point in your life.
We’re not trying to become a church community that gathers together people from other churches. We truly want to become a community of people who are exploring Christian faith for the first time, and those who are committed to helping other have that kind of experience. We’d love to know if you’ve been part of a church community before, or if maybe this is your first time being part of a church community, outside of maybe attending a wedding or a funeral. Each day in this one-week series, we’re going to have a challenge for you to take on. Like I said, we’ve got some one-question surveys going on right now, where you can answer all those questions at once in the survey that you’ll find at the bottom of today’s challenge posting.
Please, answer some questions for us. Tell us how we’re doing in developing as a community of people learning to follow Jesus, and how we can help you take the next step. Make sure you leave your email address, so we can follow up if you’d like a bit of coaching. Have a great time putting that into practice. If you are working with a group of people who are learning alongside you, maybe share with them your answers to the survey questions that we’ve put at the bottom of today’s post. Well, have a great discussion. Don’t forget, we’re reading the Bible in sync as a community. The way to really get connected in our community would be to take our parenting course that we’re offering just at the end of April.
It’s going to be held at the Ajax Public Library, and costs just $50. It includes a delicious dinner each night for five weeks. You can find more information in the live event listings in the app or website. I hope to see you there. Bye for now.
