A series of articles tracking our dependence on God through The Story.
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Why do churches “call” a Pastor, but “hire” his secretary?
(I don’t know whether that is always true, but it has been in my experience.)
I suspect that a more fundamental question focuses on the nature of the relationship of a Pastor to the congregation. Is he their shepherd or a member of their staff? Their leader or their employee?
Based on most of the various designations for him, he seems to be the leader. Pastor, Shepherd, …
As we prepare to move to the third item on God’s agenda for our finances – Funding Ministry – it’s time to consider another question:
What is the relationship of a Pastor to the congregation? Is he their shepherd or a member of their staff? Their leader or their employee? Can he be both?
What passages come to mind as you think of this question?
Check out 1 Corinthians 9:1-18; Philippians 4:10-20; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; Galatians 6:6-10. How …
Exploring Dependence – Tithing
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By the time I had been out of Bible College 5 years, I had begun to suspect that my beliefs about giving to God were unsustainable.
As I mentioned in last week’s post, those beliefs could be summarized with the following statement:
“You ‘pay’ your tithe. You don’t ‘give’ it. You can’t give what you owe. And you ‘owe’ God your tithe. So, ‘giving’ must be above the ten percent you ‘owe’ Him. …
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“You ‘pay’ your tithe. You don’t ‘give’ it. You can’t give what you owe. And you ‘owe’ God your tithe. So, ‘giving’ must be above the ten percent you ‘owe’ Him. And this giving (above ten percent) is an expression of your faith. So, if your faith is going to grow each year, the percentage of your income that you give each year must grow as well.”
For many years, the churches we attended held …
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My Junior English class has to rank up there as one of the more memorable experiences of my high school career. Not because I learned a lot, but because we had so much fun in the class. And not because the teacher made it fun, but because she seemed oblivious to our frequent parties – complete with drinks and food – in the back of the room.
And, that lighthearted attitude sometimes carried over into …
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“Sixteen out of Christ’s 38 parables deal with money; more is said in the New Testament about money than heaven and hell combined; five times more is said about money than prayer; and while there are 500 plus verses on both prayer and faith, there are over 2000 verses dealing with money and possessions. Obviously, the Bible has much to say about money management.”
I don’t know how many times I have heard some version …
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Having looked at the priority of providing for our personal needs, and the importance of finding contentment in our relationship with God, we are ready to talk about what God would have us do with the money that is left after our personal needs are covered.
Once again, I would like to pause, and post a question for your consideration. And while it’s fine if you just want to ponder the question on your own, …
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I’ve always loved tools – anything that enables me to accomplish things better. I don’t believe you can have too many knives, flashlights, watches or power tools. People that know me today know that chances are good that I’ll have any woodworking tool they might need.
In the summer of ’82, that collection was in its infancy. Kasie and I had just started making payments on our first “home”. It was the 14′ by 80′ …
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In our exploration of our dependence, we have discovered that everything we possess has been entrusted to us by God. Implicit in such a trust is the expectation that all of these things will be used for God’s intended purpose.
Which raises the question of how God intends for us to use them.
I have suggested that there are at least four main items on this agenda.
Provide for my needs, and those of my family
Provide for …
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If you have been following these articles for a while, you may have noticed that, in recent months, I have found it challenging to produce an article every week.
There are two driving values that I am striving to balance.
On the one hand, I know that some readers look forward to Tuesday morning, when the RSS feed delivers the article to your email inbox. The discussions of God’s truth are an important part of your …
