Friday
Jan272012
Celebrating Uncommon Lives
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 2:39PM
Here's a great guest post by one of the Uncommon Church Core Team members. I love seeing God stories in these very early days of launching the church. I wanted to take some time and celebrate what God is already doing!
2 Cointhians 9:7 "I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving." MSG
We know what the Bible says about tithing. We've been taught the principle of tithing in church, we know it is a non-negotiable. But somewhere along the way, we made every excuse in the world not to tithe. Then we went through a season of extreme burn-out with church and decided to stay home on Sundays for a couple of years. Honestly, we did not even think of tithing. When we decided to finally re-engage and look for a church, it was the first thing we dreaded. Tithing! Suddenly we find ourselves with an opportunity to join the core team of Uncommon Church. Uh oh!
As my husband and I discussed joining the group and investing our time and family into this incredible journey with Uncommon, we knew tithing was a must. It was a no-brainer! Scary? Yes. Especially since we had not been living in obedience with our finances over the last couple of years. But we knew it was time to FULLY obey what God's word instructs. We sat down last Sunday and wrote every single bill out and what was owed. At the top of the list, my husband wrote "tithe" and the amount (10% of his check). We both agreed that on the next payday, the tithe would come out first. We had to wait for the payday! But there was such joy and relief in just making the decision.
The next day my husband went to work and his boss pulled him aside. He said this. "I just want to tell you that I am working on a way to get you more money. I see the work you do and I don't want to lose you. I am doing everything I can to get you more. You deserve it." As my husband explained the conversation, he said something that really stood out. "When he pulled me aside, I was shocked. This came out of nowhere!"
No!! It did not come from "out of nowhere"! Isn't it amazing how personal our Father is? He longs to meet us right where we are at. He knows we have a growing family, a house we've outgrown and the nervousness we feel when buying groceries each week for our large family. He knew it would be hard to send that first initial tithe. He even knew we needed some motivation. You see, all we did was "decide" to tithe and the Lord began to bless us. We "decided" to obey. Sometimes just making the choice to do something is the first part of obedience.
Yesterday...we acted on our decision. We obeyed. And we did it without reluctance or fear. We gave cheerfully! Obeying the Father brings relief, peace and undeniable JOY.
2 Cointhians 9:7 "I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving." MSG
We know what the Bible says about tithing. We've been taught the principle of tithing in church, we know it is a non-negotiable. But somewhere along the way, we made every excuse in the world not to tithe. Then we went through a season of extreme burn-out with church and decided to stay home on Sundays for a couple of years. Honestly, we did not even think of tithing. When we decided to finally re-engage and look for a church, it was the first thing we dreaded. Tithing! Suddenly we find ourselves with an opportunity to join the core team of Uncommon Church. Uh oh!
As my husband and I discussed joining the group and investing our time and family into this incredible journey with Uncommon, we knew tithing was a must. It was a no-brainer! Scary? Yes. Especially since we had not been living in obedience with our finances over the last couple of years. But we knew it was time to FULLY obey what God's word instructs. We sat down last Sunday and wrote every single bill out and what was owed. At the top of the list, my husband wrote "tithe" and the amount (10% of his check). We both agreed that on the next payday, the tithe would come out first. We had to wait for the payday! But there was such joy and relief in just making the decision.
The next day my husband went to work and his boss pulled him aside. He said this. "I just want to tell you that I am working on a way to get you more money. I see the work you do and I don't want to lose you. I am doing everything I can to get you more. You deserve it." As my husband explained the conversation, he said something that really stood out. "When he pulled me aside, I was shocked. This came out of nowhere!"
No!! It did not come from "out of nowhere"! Isn't it amazing how personal our Father is? He longs to meet us right where we are at. He knows we have a growing family, a house we've outgrown and the nervousness we feel when buying groceries each week for our large family. He knew it would be hard to send that first initial tithe. He even knew we needed some motivation. You see, all we did was "decide" to tithe and the Lord began to bless us. We "decided" to obey. Sometimes just making the choice to do something is the first part of obedience.
Yesterday...we acted on our decision. We obeyed. And we did it without reluctance or fear. We gave cheerfully! Obeying the Father brings relief, peace and undeniable JOY.
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