This weekend was one of great discussion of how to give our money to the work of the LORD. It has been our practice to tithe for many years to the church that we have regularly attended. But now that the LORD has been using us in a different way for His kingdom, we don't have a "home church" right now. I do not know if this will change or not. We are waiting on the LORD to guide us and direct us in the way we should go.
So we visited a church that recently had an addition built on for the youth and new offices, it is beautiful. NICE space. We were told this building was done so more ministry could be done.
This brought up quite a discussion, how much is the American Church foolishly using God's resources? I thought it was comparable to the desire that Israel had for a king. God wanted to be their king, but they wanted a human king, so he let them have one. I wonder if all these building projects are really just our flesh wanting to be more comfortable. I brought this question up for discussion and it kinda ended like this in my mind.
We have not really search and asked what it is that God's heart wants, we continue to ask Him to bless the things we think we need and want. Now I personally can not and should not pretend to know what God has or has not said to the people that are His, if he did in fact tell them to build or not. But one thing I have seen in common with some of these large projects is that the burden, the financial burden is put upon the people in the congregation. I have in fact visited several churches that this is the case. The have a beautiful facility (that oftentimes is not full) and the pastor is preaching (almost every Sunday) about how we need to give give give. This is what happened when the king was given to Israel, he taxed the people, took there children, their resources, etc. So......i have seen other congregations that have not built a beautiful new building, but the bills are paid the facility is kept up and the ministry continues, no matter how many people are in attendance. hmmmmmmmmmmm...well i do question all these building projects if they are in fact more about what we want then what God wants. God is not so concerned with shelter if you really read the word. He placed Adam and Eve in a garden, Jesus himself spent most of his time outside, in a garden sometimes and walking around. he preached on a mountain side, from a boat sitting on the water, prayed in a garden before his death on the cross. Went into the wilderness to be tested. I think God is pretty consistent on what he considers our necessity, food and clothing. So we came to a place of considering who is providing food and clothing to the poor, who is preaching to the poor, for free, and decided to support these works with our tithes. We will still go to these churches to fellowship and worship, but to use the beautiful facilities we will pay to attend. Just like any other man made venture, you pay for what you get. I hope this will further the gospel in ways that we can not imagine, and help us to realize that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts, and may HE give me Ears to hear what that still small voice is saying to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment