Text Box: receiving offerings from you. God does not and has never needed your money. He desires to be in relationship with you. Many people put a relationship with their wealth ahead of their relationship with God. This distresses God. God is a jealous god. The thought of being anything but first in your heart is not acceptable to God. You see, anything else, including wealth, will eventually harm us, leading us down the path of sin. By having God first in our lives as the most important relationship, as our first love, we can have eternal life. Anything else will only lead us to eternal death, an eternal separation from God.

Text Box: How would it make you feel if someone was watching how much you gave every time you gave an offering? How would it make you feel if someone could read your thoughts as you reasoned, not only how much to give, but whether to give at all? God is able to do these things. In fact, He even knows what attitude you have about giving an offering every time an opportunity comes to you. This realization may be startling to some and possibly frightening to others. God is watching your giving. If your understanding of God is skewed, you might think of God as a vengeful god, looking for opportunities to punish you for not being perfect.

Text Box: You may think that He is looking over your shoulder and into your heart and that this intrusion is so that He can judge you. Therefore, if you do not give when and what amount you are supposed to, you may believe that He will punish you. This is a wrong perception of God. This is a perception that comes from the devil and is more indicative of how the devil looks at you. This perception of intrusion and desire to harm you is a portrait of the Evil One’s hatred of you. Rather, God is watching your practice of giving offerings because He is looking for your love. God is looking for you to express your love for Him because love is His purpose in

God Watches Our Giving

by Pastor Dave Bassett

Text Box: Building God’s Kingdom Together, Inc.

January 5, 2008—Issue #1

Special points of interest:

· God Watches Our Giving

by Pastor Dave Bassett

· Spiritual Resolutions

by Judy Bassett

· So, What’s Next?

by Pastor Dave Bassett

Rev. Dave Bassett is the pastor of Rosewood Lane Church of the Nazarene. Click the link to see the church’s website at
http://www.nazarene.ch/RosewoodLane
for info on the Rosewood Lane Church in Layton, Utah.
We would love to have you visit our church!

Text Box: Spiritual Resolutions—
Change for the New Year!

Hopefully you have noticed that we have changed our format a little. It’s a new year, and time for some changes.

Did you notice the lighthouse at the top of the page? I hope that in future issues, when you see a lighthouse there, you will remember to be a light to a lost and dying world. They need Christ and how will they know if we don’t tell them?

There are also several intersecting circles in the heading of this first page. I hope that when you see these intersecting circles, you will think about how your life intersects with others as you go through your day. Who did God give you the opportunity to talk to today? Did you tell them about Christ? I hope so!

What changes are you making in your life. Have you made some New Year’s resolutions that you are hoping will change your life for the better during 2008? Do your New Year’s resolutions include anything of a spiritual nature? We often resolve to change our life patterns—maybe by dieting, or trying to stop some lingering bad habit. Those are good resolutions to make, if we keep them.

Today is the 4th of January. How many of you have already broken your New Year’s resolutions? It is hard to pledge to make a change, and stick to it! How many of you have resolved to make a spiritual change? I believe that the kind of change that really matters in a person’s life are those that make a difference in the Kingdom of God! All the other things will fall into place if we resolve to be more like Christ!

[continued on Page 2]