Text Box: In life it is never enough to just show up. In parenting it is not enough to just show up for our kids. We need to be there, active in their lives. We need to pour out our life to best serve our kids through parenting. The same is true of offerings. Jesus saw many rich people just show up with an offering. They were giving an amount they were choosing. Their choice was not based on a sold out, Kingdom committed attitude. That’s not to say that they did not love God. Many, if not all of them did love Him. But the degree they loved Him fell short of what God truly wanted. God is not concerned simply if we give. He is concerned with how much we give. Are we giving as if we trust Him to provide or do we give trusting in ourselves to care for our own needs? If we are trusting in any measure at all in ourselves then we are never truly trusting in Him. God wants us to trust completely and totally in Him. If we are truly a part of His Kingdom then there must be the total trust and dependence on Him.

Text Box: We must have the attitude and practice that everything that we have or own is truly not our own. We are merely stewards of what belongs to Him. Because God is omniscient, all-knowing, He is fully aware of our attitudes. He knows if we are holding back or relying on our own abilities in any way. His highest and greatest plan is for you to have absolutely no reliance on your own resources or capabilities. Instead He desires to be your sole provider. He loves you so much that He wants to be everything that you need and desire. Did you notice in the story of the widow at the Temple that Jesus knew that she had nothing left? In fact, He knew what everyone had left after they placed their offerings in the receptacles. We can learn from this that God knows what we have left after we give our offering to Him. God discerns how much we are willing to depend on Him. When He encourages or challenges us to give for an offering He is fully aware of how much we will have left.

Text Box: But we can be completely assured that He is willing to make whatever we have left be enough to meet our needs. God is never trying to make you feel stressed trying to make ends meet. God’s desire is that you trust Him to supply all of your needs. God rarely asks any of us to give all the money that we have, just as the widow did. There are times that He actually asks us to give what might seem like a very little bit to us. We see or are presented a need that seems so important and takes so very much money to achieve that we can not see how the little bit God is leading us to give will make any difference. What we must remember is that little is much when God is in it. While we measure our lives in terms of dollars and cents, God is measuring our lives by how much faith in Him we have. The Kingdom of God will not be built by money. The Kingdom of God will be built by faith in Him. We are not talking about a casual faith, but a faith that is life changing. It takes a faith that says that one will completely trust and love God, obediently carrying out everything and anything He may ask.

God Knows Our Financial Situation

by Pastor Dave Bassett

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Text Box: Pastor Dave’s book “Have I Got A Secret For You!” is available for purchase at a Christian bookstore near you, as well as on our website. Click here for more details.

Do You Check Out The Return Address?
by Judy Bassett

Today I received a package. The first thing I looked at was who sent it. Do you do that? When you receive something in the mail, are you excited, or maybe curious to see who sent you something? Even if I am expecting something to be delivered, before I actually open the box, I look at the return address.

Do we do the same thing when we receive something spiritual? When we feel that God is speaking to us, do we stop and think about whether it is really God that is sending us something, or is it of some other origin? Do we get excited, or maybe curious to see what God is telling us?

God often speaks to us in that still, small voice. An impression, or a thought of something we should do. When this happens to me, I ask myself “Is what I’m being impressed to do or say Biblical? What would Jesus do?”

If these things “check out”, then my thought is that it is from the Lord and I better do whatever it is He is asking me to do. I guess this is kind of like looking at the return address on a package I receive. If God is telling me to speak to someone or do something for someone, then I will be held accountable for whether I obey Him or not. I think I will listen more closely, and obey more fully! How about you?

Happy Leap Year!
What are you doing today?