Mo’ Money

25 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in giving, missions, Missions Sunday, money

Last week I wrote about the amazing power of God to work in people’s hearts as it related to our Missions Sunday contribution. Yesterday I learned that more money had come in and the total contribution is over $165,000. Phenomenal.

What would I do if I won the lotto? (Maybe the question should be what would I do if I bought a ticket and then won the lotto…so I might go buy one when I finish this post). What a great question and one that I agree with what many others have said that the answers would reveal much about my heart.

By the way, I do have answers but I won’t reveal them here. I still have some heart work to do.

Grace and peace to you.var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

#powerofGod

10 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in #powerofGod, missions, Missions Sunday, Son, teenager

≈ 1 Comment

It’s a hashtag I used on some of my tweets on Sunday because the power of God and how he uses people began to overwhelm me. var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

My friend Rick said some powerful things about grief in class today. More on that another day.

My church family gave over $161,000 for our special mission offering. More on that in a few lines.

Rich Little, a visiting preacher, spoke some powerful words about the power of God to use people. More on that another day too.

Here’s the power of God story for today. I may have shared some of this before – too tired to go back and look right now. Anyhoo…

Several months ago a teenage boy asked me how we came up with our budget for Missions Sunday. Normally it’s around $25-30,000 because that’s what we have “felt” like we could muster and be “successful”. (Notice the words in parenthesis? Those are human concepts.) The teenager asked me why we didn’t set it at $100,000 and see what happened. I didn’t say much at the time but the question wouldn’t leave my mind. He later told me he had heard the question from another adult in a youth class but the question didn’t leave him either. The question and the amount stayed with me until the Sunday when we were setting our missions contribution goal and I told our committee the story and the question. Guess what? We set our goal at $100,000. We have prayed and we have answered questions and we have responded that we couldn’t reach that amount with anything we could reason, it would be a God-thing.

On a weekend where we had seen the first good rain in a long, long time, water wasn’t the only thing that poured down from the heavens. The Spirit of God was at work and our congregation gave $161,000 – over 3 times what we’ve ever given on Missions Sunday and well over 10 times our normal weekly contribution.

I told the teenager and I told members of our youth group that they will never know the power they have to affect generations with the Gospel of Christ. The boy hearing the question and asking the question turned a thought into real dollars and lots of them that will be used to take the Good News around the world and to possibly affect members of families for time eternal. A simple question.

God takes a simple question asked with good intentions and turns it into something no one was prepared for. I stood in a room of men, many with tears in their eyes, as they looked at the numbers on the adding machine because God uses us when we might not expect, might not even know it. It sure makes me want to be open and ready for whatever God has in store because it’s something greater than I’ll come up with on my own.

#powerofGod

Grace and peace to you.

It Ain’t Easy

07 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by Seeking Peace in Blogging, discipline, missions, pain

≈ Leave a comment

Blogging can be a very difficult hobby. I have been working on two posts and I cannot complete either of them because of the difficulty of the subjects I want to tackle. I have much to say but seem to be inept in putting it in a succinct thought process that can be read in day, much less minutes. It makes me want to scream. That said, I’ll just ramble for a moment and hope the words come to me for these other posts. I’m sure I will get some feedback in various forms if and when I can get them up.

We have a group of 35 from our church headed to Ecuador this Friday. I wish I was going but it didn’t work out this year so I will ask you to join me in praying for them and the work they will be doing with a home for orphans. You can learn more about it at hohministries.com.

I have a friend who has a parent dying from cancer. It was heart-wrenching talking to him the other day. My heart is heavy for the ordeal that is before them and I pray that God gives them all peace that goes beyond understanding.

Last week, I heard one of our youth talk to the rest of the group about how fast you can find yourself in trouble. He knows from experience. His talk got me thinking about Hebrews 12 again and how disciple allows us to grow. It’s not what anyone wants but it can be very beneficial. This from Hebrews 12…⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Here’s to the hope that our joy in the Lord will be bountiful and our discipline short-lived.

Grace and peace to you.