thougths from somebody way smarter than me

i know, i know, i've been writing about money a lot lately. HERE's one post in case you missed it.

but these thoughts about money aren't my own. these are just some of my fav from Andy Stanley's book Fields of Gold. you should definitely go get it and read it. you can even borrow it from me if you want.

enjoy...

“Any fear associated with giving to God’s kingdom is irrational. It’s on par with a farmer who, out of fear of losing his seed, refuses to plant his fields.”

American Christians give less today to the church than we did during the Great Depression! 

[WHAT!? holy crap. that's crazy. how is that even possible?]

**The thing to fear isn’t giving away too much, but giving too little.
[yep.] 

“If you truly believe everything belongs to God, then you have nothing to fear after all. And if God is the source of all wealth and He controls the comings and goings of your money, then there’s no reason not to give.”

[just think about that for a minute]

“So whenever God blesses us with more than we need, we see it as an opportunity to insure our future or to guarantee our next meal, while all along, God meant it as an opportunity for us to give more.”

i love this phrase that Andy uses = "FEARLESS giving." i like it.

*Andy thinks the amount of money entrusted to you in your life often depends on how well you steward what you have. i agree in principle.

“I’m afraid to sow my seed because then I won’t have the seed anymore.” = insane

“This is powerful news for anyone who’s afraid to give because of financial insecurity. It suggests that the wisest move we could make financially is to begin sowing our financial seed. When we do, God gets involved in our finances. And that’s the most financially secure place we could be.”

Andy asks an AWESOME Question – “why in the world would God drain you of your resources and then not replenish them to accomplish what He’s committed to doing?”

while reading this book i was inspired to do something i hadn't done very often = PRAY and ask God to be involved in our finances!

this is SO SIMPLE! God doesn’t give us a % or amount to give. No pressure. Just “not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

God eliminates giving reactively or out of guilt. In other words, if that’s how you feel about giving, God says, “That’s OK, you just keep it. I’ll use somebody else’s.”

AWESOME = just so nobody can possibly pressure you into it!

great little book. i hope you enjoyed the highlights.

money money money

i think (& Scripture teaches pretty plainly) God likes to fund His mission through people.

He doesn't have to, but that's the way He works it.

He blesses people with the money that He gives to them SO THAT they will be a blessing & bless others with that same money. so that they will be a blessing by funding God's mission in the world with that money He blessed them with.
then He blesses them with even more money. and so they give away more. and then God blesses them with more. and they give away more. etc... etc...
this all seems pretty straight forward to me.

i'm not a fan of the prosperity gospel. in fact i'm the opposite of a fan. whatever that is. i think it's not the gospel. i've made my thougths about that pretty clear before & i echo THIS on that topic.
but i realize that what i'm saying here & what the Bible teaches throughout borders on the line of "prosperity gospel".

i'm saying & i believe that Scripture teaches that God blesses me based on how i give. God blesses me with money in proportion to how i bless others with the previous money He blessed me with.

and i know the televangelists & prosperity gospel peeps may sound eerily similar as they get on TV & tell us to send them $1,000 and God promises to send them back $2,000 or something like that.

& maybe there's not a lot of difference between the 2 other than that Scripture seems to be talking to people who aren't trying to get rich off of giving back to God. it seems to be more about the motive in the heart. a desire to be a blessing. a heart like "sure, ok, You want to bless me more... then i'll just give away more." if you're giving for the purpose of getting rich... to exploit this system God has set up... i just don't know that it works that way.
pretty sure it doesn't.

but i'll be honest - i've been trying it out for a long time now - and still taking steps forward. i read God's promises about that and think "really, God? how far are you gonna go with this?" because so far the more we give, the more God backs up the dump truck of blessings and dumps more on us. you better believe that gives me the confidence and courage and faith to keep giving more and more... knowing that God promises to bless with more and more.

*but don't take my word for all this. it's a principle that God established. it's how God designed His world to work.

Paul writes about it eloquently. the context for this passage below is all about Paul talking to these peeps in Corinth about giving their money to the poor... funding God's mission in the world... blessing others with their money. as he's talking to them about giving he just wants to remind them about a principle...

⁶ "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written:

“They have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor;
    their righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

¹² This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³ Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, people will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else."

(2 Corinthians 9:6-13)

i don't think i can say it any more clearly than that.

it's as simple as SEEDS. if you have 10 seeds and plant 5 - do you have less or more than you started with? well, you have MORE of course. whatever you planted is going to grow and produce tons more of those seeds.
Paul says God designed giving & planting seeds to work the same.

wow.

obviously we don't believe that. or we would give like we planted.
how often do you see a farmer or a gardener plant 10% of his seeds and keep 90% for himself? he would be an idiot.
just sayin'

you PLANT seeds because that's what they're FOR. 
and you give away money because that's why you've been blessed with it. that's what it's FOR.

so, i just can't picture someone giving away all their money to bless others/fund God's mission & then God not blessing them with more to give away.
that's how He likes to fund His mission in the world.

everyone reading this blog is rich. no doubt. don't even argue. if you're sitting in front of a computer or phone or iPad with an internet connection reading this then you are RICH. and Paul says that the whole reason you've been made rich is "SO THAT you can be generous on every occasion!"

AND it's something that actually "accompanies your confession of the gospel." is that confession a little worthless without this generosity to accompany it?

i love the way Luke puts it:
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

i can remember my Mom and my Dad talking about this one a lot when i was a kid - they would compare it to the way you fit the most leaves into a trash bag. you can fit way more when you press it down, shake it together, etc... "you can't outgive God" they would say.

i don't think it matters how much money you have. just give. you've been blessed. bless others with it.
whether you make $100 a week or $1 million a week - be generous. give it away.

we are MESSED up when it comes to money. we are MESSED up bad.

it's good to make money. it's just dumb to keep it. who do you think God is going to bless with more money? the person blessing others/funding His mission with it or the person using it on themselves?
just sayin'.


as always, renown is a place for me to hash out some thoughts. take ideas and things in my head and actually process them. i fully recognize that i'm probly wrong about a lot of stuff. i would really like to know if i am WRONG in my thinking about this?
am i way off here?
i'm actually asking someone to point that out if i am. tell me.

(i'm not asking - do we live like we think this is true? - because NO! of course we don't. when we truly believe this we will give 90% and live on 10%.)

i'm just wondering if i'm crazy? i don't think so, but the crazy person never thinks he is.
do you feel me?
or you hatin?

what do you think?

are you cursed? (financial advice)

(I originally posted this to renown on November 4, 2009.)
 
"Those who give to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses."
 - Proverbs 28:27

dang! just read that this morning for probably the millionth time. Can't get away from it so I figured I would write about it in my journal... and now here on my online journal = the renown blog.

that is pretty intense. Pretty hard core. "give... lack nothing... many curses."

I really want to give a lot to the poor. I want to give all I have in fact. There's no sense in me having a lot when some people have nothing.

I can always give more though... and I want to keep trying to give more & more. But I will agree with God's promise in this verse = "give to the poor & lack nothing." I honestly "lack nothing."

On the other hand... "those who close their eyes to them receive many curses." whoa.
So, basically God's financial advice is this: "Give to the poor and have everything you need. Don't give to the poor and you're screwed."

*But I kept reading that sentence over and over and it's even deeper than that! this phrase grabbed me = "those who close their eyes to them"

It's not just those who don't give... it's those who actually close their eyes to the poor. And I'm like "how in the world could anybody close their eyes to the poor?" Then it hit me that this is for us today. It's an indictment of OUR culture! WE close our eyes to the poor! US. American Christians close our eyes to them all the time.

We walk past the homeless guy and look the other way. We see and hear about children dying in Africa because they don't have clean water and we just go about making our car payments! we're closing our eyes to them!

I don't really know what "many curses" looks like for us? but I'm pretty sure it's not good.

I think our ultimate motives for giving to the poor should be an unquenchable love for God and His fame and bringing His Kingdom on earth. And also loving our poor neighbors like we love ourselves. (something like the 2 greatest commands...)

BUT, even though these should be our ultimate motives, I don't think this is a half bad financial plan either!
GIVE to the poor = lack nothing
Follow the rest of our culture and close your eyes to the poor = many curses.

seems like a no brainer to me.

money, money, money

i love me some Proverbs. i read one everyday - the chapter number of whatever day of the month it is.

it's crazy how much Proverbs talks about MONEY! Last summerish as i read through each chapter in Proverbs i wrote down every single time it talks about Money! Pages and pages and pages i filled up. 1 day i'll write about all those thoughts and what it has to say.

but this morning i just read 1 chapter. 28. because today's the 28th. and in just that short little chapter it talks about money in verses 3, 6, 8, 10, 11,16, 19, 20, 22, 25, and 27. Ridiculous. Even more than that talk about money indirectly. pretty much half the chapter.

just a little sampling some of these for fun since it's fresh on my brain:

"Better is the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse." (6) 

It's better! i wanna be in that better category. i'll take being poor and blameless any day over rich & perverse.

"Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor." (8) 

Sweet. 1st lesson = never exploit, take interest from, or make profit off of the poor... hmmm... seems like most of business is pretty much the opposite. i don't wanna make people hate me but isn't this pretty much what a capitalistic society is all about... taken to it's logical conclusion? i'm just sayin'... i mean, do we just skip principles like this or something?
anyway, 2nd lesson is that all those guys who are exploiting the poor aren't even gonna get all that $ in the end! they're just saving it up for the peeps who are KIND to the poor! that's some beautiful irony.
i wanna be the 2nd guy, not the 1st.

"The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how DELUDED they are." (11) beautiful picture of our society

"A tyrannical ruler practices extortion, but one who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long reign." (16) nuff said.

"A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished." (20)

"The STINGY are eager to get rich and are unaware that poverty awaits them." (22)

all these above are so backwards & opposite, right? opposite of how we would think and opposite of how we operate. 

try this next one on for size:

"Those who give to the poor will LACK NOTHING,

but those who close their eyes to them receive many CURSES." (27)

are you kidding me? this is so opposite. we are the opposite of this verse. we do NOT give to the poor because we think that is the way to lack nothing.

and we literally "close our eyes" to the poor... and we wonder why we're "cursed".

i already wrote a whole post on this specific verse HERE so i don't want to just repeat myself. you can go read that one.

all i'm saying is that we've got it pretty backwards when it comes to money.

what are we going to do about that?

what do YOU care about?

(This was originally posted on January 29, 2009.)

I sat down to read Proverbs 29 today after stuffing myself at the Penguin with a Big Block burger & some fried pickles. (You can read my thoughts about reading Proverbs HERE.)

1 sentence STILL will not let me go & hopefully it will do the same to you:

"The righteous care about justice for the poor, BUT the wicked have no such concern." - Proverbs 29:7

Whoa. This theme runs throughout Scripture. You can pretty much separate righteous people from wicked people based on their relationship to the poor (sounds like a story Jesus told in Matthew 25). Pretty crystal clear. plain and simple.

So, what do you care about? Justice for the poor? Or do you have "NO SUCH CONCERN"???

really?

i pulled up behind this guy here in Charlotte the other day.

all i could think was REALLY?

i don't even want to say much about this. i'm not saying it's bad to have nice stuff. i'm not saying it's bad to drive around in this Maserati.

But is it even POSSIBLE to have money to BLOW? i can't imagine a scenario in which anyone would have money to blow on a Maserati. i'm just sayin'.
As long as thousands of children are still dying every day because they don't even have water to drink... i'm pretty sure it's not cool to blow money on a Maserati.

if i ever have "money to blow" on a Maserati, i can think of about a million things i would "blow" it on 1st.
just to name a few:
starting churches, helping my church, orphans, widows, building orphanages, building hospitals, CLEAN WATER, feeding the hungry, helping the sick, helping missionaries, lifting the poor out of poverty, BLESSING OTHERS, i don't know - maybe i would buy cars for single moms who don't even have 1 car before buying an extra car that could buy 250 regular cars... etc... etc... etc...

saddest summary of a life

“The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” – Mike Foster  

i am NOT gonna let that be me. God willing. with all the control i have over it that will NOT be the summary of my life.

it might be = "did a lot of stupid stuff, took too many risks, and died poor." but that's cool with me.

the former summary is not cool with me at all.

open arms

Yesterday in Proverbs was chapter 31 for me.
it's basically talking about the things that an awesome wife does. Every time i read this chapter many things describe my wife and make me thankful for her. but 1 thought, especially, came alive to me loud and clear yesterday.

"She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy."

- Proverbs 31:20

wow. that hit home. that's an awesome thing i love about my wife. i got to see her do it big time when we were in Kenya. i wrote about how beautiful that was to me HERE.

it's awesome how generous, giving, and "open armed" she is. even yesterday we were talking about an opportunity to serve kids who are poor - many orphans... it would be basically impossible for us to do but she was like "i want to do it."
still impossible but it makes me smile to have a wife like this.

outback or bologna sandwiches? (repost)

(This is a repost from Saturday, May 22, 2008.)

Peter is the young boy that Crystal and I have the awesome privilege to support through Compassion International. Make sure you go read a little more about Peter & Compassion here. That's where I wrote about him on one of my very 1st blogs.

He's our "adopted orphan" - the only kind we can afford for now. We'd love to "really" adopt an orphan in Africa one day, but for now we send support to him each month and Compassion makes sure he has plenty of food, clean water, health care, education, AIDS prevention and help for his brothers & sisters, a place to sleep, and they also make sure he hears the amazing stories about Jesus.

So, I went to the mailbox this past weekend and pulled out a letter from Peter. (He writes to us every 2-3 months.) It's always really exciting when we get a letter from him. I was stoked, but I had to wait on Crystal to get back because we always read them together. As soon as we opened it we could tell that he wrote it himself! This is the 1st letter from him that he actually wrote with his own hands. He is only 5, so a translator had to write it for him up until now! Looks like that $ is paying off as he has already learned to write REALLY well! Really well for a 5 year old anyway as there were a few backwards letters and misspellings, but not too bad. I thought I would share some of the letter with you guys:

How are you. I hope you are fine. I am also doing great because of the Lord. How was your Easter? Mine was great. I went to church and learnt about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thank you very much for your continued support and the gift you sent to me. I bought a goat worth 972 kshs and 50 kilos of maize worth 500 kshs.

Please pray for me that may do well in my studies. Is there any special prayer you would like me to pray for you? Bye til next time.

Love, Peter

Oh man, totally jacked me up a little when I read that. Definitely choked up a little. Pumped that he learned the coolest story ever - Jesus dying and coming back to life for us.

And then I read the next part. Crystal and I sent him a little extra $ for a Christmas gift. I think it was only like $50. We figured he could buy like a soccer ball and some toys or something. NOPE, he bought a GOAT! I read that and I just busted out laughing!!! So, I guess we got Peter a goat & some maize for Christmas. Actually I had some goat & maize together for a meal when I was in Africa. It's not bad when you're really hungry. Any of you ever got a goat for Christmas?It's just really funny to me.

Anyway, reading that letter makes it worth it all right there guys. When I think about there being 30,000 children dying every day from poverty, disease, and unclean water - it's crazy. But when I realize that for a little bit of my $ every month, Peter won't have to worry about it... what's a little bit of extra $? What's $40 a month going to do for me? 1 extra night out at a restaurant. But for Peter it guarantees he doesn't become a statistic! It gives him clean water, food, an education, medical care, etc... And it guarantees that he gets to be loved by a community of believers near his village who tell him the greatest stories ever told! His life is absolutely changed because of that money.

So, what do you think is more worth it? The night out at Outback or Peter? Get with it & sponsor a child! Go to compassion.com right now and make Jesus really happy.

As for me, I'm cool with the bologna sandwich for almost free at my house.

welcome to Erick's world (video)

Erick is a boy who lives in a small village in Kenya that the kids in Upstreet at Ridge Church sponsor through Compassion International. It has been an AWESOME thing for them for the past couple years!
When Crystal and i were in Kenya a few months ago we got to actually meet Erick that these kids have been supporting and writing letters back and forth with for years! i wrote about that experience HERE.

now you can check out this video we showed at Ridge on Sunday!


Eric Movie from Ridge Church on Vimeo.

ale

This past week i read a pretty cool story about C.S. Lewis. i thought some of you might like it:

One day, Lewis and a friend were walking down the road and came upon a street person who reached out to them for help. While his friend kept walking, Lewis stopped and proceeded to empty his wallet.

When they resumed their journey, his friend asked, "What are you doing giving him your money like that? Don’t you know he’s just going to go squander all that on ale?"

Lewis paused and replied, "That’s all I was going to do with it."

i don't know, but maybe the next time a guy on the street asks me for money i'll think for a second about what i am gonna spend it on.
(Plus, i think we should go back to calling it "ale".)

limitless generosity

i LOVE that phrase - "limitless generosity". i think it's beautiful. i just read it from Brennan Manning. not sure if he coined it or got it from somebody else? don't care... it's mine now and it's how i want to live.

when i read the proverbs it feels like "limitless generosity". it feels like that's what we're called to + it's just that generosity is limitlessly talked about!

just 2 days ago i wrote some thoughts on "backwards" or "opposite" generosity in Proverbs. you can read that HERE and now today i'm struck with this from Proverbs 14.

"Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God." (14:31)

just another blunt reminder in proverbs.

what would it even mean if i could live with limitless generosity?

opposite of what you think

Yesterday morning for me meant chapter 11 in Proverbs and there were a few awesome thoughts that flowed together. SO awesome that i thought i would share them with you...

"One person gives freely, yet gains even more;  another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty."(11:24)

This one is what i like to call a "Backwards Proverb". it's like it's trying to be ironic or something. it seems backwards. we would naturally think that whoever gives freely would come to poverty and the person who gives least or "withholds unduly" would have the most... right?

but again and again God flips common sense and logic on its head. it's the opposite. it's backwards.

i desperately want to be the guy who gives freely. i just want to be that kind of person. 2 open hands. i never ever ever want to withhold anything unduly. 

hopefully we're all becoming this way. if we all follow this simple advice - think about it - our world will be a radically different place! it would be ludicrous to think there would ever be any need. children wouldn't be hungry. not many people would die because of preventable stuff... because we would be giving freely to prevent it.

Then the very next verse goes on to back up this "opposite" kind of idea from verse 24:

"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed." (11:25)

i love that word "refreshed" and the idea it expresses. when you are generous and you give, don't you just feel refreshed? you feel better than at pretty much any other time. why wouldn't we follow this advice? we'd have to be crazy...

"Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." (11:28)

i think it's interesting how the author pits "those who trust in their riches" and "the righteous" as opposites. very interesting.

so - don't trust in your riches! or you'll fall flat on your face. reminds me of this.

the "thrive like a green leaf" wording doesn't really connect with me... sorry, Solomon. i guess you had to be there?  or think about green leaves more often.

but, i don't need any more convincing. i'm never going to trust in riches. that'd be crazy.

don't you think?