OnFire #125 - Ten Thousand Percent Return

Hi folks:

Two upcoming news items for this week. First, Jan has a birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday!!

The other news is our elected officials appreciation service coming up on Sunday. Please keep this in your prayers, that this would be the spiritual shot in the arm that we hope it will be.

Blessings for your week.

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One of the real testing points we experience is about money. It is, after all, a very tangible area of our needs. We need money for, well, just about everything. There is the saying that “money can’t buy happiness,” but it still remains for most of us a symbol of our needs, desires, and ambitions.

I once was invited to attend a network marketing presentation - Amway. The woman asked what I wanted out of life. She then made the link between my goals and the money it would take to accomplish them. Her solution was to make money by selling for her. I turned it down.

I’m thinking about money as I read Mark 10:25ff. That’s the interesting passage where Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:25).

I’ve never had to worry about this problem, but it raises other issues about money and faith. The following exchange (Mark 10:26-27) leads Peter to state, “We have left everything to follow you.” (Mark 10:28)*

As Jesus answers Peter, he has sowing on his mind. In the same way that a farmer sows seed to gain a greater yield on his produce, we gain a greater heavenly yield by what we are willing to give up for Jesus. “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.” (Mark 10:29-30)

As I write, my relatives on PEI are harvesting their potato crop. One potato will either feed one person, or it can be cut up and planted to produce a yield many times over.

Our money (even our time and resources) is the same. We can use it for ourselves, or we can trust God and use it to sow spiritual seed which will yield many times over in the kingdom of God.. This is the part that takes faith, because so many of my goals take money. Even the good goals. If I give some of it away, I have to wonder whether I will have enough to reach them.

When Jan and I got married, we decided to tithe our income. It wasn’t much money but it represented a lot to a couple of young students who counted every penny. It was the best financial decision we have ever made. That was over 17 years ago, and we can honestly say that we have never gone without. In fact, I could give you some pretty neat examples of how God has provided.

I wouldn’t normally talk about our finances, and I don’t like to trumpet my giving. I would never want you to think I want to be applauded for this. Not so.

Rather, I’m writing to encourage you. I’ve always tried to make OnFire a kind of  “C’mon - let’s do this together” kind of thing. If you hear that we give and survive, maybe you’ll be encouraged to do the same. If we can do it, then perhaps you can, too.

I hope this helps. Be OnFire.

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. To be added to or removed from the ON FIRE list contact him at onfire@eastlink.ca . Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com This letter published Oct 23, 2007. *All scripture references from the New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978 by the International Bible Society