There is a huge difference between Old Testament giving and New Testament giving, and I am so excited to share it with you today. I am going to be giving you a little bit of history and some scripture, but hang in there with me. Because when the light comes on in your Spirit, it is going to change the way you look at giving. The difference between Old and New Testament giving really comes down to a matter of covenants. I don’t know if you have ever heard of covenants before, but basically it is a contract with terms …
Giving Can Be Fun?
My husband and I were members of a church a few years ago when they began their building program (Can I hear a collective groan? Truly there is nothing worse than a church with a building program. New facilities are nice, but it just seems to suck all the joy and life out or the people… and then what is the point?) We hung in there at the church for as long as we could, but each week they got progressively more and more abusive in their attitude towards giving to the building program. They brought in every hard line …
Thank You Dad!
I just have to stop before I write any more on giving and thank my Dad. I was really struggling with the direction to start from and so he sat down with me last night… and WOW. I seriously wish all of you had my Dad at your disposal! He just gave me so much wisdom and insight into the topic of giving. So, as much of what I am going to be sharing is just fruit from that conversation, I just wanted to say Thank you Dad!! And also, to everyone else, please check out my parents ministry website …
Finding the Joy in Giving
Why do we give? Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” but do we really believe that or is our faith more in our fear that we will be cursed if we don’t give? If giving is nothing more than a category in your budget, if it has become just a check mark on your financial TO DO list, and if you have just been giving out of a sense of obligation and compulsion, then you have been missing out on a huge part of God’s heart for you in your finance. I know there is …
Not Quite Ready…
Well, as you might have noticed, I didn’t blog all weekend. And I didn’t even blog to tell you I wasn’t blogging. Even this morning, I have written a blog, but to tell you the truth, I am just not ready to post it. So I am writing to tell you why I am not writing. I have been really grappling for the last week and particularly this weekend with the subject of giving. It is so in my heart to write about, but there is so much to say and I am really struggling with where to start. So …
The Bug of Desire
What do you do when the bug of desire bites you? You are going along well. You have your budget in place. You are saving money and living within your means. You have a plan for your credit card debt. And then they have to go and release the new iPhone! Desire hits, budgeting all of a sudden feels mean and restrictive, and who cares about debt… there is a credit card with your name on it! The iPhone could be yours! No, do not go out and buy an iPhone and tell your wife I told you to do …
Squeezing the Last Drop
Squeezing the last drops out of your budget… that’s how it feels sometimes when you are trying to fit something else into a budget that feels overloaded already. I mentioned the other day that I would love to get to have someone to clean my house once a month. My friend Amy does this and it has been a huge success for her. She cleans her house every week, but once a month it gets a good deep clean. I think the good “deep clean” has been missing from my life recently. My little kiddos just keep me running and …
A Refuge in the Storm
So no blog today, just a word from my “quiet” time (quiet is relative in my home 🙂 ). Psalm 46 says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and the though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst …
A Wonderful Gift
I was given the most wonderful gift today. My darling Mom payed for me to have a house cleaning lady come and clean my home. So first thing this morning Matt and I loaded up the kids, the cleaners arrived and I left my home to be cleaned… by someone else!! But better than leaving was coming home. We arrived home before they were finished so we spent a little bit playing out in the front yard. At one point one of the ladies (there were three) came out to empty the trashes and this wonderful fragrance of clean filled …
Frugality or Fear
I read a fascinating article today on MSN.com about how there is a huge shift in the spending patterns of Americans due to the weakness of the economy. More and more Americans are budgeting (yea!), they are clipping coupons, watching their spending and buying more economical cars. Experts are saying this is the biggest shift in buying trends since the 1970’s and the Depression after WWI. I found the whole article fascinating because I just started clipping coupons and bargain hunting for my groceries. I have been doing it for about six months now and I have cut my monthly …