This post comes a little late in the week, but it still fits with last weeks message and the series’ general theme we have going on. Lat week in worship I talked about the way that my mentality of giving to the church has changed. I have come to know that God blesses us each in unique ways and many times these blessings come in unexpected ways.
One of my first memories I remember thinking seriously about giving to the church was spurred by a Sunday school teaching assistant that came to our class a couple of times when i was in high school. She once told the class about her encounter of giving and why she gave to the church. Her story was that she put in her last $10 in the collection one day. Then, later that week she found $20 in an old pair of jeans and when her car ran out of gas someone helped her out and filled her tank for free.
Well as someone who was saving up for the new Metallica album at the time, what do you think I did the next week? Threw in 6.38, a button and some pocket lent. Then I waited for my reward. Guess what happened next!!! Hope above hope Metallica came to my school that next week and I got to sing on stage with them…. NO, not really. Actually nothing happened.
Now I am sure God was at work in my life that week. But God is not a cosmic slot machine that pays out every time we put something into the plate. Otherwise there would be way more people in Church, and diversifying a portfolio would mean going to a number of different churches and spreading out the risk and seeing which one pays off. Now I hope you hear the humor in my voice. But I am not a prosperity theologian in the since that God wants us faithful Christians to have wealth and stuff. Here is a link for more info This seems like a very western, very 1st world understanding of God to me. However my view may be tainted by the time when some friends ad I ordered some of Benny Henn’s miraculous spring water (you sprinkle it on your money and God will multiply it), but when the package came the vial was broken and there was no water for the broke college kids.
I do believe that God does bless us and will entrust us with more things as we show we are faithful with the little things. But many times the additional things are not what we expect or they don’t come the ways that we think they might. I invest in the church because I want the church to live up to its mission not because I want the payout from God. Why do you invest in the church?