June 19, 2009
Money Management
I received a letter from a man who wanted to raise $1,000 for an event. Rather than letting the prospective donors decide what they felt like contributing, he set the amount for them. Taking it a step further, the solicitation letters listed the names of the ten people that he expected to contribute $100 each. I think there are times when we believers also fall into the trap of looking at others with thoughts about how they should spend their money. We mentally critique folks when we think they spend too much, save too little, or just in general should and could be putting their money to better use. God gives us talents (money) according to our ability…and we have the audacity to think we can manage another person’s talents better than he can.
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Gail;
-----Religious emotion is a personal commodity the individual far too often expects to sell well on the public exchange. My religious emotion is meant to drive my personal ambitions for the Lord. Your religious emotion is meant to drive yours. Together we make a body that works well as we each do what we perceive to be important for the Lord. But the body becomes impaired when we each think what is important in our own estimation should be important to others, too. And the more we are convinced that our personal interests should be universally felt, the greater we impair the body. When this error is brought to the church by its elders, preachers and leaders, then an athletic, sprinting body can quickly become an armless, one-legged hopper.
-----We all watched in horror as it happened to XYZ Church, so we should be well trained for preventing it from happening in our current churches. This gentleman and his fund-raising letter are another good object lesson. How presumptuous of him to simply expect others to share his interest so much that he thinks he can name them as contributors! How much other presumption happens in a church regarding any one or many issues, or theological points, or utilization of facilities and assets? And how often do we hear, “Jake, and Sally, and Billy-Bob will be interested in this,” before they even know about it? Maybe it is that we know them well and they will be, or maybe it is that we emote so strongly we presume they will be.
-----Paul said, “Let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind.” (Rom 14:5b) Surely he did not mean, “Let everyone be convinced in his own mind that my idea is important.” If he did he would have said so. So where does that leave my idea? Well, of course, important to me! And if it is important to me, then I had better put my hand to the task. If my brother happens along and sees me working with conviction, he might wish to join me. Or he might just pat me on the back and say, “Good job Ole Boy. Now, I better get back to my obligations.” Either way we can both feel good about what we each do for the Lord, and the body can have two legs to run with.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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