Rocky mountain high

I would encourage everyone this year to actively try to find a way to give to the Lord. I have a lived a full lifetime and have been fortunate enough to have experienced many wonderful things and some not so wonderful things. I can truthfully say that nothing I have ever done is as rewarding as the experiences that I have had whereby I have found various ways to give to the Lord.

I’m not just talking about giving financially, although that is rewarding too. There are numerous ways to give to the Lord aside from finance not the least of which is giving of our time. Recently our church has been trying to raise capital to build a desperately needed new worship center. We have outgrown our current building to the point of standing room only. Unfortunately many of the folks who attend our church are poor fisherman, charter boat captains, and retirees and are not doing so well financially, and particularly at Christmas time it seemed all but impossible to give financial gifts above and beyond their tithes to help with the building fund.

I met with our pastor, who is intimately more familiar with the financial condition of the church membership than I am, and discussed the situation and he seemed rather negative about our being successful in raising the necessary money because of the economy. I counseled him that it is indeed a mighty God that we serve and that we should not sell him short. I told him that the opportunity was there and we just needed to work hard to take advantage of it. I gave him a few marketing ideas that I had and encouraged him to see what God could do. I told him that God has all of the money in the world at his disposal and really does not need any more treasures. What God really desires from us is our “faith” and if we will offer it to Him, believing without doubt that He will come through; He will come through with whatever is needed, assuming this project was within His will and it surely was and is within His will.

Sometimes even pastors need encouragement. Our pastor got fired up. We set a goal to raise $500K by the end of December. Each week the pastor would talk it up and contributions started pouring in. Several committees were formed and garage sales, cake sales, and rent-a-teenager-to-work-for-a-day campaigns were launched. The wonderful thing about it was that anyone in the church who wanted to contribute, (regardless of their financial condition), had the opportunity to do so and each week in our church service as the goal was discussed and the amount raised the previous week was announced everyone would applaud wildly and it caught on fire. We far surpassed our $500K goal and raised an unbelievable $705K! Not too shabby when one considers that this church has all of approximately 250 members.

As our pastor was announcing our church achieving our year end goal and as I looked around at all of the faithful membership smiling from ear to ear, I could not help but close my eyes and imagine the big smile on the face of Jesus Christ. “Oh come all of you faithful” must have been ringing in His ears as He smiled down upon us at this special time of year. What a wonderful way of thanking Jesus for His sacrifice. The pastor excitedly announced our new goal to get the building fund to “one million dollars” by our Easter service to thunderous applause and I’m sure it resounded in heaven with angels singing praises.

It is a wonderful thing to serve the Lord. Everyone can contribute; the question is will you? The Bible states that it is more blessed to give than to receive. This is truth that is as pure as a Rocky Mountain stream. Try it this year, you will like it and will receive the “Rocky Mountain high” that accompanies giving. Your church is just one opportunity to give. My wife and I have been assembling a list of every charity in the Florida Keys and are actively looking for ways to get involved with as many of them as we feel will help serve the Lord and are feasible for us to participate in this coming year. Why not give this a try? I will guarantee you that you are not any busier than I am and no one should be too busy for this kind of stuff. I guarantee you will like it!

You cannot out-give the Lord. The blessings that He gives in return for our faithfulness far outweigh anything that we give just as the Bible states. Nothing demonstrates faith like giving both of your finances and time. Set a goal for this New Year to make God your number one priority and then be faithful to Him. How faithful will you be this year?

Matt. 6:21
For where your treasure is, there
Your heart will be also.