Stop getting in God’s way trying to do His job. God decides when to give someone a hand-out and when to give a hand-up. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. One generation was getting a hand-out while the next generation was getting the hand-up: learning how to be prepared to receive Abraham’s inheritance. Notice how there were times when God wanted His people to receive everything from Him, and the very same God gave them abilities and expected them to grow.
Some people won’t give when they see a need; others give to the point of dependence. Have you become someone’s Provider (notice the capital ‘P’)? Are you so afraid that if you don’t keep them on a string, they’ll lose their faith, or walk away from the Church? If so, you’re out of order - you’ve actually become their enabler. Their hope is in God but their trust is in you. What you have to do now is restore the order – a dependence on God – by giving the hand-up they need to nurture that gift He placed in them.
For the other half of the equation: stop walking past needs. Before you teach the man to fish, he may need to eat one. God didn’t give you your gifts, your wealth, or even your precious ‘stuff’ so you could lord them over the ‘have-nots’ with your nose up. You worked hard for your money? So did I. Stop looking past needs and then complaining about taxes and welfare. Go look for needs – they’re not hard to find. And when you find a need, bring a fish and an instruction manual – God’s got work for you.
What I love about you is that you have an inner strength that is powerful enough to re-charge my inner strength. What I love about you is that you always take time to meet others’ needs before your own. What I love about you is that
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When Christ gave the Great Commission, He did not consider gender just as when the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts. He gives them to both men and women. God has chosen every believing woman to carry His message to her circle of influence as she is filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit...
We just wrapped up a week of Vacation Bible School with our Church and it was amazing. A young man named Jon Coker leads the youth ministry he’s dubbed Kingdom KiDz, and the week of spirit-filled activities he put together was nothing short of excellent. The events of the week were centered around David as the kids learned about his defeat of Goliath...
There have been several things that God has been putting on my heart to share lately, but I thought this the best one to start with....
Every Christmas, we’re thankful for what God has given us. It’s always a blessing to be able to see our children unwrap present after present, and know that He is a God of abundance. This year, we did things a little differently. We wanted our kids to learn that one of the best ways to show off God’s blessings is to pass them on when we can. We decided that this Christmas we would...
Seems like only a year ago, I was giving thanks for a smooth transition out of Georgia – we had just arrived here not quite a month before Thanksgiving – and hoping for the best in our new home. Now, a full year later, I find myself yet again in amazement of what our God can do...
Most of the time when someone says that love makes the world go 'round it conjures up images of of hugs, smiles, and general goodwill toward your fellow man. If that were really true then why is the world in the shape that it is in? When my teacher gave an assignment asking us to write a paragraph about love this is what I came up with...
Opening Pandora's Box of False Indignity
Posted: 09/05/2009 12:34:15 by: david | Category: Politics
As if it weren’t enough that people with no particular solutions of their own had been dominating the news with ‘spontaneous’ displays of outrage at town hall meetings, we now have a group of parents trying to convince us that the President of the United States should not get to speak to our children. Every news organization in America has a story about parent’s who are suddenly shocked – shocked, I say – to find that a sitting President would want to encourage our kids...
In the Book of Joshua, chapter 6, when the walls of Jericho came down, Joshua had simple instructions for the Children of Israel: 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD... 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into His treasury. In short...
July 4th 2009... what an awesome holiday weekend. Most of the world celebrates this holiday due to INDEPENDENCE. I'm so very grateful for the Independence this country has. I would like to take just a moment to step away from the independence just for a moment...
