Over the past several weeks, as I have contemplated writing this article on stewardship for the Hope Connection, the Holy Spirit has made me keenly aware of so many things that relate to what we are called to be as Christ's church. The following are a few of the "lightning bolts", as Pastor Bill used to refer to, that I have experienced.
The words of a song we recently sang at worship... "Knowing you Jesus, knowing You, there is no greater thing." As Christians, that is a fact that we have come to understand and know with our whole being. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, it affects our prayer life, what we think about and how we use our time, talents and money. It makes us think more about our words and our actions. We are called to not only enjoy that relationship ourselves, but to be Christ to the world and invite others into a relationship with Jesus.
1. When Jesus interacted with the Samaritan woman at the well, he told her about living water. John 4:7-14 - "A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans. Jesus answered her. "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks, drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."
One of my devotions recently referred to the above scripture and pointed out that during different seasons of our lives our internal spiritual lives can become parched due to the stress and frustrations of living in this world. When we draw closer and seek a closer relationship with God, he is able to soothe our dry, cracked and irritated souls with His living water. We are reminded each week at Hope Church that we are to pray, to be in The Word, and that we are called to share the hope that we have with the world around us. That hope is the living water that Jesus offers to all who will accept Him – the joy of our salvation. But before people can accept something, they have to come to trust it. That is where we as followers of Christ come in. The world needs to see and experience Jesus living in us through his Holy Spirit. And when we, even as Christians, begin to feel parched and thirsty due to the effects of this world, those around us need to see that His living water is what sustains us.
2. The words of the song we now sing each week at the end of worship... "Make us one Lord, make us one. Holy Spirit, make us one. Let your love flow so the world will know we are one in You." That song led me to contemplate on some of the definitions of church – a local assembly or group of believers, or a body of individual living believers, or as the universal group of people who have put their trust in Christ. Whether as part of a local assembly, or as a part of the bigger body, we as believers are called to be the temple of God, with Jesus as our Cornerstone.
My experience as a member of Hope Church is that we are a group of believers, a local church, that truly acknowledges Jesus as our Cornerstone, and that we also understand that we are part of the bigger body of Christ. We continue to seek a deeper relationship with Him and to be changed by that relationship. Through prayer, study of His Word, and the preaching and teaching of His Word by our beloved pastors and elders in the church, we have grown as followers of Jesus. We humbly ask the Holy Spirit, who lives within each of us, to lead and guide us, and His living water has sustained us.
It is that time of year again when we are asked to think and pray about the subject of stewardship at Hope Church. We all know it takes prayer, time, talents and money to sustain our local church called Hope. Each of us has different talents and resources, which include our time and money. All are truly gifts from God and we are called to be good stewards of those blessings and to use a portion of them to serve God and serve others.
After having been led by the Holy Spirit to think on these things, it is with a grateful heart that I will continue to prayerfully consider how I will use my time, talents and money in the year to come. I have witnessed God do amazing things in and through Hope Church in the past, and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us in the future. What an awesome God we have and what an honor it is to serve Him!
Your sister in Christ,
Lynn
(Lynn Joyner is a member of HOPE Church Raleigh)
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Buyer's Remorse
Have you ever suffered from buyer's remorse? You know - the concept of when you buy something and then later regret it. I think we all have felt this way to some degree. We need that new iPhone! Well, but I really needed that new car (even though my car was running perfectly fine)! I needed those leather boots. I need, I need, I need. These things will make me feel better if I purchase them. If I upgrade I will be keeping with the current trend. I will feel like I'm keeping up with the Joneses. Do you ever make the purchase and then the new high-tech device, designer shoes, or diamond bracelet lay on the side table, in the back of the closet, unused, or worse yet, *gasp* forgotten?! Or, what if you make the purchase after doing all your reviews and due diligence for smart shopping? You've clipped all the right online coupons. 25% off, free shipping, it's on sale to boot - SCORE! What a smart buyer I am! What a deal I just got!
It all sounds kind of silly and pointless when you put it that way, right? But yet, in our current society, this is the way it is. If you don't feel this materialistic pressure at some point, from peers, from commercials, from your neighbors the aforementioned (and infamous) Joneses, then you are a special creature I tell you! Ok, so big deal. You succumbed to the lure of the shiny new thing. Question for you - Did those purchases make you feel better in the long run? Let's get deep here - did they do anything to satisfy your soul? In my personal experience, that brief moment of joy of opening a new package is short-lived and usually not all it's cracked up to be. The new car smell fades, folks.
Let's take it a step further. If it's not the new gadget craze that has you hooked, what about your retirement and savings funds? How many hours have we spent with financial advisors, on the phone with stock brokers, on a webinar at our job to learn about the new 401K plan? How much time and brain power have we used up to plan for our finances so we can retire? So we can send our kids to college? So we can pay for that boat at the river? For the beach house?
Let me tell you a story. I recently talked to one of my friends about buying a new car and my reluctance. Oh, I would love to have all the bells and whistles of a newer car. Integrated blue tooth! Navigation touch screen! My car is 16 years old and a dinosaur. But, I really don't want another car payment. She just kept saying "You NEED a new car. " But, but, my car is a Honda and hasn't yet hit 200K miles. I owe it to a Honda to at least hit that milestone, right? "You NEED a new car." Ok, ok. I'm sure my friend was just trying to help me with indecision?
Or what about this. My company recently went through a sale where you can invest your company shares in the new owners and hopefully get a return of X amount during the next sale. My thoughts were honestly greedy. If I invest X amount, I will get 3X back in 4-6 years?? Wow, what a great investment!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't get something nice for yourself or your family every now and then when the time is right. It's not wrong to be financially responsible and save for your children and the well-being of your family. But this is the question the Lord prompted me with when I prayed and read His word:
What are you really investing in?
All these hours spent researching, planning, collecting, buying, even hoarding? Does not our Lord Jesus Christ deserve the same amount of investing, if not more? (Certainly more!) More planning, more discussion, more thoughts, more prayer, more focus on Him, with Him.
I am not preaching here. I am the first guilty one over here of not dedicating enough to my Lord and Savior. I have felt regret over old purchases. I have felt like my financial investments were never enough. I have had my first taste of greed of investing in a company and envisioning the dollar signs pop up in future years. And to be perfectly honest, it all feels like rubbish. It's stressful, time-consuming, and one can obsess over it all! On the flip side, I do not feel like my time or money was wasted when I invest in my Lord! Coincidence? I don't think so. Jesus explained it like this:
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20 NKJV)
Jesus went on to say that you can't serve money and the Lord, both as your masters:
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)
Guess what I learned in preparing this article? That Jesus repeats the same warning in Luke 16:13 where he says the exact text from Matthew 6:24 (that you cannot serve two masters). I don't know about you but if Jesus said it twice, to me it has a special "Listen up!" connotation attached to that scripture.
This must be why I feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled when I invest in possessions and my retirement plan. It's never enough. Those things won't last. They fade away. They may be even rendered useless one day! A thief steals my new car, or the stock market crashes and all my retirement savings are wiped out. Such things aren't meant to last, and standing on them to attain fulfillment and security in life is like standing on sand when a wave from the ocean rolls in!
My prayer is that we will all take more time with our Lord who is the only retirement plan in this life worth investing in. You want a fail-safe 401K that will last forever? Contact the Lord God ASAP.
"Lord, please help us to wisely invest the money and abilities You and You alone have blessed us with. For we have nothing that doesn't come from You. We pray that we will honor You with our use of these material things, so that You can use them to further Your kingdom while we are here on earth, eagerly awaiting the coming of your Son Jesus Christ, in full glory. Amen!"
Your sister in Christ,
Aimee
(Aimee Andrews is a member of HOPE Church Raleigh)
It all sounds kind of silly and pointless when you put it that way, right? But yet, in our current society, this is the way it is. If you don't feel this materialistic pressure at some point, from peers, from commercials, from your neighbors the aforementioned (and infamous) Joneses, then you are a special creature I tell you! Ok, so big deal. You succumbed to the lure of the shiny new thing. Question for you - Did those purchases make you feel better in the long run? Let's get deep here - did they do anything to satisfy your soul? In my personal experience, that brief moment of joy of opening a new package is short-lived and usually not all it's cracked up to be. The new car smell fades, folks.
Let's take it a step further. If it's not the new gadget craze that has you hooked, what about your retirement and savings funds? How many hours have we spent with financial advisors, on the phone with stock brokers, on a webinar at our job to learn about the new 401K plan? How much time and brain power have we used up to plan for our finances so we can retire? So we can send our kids to college? So we can pay for that boat at the river? For the beach house?
Let me tell you a story. I recently talked to one of my friends about buying a new car and my reluctance. Oh, I would love to have all the bells and whistles of a newer car. Integrated blue tooth! Navigation touch screen! My car is 16 years old and a dinosaur. But, I really don't want another car payment. She just kept saying "You NEED a new car. " But, but, my car is a Honda and hasn't yet hit 200K miles. I owe it to a Honda to at least hit that milestone, right? "You NEED a new car." Ok, ok. I'm sure my friend was just trying to help me with indecision?
Or what about this. My company recently went through a sale where you can invest your company shares in the new owners and hopefully get a return of X amount during the next sale. My thoughts were honestly greedy. If I invest X amount, I will get 3X back in 4-6 years?? Wow, what a great investment!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't get something nice for yourself or your family every now and then when the time is right. It's not wrong to be financially responsible and save for your children and the well-being of your family. But this is the question the Lord prompted me with when I prayed and read His word:
What are you really investing in?
All these hours spent researching, planning, collecting, buying, even hoarding? Does not our Lord Jesus Christ deserve the same amount of investing, if not more? (Certainly more!) More planning, more discussion, more thoughts, more prayer, more focus on Him, with Him.
I am not preaching here. I am the first guilty one over here of not dedicating enough to my Lord and Savior. I have felt regret over old purchases. I have felt like my financial investments were never enough. I have had my first taste of greed of investing in a company and envisioning the dollar signs pop up in future years. And to be perfectly honest, it all feels like rubbish. It's stressful, time-consuming, and one can obsess over it all! On the flip side, I do not feel like my time or money was wasted when I invest in my Lord! Coincidence? I don't think so. Jesus explained it like this:
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20 NKJV)
Jesus went on to say that you can't serve money and the Lord, both as your masters:
24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)
Guess what I learned in preparing this article? That Jesus repeats the same warning in Luke 16:13 where he says the exact text from Matthew 6:24 (that you cannot serve two masters). I don't know about you but if Jesus said it twice, to me it has a special "Listen up!" connotation attached to that scripture.
This must be why I feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled when I invest in possessions and my retirement plan. It's never enough. Those things won't last. They fade away. They may be even rendered useless one day! A thief steals my new car, or the stock market crashes and all my retirement savings are wiped out. Such things aren't meant to last, and standing on them to attain fulfillment and security in life is like standing on sand when a wave from the ocean rolls in!
My prayer is that we will all take more time with our Lord who is the only retirement plan in this life worth investing in. You want a fail-safe 401K that will last forever? Contact the Lord God ASAP.
"Lord, please help us to wisely invest the money and abilities You and You alone have blessed us with. For we have nothing that doesn't come from You. We pray that we will honor You with our use of these material things, so that You can use them to further Your kingdom while we are here on earth, eagerly awaiting the coming of your Son Jesus Christ, in full glory. Amen!"
Your sister in Christ,
Aimee
(Aimee Andrews is a member of HOPE Church Raleigh)
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