Peter Barham, one of the Pastors at Woodgreen, reviews a little book with a big message that taken seriously would not only transform church finances but also our lives...
If
you like small books, you'll like this one. If you don't like books that
challenge your lifestyle, don't read this one!
The
book's dimensions are just 16x12cm and only has 120 pages but the subtitle says
it all. It's about 'unlocking the secret
of joyful giving'. If we are true to ourselves we know that talking about
giving for some reason makes us uncomfortable, and even Pastors can feel
reticent to preach on the subject! Randy Alcorn (he's an American if you didn't
know by his name) did not write this book to give us a guilt trip about giving
but to reveal to us the joy of giving.
The
book is very readable with insightful illustrations, many of them personal, but
in particular he challenges us by pointing to what the Bible says and
especially Jesus' view on the subject.
When
thinking about Jesus statement to 'store up treasures in heaven' he says:
'You'll never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul. (That's a removal van to us in the UK) You can't take it with you but you can send it ahead...If wegive instead of keep, if we invest in the eternal instead of the temporal we store up treasures in heaven that will never stop paying dividends'
'My heart always goes where I put God's money. God isn't looking for donors for his kingdom. God wants your heart. He says show me your chequebook, your credit card statement, your receipts'
He
tackles the question of whether we should use a tithe as a measure of how much
we give and says:
'I detest legalism... Every New Testament example of giving goes far beyond a tithe. However, none falls short of it...It's unhealthy to view tithing as a place to stop but it can still be a good place to start'.
One
particular quote that struck me is 'God
prospers me not to raise my standard of living butto raise my standard of
giving'. How perceptive is that. He
asks why God has entrusted America with
so much, and tackles the practical question of how much we intend to leave the
kids as an inheritance.
Randy
Alcorn finishes by suggesting we fill out a 6 point 'Giving Covenant' backed up
with some helpful questions we should ask God about our giving experience.
Here's one of them:
'Father, what's the eternal downside in giving as much as I can give to you now? In contrast, what's the eternal downside of minimising my giving or delaying giving until later? Is there really a danger in giving too much too soon? Or is the true danger giving too little too late?'
Read
this book if you want to to see giving as an investment in eternity. Read it at
your peril if you only live for today and tomorrow.
Get your copy of the book in Woodgreen's online bookstore HERE
