The things you own can end up owning you.  And he who dies with the most toys is dead.

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Did you know that all Christians are supposed to be missionaries?  We might not all be called to travel to a foreign country, but Jesus did say to go into all the world and make disciples, to baptize them and teach them to obey everything that he taught.  And guess what?  Even if you’re not in some foreign country your still in the world somewhere—unless you’re an astronaut—though even in orbit there are people we can teach Christ’s commandments to.  No matter where you are, you are called to teach people to obey what Christ taught.  Maybe you’ve never thought about it before, but if you are not making disciples wherever you go, you are disobeying Jesus Christ.  And if you are disobeying Jesus Christ then that proves he is not your Lord and that you don’t love him.  Remember, he said “Those who obey my commands are the ones who love me.”  So if you don’t obey Jesus, and he is not your Lord, and you are not making disciples, then are you really a Christian?  Or are you simply mislabeling yourself?  James Chapter 2 makes it pretty clear that there’s a big difference between knowing God exists, and living a life that demonstrates your faith in him.  Even the demons “believe” in God and tremble.  So the question is, do you TRUST and OBEY God?   And inexperience or lack of education are both extremely lousy excuses, since all Christians are supposed to have the Holy Spirit living inside them and directing them.  After all, the only way you can get experience is by doing something.  Don’t you think it’s time you got started?

This talk is really just a short report on a building project we sent a team to help out with.  It was a trip in support of mission training and work, but all missionaries need support too.  So if you’re not ministering in a foreign country somewhere, be sure that you are helping to support that work with your money as well as sharing the Good News of Jesus yourself.  Just like the early disciples, we should be both spreading the Gospel AND financially supporting others who are making disciples around the world.

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When you ask someone how much money they’d like to have, the most common answer is ‘just a little more.’ Whether they’re making minimum wage or have billions, everybody wants more money. The funny thing about that is we don’t equate that desire with the addiction people have for drugs or alcohol or porn or whatever. Greed is looked at as a good thing in our country. Anybody who is actually content with what they have is seen as abnormal. And this national greed has not only put almost everybody into debt of one kind or another, this idea has infected our government. So now our nation is in debt–huge debt! And like a lot of other things, the church, for the most part, has completely ignored the instructions that God gives in the Bible for how to best manage money. It’s really a sad situation to think about how many people in this country have sold themselves into slavery to the bank. So how are we supposed to live? Well, this talk touches on a few basic ideas. Check it our and see what you think.

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Most of us, as we’re growing up, learn all sorts of rules to live by–things we’re supposed to do, things we’re not supposed to do, and things we’re supposed to dream about and work for.  And it seems like somewhere along the way we forget the purpose of why we live the way we do and what we’re working for.  We somehow get the idea that having lots of toys or a big house or an important title will really make our hearts happy, and we trade off the things that could really bring happiness for stuff that is ultimately empty and unfulfilling.  So what is it that really makes life worth living?

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I was sharing my $40 of honesty story (the August 31st post) with some friends, and a couple days later my friend Sara told me that her mom did the same thing.  They were at the store together and had walked out with their purchases when Sara’s mom noticed that she hadn’t paid for something.  And without batting an eye she turned around and went back in to pay for it.

I definitely need to control my attitude.  I was grumbling about it, but she did it without any kind of complaint.  A person shouldn’t whine about doing the right thing.  Thanks for the lesson Sara!

Proverbs 28:6 It is better to be poor and honest than rich and crooked.

So the other day me and mi linda esposa, Jenna, were at WalMart to get a couple picture frames and a B-day card for Chris–his birthday is next Sunday!  Anyway, we also were thinking it would be nice to have a couple new pillows for our bed. (You know how pillows get flat and hard after too many years of use?)  So while we were looking at pillows, we also looked at sheets.  We had 1 set of bedsheets that we use all the time, and they have always been a tight fit on the mattress–they barely cover the whole side of the mattress.   So we figured, ‘We’ve got a little extra in the household budget, let’s get some new sheets.’  The really nice 400 thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets were on sale for $35.  So we got ’em.  With the taxes, they were a little less than $40.

Pretty exciting, right?  Ok, here’s where the plot thickens:

This lady starts checking me out…because we had taken all our stuff to the checkout lane.  Anyway, she bags everything up and and we cart it out to the car.  But something wasn’t right.  The total on the receipt was less than what I thought it should be–by about $40.  So we took a closer look, and sure enough, somehow the sheets never got rung up at the register.  So now I’ve got a choice to make; do I keep the sheets as a gift from the benevolent WalMart corporation that was kind enough to put them in a nice plastic gift bag for me…or do I go back in and pay for what the checkout lady missed?  As soon as I asked that question, I already knew the answer.  My conscience told me the right thing to do was to pay for what I wanted to keep.

I grumbled about it.  Even as I walked back into the store, I thought about how much I was spending on being honest.  I wondered how much difference this would make.  $40 is didley to a multi-billion dollar operation like WalMart.  They certainly aren’t going to notice or care about what I was doing.  I wondered how much it mattered to God.  I know he always wants us to do the right thing.  But was this something he’d be really happy about or simply satisfied that I did what was right?  I didn’t do it for a reward or for recognition, but I did plenty of bad things in my life B.C. and it would be super cool to know anytime that I did something to really make God happy.  I would pay way more than $40 anytime I can make my relationship with God closer.  The more I hear from him the better my life gets. So my real question was, did I gain anything for being honest–besides bed sheets?  What does $40 worth of honesty get you?  You can’t buy God–he owns the universe.  His law says to be holy, so being honest was simply my duty to him.  But does the fact that I was faithful in this small matter help connect me any closer with my Savior?

I shared all these thoughts with Jenna on the drive home, and she pointed out the fact that actually listening to and obeying God’s leading on my heart would promote more leading from God.  Jesus said “Those who love me are the ones who keep my commands.”  And he said when we are faithful with the small things he asks us to do that he will bless us with bigger things.  So listening to the still small voice of God’s Spirit in my heart, and doing what was right, demonstrated my love for God and proved to him that I was faithful in this way.  So he now has that much more reason to bless me with more of his trust.  What a cool thought–something as small as that could improve my relationship with the Almighty!  Not that he ever loves me more or less, but to prove my faithfulness in service to God–even in a small way, just makes me feel good all over.

God has blessed us with more than enough to get by.  We can sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets.  When most of the world lives on $1 or $2 a day, I feel extremely blessed.  So we prayed in the car, on the way home that God would help us to always be as honest as he has been generous to us.  He has given an overabundance to us.  So we can give an over abundance of honesty and faithfulness to his commands.  In the grand scheme of our lives $40 is a tiny drop in the bucket.  But the priceless rewards for righteousness are worth more than any bank could hold in its vaults.

I thank God for the opportunity he presented to make that choice to pay for the sheets or not.  It was a great chance to stop and think about all the blessings God has given us and how much doing the right thing is really worth in life.  May your life be filled with moments of doing the right thing in big ways and small.  And may you know an abundance of God’s blessings through your faithfulness!

PS. My father-in-law pointed out that if you want God to bless your marriage bed, you shouldn’t sleep on stolen sheets!