by Jesse Abel
Thoughts from Papa “J”
Only saints can backslide, when we return to the world our heart is filled with the old ways of unbelief. Turn and draw near to God, repent and be filled with His good things. Proverbs 14:14 and James 4:7-10
Good Morning
2 Corinthians 9:1-5 – Superfluous… have you ever known a preacher to be excessive about giving, well if you have been to more than one church in your lifetime, no doubt you have. It is very hard not to be and I think that the apostle who has been leading up to this point in his epistle realizes his own excessive effort to remind the Corinthians of the pledge of support they made just the year before.
Giving is a difficult promise to keep, the willingness to give is in the heart of most of us, but the action of giving is often mechanical, reaching for the check book, the envelope, the wallet or whatever one may use to keep those personal effects in. Then while the mind is negotiating the amount, there are the distractions within the budget, the distractions within the household and the distractions of your help-mate if you have one; all of which is in the heart weekly.
Now in the Corinthian congregation is the reminder of the pledge that was presented to the church the year before and apparently the apostle received good supporting promises that when he returned the following year to accept the pledge all would be ready. I am sure that the apostle, having read the earlier epistle of James has this principle in mind that is found in James 1:21-24. He was so confident of these promises that he used the church as an example to encourage other churches to give. In this epistle he is stirring up the Corinthians to remind them to fulfill their bountiful promise before it turns into a grudging obligation.
Now if you are honest with yourself, in some way you and I have experienced the bottom line here and that would be if you’ve missed it… a grudging obligation. Now we like to believe that we; when it comes to giving that we have all of our priorities in line and that nothing is going to rock that boat and many of the obstacles that are mentioned above are null and void. However; just let the first wave hit. A special missionary need, a broken piece of church equipment, a new or revised building plan! Anything that falls outside of the norm, even those things that we know that are coming up soon, it seems that these surface before “Freddie is ready”.
So what is the solution? The answer tomorrow!
In the meantime: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY LADIES, you too MEN!
Only saints can backslide, when we return to the world our heart is filled with the old ways of unbelief. Turn and draw near to God, repent and be filled with His good things. Proverbs 14:14 and James 4:7-10
Good Morning
2 Corinthians 9:1-5 – Superfluous… have you ever known a preacher to be excessive about giving, well if you have been to more than one church in your lifetime, no doubt you have. It is very hard not to be and I think that the apostle who has been leading up to this point in his epistle realizes his own excessive effort to remind the Corinthians of the pledge of support they made just the year before.
Giving is a difficult promise to keep, the willingness to give is in the heart of most of us, but the action of giving is often mechanical, reaching for the check book, the envelope, the wallet or whatever one may use to keep those personal effects in. Then while the mind is negotiating the amount, there are the distractions within the budget, the distractions within the household and the distractions of your help-mate if you have one; all of which is in the heart weekly.
Now in the Corinthian congregation is the reminder of the pledge that was presented to the church the year before and apparently the apostle received good supporting promises that when he returned the following year to accept the pledge all would be ready. I am sure that the apostle, having read the earlier epistle of James has this principle in mind that is found in James 1:21-24. He was so confident of these promises that he used the church as an example to encourage other churches to give. In this epistle he is stirring up the Corinthians to remind them to fulfill their bountiful promise before it turns into a grudging obligation.
Now if you are honest with yourself, in some way you and I have experienced the bottom line here and that would be if you’ve missed it… a grudging obligation. Now we like to believe that we; when it comes to giving that we have all of our priorities in line and that nothing is going to rock that boat and many of the obstacles that are mentioned above are null and void. However; just let the first wave hit. A special missionary need, a broken piece of church equipment, a new or revised building plan! Anything that falls outside of the norm, even those things that we know that are coming up soon, it seems that these surface before “Freddie is ready”.
So what is the solution? The answer tomorrow!
In the meantime: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY LADIES, you too MEN!
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