Pastoral Reflection 6.14.15
We’re excited to welcome a special guest speaker today, John Cortines. John is a Harvard Business School graduate, and he and his family have been at CoaH for almost two full years while in school. A few months ago, John caught me on a Sunday and handed me a book on Christian generosity called Through the Needle. I love books, so I was excited. Then I looked a little closer and I saw that he wrote the book! I was shocked! I had no idea that people in our congregation were writing books, let alone books on Christian generosity!
I started drilling him with questions, and after a few minutes I discovered that God had done a radical thing in John’s life over the past year. I hope that you’re as challenged and encouraged by it as I am! Generosity is not something that is easy for pastors to talk about. Money is too easily abused, and there are too many pastors out there looking for your money and nothing else. But Jesus talked about money more than almost anything else, so we know that’s uber-important to teach on and disciple one another in.
My encouragement to you is this: in light of all that God has done for you, give yourself (and your money) to him. Leverage every bit of your being for his glory. He gave you life. He is keeping your heart beating right now. If you’re a Christian, he has given you new spiritual life. He took the penalty for your sins. How could we keep living for ourselves with that in view?
Practically, open up your finances and let others in. Maybe you want to join a financial discipleship group here at CoaH (yeah, we do those! They’re called Lazarus at the Gate). Maybe you just need to share with someone from your community group about how you spend your money. But, I’ll tell you one thing, you can’t do nothing. You have to do something. Respond to God’s grace in whatever way you can. Here are a few resources that you can think about:
READ: The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
WEB: go to youneedabudget.com because, you know, you need a budget. Also, crown.org has some wonderful tools to help you get control of your finances.
CHURCH SUPPORT: If you’d like help financially, or just help getting your financial life put together, email us and set up a time to meet! Just email questions@coahchurch.org.
I’m praying that God rock your financial world. With love,
Pastor Fletcher