Skip to main content

Selfish Christian is an oxymoron!


 II Corinthians 9:12-13
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

Paul is writing to encourage the Corinthian church in their giving. While we oftentimes skirt around the issue of giving in the church, God's Word never avoids this most important act of faith. Paul says that when we give for God's work, the needs of people are met and our giving is a very real expression of our thanks to God. When we give, we are acknowledging that God owns everything and that everything we have doesn't belong to us in the first place. Giving is an expression of thanksgiving to our Provider.

Then Paul says something profoundly significant about giving. Generosity among believers reveals that they truly believe what they confess regarding the good news! People will praise God when they see authentic faith being lived out. There is no area revealing a lack of obedience among believers today like a lack of generosity. The gospel could literally be preached around the world, hunger alleviated, clean drinking water and an education could be provided for every child on the planet if just the Christians in America were generous!

 When Christians are generous, the world takes note that we really believe what we say we believe. Selfish Christian is an oxymoron! If we believe in a God who sacrificed everything at the cross for our salvation and if we truly trust the generous God who has given us everything, why would we not reveal our beliefs in our actions when it comes to our generosity?

Our confession of the gospel is empty and anemic if it is not accompanied by a lifestyle of generosity. If you took a polling of the people who know you best, would they describe you as a generous person? If you proclaim strong faith in Jesus and the good news today, is it expressed in the way you use your checkbook for the Kingdom?

 Heavenly Father, I am the recipient of Your extreme generosity! Save me from selfishness. Save me from white-knuckled greed. It does not match what I say I believe when I confess the good news of Christ. May my life be one of full surrender and extreme generosity. Amen.

Comments

  1. Las Vegas Hotels & Casinos - MapYRO
    Find the best hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, NV. to a 전라남도 출장안마 Las Vegas 삼척 출장마사지 hotel 나주 출장마사지 and a 계룡 출장안마 casino that offers slot machines, table games, live casino gaming, 경기도 출장샵

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

join the community of Faith

Acts 2:42-47 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God blew into the hearts and lives of common, ordinary followers of Jesus and the church was born. On that first day, Peter stood up and preached a very basic message pointing people to Jesus. He called them to repent and be baptized. On that day, about three thousand people came to faith! So what do you do with three thousand new...

What Are Alms?

"Alms" are not some kind of tree, but something you should know about -- and do.  The Greek word translated alms in the New Testament originally meant mercy or kindness, then came to represent the kind deeds caused by mercy and kindness. So it came to mean charitable giving to the poor -- or giving motivated by love. Many times this word is translated as "charitable deed." LUKE 12:33 NKJ 33 "Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. Jesus often spoke of giving alms. But He made it clear that our motives are important. MATTHEW 6:2-4 NRSV 2 "So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what ...

You Have The Victory!

 Romans 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  If God’s Word says that we are more than conquerors through Christ, then we are. We are not going to become, we already are. We may be experiencing some failures or setbacks in life right now, but only good will come out of our situations because God says that “in all these things we are more than conquerors”. We have the victory! You see, God has placed us in Christ, whom He has exalted to the highest place in the universe. We are not trying to get to victory ground. We are already on victory ground. We don’t confess God’s Word to get victory. We confess His Word because we already have the victory. We don’t fight for victory. We fight from victory.  The devil will try to steal our victory. He will come against us with lies and fears, and cause us to be conscious of our failures, weaknesses and symptoms in areas such as our health. But we are not trying to be healed...