Jim Armstrong: Where is your confidence?

“Everything we do with our money and life itself must center on God. He purposely designed it that way, and every attempt to place our confidence in anyone or anything else will be ultimately thwarted and thrown down.”

Jim Armstrong, managing editor for “Do Well” a quarterly magazine from Crown in volume 2, issue 4, page 2.

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 2 Corinthians 8:1-2

“Generosity in the midst of poverty! Though being poor is often the reason why many of God’s people hold on to what they have and excuse themselves from giving, we ought to realize that it is possible for one to be poor and still be generous in giving…

Generosity is best measured not by the sum of what was given but by the sacrifice that comes with it. The Macedonian Christians were willing to forego of that little that they had for the sake of others, trusting the Lord to provide for them.”

Reggor Barazon Galarpe in “The Generosity of the Early Church” in volume 7, issue 6, article 5, page 15, of Bible Witness.

Today I invite you to join my me in praying for my wife, Jenni, who is in Guatemala City this week serving at Potter’s House.

Each morning, she is helping with Vacation Bible School for 1,000 Treasures: http://www.pottershouse.org.gt/vbs-for-1000-treasures/

Each afternoon, she is doing curriculum training, walking the teachers through the Scriptures to equip them to teach Christian generosity to the Treasures in 2013.

God, please bless this movement of Christian generosity in the poverty of the garbage dump of Guatemala City, for Your glory, Amen!

“Social justice is not an end. It is a means. For those of you who study history, you know that over the past few centuries the church that saw social justice as an end and not a means drifted from its original focus. It drifted from the unique saving work of Christ. It drifted from the spiritual lostness of sinners. It drifted from the authority of the Bible. It drifted from the imperative of world evangelism. We need to learn from history that we must love the world in word and deed, and in loving we shall not drift from our deeply held convictions.”

Barey Corey, president of Biola University in The Magazine of Biola University Fall 2012, 8.

“Let temporal things serve your use, but the eternal be the object of your desire.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) as cited by Randy Alcorn in the book In Light of Eternity: Perspectives on Heaven (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 1999) 146.

“Young converts should be taught that they have renounced the ownership of all their possessions, and of themselves, or if they have not done this they are not Christians. They should not be left to think that any thing is their own, their time, property, influence, faculties, bodies or souls. “Ye are not your own;” (1 Cor. 6:19-20) all belongs to God; and when they submitted to God they made a free surrender of all to him, to be ruled and disposed of at his pleasure…It is just as much a matter of discipline for a church member practically to deny his stewardship as to deny the divinity of Christ.”

Charles Finney (1792-1875) in “Instructions to Young Converts” from Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1835) 371-372.

“One would think, if a man did once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink, and should care for nothing else, and speak of and inquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure. And yet people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little mind it, or labour for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.”

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981) 39-40.

“Church history is replete with examples of Christians for whom the proclamation of the gospel is absolutely number one, and yet they are not therefore ambivalent about the poor. George Whitefield and Charles Spurgeon are two great exemplars. No one could question their gospel credentials.

George Whitefield was arguably the greatest evangelist of the eighteenth century, having preached to hundreds of thousands of people in the UK and North America, and yet, in 1740 he founded the Bethesda Home for Boys—an orphanage in Georgia, which still operates today as a boys’ school.

Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers and evangelists of the nineteenth century, with a church of over five thousand people. And yet, in 1867 he founded the Stockwell Orphanage in London, which still exists as Spurgeon’s Child Care.

These two men were outstanding preachers and evangelists, but they were not too busy to found orphanages. They were not so consumed by gospel strategy that they failed to care for the disadvantaged.”

Recounted by Con Campbell in “The poor are always with you” article in Issue 402 (p. 33) November-December 2012 of matthiasmedia.com/briefing

“Leading is not just teaching. If we preach what the Bible says in this area and we’re living unchanged middle-class lives, we’re hypocrites. If we ask people to be generous but we ourselves are not giving generously, we’re hypocrites.

Leading in finances is not just using neat techniques to raise money to put on a youth worker, as good as that is. It’s bringing to bear those hard-hitting calls to repentance from the Scriptures on ourselves and our flock. Teach it boldly, and in repentance live it out.”

Phil Colgan in “Leading in Finances” article in Issue 402, November-December 2012 of matthiasmedia.com/briefing

“Why is it so difficult for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God? It is no doubt the reverse of the reason that the poor are honoured: the wealthy tend not to be dependent on God. Wealth cultivates self-reliance, leading to pride. The proud are opposed to God, who hates pride. Again, it is not wealth per se that is the problem. In fact, wealth is a good gift from God. But the lack of humility and lack of dependence that often accompanies wealth is the issue.”

Con Campbell in “The poor are always with you” article in Issue 402 November-December 2012 of matthiasmedia.com/briefing

“Whatever good thing you do for Him, if done according to the Word, is laid up for you as treasure in chests and coffers, to be brought out to be rewarded before both men and angels, to your eternal comfort.”

John Bunyan (1628-1688) as recounted by Bruce Wilkinson in “Walk Thru Eternal Rewards” (Atlanta: WTBM, 1987).