Posts Tagged ‘gift’

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Be Aglow with The Spirit

July 5, 2011

Romans 12:11 continues… “be aglow (burning) with the Spirit, serving the Lord.” 

Since Paul exhorts us to “be aglow with the Spirit”, this must be something we can do.  I have always prayed that I would be filled with the Spirit, only to find out that Paul said, “Stir up your gift” and “be filled.”  So, again, this is something we must be able to do within ourselves. 

I became born again the in the Charismatic Movement of the 70s.  That was something.  People were being saved and baptized in the Spirit everywhere.  We were all on fire for the Lord.  It was an exciting time.   But, although it was a real movement of God, it was experiential.  I had a thirst for the Word of God, but did not have a strong teacher.  We all just prayed, praised and witnessed.  We gathered together at God’s party. 

I now know that a foundation on the Word of God, good mentors and teachers are necessary to continue in the faith.  When I know the promises of God, when I remember the urgency of the Gospel…when I hear my Lord say “Tell them!” and I know what to say, then I can stir up my gift and “be aglow”. 

 

When I share my Lord with others, my spirit burns within me.   If I want to be aglow, I have to do what He commanded:   “Go into all the world and preach the gospel…”

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God’s return on investments.

June 27, 2011

Recently, our Pastor has been teaching about tithing.  Usually, that topic comes up when a church is in financial need and most, if not all, the congregants groan inwardly and fidget.   Well, in our church, praise God, that is not the issue and our Pastor is an excellent teacher of the Word of God.

Once he completed teaching on tithing, he went on to teach about offerings.  He showed us that an offering is not part of the tithe, but a separate gift given from the heart.  The tithe is God’s.  He leaves us the 90% to do with what we please.  The tithe protects the 90% from the devourer.  The offering, however, comes out of our 90% and is the seed that God can use to bless us.

I don’t know if this short synopsis is clear, but we began giving offerings along with our tithe two weeks ago.  We had been just “making it” financially, week to week, all our needs have always been met, but we haven’t had increase.   What we now understand, is that we haven’t been planting the seed that the Lord provides in the 90%.

We have our own business, a mobile oil change company.  Last week, a competitor dropped out of the business and we have been picking up his customers…a dramatic increase!  I’m excited to see where this will go and I am excited to see how much more we can give. 

So…I challenge you to come along!  This is really cool.  God is Awesome!

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