Giving — It's what "good" people do ...

In the life of many Christian churches, we are in the season of stewardship. Stewardship is best defined, at least in my mind, as "all that we do, with all that we have after we say 'We believe in God.'" Stewardship is an outward sign of an inward belief. In other words, we give to "show" the world that our priorities are the priorities of God.

Many non-believers or people who have left the church often tell me that the "church" talks about money too much and, for many of those same people, they say that's why they left the church.

I have a few thoughts on this that I'd like to share with you today.

Whenever someone tells me the "church" talks about money too much, I ask them if they know that money is one of the most talked about topics in the Bible. Jesus talks A LOT about money, with good reason. Jesus knew that money could easily take a hold of our lives (just as it did with the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-30) and take our focus off of Him.

I also ask people about their experiences with churches and money talk. Sadly, many people who have this complaint about the "church" are right on the mark. Many churches do ask, demand, or even beg for money from their members. This, is NOT Biblical and does NOT help us to understand the blessing that giving to God through the local church really can be for our lives.

Most of us American Christians tend to have it pretty good. Many of us sat in warm, comfortable sanctuaries this morning with beautiful stained glass windows or in multi-purpose auditoriums with lots of high-tech — lights, sound, etc. Then, we probably went to our comfy cars and drove back to our comfy houses where we got a little snack or had our Sunday meal with family or prepared for the local football game.

The idea of giving up what we have is, in my opinion, not something that most of us American Christians understand.  And, in fact, I would argue that we can find many non-Christian givers who could put some of us to shame.

So, why do we give?  What's the importance of giving? I guess, in some ways, I'm targeting this blog to you who call yourselves Christians ... and, I realize that many of us call ourselves that in name only, not in practice, so to speak.

In any case, as believers, we are called to give — not because it will get us into heaven, not because God needs our money, not even because the church needs our money. We give, first and foremost, because all that we have is NOT ours ... it is a gift from God. God has given us the blessings we have, not just to hoard for ourselves and our families, but to share with others.

And, by the way, when it comes to giving to others, I don't recall any directive from Jesus when He tells us that we need to check the credentials or background of the person we're giving to BEFORE we give them the money, food, or whatever else it is that we are giving to them.

At our church, where we have a food pantry, our motto is kind of like this; God told us to give, to feed people, to help the least among us, so that's what we're going to do. The rest is between them and God.

You don't have to be a Christian to give to help someone in need. You don't really have to be a "believer" of any kind. Giving to help others in need really should be what "good" people do. However, if you are a Christian, NOT giving is not only not an option, I dare say it goes against the Bible.

How you give, how much you give, where you give, etc., that's between you and God. But, you are called to give.

So, I'd like to ask you, in this season of gift-buying, what good will you bring to the world through your gifts — more self-satisfaction or more selfless action?

One of my favorite quotes is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi; "Be the change you want to see in the world."

It's easy to complain about how bad things are in the world, it's harder to take steps to actually make things better. So, I ask you, are you ready to do what it takes to make the world a better place? What will you "give" to make sure this happens?