You Give Me But Mine Own

MON., SEPT. 17, 1990, 6:35 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your church is approaching a time for emphasis on stewardship… on pledging for the coming years giving. You offered this as the subject for discussion last evening, with a modicum of success. And you just knew I would be ready to comment as this cool morning commences.

You must deal with two competing realities. One is the spiritual one that the earth is the Lord’s, and everything that is therein. The other is the material one – you earn, you are given, and you must decide how to utilize such resources. The analog is that you, in reality, are a spirit that shall survive death and continue to develop back toward Me, from whence you came. The other reality is that you have a human mind and a will which can know the world and which can downplay or reject relationship with Me. Few are the Christians who seek My will in everything they do. Many are those who pay Me no heed as they live their earth lives.

But back to money. You can’t write out a check to Me. If you did I couldn’t cash it, nor could I, directly, use money in any form to accomplish My will. Money is the Biblical mammon, and it is a different sort of reality than I. (Interestingly, though, with modern money, stock, and bond electronic transfers of mammon it becomes much more like spirit. Those silver dollars on your desk are tangible, even as they contain little silver, while electronic transfer is much more mystical. Your country’s economic system continues on faith. The actual substance does not match the current numbers). Thus you can serve Me without any money transfer… in prayer, in appreciation, in Scripture (and Teachings) reading, and in service to others. Money need not be part of the more direct service to Me.

But then there is the Church. It, too, is a holy and unholy combination. In spirit it is the Body of Christ, the manifestation of Almighty God who came to earth as the gentle Jesus and became the Christ and Messiah with his life, death, and resurrection. As you become a member of the First Presbyterian Church you also take on membership in the Body of Christ, and, spiritually, you become related to all other members of that Body. No money need change hands.

Ah, but any body must be fed… tangible food, not hopes, aspirations, kind thoughts, and prayers. The church is a human organization which usually has a building and various things therein that cost money and need money for maintenance. To function, the church must have employees, who want to be paid for what they do for others through the church. To undertake and fulfill its earthly mission the church, as a human organization, must have a regular influx of money. Your church has no compulsory amount, no agreed upon tax that each must pay. Hence, it is said that you “give” to the church. You give from the money you have “earned” or otherwise have. You decide how much goes to the church. When the church needs more it must ask for more. And it asks by urging you to give to God a portion of what He has given you.