Churlish souls stint their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good economy; little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a method in providence by which he can succeed our endeavours beyond our expectation, or can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay; by a turn of his hand he can steer our vessel in a profitable channel, or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the liberal and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding tendeth to poverty. In a very wide sphere of observation, I have noticed that the most generous Christians of my acquaintance have been always the most happy, and almost invariably the most prosperous. I have seen the liberal giver rise to wealth of which he never dreamed; and I have as often seen the mean, ungenerous churl descend to poverty by the very parsimony by which he thought to rise. Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord; he gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels. Where wealth is not bestowed the Lord makes the little much by the contentment which the sanctified heart feels in a portion of which the tithe has been dedicated to the Lord. Selfishness looks first at home, but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, yet in the long run selfishness is loss, and godliness is great gain. It needs faith to act towards our God with an open hand, but surely he deserves it of us; and all that we can do is a very poor acknowledgment of our amazing indebtedness to his goodness.
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So, a friend of mine asked me for Christian music recommendations today. Honestly, I haven't been THE most up to date person for Christian music, but I've got a pretty solid playlist that I thought I might as well post here for anyone looking/reading:
1. Hillsong's newest release, "Beautiful Exchange" or United's A_CROSS//the earth::Tear Down The Walls
2. Brooke Fraser - Flags (<- GO LISTEN, I LOVE IT) 3. Kari Jobe's release, Kari Jobe 4. Matt Maher's release is good too.
5. NEEDTOBREATHE (GET IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT), The Outsiders
6. Casting Crowns, "Until The Whole World Hears"
7. Anything by Phil Wickham
8. Jillian Edwards - Galaxies & Such (this isn't directly Christian, but she is a Christian and her songs are soooooo sweet)!
9. Ascend The Hill, this is a more alternative band, but I like them.
10. Anything by Dave Barnes, Brandon Heath, Matt Wertz, and/or Mat Kearney
11. David Walker Band - This is an independent guy that I really like. Google him for his website.
12. GUNGOR <- get this album, Beautiful Things 13. Absolutely anything by Jimmy Needham, love this guy 14. I'm kind of liking the band MikesChair, it's a littleChristian radioesque, but I like them 15. If you like Relient K, their newest release, Forget And Not Slow Down 16. STARFIELD <- also get this one. So good. 17. If you like Switchfoot, their newest album is also awesome. 18. Anything by Audrey Assad. Love her voice. 19. This is an oldie (I was a JR in HS), but Mae's "The Everglow" is always up there on the list. 20. Sanctus Real - Pieces of a Real Heart
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Tonight, a friend segued stories with, "speaking of getting caught naked...". This is the second reference to being naked that I have encountered today. Once was in a book. No, you dirty minded crooks, just stop. It was a passage about how God views us when we discovered our shame (I realize I just used multiple tenses for the same subject, but God is past, present, and future, right?).
LB
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