THE CHEERFUL GIVER : SUPPORTING GOD'S WORK
Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Org
Last Updated : July 23, 2006
Freely Ye Have Received, Commercializing Christianity, God
Will Provide, The Cheerful Giver, Blessed Of The Lord, The
Widow's Sincere Plea, Taking It To The Lord, My Decision
For those of you who have been studying my writings for a
while, you know that I firmly believe in doing the Lord's
Work for absolutely free. This is because, while I do indeed
personally invest a lot of time, energy and money into this
ministry, the actual lessons that I share with you have been
freely given to me by the Lord through the Inspiration of
His Holy Spirit. As such, for me to sell or to try to earn a
profit in some way from something which has cost me nothing
in a financial sense, is simply not right. As some of you
know, the verse I have often quoted is the following:
"...freely ye have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8b)
Aside from this Scriptural Truth, as I point out in such
articles as 'Money-Making Bible Hucksters And Mammon' and
'Where Are The First Century Churches', I am fully aware of
what happens to men of God when they take their eyes off of
the Lord and His Word, and instead place them upon worldly
gain through their commercialization of the Truth. For a
more detailed explanation of my views on this topic, please
refer to the aforementioned articles. While I still firmly
adhere to all of these beliefs, the Lord has wisely seen fit
to use a recent situation to force me to, what is called in
American slang, 'eat my own words'. Before explaining the
actual situation, allow me to share a few quotes from the
aforementioned articles. In 'Money-Making Bible Hucksters And
Mammon', I wrote the following:
----- Begin Quote -----
Regardless of what method you use to preach the
Gospel, I know that if you are in God's Will, He will take
care of you somehow in some way. The Lord has promised to
provide all of our needs if we truly seek His Kingdom first;
even if it means subsisting on donations and charity. Here
are a few Scriptures for your consideration:
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you." (Matthew 6:33)
"But my God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)
----- End Of Quote -----
In addition to the above quotes, I also wrote the following
in part one of the article 'Where Are The First Century
Churches':
----- Begin Quote -----
"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let
him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a
cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7)
Those people who only give, donate or share because they
feel obligated to do so due to peer pressure, or to save
themselves a moment of embarrassment when the collection
plate is being passed around, have very little reward in
Heaven. Likewise, those who only give of their abundance,
when it really doesn't hurt to give, also have very little
reward in Heaven. As Jesus said, it is those who give of
their own need who receive the greater Heavenly Rewards as
in the story of the widow's mite:
"And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the
people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich
cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she
threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called
unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say
unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all
they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did
cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in
all that she had, even all her living." (Mark 12:41-44)
...
It is those people who truly give from their hearts without
any thought of reward, recognition or recompense, who will
truly be blessed of their Father in Heaven; for in
supporting the work of the ministry, they are doing it as
unto the Lord. Not only that, but we are told that it is
impossible for us to outgive God. He will give back more
every time:
"He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet
in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward;
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a
righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And
whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones
a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I
say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."
(Matthew 10:40-42)
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may
be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the
LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10)
...
In other words, if you are faithful to do God's Will and
Work, and not selfishly work for yourself at some worldly
job, He will provide your every need. He promised to. In
fact, according to Jesus' and Paul's own words, the Lord
will use those very same people to whom you are ministering.
to provide your needs. Here are two more examples from
Paul's writings which prove this point:
"It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are.
For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their
spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them
in carnal things." (Romans 15:27)
"If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great
thing if we shall reap your carnal things?"
(1 Corinthians 9:11)
At this point, some may be thinking that this means that we
are to ask for money for the spiritual services that we
provide; however, if we balance Scripture with Scripture, we
see that this is definitely not the case.
...
Those who are truly God's sheep will be more than happy to
provide you with a meal, a night's lodging, or whatever your
needs might happen to be; and yes, some will even freely
offer a monetary gift to help see you on to your next town.
I recall that when I lived the Life of Faith in Mexico many
years ago, sometimes those sweet humble people would invite
us into their homes for days, weeks, or even months at a
time while we ministered to them and the people of their
town or village. The Lord enjoys blessing people like that
because they are cheerful givers.
----- End Of Quote -----
As you can see by the previous quotes, I firmly believe that
the Lord will indeed provide the needs of His children who
are truly seeking first His Kingdom by preaching His Gospel
of Salvation to the world at large; but you see, the way in
which the Lord used my own words against me, is in the fact
that I clearly, and quite Scripturally say, that He will
often do it by way of those to whom we are ministering
directly. This brings us to the situation I mentioned
earlier. On several occasions now, one of my dear readers
has offered to support this ministry with a donation. While
I truly appreciate this offer and could really use the
money; and while I have no doubt that this person has
already been blessed by the Lord simply for making such a
heartfelt offer, up until now, I have resisted giving her my
mailing address because of all of the reasons I have already
stated. Well, this person apparently didn't want to take
'no' for an answer, so she recently sent me another message
in which she plainly stated that she felt that I was robbing
her of the Lord's blessings by my refusal to provide an
address. Boy, did that cut me to the heart!
Because of this dear woman's sincere remarks, I have been
troubled during this past week, and have put off bringing
this issue before the Lord; at least I did until now. I have
now prayed about this situation, and have had a good chat
with the Lord about it. He knows my heart, as well as my
concerns. At the same time, I don't want to be guilty of
doing as this woman has said; that is, of robbing her of the
blessing which she believes the Lord wants to give her
through her supporting this work. So, after pouring out my
heart to the Lord and sharing all of my concerns with Him, I
basically said, 'Okay Lord; it is in your Hands; I will do
whatever you show me to do through your written Word.' The
Lord is faithful to answer when we cry out to Him with our
whole hearts. Not only did the Lord clearly confirm His Will
to me, but He did it three times by giving me three sets of
verses which all carry the same exact theme! As I point out
in other articles, this is a positive way to know God's
Will:
"This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of
two or three witnesses shall every word be established."
(2 Corinthians 13:1)
Thus, in light of all of my own words preaching right back
at me, the plea of this dear woman who truly wants to help
out, and the Scriptural confirmations which the Lord has now
given me, I have now decided to ease up on my strict stance
concerning not accepting donations from those who truly wish
to support this ministry. If you are one who has wanted to
help, but who has not made your desire known because of my
previous refusal to accept donations, I hope that this
message will come as a relief to your heart. If the Lord
wants to bless you or anyone else in this way, I certainly
don't want to stand in His way because of my own pride or
overly strict moral convictions. I will now gladly and
humbly accept any help which you may wish to send in; and I
will use it wisely and judiciously for the Lord's Work.
Simply write to me privately, and I will provide you with
the necessary information in order for you to submit your
donation. God bless you and keep you; and thank-you for
believing in this Work of the Lord. It is truly appreciated.