TIME, TALENT, and the TITHE

by Danna Shirley
This is a devotion written to go along with a 21-day fast at my church for 2018; the theme was "For Such a Time as This"

Now is a great time in church history. We have access to several methods of communication to reach people...television, cell phones, internet, and social media; more opportunities than ever before to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. I realize our lives are busily taken up with family, jobs, and our children with their school and sports and friends. Then there is the “me” time we all so desperately seek. We deserve that quiet time to just sit still and rest in God’s presence. If we examine ourselves (Galatians 6:4),

 Are we using our time wisely to further the Kingdom of God…

for such a time as this?

The Gospel story never changes but our presentation of it is our own. Our life experiences put a slant on our testimony, as we share with those who have never heard the Good News of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. We each have been given a talent to be used in the Kingdom and for His glory. Part of our talent is our testimony, told in such a way that it reaches down into the very heart of the hearer. The Holy Spirit then breaks through any hardness, doubt, and unbelief to bring unbelievers into the knowledge of the Savior. The seeds we plant may be watered by someone else but God is the Gardener. He brings in the harvest after we have sown the seeds.

Are we using our talent to the fullest by sharing the love of God

and the redemption message…for such a time as this?

We are all in this together. The church is not our building at 7981 Summer Avenue. The church is our physical body that is home to the Holy Spirit. As we meet in this building, we are learning and growing, we are loving and praying for one another and building one another up in faith (1 Thessalonians 3:12 and 5:11). We are fitly joined together each one doing their part for the work of the whole at Bartlett First Assembly (Ephesians 4:16). Even through all of this, there is a price to be paid and it is paid by our tithe. We live in this world and have to survive just like everyone else with daily expenses, monthly budgets, and unexpected emergencies. Our tithe supports our team:

·        Staff salaries

·        Mortgage, Utilities, Insurance

·        Missions

·        Outreach (Family Fest, Harvest Tea, Trunk or Treat, etc.)

·        Maintenance

What we don’t ever see or hear or touch, our staff accomplishes through our tithe as we each send our support to do the work of ministry through the whole Body at BFA. But it’s not a one-way street, for God’s blessings are directly bound to our faithfulness to tithe…

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)

Are we being faithful to God’s directive to bring all the tithe

into the storehouse…for such a time as this?