Why do I feel like you're just skimming my posts?????
First of all, jfrog, I'm part of a family with a husband. I don't make independent decisions about how much of our income we give or don't give. My husband is a very good steward of our income, and we give as he sees fit. I have input, but I defer to his judgment most of the time. I feel that we give generously, but I'm quite sure we could be doing more--as most Americans could. We have so many small luxuries that we consider "necessities" that most of us have way more wiggle room than we realize.
Secondly, I'm not saying that wiggle room is a BAD thing. I'm just pointing out that it's obtuse to pretend that Americans don't have plenty of wiggle room, financially speaking. Truth be told, most of us don't give sacrificially because we don't HAVE to sacrifice in order to give. We can give a generous amount and still have food on our own tables.
I'm not saying that we don't give. I'm saying that even when we DO give large amounts, it STILL doesn't put us in dire straits as it would some people in other places. Ergo, the missionary's frustration is understandable, because they see luxuries here that could translate into necessities there.
I'm not going to apologize for taking care of my family, for paying for my kids to have new clothes and bicycles and bubble gum and for eating out every now and then. But I DO recognize that sometimes we can be blind to the needs of others while we enjoy our own blessings. That knowledge is a tool that helps me be a good steward and helps me view my blessings with a measure of humility, understanding that not everyone is as privileged as we are, and it could all be taken away as quickly as it was given. We are then better served to share what we have as much as possible, seeing as it's all temporal anyway.
If my posts have somehow led you to believe that I'm a selfish person or that I think I'm a selfish person, then you've misread them or I've not been concise enough.
MissB, I have never thought of you as a selfish person or anything like that. We disagree on things alot, but I respect you. I think you are a good person and have a great family and husband. I don't think you are selfish either and I imagine that you are a very generous giver.
I'm not arguing that you should give to the point of neglecting your family or even sacrificing all of the small luxuries you have. I don't think you should. In fact, I don't think giving is a requirement to be Christian. I don't even think it should be used as a measuring stick for comparing ourselves to other Christians. Those that give more aren't more Christian than those that don't give as much.
I even agree that its good for missionaries to remind us of how little the people they serve have. Such reminders can be quite eye openers.
I disagree with the bolded statement above. In fact it confuses me that you could even make it. You see, all your other words and even your actions reveal that you do not live by the bolded statement. I think that if you really believed the bolded statement that you would live by it. I don't blame you for not living by that bolded statement. What I am saying is that you shouldn't make that statement unless you are going to live by it.
The same goes with saying you agree with the missionaries words when what she said implied that those who don't give as much as they can don't love Jesus. It confuses me that you could agree with her words when your actions reveal that you do not give as much as you could and thus by the implications of her statement even you do not love Jesus. I think you do love Jesus though. In my view that's why you should disagree with the missionaries statement, because you have excess and don't give as much and you could but still love Jesus.
That's why I am confused. In one breath you tell me that giving more is better because everything is temporal. In the next breath you tell me that even though you could give more that you are not going to. In one breath you agree that those who don't give as much as they can aren't showing that they love Jesus. In the next breath you tell me that you love Jesus even though you could be giving more.
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You better watch out before I blitzkrieg your thread cause I'm the Thread Nazi now!
no one said someone does not love Jesus...we problably all do not love Him enough....Maybe Brother Ballard that is a member on this forum and is at my house might post something here to help us all understand that we all need to do more to help save a lost world...
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