Giving

This is a great story of a couple I got to witness both their sowing and reaping as they gave in faith…

The other day I received this email from a reader…
Hi Bob,
When is it ok to say no in your giving? It seems through my giving I have gained a reputation of being a bank to some needy people. I myself am in debt and seem to give more than take care of my own needs. [...]

I just found this article that takes a look at the various income brackets in the U.S. and their average giving percentages. It turns out – which may or may not be a surprise – that the poor are the most generous in terms of percentage of income given.
“In fact, America’s poor donate more, in [...]

A few weeks ago Linda and I went out to dinner at a fairly nice restaurant. It wasn’t a five-star restaurant, but you could expect to pay $25-$30 per meal. We like to go out to eat, but in an effort to minimize our expenses, it is more of a special occasion when we dine [...]

Behind the letter were ten, crisp $100 bills…  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for them. Way to go extravagant givers!

If you are returning an item, the transaction will work similar to that of credit or debit cards. You just provide the merchant with the card and the funds will be credited back to the card. Who sells Visa gift cards?

Take this test to see if you are a good steward of God’s money…

What is really fun is that each card has a unique number that you can plug in on the Seed A Need website which shows everything that has been given via that card. So you can actually track how people have paid it forward before and after you.

“Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”

A donor-advised fund offers an easy way for a donor to make sig nificant charitable gifts over a long period of time. This fund is similar to a private foundation but requires less money, time, legal assistance, and administration to establish and maintain. Because donor-advised funds are public charities, they also enjoy greater tax advantages than private foundations. Cash and appreciated securities can be contributed to a donor-advised fund potentially making use of additional tax benefits. Private businesses and non-publically traded investments may also be eligible depending on the donor advised fund company’s rules and capability. Once funded, the donor-advisor fund consults with a donor about time horizon and risk tolerance to identify an appropriate asset allocation for their donor advised fund.

God’s economy is strong… I wrote a couple days ago that we should be paying down our debts in response to the economy’s challenges. As far as our stewardship goes, I think this is a good practical step for us to take. But even great stewards still need to trust God to meet their needs.

In it you find that this unconventional church puts their money where their mouth is – or more appropriately – God’s mouth . They challenge the congregation to tithe for three months and if at the end of the 3 months the participants are not convinced of God’s faithfulness, they can get a full refund of every dollar they have given, no questions asked.

We all know we should give, but sometimes it is easy to forget some of the reasons behind it. While there are hundreds of reasons to give, these six provide a good starting point.

Thanks to a reader I found out about a group of Secret Santa’s that anonymously pass out $100 bills to random people during the Christmas season. The group was founded by Larry Stewart who anonymously passed out over a $1 million over 26 years. The Secret Santa organization has continued even after Larry passed away 2 years ago.

The Peer Bearing company recently got bought out by a Swedish company. The owners decided to pass along a nice chunk of the acquisition price to their 230 employees. As a year-end bonus they gave away 6.6 million to the employees. The bonuses were calculated based on the employees’ years of service and averaged over $28,000.

Do you not have any money for Christmas this year? After some of the financial challenges of this year it seems like there going to be more people who don’t have much cash for Christmas gifts this year. If you are in a tight spot this year and want to have a debt-free Christmas, then we need to get a little creative.

Let me start by saying that it was difficult to create this list. Think about it, I am trying to pick the best verses from the Bible about a particular topic. Are there really best verses, or are there just those that have impacted us more than others? I tend to think the latter. So, this list is just that. These are the 5 verses that, even as I just scratch the surface of understanding them, have revolutionized my financial life. Each one of them has had a strong impact on many decisions in my life. I hope you allow them to impact you as well.

This is one of those stories that almost brought me to tears. This is Christianity in action and exactly why we need to become the best stewards possible of what we have been given. It isn’t so we can fill our bank accounts until they overflow, it is so we can give life-changing gifts.

I have read a few articles recently discussing biblical prosperity and I am just getting a little bit frustrated with the whole thing. On one side you have people who insist on being poor because they think that it is more righteous to do so and on the other I am finding some people so caught up in storing up treasures for themselves on earth, that they are missing God’s plan for their life.

As part of Blog Action Day this year, I thought I would just keep things very simple. The topic this year is poverty and I thought I wold let the Bible speak giving to the poor… If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?