BELLA VISTA — Two men were once lost on a deserted island. After they recovered from being tossed on the island during a storm, they began to talk about the future.

One of the men was extremely anxious. He asked questions like, "What are we going to do? How will we eat?

Will we be able to find fresh water? What will our families think has happened to us?"

The other man was very calm. His friend asked him how he could stay so calm in a perilous situation. He replied, "That's easy! I make $100,000 a month, and I tithe $10,000 a month to my church, so you can relax - I am certain my pastor will find me."

This is the time of year most churches in Bella Vista start to talk about their budgets for the upcoming year. I hope you will consider the needs in your congregation and give generously. God lovescheerful givers. He doesn't want you to give under compulsion.

If you consider all God has done for you in your life, giving will be really easy. If we remember that all we have has been given to us by God, giving can also be very meaningful. We need to consider we are all managers of what God has given us. We really don't own anything - it all belongs to God.

It is amazing that Jesus talked so much about money, yet he never had any. Why did he do that? He knewnothing has the power to bless your life like money, and nothing has the power to ruin your life like money. We have seen in powerful ways in the last year how greed destroys lives.

Christ did not talk about money so often for his benefit, but for ours. God instituted giving to help us. Giving opens our hearts to God and the needs of others. Giving will protect our hearts from greed.

Almost half the parables Jesus told dealt with money. Jesus talked more about money than he did heaven or hell, prayer or faith. It must be pretty important that we learn to control money and not let it control us.

Jesus told a story about a rich man who had a bumper crop.

The man tore his barns down and built bigger barns to hold his crops. The rich man said tohimself that he would take life easy and eat, drink and be merry.

God said to the man, "Your life will be required of you, and then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"

Christ ended the parable with these words, "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

When you give to God's work, you can be rich toward God. You help others and protect your heart from the insidious disease of greed.

I hope you will become a cheerful giver.

You and your congregation will be much better off because you have followed God's plan of giving.

I'm pressing on.

What about You?

* * *

Thad Moore is pastor of Bella Vista Community Church.

Religion, Pages 16 on 10/07/2009

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