Monday, March 26, 2018

The Heart of Giving Series - A Change is in Order

(Image credit: Steven Depolo, flickr creative commons)
We can't take it with us, yet many hoard it as if we can. We can't out give God so it seems many don't make the effort. Somewhere between these two extremes, we wrestle with our attitude to giving our money.

When I started this series, I thought about my church experience over my lifetime. There's usually an unplanned need that precipitates a giving challenge or there's a noticeable lack in giving regardless of the income levels of the congregation. So I wanted to ensure that I had the right heart attitude around giving based on what the Bible says. I wanted to discover why Christians seemed to be entrenched in the financial principles of the world vs. the giving principles in the Bible (there are at least 250 verses if


Monday, March 12, 2018

The Heart of Giving Series - What It Looks Like When You Give to God

So far we've looked at giving and we've seen that how we give matters. We've seen that it can become second nature but yet we don't always do this regardless of the benefits. In this post, I'd like to explore the mechanics around giving regardless of your income level. I think many struggle with this question: "How do I give to a God I cannot see?"

The universal church is comprised of those who belong to Christ and who have trusted Him for salvation. These members of the universal church should seek fellowship and edification in a local church, which is where our giving typically occurs. Therefore when you give to God, you are giving to His representation here on Earth - the body of Christ.

The actual meaning of the word church is not a building but a group of people. The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia which is


Monday, March 5, 2018

Women of the Word - Ngina Otiende

I became familiar with Ngina (pronounced Ngay-na) through a popular marriage blogger. Ngina is a marriage blogger and author with a niche geared to newlyweds for whom the ideal of marriage does not live up to their reality. She provides practical, actionable resources to help the newlywed wife draw closer to God and her husband, one intentional choice at a time. Because she is from the continent of Africa, I also appreciated how her cultural background was interspersed in her writing since many things are written from a vanilla perspective. Meet this month's Woman of the Word - Ngina Otiende.

Ngina Otiende