Are You A Warehouse or Distribution Center?

A warehouse is a place where items are stored, set aside and accumulated. A distribution center is a place where items flow freely in and out. When it comes to your money, are you a warehouse or a distribution center?

A warehouse makes me think of a stagnant pond. Without circulation things begin to die. But a distribution center has a constant flow that brings life. God is always searching for people who will be distribution centers because He wants to use them to bring life to other people.

One thing that’s important to note is that before God will start giving you money, He needs to know that you will be a faithful steward and use it how He desires. To start, He may ask you to buy a simple cup of coffee for someone. Sounds easy, right? However, He then tells you to give it to the lady you don’t like at work. Will you do it out of obedience to God or will you walk away? As we prove ourselves in these little tests He will begin to entrust bigger things to us.

My husband and I have fun giving big tips at restaurants. I love to think about how excited the waitress will be when she picks up the tip after we’ve left and finds it is more than expected. It seems simple but if we learn to hear God in these situations, we will be better able to hear him in bigger situations. I know some people who have given away cars, houses and airplanes because God asked them to. We aren’t there yet but I would love to get there some day.

If you want to learn to become a distribution center for God it is very easy. Simply make your heart’s desire known to God and ask Him to use you to reach others. It’s an exciting journey that you will never regret!

Can Money Fix Things?

There is a common misconception that preachers (or even just Christians) should give all they have to the poor and live in poverty. Here are the reasons I strongly disagree.

1. Jesus wasn’t poor. In fact, He had so much money He had His own treasurer who kept track of things. He also tells us that He came to give us life, in abundance, to the full, until it overflows. (John 10:10) That certainly doesn’t sound like He wants us to live a life of never enough and barely getting by.

2. How can you help someone else out of poverty if you are struggling? When you are focused on your own struggles, it is hard to devote any time to helping others. That is why the devil works so hard to get people to believe the lie that we are to be poor. You end up spending all of your time trying to make ends meet and trying to find out how you are going to pay the next bill. God tells us in the Bible that we are blessed to be a blessing but you can’t be a blessing if you yourself are spending all of your time working on your own problems.

3. God gives us the overflow (John 10:10) so that we can use it to bless others. Philippians tells us that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. God wants to meet our needs and give us a surplus so that we can use it to be a blessing to others.

Deuteronomy 28:11 “And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.”

II Corinthians 9:6-11
“6[Remember] this: he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously [[a]that blessings may come to someone] will also reap generously and with blessings.

7Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He [b]takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver [whose heart is in his giving].(A)

8And God is able to make all grace (every favor and [c]earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need [d]be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].

9As it is written, He [the benevolent person] scatters abroad; He gives to the poor; His deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and benevolence will go on and endure forever!(B)

10And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness [[e]which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity].(C)

11Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way, so that you can be generous, and [your generosity as it is] administered by us will bring forth thanksgiving to God.”

4. Handouts are temporary. Attitude and behavior changes make permanent lifestyle improvements. Preachers could give everything they have to the poor but once the money runs out the people will be poor again. Why? Because poverty is a lifestyle that can’t be fixed by throwing money at it.

This is why so many people have a problem with the bailout. It is giving money to people who have demonstrated irresponsible behavior. The problem is that it conditions people that you will be rewarded for bad behavior and you don’t have to be accountable because someone else will bail you out. Neither are principles that you will find in the Bible.

Before you can use money to fix something, you need to fix the underlying issue. In this case it is immorality, irresponsibility, greed, entitlement attitudes, and lack of accountability. Once those attitudes and behaviors are corrected, then money can be used to help the situation. Without a change in attitude or behaviors the same thing will keep happening because people didn’t learn the right lesson from the situation.

Perhaps the best example is the little adage everyone has heard.

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

If a preacher gave all his money away he might help one person stay out of bankruptcy for a month. Now both of them are going to be need help after that month because both have run out of money. However, if the preacher teaches the man how to live, based on practical steps and Christian principles, that man will change his life. In addition, that man can now go teach others the same lesson and so on. This is how you get a generation out of debt and dispair. You preach the Gospel which means “Good News” and you teach people how to live by God’s principles.

There is a reason that God said “owe no man anything but to love him.” God knew that living in debt brings despair, hopelessness, fear, worry, poverty, etc. It makes us focus on ourselves so we can’t get out and be a blessing to others. It also takes our eyes off of God as our source and we look to our own means to supply our needs.

There is a reason that God said “where your money is your heart is also.” He knew that what you spend your money on shows what you treasure in your heart. Our number one priority is supposed to be God and if our money doesn’t reflect this, then we are treasuring the wrong thing.

There is a reason that God said “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.” Money is not evil. It is the LOVE of it. It is when you treasure money above your relationship with God that it becomes a problem because God said “You shall have no other gods besides Me.” If money is number 1 in your life then that is your god. You have broken the first commandment.

We need to keep the right perspective on money. God supplies our needs if we put Him first place in our lives. He gives us money so that we can be a blessing to other people. Money by itself cannot fix anything. It is supposed to be a tool that helps others. We can fix things only by God’s saving grace, Christian principles and a wise financial decisions.