When we "test God on this..."

This morning we issued a Kingdom Challenge based on God’s promise:

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Malachi 3:10

And that:

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

2 Corinthians 9: 6

The basic idea of the challenge is to test those promises over the next 10 weeks through increased giving to God’s kingdom work (either through Grace or anywhere else in the kingdom).

Just a few hours into the challenge I got a great email:

So I don't know if you are wanting us to tell you this stuff but... oh well, you're gonna hear it anyway...

This morning I found 7 dollars around the house and put them in my pocket with intention of using them on our Sunday lunch. But then you got up there and started talking about giving more, even 1% more and I felt the tug. So my husband and I signed the card and put it in the basket along with my 7 dollars, after which I realized that 5 of those dollars were a reimbursement from a "business purchase." We laughed about it and that was it.

I had planned to meet up with someone after Sunday School class to give her something she had ordered from me and when she handed me the check she told me that she thought I undercharged her and paid me a little extra. I didn't look at the check until later but when I did I realized that she had paid me 10 dollars more than I had asked. TWICE as much as I had "given up" (even then it took me a while to make the connection between the two...)

Before I had even left the church campus God had doubled my "investment" into his kingdom... I thought that was kinda cool.

Just thought you might get a kick out of that like I did.

God is faithful! I can’t wait to hear more stories in the weeks to come.

Staring into the Sun - God

Yesterday we began a series based on N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian, Staring into the Sun. This weekend we will dig deep into the Christian understanding of God.

Here’s what Wright says:

The point at present is that, since God is not an object within our world, or even an idea within our intellectual world, we can probe toward the center of the maze as much as we like but we shall never reach the center by our own efforts.

But suppose that God were to come bursting out of the center of the maze on his own initiative? That, after all, is what the great monotheistic traditions have said. To get our minds around the possibility we shall have to take a step sideways and consider more carefully what we are talking about. If God isn’t up in the sky, where is he?

N. T. Wright, Simply Christian

So what do you think, where is God?