A blog about Business & Finance, Politics, and Religion & Faith.
Real Name: Aaron Markovits Member Since: December 29, 2005 Last Signed In: April 02, 2009 Profile Views: 970 Blog Views: 2140 Obama Hype President's Day Disneyland is still great fun for kids Halloween Updates Reading Eating Healthy Persistance The walls didn't fall down! Kid Wisdom February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 
RSS 2.0    |
|
|
This is a question I think everyone who is thoughtful struggles with at some time in their life. Sometimes more than once. I have a friend who is about my age with three kids. She is a social worker like I am and an outspoken christian as I consider myself to be as well. Anyway about four years ago she learned she had breast cancer. After going through a round of chemo she was in remission for about a year, then at one of her checkups the doctors notices it was back again, only this time it had metastasized (if that's the right word) anyway it had spread and was spreading out of control. Her prognosis is not good, in fact unless she is miraculously healed, she will die. She is an excellent writer and conveys her thoughts to a group of us who have expressed a desire to support her in her struggle so she has shared more than once her desire to understand why God would do this; though she has a mature faith and understands the reason's aren't always for us to know, she is human and can't help but ask from time to time what purpose this will serve. I mean what about her husband and family? What will they do when she's gone? What good will they get from seeing her go through this? I know I am no one to question God, but there are times when I can't help but wonder, what in the world is He thinking? Then I recall Job. Remember him? He is the one I think about when I start questioning God's intentions or motives. God sovereignty dealt with Job, though he was righteous by God's own statement, he allowed him to suffer-first he suffered the loss of family. Next he suffered the loss of his possessions, next he suffered the loss of his health, finally his wife. Then his "friends" came to him and basically accused him of sinning against God suggesting that is why all this bad stuff had come upon him when in reality that was not the purpose for the events that happened in His life. Rather, we are told in the Bible that the purpose was because God allowed it to happen. He is sovereign after all and can do what He wants and doesn't have to reveal His purpose to us. We get a glimpse of His purpose in the story of Job, but not the whole picture. God doesn't reveal to us why He allows these things to happen. He simply allows to see that He is allowing them to happen. He is in control. Always. Regardless of the circumstances He is in control. I take great comfort in that simple truth, though I confess I don't know why it comforts me to know this-it does. So with my friend, I simply don't understand why God would allow this to happen. I don't believe it's because of something sinful she did-or because of something righteous she was supposed to do but didn't. I simply believe God is allowing it to happen to fulfill part of His perfect plan for her life and all who know her. Who knows how He will use this event to touch the lives of others. I know for certain He has already touched the lives of hundreds of people already through the writing of my friend. He has used her words to prick the hearts of people who otherwise would be hard towards the truth. This may sound harsh to some people, but if even one person were to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus through the sufferings of my friend, I suspect she would say it was all worth it. Because after all this present suffering is temporary, but life with our King is eternal. Blessings to all who read this. I really don't like pretending to be someone I'm not. There are times when it seems like people talk as though they are so knowledgeable, or really cool, etc.... most of the time when people are talking lie this it is to impress other people. I don't need to be impressed. I need people to be real. Why don't we just agree to just be who we are. Why do some people feel like they have to impress people to be someone? I just don't understand that. All I need is for people to be who they are, that's good enough to me; I'm impressed when someone is honest with me about who he(or she) is rather than trying to impress me by what or who they know. You know what I mean here, you have talked to people who felt like they had to impress you, it's in there tone of voice, it's in there body language, it's clear they are trying to impress you. I don't know why people feel this way. Let's just be real with eachother. I will do my best to be honest wth you in this blog. I hope to act this way wherever I am. If you see me trying to be someone I'm not, please, please say something to me or remind me about what' I've written here today.
  Finanicial Stewardship Services. What is this? It's a business I've started to serve christian ministries and churches in raising funds through grantwriting particularly. I chose rather than just calling it after my name for two primary reasons. First so that I can expand by adding partners later, if I choose to do that. Secondly, I don't want to ahve the business associated with my name, personally, because I don't want to take all the credit for what is done, after all, if the work is done right, it will be the Lord who does it through me and not me, myself, or I. If that makes any sense? Hopefully, as I learn more about stewardship I will be able to offer more services to churches and ministries, but for now I only feel comfortable offering grant writing services. These services could include bugdeting, raising funds through estate plannning, fundraisers, nono-related business income, etc... Most churches and ministries have never received a grant. Know why? They have never applied. This is too bad, from my perspective as there are many foundations and even a few businesses who will give funds to ministries and churches when the church/ministries objectives match the objectives of the foundation or church. There are a lot of misconceptions about grants, though. Many people think a grant is like free money just waiting to be grabbed up by someone. That is seldom the case. In most cases a grant is given to accomplish a specific purpose agreed upon by the ministry or church receiving the grant and the foundation or business giving the grant. Another misconception about grants is that there is free money to help businesses start.... in my experience that is seldom if ever the case. Not only are there no start up monies available to businesses, but most foundations or businesses require the recipient agency to be a private non-profit organization. Usually this is a requirement to preserve the tax deduction a business or individual receives for donating the money. So, what I'm trying to do is is support the vision of the ministries and churches by helping them find money to do the work God has called them to do. There are statistics that the church in America today does not give our resources to the church the way we should. One study I've seen reports as little as 8% of church learders tithe 10% of their gross income to the church they attend. This is startling as the leaders of the church ought to be the people who give the most to the church, right? What does this say about the "average" person attending the church. Barnum and others have released similar research recently documenting how the church is not giving the way we should. If all church members or people attending various churches gave the way we should, we could easily fund the various ministries and churches at levels they would need to do the various work they have been called to do. There would be no need for a service like I am offering if the church were obedient to the command to give. Unfortunately, we do not give the way we really should. This is the aim of a ministry like Crown Financial Ministries. I think my business compliments what Crown is doing. How we handle the money we've been given is definately a tell tale sign of what we really believe. If we handle it the way God would have us He will be glorified. If we don't, there will be a day we wished we did. The scripture talks more about money than it does heaven or hell. There is a reason for that! I think God knew what would capture our hearts and spoke a lot about the things we spend a lot of time thinking about. Money is one of them, that's for sure. No matter how much we like to say, it doesn't matter to us, the fact is, it does matter. If we don't have it, we can't live the way we want to....Very few of us have the courage to live without it. I sometimes wonder what I would do when faced with that challenge, and yet it is precisely that challenge that made the rich young ruler so sad...because he had much wealth. If you live in America and have a house, car, and job, you are more wealthy than you realize. Jesus had none of these things when He was here. Yet God provided for Him just as He provides for you and I. What would your response be if Jesus asked you today to sell all you have and follow Him? My point is you and I could probably give more to the Kingdom of God than we do right now, even if you do give to the church.
So here we are very close to Valentine's Day. I have thought a lot about what to get my sweety for Valentine's Day, but still haven't picked up an item yet. She said she wanted a new printer for her pictures, but the printer we have now will print her pictures just fine so I wonder if I should tell her that or just get her the one she wants. What do you think? Anyway, I'll do something else for her anyway. She'll be surprised when it arrives. I keep hoping she'll get a present. Somehow she never thinks she needs to.... hmm... something's wrong with that picture isn't it? Life in general is good for us. I still need to schedule some tours of day care providers. I am convinced Sarah will be better off at a daycare than where we are taking her now. She will learn more and I will have a little more piece of mind, I think, when she is being taken care of at a christian day care. We still need to look at the options though because I'm sure not all day care's are run the same way even if they are "christian". So probably next Friday we will take some tours as pre-enrollment for pre-school begins in March for most schools. We would probably be better off putting her in day care at the same place she will go to pre-school so there is less of a change for her in the end. Hopefully, that can work out for us. Missed Homeless Ministry this week. I pray it went well. Supposed to get together with the guys for our accountability meeting this month, but haven't scheduled it yet. We need to do that. I have also missed Friday morning men's studies as I've been taking Sarah to the sitter in the mornings and unable to attend. That should change next week though. The church we go to has built a new building. We have volunteered to be greeters, but haven't been contacted for orientation yet. Hopefully, that will happen soon so we can get started with that. There were a few more ministries that were supposed to contact us too, so far none have. Guess they don't need the help? I get the next two monday's off work as holidays. That means I get to spend the time with my daughter. Should be really nice, maybe we'll try to go to gymboree or something? Got any suggestions? So life goes on at a seemingly increasingly hectic pace.
|
