Pastor's Page
What if after getting a hit in a baseball game, you ran first to 2nd Base ...
and then because you hit it deep and to the gap you were next able to run to 3rd
Base ... then the outfielder bobbled the ball and you were able to run all the
way to Home . . . ?! Wouldn’t you be excited!? Wouldn’t your
team-mates want to shake your hand and give you “HIGH-5’S”!?
But then an appeal is made to The Umpire that you missed 1st Base, ... the
ball is thrown to 1st Base, ... the 1st Baseman steps on the bag, ... and you
are called “Out!” ... and your run never counts ... all because you never ran to
1st First!
1ST THINGS 1ST!
The same thing applies to your giving --- the 1st thing everyone must
do is give to God 1st! Yet, like in baseball, we sometimes skip 1st ... so
that we can make it to 2nd ... and 3rd ... and return Home ... to score a
run. In other words, when it comes to what we are going to do with our
financial means, we pay our bills, and put money aside for the future so that we
can be safe and secure at home; ... and then with what’s left, if anything, we
give to God.
Too often, God gets what’s left rather than what comes 1st!
How can we ever expect to score that way!?
Well, if I can make it to 2nd, then I might be able to steal 3rd ...
!!! Well, if I pay my bills 1st, then I might be able to scrape up enough
of what’s left to give to God....
Stealing 3rd in this case won’t matter, even if there is somehow an
error to your favor and you make it all the way back Home! You see:
when the ball is thrown to the 1st Baseman and He steps on the bag, you will be
called out and your run will never count.
In that case, “Stealing” is a lot like “giving an offering,” ... you
can’t “give an offering’ until you 1st give your Tithe to God.
Let me sum up the score: 1st give to God! . . . and . . . 1st
Tithe 10%! After that, you can offer to score all kinds of runs!
Are you 1st writing your check or putting aside your money for God; and
then paying your bills? Or, do you have things backwards ... and you are
running the bases in the wrong direction? Also, in keeping with
“Keeping 1st Things, 1st” are your 1st giving God His Tithe? Or, are you
just making an offering of whatever you have left? Give God Your 1st
and Your Best, not your least and
last! All for God!!!!
Homerun!!!!
What if after gettin
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