by Pastor Mark Haines

We welcome Pastor Mark Haines to Eagles In Leadership this week. He is a happy husband, father, grandfather and pastor living in the Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan. You can learn more about him at his website.

Our church has been struggling financially.  Many of our members lost their jobs as well as their savings in this recession.  How can we pray for our church’s finances?

Here are a few suggestions based on God’s principles for finances and generosity.

Principle #1: God evaluates your giving based on your heart motives and your ability to give, not on the amount of your offering.

(Mark 12:41—44; 2 Corinthians 8:2)

• Ask God to help your congregation’s constituents to see every tithe and gift to the Lord is important.  That way no one will miss out on a blessing by thinking his/her giving won’t be missed.
• Pray for the ability to give generously.

Principle #2: Find help and instruction to help everyone in your church to enjoy the freedom of getting out of debt.

(Romans 13:8; Proverbs 22:7)

• Pray that the families and individuals in your church will pay off any outstanding debts they may have in order to experience financial freedom.

Principle #3: Giving should come from the cheerful generous heart of one who loves God.

(2 Corinthians 9:6—8)

• Pray for your church members to love the Lord so much that they see giving to Him through the church as a joy and a privilege. Then, they will give generously as God enables them.

Principle #4: Give to God not only as an act of thanksgiving, but also in obedience to His command. When you obey Him, He promises to meet all your needs and to bless your lives.

(Malachi 3:6-10; Philippians 4:19)

• Ask the Lord to give each member the courage to accept God’s challenge to test Him by giving at least a tithe (10%) of his/her income, even if it seems impossible.
• Thank the Lord for honoring His promise to pour out a blessing on those who give.
• Ask that as God pours out His blessings, whether material or spiritual, the person receiving them will know them as God’s blessings sent because of their obedient giving.

Principle #5: Your tithe should be the first thing you pay.

(1 Corinthians 16:2)

• Ask the Lord give each member the courage to trust Him to meet all his or her needs as they give to Him first and then pay their bills.

Principle #6: Money can be used for good or for evil.

(1 Timothy 6:6—10, 17—19)

• Ask the Lord to give each member the sense of contentment we all need to resist greed, and the desire to “keep up with the Jones’s.”
• Pray for wisdom in how you spend and invest your money, especially so you can reap eternal dividends.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

How do you pray for your church’s finances?

Welcome back to the Transformed podcast. Thank you for joining us!

Have you ever wondered what God thinks of your next-door neighbors? In our new series, “Walking with the Wounded,” Dr. Matthew Smith, lead pastor at Pacific Baptist Church of El Segundo, will explore that very thought.

In this series we will focus our attention on the theme, “Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves.” Our first installment, entitled, “We Are Called to Care!” will answer the question, “How will I respond to the wounded people I encounter?”

As Pastor Matt begins today in Luke 10, let’s open our Bibles and discover how God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” through us!

You can take this thought one step further by ordering a copy of Pastor Matt’s book, Growing Missional Leaders.

Growing Missional Leaders is a practical, passionate, Biblical mentoring journey for individuals, small groups, leadership teams and congregations who desire to win their world for Christ.

Growing Missional Leaders …

* Tells stories – of lost opportunities and successes with friends – that give powerful, encouragement for personal and corporate outreach …

* It opens Bible passages – again and again – showing that God’s heart is to bring his lost children home …

* And it provides stimulating discussion questions – at the end of each chapter -providing the stepping-stones to launching fresh ministry into your community …

Believers hungering to reach their world for Christ will be energized by this passionate call to fulfill Christ’s Gospel and the invigorating manner in which their thought processes will be stretched to God-sized proportions.

You can order a copy of Growing Missional Leaders from Amazon by clicking the link on the side panel of the Eagles In Leadership website.

We are praying that you would be filled with the love of God so that you can demonstrate His love to the lost and dying in your city! God bless!

A Special Discount to a GREAT Conference for all our pastor friends!

I hope you would consider attending the Moody Pastors Conference this May. Through Eagles In Leadership, I am able to provide a $50 discount for Moody Pastors Conference using discount code: EAGLES. Register now!

Every year God blesses my life with his presence in a powerful way! I know you will want to attend as well!

Moody Bible Institute has a burden and passion for pastors. Each year, the campus is host to one of the premiere conference events for pastors from a variety of denominations and from all over the globe.

Through some of the most gifted communicators of God’s Word, powerful worship, skilled breakout session leaders and fellowship with over 1,000 fellow pastors, this conference is a week that can transform your entire life!

I hope you join me for re|FOCUS Pastors’ Conference 2012, May 21–24.

Welcome back to the Transformed podcast. We are honored to have Alan Hirsch with us on the podcast today!

Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of shapevine.com an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas. He leads Future Travelers, a learning journey applying missional-incarnational approaches to established churches and is an active participant in The Tribe of LA, a Jesus community among artists and creatives in Los Angeles.

His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Alan is and adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S.
Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His popular book The Shaping of Things to Come (with Michael Frost) is widely considered to be a seminal text on mission. Alan’s recent book The Forgotten Ways, has quickly become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to movements. His book ReJesus is a radical restatement about the role that Jesus plays in defining missional movements.  Untamed, his latest book (with his wife Debra) is about missional discipleship for a missional church.

We are aware there are some audio imperfections in this interview – Alan’s connection wasn’t the best. However, we know you will learn a lot if you turn up the volume and stay focused to this great discussion.

We are giving away TWO copies of Alan and Deb’s book, Untamed as well! Check out these simple rules and tell your friends.

To be eligible for a FREE copy …

1.     Just sign up for the Eagles In Leadership blog notifications (Right side of this web page) if you are not already signed up.

2.     Make a comment below this post on the web page indicating your desire for the book and how you would envision using it.

3.     Deadline for the free copies will be October 15^th.

Winners will be notified after the contest concludes.

Editor’s Note: We continue our series of blogs for those who are reading the Bible with us cover-to-cover this year. Interspersed with our thoughts on our daily reading, we want to provide some tips about reading the Bible in general.

The Fall of the Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 12-22)

Unfortunately, as we complete the book of 2 Kings, we watch the last of God’s people head into captivity. The book ends with the great hopes and dreams of David and Solomon shattered and burned. The glory days of Solomon have turned into the gory days of a small remnant of people.

As you read through these pages you will see the last king taken into captivity because of their abandonment of a personal, vibrant relationship with God. This book closes with the burning of the Temple, thus showing all the consequences of living life with little regard for the God of the Universe. While you read this funeral for the nation you will be stunned by the completeness of God’s punishment of His people for their flagrant disregard of His fame and name.

In this section we can see:

• The faith of King Hezekiah. (2 Kings 18-19)
• The failure of King Hezekiah. (2 Kings 20)
• The revival under King Josiah. (2 Kings 21-23)
• The destruction of and fall of Judah. (2 Kings 24-25)

Remember the lesson of this section of God’s Word: You are free to choose to relegate God to the shadows of your life; but you must also be willing to live with the consequences of such a decision.

It is our hope that this background information helps a bit as you read on in the Bible.

For daily insights into the passage we are reading together each day, you can follow Dr. Smith on Twitter and on Facebook.

You can obtain more help from the FREE Bible reading schedule on our resource page. In His Image is a daily devotional that also follows our reading schedule and expresses the Biblical truth: “God Created You to Love You.” You can find this resource on the side bar of our website.

Host a “Reaching Your Community in Your Generation Weekend” in your area!

The world around us changes approximately every 18 months! Such change brings great challenges to our mission. Eagles In Leadership has designed a weekend to help you energize your congregation or organization to fulfill the Great Commission in your community. You can bring this weekend to your church or organization! You can learn more about how to do this here.

Pastors.com Friday Chat

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM PT

Brandon Cox, friend of EaglesInLeadership.org says, “We’ll gather every Friday for an exchange of ideas, encouragement, and prayer. We want to know what you’ll be preaching on, what big events you have going on, what you’re learning right now, etc.”

We encourage you to join in Friday by using this link!

Feel free to forward this to a friend!

“To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.”

~ Louis L’Amour

America is filled with talkers about Jesus! We talk about our church. We talk about our faith. We go to services and attend studies. But what is the end of all this supposed to be?

Jesus ran across a marvelous specimen of religiosity one evening. Invited to dinner at the home of a very devout man, the following exchange took place …

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Luke 7:36-50 (NKJV)

We become like Jesus when …

o We deepen our affection for Jesus through demonstrable actions, and stop looking down on those who do – despite their previous background.

When the local fornicator dropped by to express her repentant faith, the devout religious man was critical. (Usually our lack of faith can be seen in our ability to criticize another.) While the Pharisee judged the woman (and Jesus!) he truly showed how distant his heart was from God!

Faith is demonstrated by our actions! The more we love Jesus, the more we demonstrate it. Our compassion should monitor our thought processes carefully. We are looking for faith … in anyone … nothing less or else; especially in ourselves.

© 2009 B