2 Chronicles 24:1-16
At this particular time in my life, I find this section of scripture pertinent. The temple was in a state of disrepair. The money which God told Moses that the people were to give had not been collected.
Does this have a familiar sound to you? It does to me. It seems that any number of churches have programs which the congregation has pledged, promised, to support. And then the money does not come in. This is a bit hard for me to understand when so many people say that God is first in their lives.
It would seem to me that if God is first in their lives, He would also be first when it comes to budgeting; however, that seems not to be true. It was not true in this scripture, and it is not true today. It seems that people need to understand what a budget is…then and now. I do not expect to live beyond my means. A church or any other organization should not do it either.
It makes no sense to me for assets to be used to order to cover a short-fall in money…just because we did not pay our pledges, or we didn’t budget well. There will always be unforeseen circumstances as we are now facing with the price of gas; consequently, there is a rise in the costs of everything which is impacted by oil…our entire lives.
But I would hope that a church or an individual would plan for circumstances of that nature. And if the situation is severe, they need to know what they will give up in order to function normally in the rest of their lives. If I were in a situation in which I had to get rid of something in order to keep within the budget, it would be my car. We all need to know.
In the scripture the priest and the king asked the people for money…and it was given. In fact, it appears that a lot of money was given in order to repair the temple. To me that is a good example of how we all need to make-up a short fall.
The other aspect to the entire situation regarding money is that we truly do not need most of the things we have. I heard of a family with six children recently. They did not have a refrigerator. That is an unmet need which, because of the generosity of an individual, has been met. It is no different in a church. We have big ideas which are wonderful, but until people are willing to give to God first, churches will have difficulties. In my opinion, God needs to be paid first. The money for God should not come from left-overs.
Have you ever considered what you would give up if you were really in a very tight situation monetarily? This is truly my opinion and has little to do with the scripture, but I think it would be good for each of us to consider what we would give up in order to live a decent life if our income were beneath the poverty level.
My guess is that we would discover many things…and that money could go to the church.
The temple in our scripture was repaired and rebuilt with the money from the people. It was not borrowed…it came from the people. And in my opinion, that is the path that all churches need to follow.
If nothing else, it sets a wonderful example for all parishioners…especially the children.
Carol
