It Really Pays to go to Church
According to insurance companies, the person who goes to church regularly will live an average of 5.7 years longer.
At offering time, from the same business viewpoint, given a life expectancy of 72 years, you and I owe the church 7.9% purely from a fiscal perspective.
Zig Ziglar adds a couple of statistics and thoughts. "We also have approximately a 60% less chance of heart attack and 55% less chance of a one-car accident if we attend church regularly.
"A special note here to my non-Christian brothers, 'If you're not absolutely certain about where you are going when you die, I'd especially urge you to go to church regularly so you could at least delay your departure, because if you don't know Jesus, you've got it better here than you'll have it there.'"
Priorities in Life
Here's a perspective on giving and a thought about priorities from Leonard Griffith, a Canadian minister.
"In 1960, Elvis Presley was paid $125,000 for one night's appearance on a TV program. He did two wiggles and sang two songs and for this received more than the yearly salary of the President of the United States. At the time it was estimated that an identical sum of money would pay the annual salaries of twentyfive schoolteachers, forty-two ministers, or sixty-three farmshands. It would provide a year's training for thirty or more nurses, would give one hundred twenty-five people a year of college, would stock ten mission hospitals with elemental tools and drugs, would feed three thousand refugee children for a whole year."
(From Illustrations of Our Culture by Leonard Griffith, Word Books Publishers, 1969.)
Every person has his own priorities. You can usually tell what they are by asking three questions about them:
1. What do you have time for?
2. How do you spend your wealth?
3. What do you allow to interrupt you?
I am a Dollar
I am not on speaking terms with the butcher;
I am unable to buy a gallon of gasoline;
I am small change at the supermarket;
I am too little to go to the restaurant of the family;
I am hardly even big enough for a decent tip;
But when I go to church on Saturday, I am considered SOME MONEY.
My Financial Commitment
1. Does it adequately reflect my love for Christ?
2. Does it exceed the tithe (10% of my income)?
3. Does its size require faith on my part to do it?
4. Would Jesus be pleased with me?
5. If God used it alone to determine my gratitude to Him, would it pass the test?
6. Is it more than I'll spend on skiing, games, boating, vacation, and self-entertainment?
7. Could the world look at it and determine by it that I'm truly one of Christ's disciples?
8. Does it reflect my concern for world missions?
The Great Giving Spirit
Three persons watched the offering plate being passed.
One said, "There goes some of my hard earned money."
The second said, "It's my duty to give something to my church."
The third said, "What a privilege it is to support the building of God's kingdom."
What do you say when the plate comes to you?
