Kingdom Investments

I read this on Mark Batterson's blog today and will probably share it this Sunday as well. Here is his post:

I like to think of giving as buying stock in the kingdom. And the truth is that those kingdom shares will earn compound interest for eternity. Talk about a Return on Investment (ROI). Eternal dividends!

I did a little research to put it in perspective. If you purchased one share of Coca-Cola stock in 1919, and simply held that one share, by the year 2000 it would have split into 4608 shares. And that original $40 investment, if you kept reinvesting the dividends, would have been worth $7 million. Dang! To further your pain, if your great-great grandparents had purchased one of Asa Candler's original shares in 1892, that $100 investment would be worth $7.34 billion. Dang! Dang!

Here's the bottom line: we'll never regret one ounce of energy, one second of time, or one penny of money invested in the kingdom of God.

I often think of the band of sisters in Luke 8 who supported Jesus. They got in on the Initial Public Offering (IPO). They were the original shareholders. What a return on investment!

May we strive to be good stewards of God's blessings in our lives. There are tremendous blessings when we invest in the kingdom both in this life and the one to come. One of the ways to measure how you are doing is to look at your year end giving statements. Compare that to your gross pay and ask God if that is the best you can do. I have always practiced and taught that the local church you attend (the storehouse) gets the first 10% or the tithe. It shouldn't stop there-we should give above and beyond the tithe to special projects, missions, the poor, and however the Lord leads. Put God to the test. I double dog dare you and so does He!

Looking forward to some major snow!