Remember Scrooge McDuck swimming in his vault of gold coins. It’s easy to demonize Mr McDuck and his lack of generosity, instead of looking in the mirror at the Scrooge in your own heart.
By this time tomorrow, 187,000 meals will be on their way to feed starving children in the Phillipines. I watched the last two nights as 700 volunteers from our church: families, children, teenagers, and singles. Young and Old. Religious and Non religious. Politically blue and politically red. They all came together to express the radical generosity Christ calls us to engage in.
Our church worked with a group called FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN to pack meals for children who are literally dying by the day. What a horrible tragedy, especially when it takes so little to do so much. Over half the world lives on less than $2 a day. Half of them live on less than $1 a day. We lose that much in our car seats. I must confess that too often I identify with the fat EARTHLING in the movie Wall-e. I am so insulated in my own comfortable and well fed life that I forget the real poverty and starvation going on all over the world.
Corinthians tells us that Jesus who was rich became poor for us -so that in Christ, we can be rich as an heir to all the treasures of heaven. The response to that truth is life changing. We choose to draw near the poor -just as He drew near to us when we were poor. We choose to give away lavish amounts of our money to the hurting -knowing that our real treasure is in Heaven.
Christians are commanded and called to be radically generous to others. We are called to examine every crook and cranny of our hearts for self-centeredness and greed. We are called to feed all the starving children by building our budgets around the Three “P”s of generosity.

1. Percentage Giving

Don’t just give away a few dollars. Move your heart and budget toward percentage giving. Start at 1% and start growing toward a higher and higher percentage. Find the joy of giving up a Starbucks to feed a child for a month. Find the power of seeing your giving to ‘the least of these’ as a ministry to God Himself.

2. Priority Giving

Give to God’s priorities. As you examine your giving, give to his bride, the church. Give to the poor. God has so many strong, compelling, and stern warnings to those who ignore the plight of the poor and hurting. Build a budget to provide for your marriage and family knowing people are God’s top concern.

3. Progressive Giving

Every year my wife and I look at our budget and see how we can be more generous. Is there a way to organize our spending, our lifestyles, and our budget to give more money away.? I made a decision back when I was 21 years old to move toward becoming a progressively generous person. My wife and I decided to habitually move from giving a few bucks weekly back in college to giving away a large percentage of our money. And 17 years later, God has blessed that endeavor personally and corporately.

Our church sends medical doctors and pharmacists to Belize each year to give away free surgeries, medicine, and homes to the deeply impoverished. We are able to build a home for a family from the ground up for less than $5000. Imagine how the world could change if we all moved into the realm of deep sacrificial joyful generosity. Imagine if we all looked at the McScrooge in us and the Wall-e Earthlings in us…. And instead responded to the incredible grace of God

For more information, check out www.godonomics.com

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