A new category in our budget
My wife, Julie and I, were able to put a new category in our budget this year. Each month we set aside $200 to serve people. The $200 is above and beyond our tithe to our local church home. It's simply used to love people the way Jesus would love them.
And it has been a blast!
Most of the time we give gifts anonymously (like the gas cards and grocery cards we recently gave to a family going through a tough time). Other times, like today, we were able to love our neighbors. Their mom died a couple of days ago and they're not involved with a church. So we took them a couple hundred dollars worth of food and flowers (You know, ham and stuff).
I'm certainly not sharing this with you to say, "Hey, look at us!" I'm telling you because this is one of the best "Jesus things" we've ever done. I'm telling you this to encourage you to consider doing the same.
And it has been a blast!
Most of the time we give gifts anonymously (like the gas cards and grocery cards we recently gave to a family going through a tough time). Other times, like today, we were able to love our neighbors. Their mom died a couple of days ago and they're not involved with a church. So we took them a couple hundred dollars worth of food and flowers (You know, ham and stuff).
I'm certainly not sharing this with you to say, "Hey, look at us!" I'm telling you because this is one of the best "Jesus things" we've ever done. I'm telling you this to encourage you to consider doing the same.
posted by Greg Nettle at 2:39 PM
7 Comments:
I certainly does feel good to bless people. I always feel blessed, myself when I do things for others. It's exciting!
Sounds like a plan! Thanks for sharing.
i came home from work a couple weeks ago to my wife saying "i've driven past the same homeless guy on the same bench 3 times today." i knew that what this actually meant was, "i would like for us to do something for said homeless guy."
so we took him out to dinner with us and hung out with him for awhile. i got the sense after that God was telling me that that shouldn't feel abnormal to me, but that it should be commonplace to see a need in someone and act on that need. i have to imagine that just creating space in your budget like you're doing would cause God to blow open all sorts of opportunities to bless other people.
i look forward to hearing more about how you use your new budget!
Hey chris,
Wow! You took a homeless guy to dinner. Actually, according to the Bible you took Jesus to dinner. "Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for Me."
Amazing thought isn't it?
We have a full blown non-profit that came out of what you did Chris. It is called People In Need (PIN) ministry. It started out with a husband and wife feeding homeless folks on their own. Then the small groups got involved; then the church overall became involved; then this guy quite his near 6 figure job to start this ministry. We just finished giving away two mobile homes to families on the street; and PIN just purchased a 3rd mobile home to do the same thing. They provide hot meals, clothing and medical attention to the folks each Sunday at a local church.
So..., ya never know where one meeting with Jesus will take ya! Good on ya!
IHL,
Richie
richie,
sounds amazing! i'd love to learn more about what you guys do. my church is on the brink of some similar stuff...do you have a website for PIN?
Here ya go Chris!
http://www.pinministry.org/
Talk to Dallas Stamper. He was actually mentioned in Rick Rusaw's last book because of this work. It is cool stuff!
IHL,
Richie
Post a Comment
<< Home