#43- The Birthday Project

Last year I discovered a ministry called "The Birthday Project". The premise is that your birthday becomes about gratitude...gratitude for another year of life, more chances to impact the world around you for good, and to live for something greater than yourself. It is one day on the calendar to represent our lives as a whole.

As I began to figure out how I would 'celebrate' my birthday this year, I remembered how much fun I had last year blessing others on my birthday. To read about it, see last years post.http://runningonfaith-beachstork.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-birthday-project-42-not-so-raok.html

I was blessed after I wrote this particular blog in that I later found out it was featured in a national Christian magazine (Charisma); this was God's sweet affirmation to me at the time concerning my future calling/destiny.http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/evangelism-missions/16427-how-one-woman-s-birthday-spent-performing-kind-acts-sparked-a-movement


So I asked God, how do you want me to spend No "43"... 43 ice-cream cones? 43 lottery tickets? And very clearly God answered... 43 BACKPACKS.

This year the Lord has been working in my family concerning the area of finances. How you deal with money is huge when it comes to spiritual maturity. Why? Because Luke Ch 16 (verse 13) makes it abundantly clear; "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Most Christians have heard this scripture before and are relatively familiar with it. Most believe they are serving God. I used to think this too. But the truth is, fed by my own insecurities and a warped sense of finances that I learned as a child, I wasn't. At least not as much as I should for what the Lord has blessed me with. Greg and I started tithing many years ago.  Tithing is just the beginning. Scripture tells us that the first 10% belongs to the Lord; you only have two choices: bring it to the storehouse (church) or steal it. Stewardship involves what you do with the other 90%.  I recently heard a message on finances that put is this way. All money has a spirit on it. It either has the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Mammon. Mammon is the word used in the New King James Version instead of money for this same scripture in Luke 16. Mammon could be translated as riches, instead of money. It refers to a Syrian God that was worshiped in Babylon. It embodies the spirit that says I can do this my way...I don't need God. Mammon makes false promises that only God can fulfill. It promises that if you have more money... you will have true significance, true influence, true love, true worth, or true happiness. Just look at society around you and you will see money doesn't buy you those things. Only God provides those things.

It was another part of this passage of scripture that really sunk deeply into my marrow. As a Christian, I want to live for Christ. I want to fulfill my God given destiny... to fulfill my calling and significance which inherently involves winning others to salvation.  To be truly effective at this, I have to be a good steward of what God has given me. "Whoever can be  trusted with very little, can also be trusted with very much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with very much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" What are true riches to God? Souls...people are what God considered true riches. They are the only thing that lives forever; worldly wealth does not. If you want God to trust you with souls and having influence for his kingdom to win others to Christ, you have to understand how to steward what he gives you. This doesn't mean we can't have nice things. I think it means that when God wants you to use your wealth to further his kingdom, you have the ability, desire and trust to answer him. It's understanding everything you have comes from him anyway.

So let me get back to the 43 Backpacks. My church has a missions project each year where they register children in need and purchase them a backpack filled with needed school supplies and a new pair of shoes. Each child and their family is prayed over and witnessed to. Its more than a just a backpack. As my missions pastor put it, "It's a spiritual battle against poverty." When you meet someone's physical need, you then have the opportunity to reach their deeper spiritual need. Each backpack represents a life, a family, a soul. Before I gave my money this week I prayed for the 43 and asked God that my money may be used to further his kingdom. I won't know who they were, but someday (in heaven) I might. "I tell you...use worldly wealth to gain (true) friends for yourselves so that when it (your riches) is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."