God's word tells us "to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds."  As we approach the K1 finish line, we'll be sharing the "giving story" of a Seven Rivers member each day.  We hope they are a wild encouragement to you. 

K1 Giving Story #9

I listen to the sermons on-line as often as I am able to carve out that extra hour on a weeknight; I feel like Ruth… I'm not a member of SRPC, but I am allowed to glean from the spiritual table long distance via the Internet.

When I came to Seven Rivers, I was a baby Christian of just two years. I grew 10 years spiritually in the 3 years I was there. About 12 years ago, I attended, and then led a Bible study for Navy wives. A woman much my senior told me she was surprised to hear such mature responses come from such a young person. So thank you for giving me my spiritual base so richly filled with truth. I will always consider Seven Rivers my spiritual home. Thinking of SRPC always brings a tear of joy to my eye and I can't help but think, if it was so spiritually fulfilling to sit and learn under the teachings of a church, how much more glorious will it be when I can sit at the feet of Jesus, Himself, and listen to Him explain the scriptures to me.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to thank you now, after all these years, when I have been appreciative all the while. Whatever the reason, I am very grateful that I was the one chosen to teach the 4th grade at the very beginning of SRCS. I needed Seven Rivers more than you needed me.

K1 Giving Story #8

Years ago, long before we became Presbyterians, I became convinced that we should start tithing.  After telling my wife of my feelings and discussing the idea, she replied, "That's impossible! We can't do it!"  After some discussion she agreed that we could try it but she didn't think it would work out.

Our finances were in a mess at the time so I could understand her doubt.  It was definitely not easy at first but the pressure of carrying out our commitment caused us to use our heads more when it came to finances.  We stopped buying things if we could not pay cash for them.  We began to be more frugal and learn some good principles of finances.  We bought a book of Larry Burkett on finances and learned even more.  As we put those things into practice our financial situation improved. 

We got out of debt and stayed out of debt.  When I got a raise or promotion we put it into savings.  We did not try to raise our standard of living as promotions and raises came along.  We just lived our simple lifestyle.  We were happier than ever because we did not have debt hanging over our heads.  What a relief!  I truly believe that God blessed our efforts because we were trying to be obedient to His word.  God blessed us with good health saving us many doctor bills and hospital bills.  He provided us with friends who sold us good reliable cars and other needed things.  He never gave us a pot of gold or any huge landfall but He met our every need faithfully.

K1 Giving Story #7

I grew up in a family that never went to church and never came to know the love and grace of our Lord before death.  Therefore, tithing was never modeled for me, and furthermore, the accumulation of stuff was something to be valued.  The hardest thing for my father to understand was that I actually tithed.  He finally justified that it was okay because it was like paying a country club membership.

I came to Christ in college, but my journey to truly know and trust the Father has been a long journey (with a long way to go).  I married my college sweetheart, the same girl that cared enough to invite me to church the first time.  She had been raised in a Christian home and been modeled tithing by her parents her whole life.  Now it was my time for me to lead my own "Christian" home.  We were newlyweds, poor, and in debt.  I could not see how tithing could help us get out of debt.  It would only make things worse in my mind.  So I did not tithe.  My wife expressed her disappointment, but submitted to my leadership (just one of my many failures as a leader in the home).  The debt never went away.  We continually made strides, but then the latest thing would go on the market and we would buy it.  At her leadership, we did start tithing, but we rarely went over and above 10%.  How could we? 

It was not until the mid-90's that I started to realize that this is not my world, that I cannot create heaven on earth by having more stuff.  We started to tithe, to give a little over and above, and to trust what the Bible says: that the Lord will provide for all of my needs.  In the late 90's we stepped way out and sold almost everything we had and I took a job that paid considerably less than before.  We still had thousands of dollars in credit card debt and no idea how we would ever pay it off.  Over the next two years we tithed, paid off the debt, kept our children in Christian school, and for the first time contributed to an IRA. 

How could this be?  We made less money than ever, but were able to do so much more.  Of course we don't drive new cars anymore, got rid of the pool table, live in a house 40% smaller, the kids don't have an X-Box 360, and we gave up the IRA contributions for Generation Next.  But God is providing what we NEED.  God did not promise to supply us with what we want, only what we need.  You know what though, He still provides us with some of our wants.  But instead of my own strength providing the wants for my family, it is usually through the generous gifts of the Christian friends around us. 

Please know that I still struggle with wants.  I still struggle to lead my spouse and be a good example to my children.  And I still struggle to trust Him.  But He has been faithful to show me that when I do trust Him…He always comes through according to His purpose. 

You want to know what else I now know?  When I screw up, he still loves me, when I have to apologize to my wife or children for something stupid I did or said, when I make a wrong decision about something…He still loves me by HIS grace, not my merit. 

To me….THAT is heaven on earth.

K1 Giving Story #6

At the [leadership] commitment service on the evening of Friday, March 3, my husband and I offered up our three-year commitment card for the K-1 campaign.  My husband is in real estate, which does not promise a fixed annual income.  We felt that we had made a commitment to the campaign, by faith that God would truly have to provide.

As we came out of the Sunday morning service today, my husband said to me that he felt led by the Holy Spirit during the service to increase our K-1 commitment by $2000 a year for the next three years.  I was shocked!   I thought we were already exhibiting a huge amount of faith that the original K-1 commitment would be met each year in addition to our tithe.  My husband said, "If God wants us to give this extra amount of money, we have nothing to worry about.  He will provide it."  I agreed wholeheartedly, and so we raised our original three-year commitment by $6000.  I was experiencing that feeling of "excitement" that Pastor Ray talked about just a few minutes before. 

In Isaiah 46:10 and 11 God says, "My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do."   Little did we know that God was already at work to make our additional faith commitment tangible.  He had purposed it before we even thought of it.  He must have been smiling to Himself at His plan to show us just how EASY it is for Him to provide for the work of His Kingdom through each of us if we BELIEVE HIM and have faith that HE will do it!  He has made that abundantly clear to us today.

When we got to the car, there was a message on my husband's cell phone that started the ball rolling.  By 5:30 this very same Sunday afternoon, God has provided the extra $6,000 by way of a very unexpected house sale commission.  The commission for my husband is the EXACT "extra" $6,000 that we, just hours earlier, trusted God to provide over the course of the next three years, if He wanted it from us!  He provided it all in one afternoon! Has He not just opened the floodgates?  We are drowning in His Faithfulness, Goodness and Love! 

We are SO EXCITED to be able to give this treasure back to Him with praise and more praise!   What an honor-what an incredible PLEASURE-to LET GO of what is not ours to begin with.  God delights in providing for us, and we get the blessings that come from trusting Him enough to GIVE IT AWAY!   We pray for more opportunity to be a part of God's purposes and plans.  They are sweet, indeed!!  To Him be the Glory, Power and Honor forever, Amen!

K1 Giving Story #5

Believing God is for me has always been a struggle in my life.  The results of my lack of belief in the goodness of God have been manifested in many different ways, being a "worry-wart" for starters.  It was always easy to rationalize my lack of trust by believing "that's just the way I am", and when that didn't work, I would simply try harder to read my Bible and believe the promises of God, and when that didn't work I'd just go back to believing that "that's just the way I am".

Another manifestation of my unbelief was how I gave my money to the work of the Lord.  I knew it was all his anyway, but that wasn't much of a motivation for generosity, and since I'm often motivated by obligation and responsibility, I determined to give back just enough so as not to tick him off, which was my tithe (10%).  Then something happened.  I read an article about John Wesley's being visited by a poor woman who had nothing, while he was living lavishly, and he was financially unable to help her because of his lifestyle.  Wesley was so touched by her need and convicted by the way he spent his money that he determined to live by three principles regarding money: make all you can without harming yourself or your relationships; save all you can, not spending it to merely gratify yourself; and finally give all you can, being generous with that which God has entrusted you. God used John Wesley to help soften my heart and to enable me to give more generously. 

Do I still worry?  Yes.  Do I still struggle with being generous with the money God's entrusted me with? Absolutely.  But the more I see how much I am loved by my Heavenly Father and how he really is for me and will take care of me, the more I'm enabled to trust in his care and not worry.  The more I see how much I've been so lavishly blessed by God, the more I'm able to give beyond a tithe, not out of a sense of obligation, but out of a sense of genuine joy. I really do love being a part of advancing God's kingdom because my Father takes such good care of me. 

K1 Giving Story #4

I'm not always sure what to expect when a campaign comes around.  I'd like to believe that God will supernaturally move in our midst but I find myself so skeptical.  I will at least believe that he comes to others but rarely will I expect him to come to me.  Needless to say, I started down the K-1 road with low expectations personally.  What I have found stirring up by the Holy Spirit was not what I expected at all.

Over the past 4-5 weeks there has been this slow, confirming call from God.  I would have expected "flashing lights" and some monumental experience, maybe a burning bush, but it has been a quiet call.  His whispering voice.  The smallest internal shift that no one on the outside would even pick up is happening.  I'm even hesitant to write it down because you will think it's obvious and not that big a deal but through K-1 God has come to me and called me to unconditionally surrender my life.  To get down on my knees before him and sign the bottom of a blank contract saying, "I surrender to the way that you will write the story and the way that you are calling me to a life of servant hood."  It's the surrendering of the way I'd like the story of my kids' lives to go, it's the surrendering of how I wish my spouse's life would go, it's the surrendering of where my "professional" story may or may not head, it's the surrendering of my real and subtle agenda.  It's the surrendering of how I think life has to go and offering myself to be God's servant.  I think I turn the tables around most of the time in my daily living.  I usually treat God and others as if I'm the one to be served.  I'm finding myself in a myriad of relationships and situations where my agenda comes to the forefront and as I'm faced with trying to get what I want, there's a small prayer emerging alongside, "God, help me die."  "It's about serving, God, help me die." "It's about loving, God, help me die again."  Who would have thought that God would ask me to start dying to myself in 100 different ways?

In the midst of this unconditional surrender I was asking God what we'd give to the K-1 campaign.  The thought came, "Give away this certain investment you have."  What!!  Unconditionally surrender the "nest egg" for the future.  "If we give this away, what will happen to us in the future when we might need it?"  And God answers back to me, "Will you trust me to write your story?  Will you trust me to be  your God?  Will you live without the "control" you think you have?"  I hear his words over and over, "Will you trust me?  Will you trust me?"  It's the unconditional surrender.  And so, we're giving our investment to K-1.  Honestly, it stings when I think about it.  It feels like I'm giving up security, surety, and control.  And when I feel the sting my new prayer rises up with in me, "God, help me die."  It's the unconditional surrender to be a servant.  To be about my Father's kingdom and not my own and it hurts so good.

K1 Giving Story #3

I hate campaigns and I love campaigns.  I don't like them because they challenge me in ways I would rather not think about.  Not simply the money side of things but everything.  Campaigns always seem to center my life in a way I crave and enjoy, but resist because of my stubborn heart.  Life feels so pressed between raising my children, work and the things that need my immediate attention.  So many of the things that are labeled "urgent" in my life are imposters, but I welcome them in my already blurry and disoriented life.  I fall prey to looking to financial security to be the answer.  We need more money!  The answer is money!  I don't like campaigns because I fall into the trap like everyone else thinking, it is my money.  And what do I get from this frame of mind?  An anxious, worried heart, fearful of what is going to break next.  Fearful of the next time saving for college, therapy for our daughter or the condition of the car becomes headline in my daily news.   This is not even mentioning the little demon of envy reminding me through comparison that my life is frumpy and boring because I don't "have" or get to "do."  

One of my favorite scenes in the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life" is when young George Bailey has an intense problem as the errand boy for the town pharmacist and at the moment of perplexity he sees an advertisement that says, "Your father knows what is best."  He then runs to his dad's office for help.  As much as my own kids want to be independent from me and find their own way, when their hearts are perplexed or full of fear they do come to my wife and I for direction.   So, here lies the simple reason I love Kingdom One.  It gets me to take my fear-filled heart to find rest in my Father's wisdom.  And I get to go there in a real tangible way by giving more away than I think I can.  Because in so doing, my fears become small and my Father's faithfulness to me becomes clear.  It takes me to a place where I really need him when I am so often laboring to do life without Him.  It takes me back to recall in the past when I gave "sacrificially" how much I was able to experience God as Father.  My anxious heart needs this.  Our love and devotion is indeed measured by what we spend our time and money on.  It is measured by what makes us animated in our conversations with others.  Kingdom One however is not about how much I really love God, but do I get how much the Father's love has been lavished on me. 

So, I hate campaigns and I love them.  They always help me to see some of the worst in my heart and they help me to see my big-hearted Father.  As much I would like to say I don't need the process of the K-1 campaign to show me this, it simply is not the case for me.  Jesus reminds us in the book of Matthew "your Father knows what you need."   Try saying this phrase to yourself over and over again.  Then you will remember like I do why we need to "seek first the Kingdom of God…"

K1 Giving Story #2

The first campaign my wife and I participated in was in the early 1990's (I think it was called "Where the River Flows"). In any event, we had recently closed on our first home, given birth to our second child, begun tithing for the first time EVER and were then challenged with giving above and beyond our tithe for the capital campaign program. Needless to say, we felt overwhelmed with the thought of participating in the campaign and quite frankly, didn't have much money (or faith) in reserve to feel comfortable with making any kind of commitment, no less a substantial one.

Through an evaluation of our personal financial standing, there just wasn't room for us to take a "leap in faith" with the campaign. Therefore, we decided to take a more conservative approach by giving 50% of the income generated through my participation within professional golf tournaments. In other words, if the Lord truly wanted to build his Church, he could zap me into Tiger Woods and bring in $15,000,000 in three years. Or, God could cause the other players to miss strategic shots, thereby causing me to win the tournaments along with the prize money. As you can see, this strategic plan probably had more to do with my using God to steal his glory than it had to do with being a faithful giver to the capital campaign.  After all, if God came through, my plan enabled me to be in the spotlight and viewed by my peers as one of the best golfers...a favorite idol of mine.

Although I didn't win the U.S. Open or any other championship of any significance, God was certainly in favor of building his Church. During that campaign, I played golf well above my typical ability and more than doubled my tournament earnings as compared to prior years.  Therefore, even through my lack of faith, poor theology, personal motives and lack of reserves, God was/is capable of taking weak people like me in order to get them involved in building his Church. What a God!

K1 Giving Story #1

I was just blending all the things around in my mind about K1 and thinking what on earth I can do and what can we do as a family. We already give in our tithe to the church and also give of myself when the work's easy and on my time schedule. I pray regularly and belong to a group and I try not to miss a service either Saturday night or Sunday. Then Ray's saying, "It's not about us" just kept hitting me in the head. Then I thought about the young people here and yet to come what a difference we could make for the Kingdom. I had a terrible childhood and thought what if there had been a place like Seven Rivers to go to and truly hear the Gospel of Christ what difference that could have made in my life! Wow! What a possibility! I started to pray more about it and my wife gave me the K1 brochure and a statement by C. S. Lewis said to me: "I'm afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures exclude them." We haven't felt that in years, we have been so blessed by God, I just can't begin to share the multitude of things God has done. More and more the K1 images came to vision, Ray's sermons on scriptural giving, but moreover how Christ gave it all, freely and with love, HE gave it ALL!

I was taking a ride on my motorcycle, a beautiful new Softail Deluxe Harley Davidson with all the toys and chrome, the most beautiful bike I have ever owned. I have never had a bike that rode and handled so nice and was so beautiful! The temperature was just right and the wind in my face was wonderful. How very good I felt admiring all of God's creation as I rode, wow what a super ride! Then it hit me like a June bug in the forehead at 70 MPH. This bike is my treasure! It's my idol!  I realized how much this bike meant to me. 23 years of dreaming, saving, and being able to pay cash and have no debt for this bike! I said to myself, no, I can just give more time and prayer. However, God had planted the thorn and the more I prayed the more I felt I should give this treasure to the church, to God for the young people here and yet to come. After my last ride with friends, I decided this was it. My heart says, "It's not about you" I stood in my garage admiring this thing of beauty comfort and idolatry. Tears came when I thought of never riding again but God gave me comfort in my heart. God gave it to me and now I feel it can better serve other needs of His Kingdom! I told my wife that I wanted to give the bike to K1 and she was quite surprised, not that the bike would go away but how my heart changed to give away something that I so loved and cherished, to someone that I so loved and cherished, Jesus. I pray that this will be used to further the Kingdom and especially the youth center. I can assure you this is the hardest thing I have ever felt so compelled to do but again, "It's not about me."