The Tree Church

It is hard for us to invest our "physical" in the "spiritual" as long as we keep looking for "life" in physical things. We think life finds it's worth in material possessions but it really finds itself ONLY in a relationship with Jesus. When Jesus is first in our priorities, then we can start to enjoy the physical of life.

Jesus surrendered all that was His to become man to win man back. He sacrificed for a greater good. Every generation is called to do the same. We are here as Christians because EVERY generation has had faithful people who sacrificed for the Kingdom of God to continue. We must do the same for our generation and the future ones.

Tithing is really a relational desire of God. In Malachi 3, God's command is for the people to "return to me" by once again trusting Him with their tithes. The people had "left" God by no longer being obedient in giving which meant that they were relationally disconnected. God's desire was a return to a relationship and the pathway was tithing.

When we are a steward instead of an owner, we are called to both a posture and a practice The posture is contentment. The practice we must put into use is giving first. When we give to God first, it makes Him the priority and also increases our faith.

Before you can understand any of the teachings from the Bible about money, you must first embrace a proper perspective concerning your resources. From the very beginning of God's relationship with His people, He has taught them that 100% of what they have is His and they are simply stewards of it. When you own something, you can do what you want with it. The rights are yours. When you steward something, you have no rights but you have responsibility. When we steward things well for God, He blesses us with more and gives us greater opportunity.

You don’t become a great football player on the field, it’s what is done in practice that makes an athlete great. Faith is not forged in the lions den, but in the upper room through prayer. Prayer is simply a way to connect with God. It’s never been a religious activity, but rather a relationship connector. In it’s most basic and purest form – prayer is how you connect to the presence and power of God.

The goal of marriage is for two to become one. That was God's initial design but that design only works with God as the focus of the marriage. When Adam and Eve sinned, God was pushed out and replaced with SELF. From that point on, every marriage struggles because people by nature are selfish. When Christ once again becomes the focus, SELF is put in its proper place and marriages can attain oneness.

The process of being disciples and making disciples is very difficult when we think we have to be good enough to actually lead someone else. The truth is Jesus never meant for us to simply lead others as much as He meant for us to get into groups of like minded people and together walk towards Christ.

Dozens of times Jesus said "Follow me" to people and each person was different, had different struggles, were in different places and have different degrees of understanding. The goal was the same for each of them in spite of their diversity and so was the expectation. Jesus told them all to follow and to be willing to take up their cross daily. This goal and expectation are still in effect today and it will determine if we are successful. The question we all have in each area is, are we willing to take ONE STEP FORWARD in surrender as we follow Him?

This is the story of the good Samaritan. In this event, a man sets out to test Jesus and in their conversation, the man then asks a common but wrong question: "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus flips it around by telling the story of the good Samaritan. What Jesus communicated is that it's not about who you have to love but are you being loving? The question isn't about "Who is my neighbor" but "Am I being a neighbor?" The love of Jesus shown to us compels us to love above all other reasons to not love.