Advent Conspiracy

  ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
   ²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
   ²⁴ “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.

Matthew 6:19-24 


I like to buy stuff.  If left to my own way of thinking I would just buy things all of the time, constantly upgrade whatever I have and have a house full of things that are next years garage sale items.

I thank God that as a Christian there is something else that we are called to be...generous.

Being generous shows an understanding of our faith, the grace of God, and that every little thing that we have was given to us by Him.  I know, you worked hard for whatever you have.  I get that, but who gave you the talent to do what you do?  Who created you in such a way that you have abilities to make the money that you make?

Exactly.

Everything is truly His and we are simply caretakers of it.  How we take care of our "things" and our money shows what we think of our God.  Is everyone supposed to be poor then?  No.  Can you be wealthy?  Absolutely.  Can you have nice things?  Without question.  We should enjoy what we have and are able do. 

But we always have to keep ourselves in check and remind ourselves that there is a much large purpose to why we have the money that we do.  You see, if it you think that you will be generous when you have more money you are just fooling yourself.  Look around, read a newspaper, or watch tv and you will see that the more we have, the more we want, and the more we spend, if we simply stick to what our natural desires are. 

It's a heart issue.  Whether or not we are generous is truly a window to our hearts.

We have a tradition at Commonwealth Chapel called Advent Conspiracy.  The idea is that we spend less money then we normally would and take the difference and give that away.  So if you normally spend $500 on Christmas every year, only spend $250 and then give the rest away.  How do you do that?  Well, you can start new family traditions like setting a maximum price you can spend on a person, making your gift instead of buying one (Lacy and I do this every year...well, more Lacy then me but I try to help. Although last year I did give out "Free Spiritual Advice" gift certificates...those went over really well...ha.), picking one name out of a hat and just buying for one person rather then 8, and making the gift relational instead of something the other person doesn't really want.  There are a ton of ways to make it happen.  You just have to choose to do so. 

So as a church we ask everyone to participate in some way and then we take up a large offering and all the money goes towards helping people who need water or other needs to simply survive.  Over the past 3 years we've raised a little over 100k and have built wells in Africa and helped out earthquake victims in Haiti.  This year we are helping out with a project in Angola as well as some other things locally here in Richmond.

Why don't you join in with us?

Please take 2 minutes to watch this video about Advent Conspiracy.

[AC] Promo 2011 from Advent Conspiracy on Vimeo.

Peace,
Wags