A Word About Giving
“Relax your grip on your money
and abandon your gold-plated luxury.
God Almighty will be your treasure,
more wealth than you can imagine.” Job 22:23 (MSG)“You’ll take delight in God, the Mighty One,
and look to him joyfully, boldly.” Job 22:26-30
The book of Job is complex. Conversations intertwine guiding our lead character towards God. Discussions between God, the devil, friends, enemies, and mentors are all there.
One of these complexities is Job’s ‘Friends’ advice. They are broadly considered unhelpful because they judge the cause of Job’s pain incorrectly. Yet things aren’t as simple as that, because much of their advice is sound, based on wisdom and worth weighing. The problem they have is they diagnose Job as having caught a bad case of ‘sins consequence’ when he has remained faithful. Instead, he is suffering from ‘distress’ caused by Satan, not personal Sin. Therefore, Job’s friends are treating the symptoms without correctly diagnosing the cause.
Assuming Job has an issue with greed, one friend, Eliphaz, exhorts him to ‘relax his grip on his money’. Never the most helpful advice to give to someone who has lost their business, family and health!
Yet, this advice, applied to us in the West, without the assumption that all are ‘greedy’, offers sound wisdom.
If we do think from pay-check to pay-check, from project to project, from holiday to holiday or from material possession to pleasurable experience, then Eliphaz hits the nail on the head! Let us relax our grip on what is ours for a moment to re-establish God as our provider. How? By giving generously into the Kingdom.
This Gift Day
Giving in a gift day, for many at Jubilee, is the opportunity to give God a free will offering over and above their monthly tithe. If you want to know more about giving a regular tithe then this is a helpful explanation Click Here.
As we give, we look to God joyfully, even boldly, taking delight in the Almighty who cares for us, and is never raising a gift to cover his outgoings! This year we aim to give firstly to the ministry of this church, to the cause of Christ and His Kingdom, worked out through this local Church in East Grinstead. We have a vision to reach this town and the surrounding villages and communities with God’s love and we do this in a variety of ways and through a range of ministries.
Secondly, it is our desire to give into our family of Churches supporting the apostolic mission, as well as into a local charity in alleviating poverty.
Lastly, as we continue to balance the local with the global, we aim to give to those extending the kingdom specifically through Church planting. We have supported Welcome Church Berlin over the past 7 years, and give thanks to God for what is now established.
Previous Gift Days
In 2023 Jubilee bought a car for a Pastor in Albania to continue in their ministry to the prisons. We gave to the Church in Kjiv helping maintain their feeding programme to the poor. We completed our own Cost-Of-Living Kingdom response which saw Jubilee give food vouchers to many local people in the East Grinstead area. We also gave to Newday, a youth camp as they sought to set themselves up as a Charity, stabilising what they do for years to come.
So let me finish by thanking you for your generosity. You may be giving for the first time, or you may be giving again – Thank you. We give thanks to God for partnering with you and for how He is giving us His heart of generosity.
