Generous Life Journey: Gunner Johnson

Lifestyle adjustments when money is tight:

Generous Life Journey, Gunner Johnson, p49

There are really only three options of what can be done when money is tight: 

1. Make more money. Get a second job, work more hours. This is not actually the most efficient response because you tend to lose thirty to thirty-five percent of the extra money. You pay more taxes, plus there's additional wear-and-tear on your cars and your clothing, as well as other expenses. Think also about how it affects your family and personal relationships.
2. Spend less. This is the most efficient thing you can do. Look at where your money is going. You will find some place to cut spending.
3. Sell stuff. This is not always the most efficient way to balance your budget because it frequently is only a one-time thing. Also, you may need the item down the road and it could be more expensive to replace.

 Story on the beauty of generosity

Generous Life Journey, Gunner Johnson, p48

Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting this whole generosity thing right in my own family. Am I setting the right example? Am I having a positive impact? And then God shows me something in my kids.

It was Christmas time, and we stopped at a Taco Bueno with the kids. There was an older woman working there, and we could see from her countenance and demeanour, something was not right. I asked her how she was doing.She told us she was doing okay. She'd lost her husband a couple of years earlier and never had to work outside the home before. She was working now to earn some extra Christmas money. She was struggling and wanted to bless her kids for Christmas. I offered to pray for her, but she declined and wandered on.

Our ten year old daughter said she wanted to give the woman all her money. she had saved $100 to buy a special bird. We agreed with her decision. As we headed home to get her money, the six year old and thirteen year old said they wanted to give too.

I told me wife we needed to stop by the bank because I wanted to be part of this as well.

The kids really cleaned out everything for her. they included Bible bucks and gift cards they'd received along with cash.

We returned to the Taco Bueno and sent the kids in alone to give her the money. this was their idea, and we wanted them to experience the fullness of what they were doing. They ran in and said to the woman, 'Jesus wants to bless you. they gave her the envelope and ran off. They didn't know what else to do.As we drove around the restaurant to leave, we glanced in the window, and the woman was sobbing.

And I thought, 'yeah we're getting it right in this area for our kids.' This is the heart the Father wants to see in his people.

Budgeting resources

• YNAB (youneedabudget.com), 
• MINT (mint.com), 
• Quicken spreadsheets or a combination of several.

Financial categories:

The struggling
The stable
The solid
The surplassed

Matthew 6: Secrets of Christian Living, sermon research

For God, not men: What matters is motive.

Two ways of living, as an orphan or as a son/daughter. Orphans are parent-less. Alone they live in search of praise and affirmation from others. Sons live differently however. 

Simon Holley:

story about the Father's love:

On one occasions I was visiting a church and noticed as I walked into the meeting an older gentleman and a boy of about 13. The boy had very severe cerebral palsy. He was sitting in a wheelchair with a head restraint and clearly had no real ability to control his limbs or even to hold his head up. I smiled at the gentleman as I sat down. I later found out tha he was the boy’s grandfather. We stood to sing and I forgot about those around me as I began to worship God. About halfway through I sat down and as I did so I noticed that the man had lifted the boy onto his lap and was cradling him in his arms, with the boy’s head on his shoulder. He was looking right into the boy’s eyes, his face only inches away. As he held him, rocking backwards and forwards, I could clearly hear what he was saying. Over and over he was telling the boy. ‘God loves you and I love you. You’re a really special boy. god loves you and I love you. You’re a really special boy.’ The boy could do nothing, not even stop the dribble running down his chin. As I watched this scene I was overcome with emotion and began to weep. I saw in an instant a picture of the unconditional love of God. I really could do nothing for him or anything of any account for myself. Yet he loved me. 

Raniero Cantalamessa: The love of God is the answer to all the whs in the Bible: the why of Creation, the why of the Incarnation, the why of Redemption… If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a spoken word and become one single voice, this voice, more powerful than the roaring of the sea, would cry out: The Father loves you!"

Nicky Gumbel:

Story of a successful sailor being lost at sea due to the weight on his keel coming off and the weight distribution being ‘wrong’ and the boat being unable to right itself after being capsized. ‘In this section of the SM Jesus examines the part of our Christian life that is below the waterline. The same principle is true. There must be more weight below the waterline than there is above it. The ‘below the waterline’ bit is the parts of our C life that no one else can see.

Don’t be like: the actors or the orphans/hypocrites and pagans

When you give… 

Jews would give in two ways 1) tithe (law commands) 2) alms which was beyond the law.

Martin Luther: three conversions take place ‘the mind, the heart and the wallet.’ 

C.S. Lewis: there are appropriate and inappropriate rewards. Money is an inappropriate reward for love. It is wrong to marry for money but it is not wrong to desire marriage as the reward for love. a general who fights for fame fights for the wrong motive, but one who fights for victory fights for the right one. Being rewarded by God then is the appropriate reward to be desired in our giving/praying and fasting.

Steven Covey: author of 7 habits of highly effective people said ‘the key is not to prioritise our schedule but to schedule our priorities. 

C.S. Lewis: the moment your wake up each morning all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come rushing in.

The rewards of prayer include: experiencing the joy of God’s presence & receiving God’s peace.

Jesus on prayer: 

• keep it real. 
• keep it quiet
• keep it simple

Tom Wright:

At its lowest prayer is shouting into the void on the off chance there may be someone out there listening. At its highest, prayer merges into love, as the presence of God becomes so real that we pass beyond words and into a sense of his reality, generosity, delight and grace.

Leon Morris:

v14: it is not that the act of forgiving merits eternal reward, but rather it is evidence that the grace of God is at work in the forgiving person and that that same grace will bring him forgiveness in due course. 

Mounce:

v14: this is not a quid pro quo arrangement where God assess our relations and withholds forgiveness until we have forgiven everyone who wronged us but rather… that forgiving others follows on naturally having been forgiven by God.