How can you help Four in the Fire Russia Ministries, Inc.? There are
many things you can do such as going on a mission trip with us or
praying for us and our Russian friends or you can give cheerfully to
our ministry. You can volunteer to drive our church bus to the airport
on our travel dates (departing and/or arriving).
If you are looking for a tangible way to help without actually
going on a mission trip, you can give money to pay for a variety
of ministry projects. We have applied for a 501(c)(3) Tax
Exemption status, so your gifts are tax deductible. Every dollar
you give for these projects goes to those specific projects.
The list of needs for calendar year 2007 can be found by clicking
here.
We have made it easy for you to
donate by implementing PayPal
on our site.
Before we go any further though I would like for you to read an
article written by Pastor Al Baker who is the
Senior Pastor at Christ Community Presbyterian Church.
Article used with permission.
Faith Promise Giving
By Pastor Al Baker
Imagine that I am the Apostle Paul and you are Titus, a fellow
worker in the gospel, and I have asked you to go back to the believers
in Corinth to ask them to come through with their previously promised
gift of charity to the saints in Jerusalem who are suffering from
famine.
You come to one home where the man is a shepherd and ask him to
give to this special need. He says, "I already tithe,
I have made a pledge to our building fund, and I have two children
in college up in Athens. I am tapped out. I can give no
more. Sorry." And you say, "Okay, let me ask you this. How
many lambs are you expecting to be born to your flock next year?"
And he says, "Five." And you say, "All right, if God
prospers you with seven lambs, would you give one of this unexpected
increase to this special need?"
You go to the next church member, a small business owner, and ask
him to give and he gives a similar response. You ask, "How much
profit do you project for the next year and he says, "10,000"
shekels." And you ask, "If God prospers you with 12,000
shekels would you give 1000 of the unexpected increase to this need?" This is faith promise giving. You can read more about the concept by studying II Corinthians 8 and 9.
One of the more exciting and faith building experiences for believers
is to participate in faith promise giving. We all need money to live and
how God works through our finances is a first hand exercise in building
our faith. If your church does not presently encourage faith promise
giving, then I suggest you ask your pastor about implementing it.
Even if your church does not offer it, you can still participate
personally.
Remember faith promise giving is not a tithe. You already ought
to be doing that. It is not a pledge, for a pledge is an obligation
to which you have committed a certain amount of money for a particular
time frame, like to a missionary or your church building fund. Nor
is it an offering. At times churches ask for special offerings,
like at Christmas or Thanksgiving. There is nothing wrong with
any of these, but faith promise giving means you promise to give a
specific amount of money to a specific project (in Corinth it was for
the suffering saints in Jerusalem, for our church it is to fund world
missions) if God provides it.
How do you arrive at a figure? You should pray, asking the Lord to
give you a specific amount which you promise to give to Him, above your
tithe and other offerings, if He provides it. If He does not provide
it, then you are not obligated to give it. Then look for it, expect
God to provide it, and when He does be quick to funnel it to the specific
need.
My wife and I have been making faith promises for many years and we
give more each year to it. Recently we were praying and thinking about
what our faith offering should be for the next year and I had a figure in
mind, but as I thought about it I realized that it was something I could
easily plan to do by forgoing certain purchases, cutting back a few days
on a vacation, etc. I was planning to give according to my ability. I
thought we needed to increase our faith promise so that we could give
beyond our ability. I mentioned this to my wife and she readily agreed.
We came both to the same financial figure and it is significantly beyond
our ability to give, but we fully expect God to bring in that amount.
He always does.
And what are the benefits of faith promise giving? You will see God at
work in tangible ways because He will provide the money. How can I be so
sure? He gets great glory for the salvation of sinners and world missions
is the way His glory is made known in the world. He will provide for the
funding of His missionaries because He wants glory in the salvation of
all nations. You will see your faith increase. I encourage
children to make faith promises too. Everyone ought to do it.
When God provides the ten or one hundred dollars for your child to give
to faith promise this will wonderfully increase his faith.
Some people make faith promise based on cutting back on their
expenses in some way. Others by having garage sales (or as we
call them in the northeast tag sales) give the proceeds to their faith
promise. Some promise part of a year-end bonus. However you give it,
look to God to provide it, expect Him to do so, and when He does then
give it joyfully to that specific work.
Our little church began Faith Promise giving at our first world
missions conference in November 2004 and we promised to give $32,000.
The number increased to $58,000 at our 2005 conference and at our recent
world missions conference our Faith Promise has risen to over $168,000.
Elisha in II Kings 4 told the Shunammite woman who was deparately poor
to gather as many vessels as she could. She did and God worked
a miracle, filling each vessel with oil which she sold to pay her debt
and to live on the rest. It is a great story, but the remarkable thing
is that the oil would have kept flowing if she only had more vessels.
You cannot out give God. Some of you know this personally. We have all
heard it and it sometimes can seem like a spiritual cliche. But
it is wonderfully and gloriously true. Will you not test God and see
if He will not pour out blessings from heaven?
The above article was written by Pastor Al Baker
who is the Senior Pastor at Christ Community Presbyterian Church.
Article used with permission.
If you would like to help, please contact us by clicking
here.
The following verses are meant as an encouragement not to guilt
you. This passage from Malachi is the only place in the Bible where
God says "test me."
Malachi 3:8-10 (NASB)
8“Will a man rob
God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed
You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9“You are cursed with a
curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! 10“
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be
food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD
of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven
and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
Proverbs 3: 27-28 (NASB)
27 Do not withhold good from those to
whom it is due,
When it is in your power to do it.
28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back,
And tomorrow I will give it,”
When you have it with you.
May God bless you and your family greatly.
Andy & Stephanie Nelms
Directors of
Four in the Fire Russia Ministries, Inc.