30%, 50%, or as some do, even 90%. God always .adds the in crease. We have found it so in our little home. You may argue with this point, but nevertheless it is fundamental. Often people have said to me, “Oh, I give much more than 10%, but I never keep the record.” May I ask, if you will, try keeping the record and find out how little you actually do for people and for God. Give Christ the first consideration in all decisions of life. Holiness of life is based on this fundamental principle. You must not consider yourself first, you must not even consider your family first, you must not consider your future, your ca reer, even your dreams first—only God must be first in every decision of life. “I am crucified with Christ: nev ertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). In reality you do not do the living. If you will allow Him to, God wants to do the living for you. Even in the small matters He has a plan according to Philippians 4:6, 7 (ASV), “In nothing be anx ious; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard (literally ‘build a fort around’) your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” God wants a share in everything. In the choice of a home, allow God to lead for the sake of the future of your children. They may marry their neighbors around that home. Choose under God. In the choice of schools, particularly higher education units, allow God to direct in those schools. In those schools, friendships will be formed for life in the hearts of the chil dren you love. In the choice of social strata which your family will move, choose not a superficial so ciety, but the solid pioneering American, believing Christian so ciety the family needs. Yes, in every business deal, every move ment of life, allow God first place -—first consideration in every de cision. In order that your family shall not fail, in order that none of these
weary of the spineless theory of modern America when it excuses its youth from anything more than a paltry 20-minute sermonette on the basis that we must not frighten them with too large a dose of the character-building Christian p re cepts. Some of us still maintain that Sunday is not the day for golf, nor a lounge, nor housework, nor even fishing, as grand a sport as that is. Sunday is God’s day all day long. Sunday is not the day to send your children to Sunday school. You should lead the way by attending Bible class and morning worship with them. If you are planning to sleep in, take your nap in the after noon. Be in the house of God Sun day night with a neighbor who needs to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us come alive with the responsibility. If no one else no tices it, children will see the char acter-building plan of their parents even in the 20th century. Give God the first portion of your income. The Apostle Paul’s mag nificent 15th chapter of his first let ter to the church at Corinth with the 58 jewel verses about the resur rection is climaxed by the practical application of 1 Corinthians 16:1, “Now concerning the collection . . .” What you do with your dollars is indicative of where your heart is. This writer is not your pastor, nor your guardian, nor your ad viser. He merely wishes to place before you as a family the key to successful financial planning. The true Christian gentleman who wants to lead his family as God would have them led, is soon sick of the simpering financial ap peals which beg a pittance from the great provision God has given him. Pastors need not be beggars for God, but with a lift of the chin, the shine of the eternal reward in their eyes, they are brokers to aid every family in its financial plans for eternal dividends. The thrill of wise stewardship of your means will be the boon and blessing of every child in your home in future days and the security of your month by month life in this transitory decade. “God loveth a cheerful giver.” If the law required 10% of all earned, how blessed it is for us in this time of grace to give 20%,
mount means of combating juvenile delinquency. Said he, “A return to the old custom of family worship in the American homes would do much to combat juvenile delinquency. It is an acknowledged fact that most of these unfortunate youngsters come from broken homes and poor envi ronment, but good American par ents, in addition to providing the right kind of homes for their chil dren, must make it their business to know intimately the conditions that prevail around the schools which they attend, and all the peo ple that children associate with.” I have personally found many people who did not understand what a family altar was. They had no idea that simply gathering the en tire family together morning by morning, opening the Bible and reading a portion carefully, earnest ly, searchingly, then praying to gether, would constitute an altar time for the home and fundamen tally assure that home for that day of certain security, serenity, peace and confidence which comes no other way. Give God the entire first day of each week. Hebrews 10:25 encour ages us to forsake not “the assem bling of ourselves together.” If the Jewish man under the law was will ing to remember the “Sabbath,” surely we who know the resurrec tion of our blessed Christ and the significance of the first day of the week will be willing to give Him that entire day, the signal of our faith and service in this day of grace. I thank God I was reared in a home which gave first place to the Bible, not the newspaper on the wonderful Lord’s day. I should like to submit to you the proposal that every Christian home allow God the entire rule of the first day of the week, and that each mem ber be in his place in the house of God every time during that day that that house is open. There is a sorry sickness among the saints which we often call “Onceritus,” which excuses the weary children of God from spending any more than one single hour Sunday morn ing at the church. Cheap, shabby, compromising Christian living in the 20th century is accountable for the moral weak ness of this hour. God must be
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The Kiri&V Business/September 1958
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