Inventory of God’s Resources
Your Name: ___________________________________________________
Address: _____________________ City _________________ Zip ________
Phone: ______________________ Cell Phone: _______________________
Email: _______________________ Email: ___________________________
What is the nature of your employment? This is the way in which you are providing for your family. If your employment is such that we other believers could take advantage of (purchase) your product or service we would like to know:
Company Name: _______________________________________________
Your Position: __________________________________________________
Business Address: ____________________ City: ____________ Zip: ______
Business Phone: __________________ Cell Phone: ____________________
Business Email: ________________ Website Address: ________________
Describe in some detail the product(s) and/or service(s) you/your company offers:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Bible explains how God provides for our (believers) needs. How does He do that?
WORK!
1 Tim 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. (NAS) 1 Thess 4:11-12….make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; 12 so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. (NAS) 2 Thess 3:7-12 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone will not work, neither let him eat. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. (NAS)
What’s nice, of course, is that He doesn’t just demand/command that we work and let it go at that. He equips us to do it. Ex 36:2 Then Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful person in whom the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him, to come to the work to perform it. (NAS)
Now I want you to list the resources God has entrusted to you that you are willing to use-provide-offer-give-loan-make available-for the benefit of the other believers at your church (assuming of course that these will not take away from the NEEDS of your family). Then those resources you are willing to make available to missionaries supported by you/your church, and then to believers outside the church “family”, and then to non-believers. For example, do you have a lawn mower you would let somebody use? Or would you be willing to use your lawn mower and take the time to mow someone’s lawn. Or how about this, are you an experienced Microsoft “Word” or “Excel” user who would be willing to answer questions from a struggling novice or even demonstrate how to do various operations. Are you a “Quicken” expert who would be willing to answer questions from other believers at your church? Maybe you have some time to baby sit a single mother’s kids while she goes to the grocery store. Maybe you are a good enough mechanic that you could make a minor repair on a missionary’s or other believer-in-need’s car. Or maybe you could help one of our widows install a curtain rod when she has no place else to turn. Are you starting to get the idea? I used to have a table saw and a band saw and I use or cut some pieces for an artist in our chruch on which she painted stuff. I know how to open an account at a mutual fund company and set it up to make electronic transactions on-line. I know how to sell stuff on Facebook Market Place. I’d be happy to assist someone who wanted to do any of that. What do you know how to do? What time do you have? The list of possibilities is endless. Remember, this stuff all belongs to God. A word of caution is in order however. Don’t be asking someone to fix your car for free when you can afford to hire him to do it. Remember, the first priority for that mechanic is to provide for the needs of his family. Same with other things. That’s why I started by asking people to list the nature of their employment. With all that said, please list below God’s resources entrusted to you for the benefit of the Kingdom.
Time: How much, when, where, how often, what are you willing to do? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Expertise: What, how extensive, how much, when, what are you willing to do? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tools and equipment: What, length of time you will loan or must use on site? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Other: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________