Consumers Take Value. Contributors Add Value.

 Consumers take value.  Contributors add value.  


Because we are PARTAKERS of the divine nature through Jesus Christ, we are called to active participation within the family of God.  We are not passive spectators, content to consume His majesty.  That’s the realm of servants.  Nope!  We are SONS and DAUGHTERS, called to engage in the family business.  And what is the family business?  The ministry of reconciliation!  As He IS, so are WE in this world.  


In Him we live, and move, and have our being.  These are not terms of works or labor, but they most certainly are terms of action and engagement!  The days of ‘doing something for GOD’ are OVER!  As a new creation, seated with-and-in Christ Jesus, we allow His life to flow forth from us; not in a disjointed sense, but from a place of oneness and union.  


What are some practical ways we can contribute to the family? 


👉Share your ‘part’ with the whole ‘body’.  Your giftings, experiences, and unique attributes are spices that improve the collective dish of the corporate family of God.  Someone’s palate is waiting for you! 


👉Be available.  The teaching that has blessed you doesn’t just happen.  That podcast from which you glean, or that fellowship which experiences the faith journey with you, are not magically self-sufficient.  They need your likes, shares, comments, good reports, time, and word-of-mouth marketing to get their message before those still blinded to truth.  Beyond that, they need YOU.  


👉Give.  Because of its misapplication, financial contribution is a sore spot for many.  But we can’t allow former abuses to dissuade us from supporting a life-giving message.  What we love, we supply.  Or to use scriptural language, where our financial resources are, you’ll find our heart there too.  Not percentages.  Not to manipulate God into giving you something you want.  Not to ‘unlock’ anything.  No.  Freely and joyfully give from a place of ZERO COMPULSION.  Give only to and from Love.  


My heart is that we shift in our understanding from a posture of childish consumption to one of mature, Christ-like familial contribution.  May all of our actions add value to the family.  Not because we have to and not to obtain anything.  We have everything already.  But solely because of Love.  



Passages to Consider:

Acts 17:28, 2 Peter 1:3-4, 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 John 4:17, Matthew 6:21, Galatians 2:20, John 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, 1 Corinthians 16:14 



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