boots with the fuuuur

at my church (Midtown Fellowship- www.midtowncolumbia.com ) we've been having a series on giving.

sunday night we talked about just how rich & blessed we are. check this out...

*if you make $10,000 a year you are considered to be living in poverty in th US, but you are actually richer than 87% of the world population.

*If you make $40,000 a year, you are richer than 97% of the world population.

*Do you know that in the US we spend $450 BILLION on Christmas each year? That's about $1500 per person.

*Well 76% of the world makes less than $1500 a YEAR.

*It would take $10 billion to provide clean water to the entire world.

* Howard D Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks makes almost $99 MILLION a year. I wonder what he does with his money? I sure hope something worthwhile.

God blesses us with money & material possessions because He loves us, but He wants us to turn around & bless others, too.

1 Tim. 6:10 says "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil..."

It doesn't say MONEY is the root of evil, it says the LOVE OF money. Anyone that says God doesn't want us to have money is an idiot. How can we build wells in Africa without money? How can we feed & clothe the hungry & homeless without money? we can't! but loving money & making it an idol/status symbol and not turning around & doing something with the money we've earned is wrong.

Let's live below our means so we can give more away. It's not about the amount of money you give, it's about the sacrifice.

Sunday night Dustin told us we were teaming up with Cooperative Ministries here in Columbia this week so I started to pull out my checkbook when Dustin said "Don't start picking up your wallets just yet." He told us that what they need more than anything are shoes, so if we felt like God wanted us to, to take off the shoes on our feet & walk down to the front to lay them down.

Did I have knee high boots on? Yes. Is someone out there gonna be straight stylin on the streets of Columbia? Heck Yes. Over 600 pairs of shoes were collected last night!!! From Ugg boots to Pumas, it was absolutely incredible to see people walking out in their socks & bare feet knowing they'd done something worthwhile.

TOMS is an organization that sells shoes and for each pair purchased, a pair is given to a child in need. Go buy some new shoes & buy some for christmas presents and think about the cute little kiddo that's now going to have shoes on his/her feet because of you! http://www.tomsshoes.com/




check out their video:


For other ideas, go to www.midtowncolumbia.com and check out the different links to organizations that need our help. pay it forward, people.

if you want to come to church with me ANYtime, shoot me a message & let's go.
Sundays 5:30, 7:15, 9:00
SC State Museum