One of the redemptive perks for doing something stupid is that it is much easier in the future to correct others who are making the same mistake. By simply talking about your own past foolishness, you can provoke others to ponder without pointing your finger.

I’ve been able, for example, to prick the consciences of thousands of pastors over the years by telling the story of my pastoral repentance (something I shared in Part 4 of this series). In that case, my problem was more than stupidity. It was plain disregard of Jesus’ words. The confession I’m about to make trends more to the “sincere but stupid” side.

In 2002, I traveled to Myanmar to assist an evangelist friend with an outdoor campaign and to teach Christian leaders. There I was introduced to several orphanages. I remember walking down a line of about 80 orphans, shaking each of their hands as they timidly whispered, “God bless you” with a Burmese accent. The children were all beautiful. I was told by my interpreter that they were all orphans, and that they had no financial supporters. The orphanage dormitory had been funded through Japanese war reparations, donated decades after World War II.

At another orphanage, 40 children were crowded into a tiny weathered, wood-frame house, and they slept like sardines on the floor each night.

It was impossible not to feel deep empathy for parentless children living in deep poverty, and I did the only thing I could do. I emptied my wallet, and I promised that if I could figure out a way to help them, I would. That promise ultimately lead to a child sponsorship program and an outreach of Heaven’s Family named Orphan’s Tear.

“ By simply talking about your own past foolishness, you can provoke others to ponder without pointing your finger. —DAVID SERVANT

At our peak, we had about 1,000 sponsored children who lived in orphanages in eight nations. The majority lived in about 45 orphanages in Myanmar. We sent 100% of sponsors’ monthly donations to the orphanage where their sponsored child lived. We didn’t want anyone to be able to accuse us of exploiting poor children to finance a ministry.

Through many generous contributions, we bought land and funded the construction of scores of orphanage buildings in order to improve the lives of our orphans. Christians care about orphans, of course, and fundraising on their behalf was easy.

The Dawning of Reality

As I visited those orphanages year after year, however, questions began to arise. Some children were missing. When we asked their orphanage directors about this, we were told they had “gone to live with their relatives.” When we began collecting biographical information about all the children, we learned that, in many cases, one or both parents were still alive. Some of their parents had been divorced, and when their mothers remarried, their new husbands refused to support their existing children. So their mothers had placed them in orphanages.

“ Orphanages are not a good solution to a problem, but rather a solution that is creating problems. —DAVID SERVANT

In other cases, we learned that parents had placed their children in orphanages because of extreme poverty, or because there were no schools near their remote villages, and they wanted their children to receive an education, courtesy of an orphanage.

We eventually began seeing a very dark side to Myanmar’s orphanage scene that included “Christian” orphanage directors who sexually abused children under their care, intentionally misused funds that were entrusted to them for their orphanage ministry, and/or were known locally as drunks.

One orphanage director built a new dormitory using full funding from three ministries who knew nothing about each other—all three (including us) thought they were the sole funders.

Another director unashamedly admitted to gathering up children from remote villages for his orphanage so he could “train them for 15 years and send them back to their villages as evangelists.” (And you thought God was in charge of calling evangelists…)

Some directors had visions to house hundreds of children in their orphanages (and some succeeded).

One time we learned that one of the key persons in Myanmar who kept introducing us to new, needy orphanages was getting monthly kickbacks from most every orphanage we supported because of his introduction.

We even heard of “child agents” who traveled among remote Burmese villages collecting children for a fee that was paid by orphanage directors.

“ The negative outcomes of children raised in orphanages have been well documented. —DAVID SERVANT

Not surprisingly, during the past 15 years that we’ve been serving in Myanmar, more and more pastors have been “called” to start orphanages. Plus, many Burmese Bible School graduates have “felt led” to open orphanages right after their graduation. It has become obvious to us that money is a huge driver in this phenomena, as orphanages are attracting donations from far and wide. Starting an orphanage has become a way to establish a financial base to do just about anything, and as Myanmar had continued to transition from military junta to democratic rule, it has become a “hot” short-term mission destination, with orphanage directors waiting at every airport for naive, cash-laden foreign guests.

Today, Myanmar’s orphanage industry is booming, all funded by well-meaning people like us who want to care for orphans, but who have unwittingly contributed to the breakup of families, and to the isolation, dysfunction, rejection, and abuse that children often suffer in orphanage settings. The negative outcomes of children raised in orphanages have been well documented (see Keeping Children out of Harmful Institutions by Save the Children, Families, Not Orphanages by Better Care Network, The Science of Neglect by Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University, Ending the Institutionalisation of Children Globally by Lumos).*

There are, of course, small orphanages around the world that are more like foster families, and whose directors truly love their children as their very own. We thank God for those. However, in summary, it became painfully obvious to me that, generally speaking, orphanages were not a good solution to a problem, but rather a solution that was creating problems. But what could we do to fix the problem we were helping to create?

God Sends a Man

As I sought for answers, I noticed that many other Christian organizations that supported orphanages had also discovered the same hard truths. And although many had identified the problems—to the degree that they even used terms such as “half orphans,” “full orphans,” and “poverty orphans”—they didn’t have solutions.

It was about that time that God sent the answer. During an international trip, I stopped over in London for a couple of days to meet with the trustees of Heaven’s Family U.K. At a reception at the home of one of those trustees, I was talking to a businessman about our ministry to orphans, and he told me he had a friend who also had a ministry to orphans, but it centered around reintegrating orphanage children back with their families or foster families.

“ God intended for children to be raised in families, so we should not settle for anything less. —DAVID SERVANT

Within minutes, I was on the phone with Mick Pease, director of Substitute Families for Abandoned Children (SFAC). Mick had been a career social worker in the U.K. whom God called to advocate on behalf of the millions of abandoned and orphaned children all over the world. He was an expert on everything related to orphans, orphanages, foster care, kinship care and adoption. His premise was simple: God intended for children to be raised in families, so we should not settle for anything less.

God had opened doors around the world for Mick to influence orphanage directors, NGOs and even governments, equipping them with knowledge and tools to implement family-based care solutions that have, in many places, replaced orphanage and institutional care. I learned that foster care and adoption can be implemented in poor countries where such practices have previously never existed. Wonderful things were happening. When I talked to Mick, I knew we’d found the person we needed to help us escape our predicament and do what was actually best for the children whom we were trying to help.

One of the first things we did was invite Mick to teach at some conferences we hosted in Myanmar for all the orphanage directors whom we were sending money to each month. They had many objections to what Mick presented (and they verbalized all of them except one, which was, But if we do what you say, our orphanages will be shut down and we will lose our source of income!) Mick had gentle, respectful, and persuasive answers to every objection.

We implemented a plan to gradually stop financially supporting orphanages, to reduce their populations, and ultimately only continued supporting those orphanages in Myanmar whose directors agreed to work with us to reintegrate their orphanage children back with their families, relatives or good foster families. Sadly, only a minority of orphanage directors were willing to cooperate with us. Many just assumed they could find other naive Christians and Christian organizations to finance their orphanage schemes. And they assumed rightly.

“ Our greatest adversary has proven to be Christian ministries that are intent on supporting orphanages. —DAVID SERVANT

Thankfully, there are orphanage directors in Myanmar and elsewhere who started their orphanages with the purest of motives, and those pure motives have guided them to genuinely seek what is best for children, which everyone intuitively knows is family care. Every orphanage director whom I’ve asked, “If you and your spouse died, would you want your children to be placed in an orphanage or with a loving family?” have answered “a loving family” without hesitation.

We’ve also partnered with child reintegration ministry experts from Australia, hired professional Christian social workers in Myanmar, and sent Philip Barker, who directed Orphan’s Tear U.K. and whose heart is greatly burdened for children in orphanages, to live in Myanmar (with his wonderful wife, Sandie) in order to oversee our efforts there. Philip and Sandie are doing a great job. The result is that orphanage children are going home. (For more information, view a video presentation by Stephen Servant, director of our Orphan’s Tear Ministry, by clicking here.)

“ The tide is turning in the orphanage industry and those who bankroll it. —DAVID SERVANT

We’ve also launched efforts—in conjunction with our Micro-Loan Ministry—to help poor parents prosper so they can bring their children back from orphanages. We are also encouraging them to collaborate with other prospering parents to establish primary schools in their villages.

So this confession has a happy ending. And whereas our goal at one time was to financially support every Christian orphanage in the world, our goal now is a world without orphans or orphanages. Every child belongs in a loving family.

Tragically, our greatest adversary is not the secular world. In fact, the secular world is embracing, at a very fast pace, the superiority of family-based care over orphanage care. Our greatest adversary has proven to be Christian ministries that are intent on supporting orphanages, thus providing incentives for their continuation and proliferation, which perpetuates what everyone knows is not best for the children. Of course, many of those who lead such ministries are simply ignorant, just as I was at one time. Sadly, however, some are not ignorant. Instead, their desire to keep finances flowing into their ministry machines through child exploitation takes precedence over helping the very ones they claim to care about.

“ Our goal now is a world without orphans or orphanages. Every child belongs in a loving family. —DAVID SERVANT

Thankfully, however, the tide is turning in the orphanage industry and those who bankroll it. If you know of any ministries that are still going against that tide, you can help them by sending this e-teaching to their directors. Hopefully that will result in a little more redemption of my own stupidity! — David

*
Keeping Children out of Harmful Institutions by Save the Children
Families, Not Orphanages by Better Care Network
The Science of Neglect by Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University
Ending the Institutionalisation of Children Globally by Lumos

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At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:1-6).

Jesus’ disciples did not ask the question, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” from a purely academic concern. They were all personally interested, hoping to be great in the soon-coming kingdom. It was obvious to them that they had a winning candidate in Jesus, and they believed it wouldn’t be long before He would be ruling the world. Opportunity was knocking for those with ambition!

James and John once went so far as to ask Jesus directly if they could sit at His right and left hand in His kingdom (Mark 10:35-37). Matthew tells us that the other ten disciples resented James and John for their request—I suspect because each was secretly hoping to snag a prime position for himself (see Matt. 20:24). We also know, according to Luke, that the twelve once argued among themselves over which of them was the greatest (see Luke 9:46). It seems that Jesus’ church has never lacked for leaders who are vying for greatness!

Let’s put it into perspective. The desire to be great is the desire to be exalted above others, which is fundamentally a wrong desire. It is born of pure selfishness.

Those who desire to be great naturally work toward that goal by exalting themselves. Those who do it subtly often succeed. Then they die and stand before the One who promised, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:11-12).

Hoping to cure the twelve of their selfish ambition long before judgment day, Jesus responded to their question with an object lesson. He called a child to Himself and set him before them. Then, for the benefit of adults, He made three very remarkable statements about children. If we open our hearts, Jesus’ three statements can profoundly impact our lives.

Statement Number One

1.) Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus was not evading their original question. Anyone who hopes to become great in heaven must first qualify to enter heaven. So Jesus first focused on that, using the child as an example. And because that child would shortly serve as a good example of one who was great in the kingdom of heaven, he would naturally serve as a good example of one who would enter heaven. It would seem odd if that were not so.

Incidentally, it is from scriptures such as these that we derive the conviction that all children who die go to heaven. If children serve as God’s example of heaven-bound people, then it stands to reason that all of them are heaven-bound. They must all eventually reach an age, however, when they too must “be converted and become like children” if they are to enter heaven. Obviously that would be when they are no longer children, but adults, the time that theologians refer to as “the age of accountability.” In Jewish tradition (dating back to medieval times), that age is twelve for girls and thirteen for boys. Boys become “Bar Mitzvah” and girls become “Bat Mitzvah,” which translated means, “One to whom the commandments apply.” According to Jewish thinking, from then on God will hold them responsible for their actions.

But let’s get back to what Jesus said: To enter heaven, we must be converted and become like children. Jesus obviously did not mean that we must act as though God is not holding us responsible for our actions. That would require God to be converted, and Jesus said that it is we who must be converted!

Clearly, we cannot and should not become like children in every respect in order to enter heaven. Paul wrote of “doing away with childish things” (1 Cor. 13:11) and Scripture tells us that “foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child” (Prov. 22:15). But what qualities do children possess that are essential for those who want to enter heaven?

Children are usually considered to be pure-hearted, and it is the pure in heart who will see God (see Matt. 5:8). Children are trusting, and we become children of God when we believe in Jesus (see John 1:12). Children are humble, and “the humble shall inherit the earth” (Psalm 37:11; Matt. 5:5).

That third possibility would be my first choice of what Jesus’ was speaking about, because in His second statement (which we will soon consider), He seemed to indicate that the same child-like quality that gains one entrance into heaven also makes one great there, and He specifically spoke of humility.

Certainly humility is necessary for salvation, as one must acknowledge his corruption and need, something that proud people just will not do. Remember that in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, one was proud and one was humble. The humble one was justified in God’s eyes, while the proud one was not. Jesus summarized that parable about salvation with this lesson: “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14). Salvation is predicated upon humility. And so is greatness in God’s kingdom.

One other possibility is that Jesus was simply emphasizing that in order to be saved, adults must repent (“be converted,” as He said), and when they do, they automatically become like children in the sense that God is not holding their sins against them. Like children, converted adults are innocent in God’s eyes. If that is the correct interpretation, then “becoming like children” means “becoming like children in God’s eyes,” rather then possessing certain child-like traits.

Statement Number Two

2.) Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

When teaching from this particular passage of Scripture, I have sometimes followed Jesus’ example and called a child from the crowd, standing him in front of everyone. Without fail, the children always display a degree of timidity. They don’t enjoy standing up in front of everyone or being the center of attention. They are void of pride. Compare that with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who loved their seats of honor, respectful greetings, and honorable titles (Matt. 23:6-7). Their modern counterparts also love to be up in front of everyone. Most of us have probably watched spiritual superstars bounding up to church platforms with broad smiles, basking in the applause that follows their grand introductions.

Since God is ruler over heaven, He alone determines who is great there. And to Him, greatness is found in humility.

Humility is lived out in service—in imitation of Christ, the one who is “gentle and humble of heart” (Matt. 11:29). He commanded His first leaders to wash each other’s feet. But He first washed their feet as an example, demonstrating His own humility by servitude. He also told them, “The greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matt. 23:11).

There is little doubt that within the context of the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day, children were generally very obedient to their parents. So an average child served as an especially good example of a humble servant who desired, more than anything else, to please his father. That is also the highest aspiration of every sincere adult follower of Jesus.

Statement Number Three

3.) And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Jesus’ third statement is, to me, the most astonishing of the three. After designating children as objects of imitation for adults who desire salvation and greatness in heaven, Jesus then lifts children even higher—identifying them with Himself, to a degree that we would have never believed had He not said it: “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.” According to Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said even more, going one step further:

Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me (Mark 9:37, emphasis added).

Most of us can accept the equation: Receiving Jesus = Receiving God the Father. Jesus and the Father are one (see John 10:30). But how difficult it is to accept this equation: Receiving a child in Jesus’ name = Receiving Jesus = Receiving the Father! The reason is because receiving Jesus and/or the Father is the means of salvation!

The key to understanding this amazing equation is found in the words, “in My name,” that is, “as My representative, acting on My behalf.” Those who understand that children are all citizens of God’s kingdom (as Jesus said, “To such as these belong the kingdom of heaven”—Matt. 19:14), who know that children’s humility makes them great in God’s eyes, and who realize how precious they are in God’s sight (as Jesus said, their angels are constantly before God’s throne—Matt. 18:10), love them dearly for all those reasons. Simply put, if one loves God, he also loves children. The kind of love of which I’m speaking is much more than the sentimental emotion that people of the world sometimes possess for cute children (whom they often abort or abuse). It is deeply spiritual, connected within the circle of love shared by all of God’s family. Children are part of us! They are “our kind of people!”

This spiritual love for children is the same as the love that all true Christians have for each other, which is what marks them as being authentic members of God’s family (see John 13:35; 1 John 3:14). If you don’t love followers of Christ, you don’t love Christ, and you don’t love the Father either. Which is why Jesus said something quite similar about adult believers as He did children:

He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me (Mark 10:40).

So we see Christ incarnated in His people to this amazing degree, so much so that to love Jesus’ family members is to love Him, and thus to hate His family is to hate Him. Therefore one’s love or lack of love for followers of Christ marks one as saved or unsaved, heaven-bound or hell-bound. And Christ said the same thing regarding children. Our love or lack of love for them reveals our spiritual condition and eternal destiny. Notice again Jesus’ stern warning that we’ve already read in our primary text:

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Although in this final statement Jesus specifically speaks of little children who believe in Him, one would be hard pressed to prove that Jesus was referring only to children who believed in Him in all the other passages when He spoke specifically about children (see Matt. 10:42; 18:1-4, 10, 14: 19:13-14; Mark 9:36-37, 42; 10:13-15; Luke 9:46-48; 17:1-2; 18:16-17). Regardless, we clearly see Jesus’ contrast between receiving a child in His name (which would quite possibly result in the child becoming a believer in Jesus) and causing a believing child to stumble. The former helps to open the heart of a child, indicative of that person’s faith in Christ, while the latter closes the heart of a child, indicative that he is doomed to hell. Being tied to a millstone and tossed into the ocean is a precursor of what lies beyond death for such a person. When he quickly descends past the depth of 3,280 feet—where surface light no longer penetrates—the pressure of the water is 1,474 pounds per square inch. Not a pleasant experience.

Causing a believing child to “stumble” is obviously a serious offense in God’s eyes. True believers would never be guilty of such a crime. But unbelievers and hypocrites are guilty of it all the time, as they set sinful examples before children and sow Satan’s lies in their little minds. How tragic it is when, through their words or deeds, parents are the very ones who cause their children to stumble into sin. Parents who are letting the TV raise their children are certainly in this category, even if they are professing Christians.

The purpose of this e-teaching? To provide one more spiritual test whereby we can ascertain our true spiritual condition. If you have a deep spiritual love for children that is lived out in words and deeds, that should fill you with assurance that you have a genuine relationship with Jesus and His Father. If you don’t possess such a spiritual love for children, or if by your words and deeds you are causing children to stumble, you need to be “converted and become like children,” opening the door for God’s transforming grace to work in your life.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for Yourself?'” (Matt. 21:15-16).

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So what can you do to begin to obey Christ’s clear command to lay up treasures not on earth but in heaven? Jesus told us exactly where to begin: “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven” (Luke 12:33). Jesus gave this commandment to all of His disciples, not just to one wealthy man, and it could not be more plain. Thus, the true disciple of Christ must take inventory of all he or she possesses and determine what to sell, the proceeds of which can then be laid up in heaven.

When you begin seriously to consider what to sell, you will likely find resistance within you to the whole idea. That is a depressing yet glorious moment, because you will begin to realize how much all your stuff means to you…and how little Christ means to you. At that moment of self-realization, the war begins. It is misery at first, but with each step of obedience, joy increases as you prove your love for Jesus.

Many, like myself, begin by focusing on selling the possessions that they never use or enjoy, as they are the easiest to dispossess. We have a garage sale and unload all the junk in our attics and garages, and then give the money to some worthy cause. That is good start, but God is thinking bigger. While we are selling a few old clothes to lay up a little bit of treasure in heaven, the Holy Spirit helps us see that we could sell our house, use the equity to pay cash for a smaller house, and never have to make another mortgage payment, which would enable us to lay up tens of thousands of dollars in heaven in the years ahead. Or we realize that we could stop buying a new car every year and buy one every eight years—or never buy another new car, and always buy used ones—again enabling us to lay up tens of thousands of dollars in heaven during the rest of our lives. Or we could unload those luxuries that serve no other purpose than to impress other people, swell our egos, or indulge our flesh. Or we can make a decision to delay retirement or never retire, thus eliminating the need for laying up so much treasure on earth, and thus enabling the laying up of hundreds of thousands of dollars in heaven, waiting for our eternal retirement.

So my first advice is to consider what you can do to cut your expenses as quickly and as drastically as possible, thus enabling you to lay up as much treasure as possible in heaven. Getting out of debt would certainly be high up on the list, because any periodic payment, once eliminated, can then be just as periodically laid up in heaven. If there is one indication of the greed and lack of contentment among us, consumer debt is it. As one person said, “We buy things with money we don’t have for things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.” A bad combination indeed. Christians are instructed in Scripture to be content with what they have, even if it is only food and covering (see 1 Tim. 6:8; Heb. 13:5).

Regarding debt, I am of course generally speaking, because incurring debt for appreciating essentials, such as a home, or for gaining an education or for business capital that will be used to earn a living can be wise stewardship.

Credit card debt is the absolute worst kind of debt because the interest is so high, so eliminate it first. If your credit card is not paid off completely at the end of each monthly billing cycle, that is a likely indication that you can’t control your credit-card spending. The solution is to take a pair of scissors and cut up all your credit cards. That is called plastic surgery.

Another kind of surgery that can help is televisionectomy. Advertisers pay millions to bombard us with images of happy people getting new stuff. Every commercial is designed to create discontentment. You can’t be seduced by commercials you don’t see. Ask your doctor if a televisionectomy is right for you.

Jesus, of course, didn’t lay down any specific commandments meant to regulate our possessions. For example, He never decreed the maximum allowable square footage of the homes of His followers. But all of His followers should consider their homes in light of His commandment not to lay up treasures on earth but in heaven. When my wife and I began to wrestle with that commandment, we ultimately arrived at the conclusion that we needed to sell our home and scale down, which we did. It provided us the opportunity to eliminate debt to have more to give. In loving God and our neighbors as ourselves, the goal is to lay up as little as possible on earth and as much as possible in heaven. Anything less is short-sighted, greedy and foolish. But isn’t tithing all that God expects? As I have pointed out previously, one may tithe and still lay up treasures on earth if one has an abundance. Remember, the Pharisees scrupulously tithed and went to hell, lovers of money (see Matt. 5:20; 23:15, 23, 33; Luke 18:12).

But does God expect you to sell your house to buy a smaller one? Perhaps He does, but I don’t know. Each one of us must work out our own individual salvation with fear and trembling, and I can assure you that I won’t be the one sitting on the throne when you stand at your judgment. So make sure your stewardship will stand God’s scrutiny. I suspect that there are more ways to deceive ourselves regarding this than any other issue of obedience before God.

The important thing is to look at our homes, as well as every other material possession, in the light of God’s eternal kingdom and use it accordingly. God may be leading you not to scale down to a smaller house, but to purchase a larger one—if it is for some kingdom purpose, like adopting orphans from another country, raising a big tribe of radical disciples, or facilitating church gatherings. One who does that is just as effectively “giving up his house for Christ” as the one who sells his large home, buys a smaller one, and gives the remaining equity to the poor.

There are many other possible considerations. Most folks who have owned a home in California for more than ten years know that if they sell their house and purchase a smaller one in California, they will end up paying at least twice the annual taxes they did on their larger home (all due to “Proposition 13”), effectively nullifying any overall benefit that might be accrued to the poor. If you are one of those folks who is about to sell your California home, move to another state, and retire with your equity, why not forsake or delay retirement and lay up that equity in heaven?

Some who are currently renting a home might demonstrate better stewardship if they saved money for a down payment in order to purchase a home, allowing them to build equity that can eventually be used to bless others. Generally speaking, rent money is money wasted.

Sharing your home in some fashion can be a great means to lay up more treasure in heaven, either by freely giving room to a needy person or by renting part of your home to a not-so-needy person and giving away the rental payment to charity. As I write these words, I’m ministering at a Christian community in Tennessee where many families share quite large double-wide mobile homes that they corporately own. All of their very adequate homes were pre-owned and have cost them less than $40,000 each. Their per-person investment in real estate, including homes and one-hundred beautiful acres, is less than $5,000. Amazing.

Once you’ve taken care of the larger issues of stewardship that will make the greatest impact on eternity, then you can focus on the smaller issues without the hypocrisy of “straining out gnats to swallow camels.” Sell off everything you don’t need that has any worth. EBay is waiting for you. (Not too long ago, some friends sold a pair of old Japanese binoculars, which they thought was junk, for $600 on eBay. That money went to four missionaries.) Then adjust your lifestyle. There are zillions of ways to live more modestly and frugally that will enable you to lay up more treasures in heaven, from eating less and eating out less (to know if you’ve been wasting money on food, just check your wasteline!), to turning down the thermostat, to ignoring fashion, to driving a smaller, more gas-efficient vehicle, to keeping that old furniture another five years, to not replacing the dog that died. Applying the principles I’ve outlined in this article enables our family to live on half of what we did six years ago. We now have so much more to give.

I must add that one reader, who hates to see God’s money wasted, has requested that I say something about giving intelligently, lest all my efforts at motivating people to scale down be wasted. So I’m saying it. Give intelligently. Don’t waste God’s money supporting ministries that promote the American gospel or churches that are social clubs sanctified by a few scriptures. Lay up treasures in heaven by supporting those who are proclaiming truth, or those who are helping the poor (Matt. 25:31-46 is great guide). There are so many churches and ministries that qualify. The Holy Spirit will help you to give strategically and fruitfully.

One more piece of advice for those of us who are trying to follow Christ while living in Disneyland. It is good to frequently remind ourselves of how different is our lifestyle compared to the half of the world’s people who live on less than $2 per day. Below are some photos that might be good to print out and look at every day.

To read an in-depth book about biblical stewardship by David Servant, click here.

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