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Will You Answer The Call?
November 13, 2005
Dear members and friends of my First Baptist Church family,
A few weeks ago the Pastor told the story from John 9 about
a man who was blind from birth. Jesus healed that man and offered
him a whole new life on one condition. That he follow his command
to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man did as Jesus
commanded and he was healed.
I have found that when we do as the Lord commands we too will be blessed. I
would like to share with you a brief window of my life especially as it pertains to my
stewardship of our finances. My story is simple. I grew up in Groton, graduated from
Fitch High School, was in the service, got out and went to work at Dow Chemical and
soon got married and started a family. My wife and I raised four children and enjoyed
life. During that whole span I knew little about God and the church.
I lived that way until my forty-fourth birthday. It was a life-style that went week
by week, living from paycheck to paycheck. We never had much money and never
learned how to save. Then one by one the members of my family got saved. I was the
last one and thought it was foolishness for a time. But then I met the Lord and
everything changed when I became born again. In 1982 I gave everything to the Lord,
including my finances.
As a matter of fact in 1982 I heard that God expected his followers to tithe and I
decided to do it. In the first month the people at the church probably weren’t too happy
with me because I bounced three checks. Then everything started to fall into place and
I have been tithing ever since. My finances have never been in better shape. Its all
because I put God first. My tithe the first bill I paid each week.
In 1985 I left my job a Dow Chemical and bought fifty acres of land in Preston
with the intention of going into business for myself. Around this time I heard a
preacher quoting scripture saying it was “more blessed to give than to receive” and if
you are a “borrower” you can’t give away what you do not own. I made it a personal
commitment to stop borrowing money. Everything I bought from that point on would
be out of savings and cash only.
It didn’t take me long to realize it was easier to work for someone else than to try
and start your own business in your forties. My first attempt at business without being
a borrower was harder than I expected and I was back looking for a new job before
long. I took a position as a janitor at Pfizer and continued working on my home in
Preston.
In 1992, I moved up and was allowed to have a 401k at work. I began putting in
the maximum 15% into this account. I realized later that if I had been borrowing
money to finish the house or start a business I would not have been able to put that
much into it because I would have been paying out a lot of interest to someone else.
It was a good move for me because I had enough money saved up in the plan that
at the age of 59 I was able to retire from Pfizer and open my own Christmas Tree
Farm. Those first years should have been a lot more difficult but by following God’s
command we had enough money put away that we lived comfortably without the SSI”
in those early years. I am happy to say that today, seven years after retiring, Jackie
and I are still living comfortably and we are both healthy. At this time I would like to
quote a few scriptures.
It is reported in that Scripture from John 9 that the neighbors asked of the blind
man, “Isn’t that the man who used to sit and beg?” They couldn’t believe it. What
made the difference in his life? It was the fact that he followed God’s command.
In the Old Testament we read about the Israelites in the book of Exodus. They
were in slavery for 430 years when Moses led them out of Egypt. You remember the
ten plagues and how they left there with nothing but what they could carry. Every step
along the way God took care of them. They came to the Red Sea and he parted it.
They needed food and manna came down from heaven. They needed water and it
came from a rock.
Yet, at every turn the people were afraid to trust God and walk by faith. Some of
them even told Moses that they preferred slavery to not knowing. They had become
comfortable living under slavery. This way was too hard. It was too hard to simply
trust God.
It sounds like many of us today. We are slaves to debt and afraid to step out and
trust God by tithing and putting an end to borrowing. In Malachi 3:10 God says, “Bring
the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in “my” house, and test
“me” now in this, to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out
for you a blessing until it overflows.”
God wants to give you a blessing beyond what you can imagine. But we need to be
like the blind man, we need to follow his commands so he can start working in our
lives. He did it for me and he promises he will do it for you too.
Sincerely,
David Murray
Dear members and friends of my First Baptist Church family,
A few weeks ago the Pastor told the story from John 9 about
a man who was blind from birth. Jesus healed that man and offered
him a whole new life on one condition. That he follow his command
to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man did as Jesus
commanded and he was healed.
I have found that when we do as the Lord commands we too will be blessed. I
would like to share with you a brief window of my life especially as it pertains to my
stewardship of our finances. My story is simple. I grew up in Groton, graduated from
Fitch High School, was in the service, got out and went to work at Dow Chemical and
soon got married and started a family. My wife and I raised four children and enjoyed
life. During that whole span I knew little about God and the church.
I lived that way until my forty-fourth birthday. It was a life-style that went week
by week, living from paycheck to paycheck. We never had much money and never
learned how to save. Then one by one the members of my family got saved. I was the
last one and thought it was foolishness for a time. But then I met the Lord and
everything changed when I became born again. In 1982 I gave everything to the Lord,
including my finances.
As a matter of fact in 1982 I heard that God expected his followers to tithe and I
decided to do it. In the first month the people at the church probably weren’t too happy
with me because I bounced three checks. Then everything started to fall into place and
I have been tithing ever since. My finances have never been in better shape. Its all
because I put God first. My tithe the first bill I paid each week.
In 1985 I left my job a Dow Chemical and bought fifty acres of land in Preston
with the intention of going into business for myself. Around this time I heard a
preacher quoting scripture saying it was “more blessed to give than to receive” and if
you are a “borrower” you can’t give away what you do not own. I made it a personal
commitment to stop borrowing money. Everything I bought from that point on would
be out of savings and cash only.
It didn’t take me long to realize it was easier to work for someone else than to try
and start your own business in your forties. My first attempt at business without being
a borrower was harder than I expected and I was back looking for a new job before
long. I took a position as a janitor at Pfizer and continued working on my home in
Preston.
In 1992, I moved up and was allowed to have a 401k at work. I began putting in
the maximum 15% into this account. I realized later that if I had been borrowing
money to finish the house or start a business I would not have been able to put that
much into it because I would have been paying out a lot of interest to someone else.
It was a good move for me because I had enough money saved up in the plan that
at the age of 59 I was able to retire from Pfizer and open my own Christmas Tree
Farm. Those first years should have been a lot more difficult but by following God’s
command we had enough money put away that we lived comfortably without the SSI”
in those early years. I am happy to say that today, seven years after retiring, Jackie
and I are still living comfortably and we are both healthy. At this time I would like to
quote a few scriptures.
It is reported in that Scripture from John 9 that the neighbors asked of the blind
man, “Isn’t that the man who used to sit and beg?” They couldn’t believe it. What
made the difference in his life? It was the fact that he followed God’s command.
In the Old Testament we read about the Israelites in the book of Exodus. They
were in slavery for 430 years when Moses led them out of Egypt. You remember the
ten plagues and how they left there with nothing but what they could carry. Every step
along the way God took care of them. They came to the Red Sea and he parted it.
They needed food and manna came down from heaven. They needed water and it
came from a rock.
Yet, at every turn the people were afraid to trust God and walk by faith. Some of
them even told Moses that they preferred slavery to not knowing. They had become
comfortable living under slavery. This way was too hard. It was too hard to simply
trust God.
It sounds like many of us today. We are slaves to debt and afraid to step out and
trust God by tithing and putting an end to borrowing. In Malachi 3:10 God says, “Bring
the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in “my” house, and test
“me” now in this, to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out
for you a blessing until it overflows.”
God wants to give you a blessing beyond what you can imagine. But we need to be
like the blind man, we need to follow his commands so he can start working in our
lives. He did it for me and he promises he will do it for you too.
Sincerely,
David Murray
