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Will You Answer The Call?
October 30, 2005
Dear members and friends of my First Baptist Church Family,
This year’s stewardship campaign is about far more than giving
money. It is about trusting God to do what He says he will do.
Last week we heard George Strouse talk about all the ways a
person can give to God, from teaching Sunday School, to sports
ministries, music ministries, church maintenance, flower committees,
and all of the ministries that make The First Baptist Church of Norwich thrive. I am not here
to discount any of those gifts and talents you may have to offer, but I am going to focus today
on tithing and what it has meant to me.
Back in 1986, I was working in a shipyard. I had just separated from my son’s father and
was having tough time. That is when a friend of mine, Denise Sansone, asked me to go to her
church. She was really persistent, and I finally gave in and told her I would meet her at
church. Part of me just wanted her to stop asking me although I was also a little curious as to
what sparked her interest so much. After just one service, I was hooked. I began hearing the
Bible in a way. The one thing that troubled me was the pastor’s preaching on tithing. I had to
agree that it was biblical, but I just couldn’t see how it could “work”, especially for someone
like me. I was a single parent making a little over $300 a week.
My paychecks didn’t go very far. My mortgage was $600 a month, the baby-sitter was
$200 a month and gasoline was $100 a month. Buying groceries and adding up everything else
that went with running a house left me with little disposable income. Some months I juggled
the oil bill with the phone bill, water bill, electric bill and every other bill until I thought
everything was going to tumble out of control. It meant finding another $120 a month if I
wanted to tithe. That was equal to a car payment and I never had a new car before.
Nonetheless, I decided to trust God and “stepped out in faith” and began to tithe.
God has blessed me. Today I have a very good job. I spent many years in college to get
where I am today, while also working full time. Looking back, I find it hard to believe that I
made it through all the lean years intact, and not only survived, but prospered. Along the way I
faced some pretty heavy hardships. I had a precancerous condition that required surgery. I
had baby-sitters quit leaving me in the lurch. My boiler went out on me in the middle of the
winter and I had to use the oven for heat. My car broke down and I had to find a way get to
work. My first husband left for my “friend”. My second husband left to “go camping” and
never came back. Finally, I met Ray - someone I thought would be there for long haul, and
cancer nearly took him away from me. Yet I held onto God’s promises.
Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in
mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the
windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it.”
I can’t tell you why all of the bad things happened to me, but I can tell you that my needs
were always met, and then some. I was asked to work weekends where I hadn’t been asked
before. My grandmother came through with bonds I didn’t know she had been holding onto
for twenty years. Funds came in unexpectedly just when I thought all hope was lost. Blessings
I didn’t think were possible began to fall in my lap.
One day I was walking up the hill on the way out of work with the usual crowd. I
overheard a man talking about how busy his wife was in the legal department, and how they
needed help. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, does your wife work here?”
He said “Yes,” and I sent my resume to his wife. I became one of only two paralegals in the
company. It was unheard of to go from being a “pipefitter” to “paralegal.” I didn’t even know
the company had a legal department before this. Imagine that! Come to find out, that man was
only on day shift for a week or two, and I just happened to overhear his conversation.
Coincidence? I really don’t think so.
Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say
unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so
clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven how much
more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30 For all these things do the nations of the world
seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31 But rather seek ye
the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Jesus is calling. How will you answer the call? I hope all of you will think about this story
and these verses as you make your pledge of gifts and talents during the First Baptist Church
2005 stewardship campaign. Thank you.
June L. Deptulski
