- Aug 16, 2005
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I would like to share with you a testimony of how God is providing for me and my family, even in these trying economic times. Please bear with me, as to understand just how awesome this testimony is, you need a bit of background.
So my wife and I and our 2 kids live in a very old house that we bought 6 months after we were married. The best estimate the home inspector was able to give us when we bought the house in 1999 was that it was probably between 100-150 years old. Remember this, as it will be important later.
Last year, God began to deal with me about tithing. Some of you may have seen the paper that I wrote (I posted it here) entitled, Tithing - Where I've been, where I'm at, where I'm going. I wrote this last June to try to flesh out my thoughts and beliefs concerning tithing. It is a 6-page documentation of my beliefs, then, now and beyond. Without going into much detail, I came to the realization that the message of Tithing, as I had heard taught my entire life, was incompatible with the message of God's Love and grace that was being shed abroad in my heart. This too will become important later.
So as some of you know, last May I took a 5% pay-cut at work. Needless to say, this 5% pay cut, while not exactly the end of the world, was certainly quite unwelcome. It meant that we were going to be put into the position, once again, of picking and choosing what to pay and what to push off until next month (or the month after). I'm sure many of you have been there and know how "fun" that can be.
However, this 5% pay cut had an interesting side-effect... LIHEAP. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, our state has an assistance program called the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program. Just on a whim one day after the pay cut, I thought I would check the website and see if we qualified. Remember, our house is every bit of 100 (possibly 150 years old) with no exterior insulation and our furnace is probably about 50 years old. This means INCREDIBLY high natural gas bills for us, particularly in the winter. I'd looked into this in prior years, but we'd always made far too much money to qualify.
However, with the horrible shape of the economy last year, the LIHEAP income guidelines were significantly increased. That increased income guideline for a family of 4 in conjunction with a 5% pay cut at work meant that we qualified for LIHEAP. We were literally just a few hundred dollars under the guideline, and without the 5% pay cut at work, we would not have qualified.
LIHEAP chipped in $300 toward our heating bill last year. This was a tremendous blessing and relief for our family, and already I was seeing how God was taking that which was meant to harm us and turning it for our good.
Along with the application to LIHEAP, we were referred to a weatherization program. Basically, the state gives grants to people to help bring their homes up to date to help reduce energy costs. We placed our application and waited. After 3 weeks, we called to check the status, and we were informed that if we were approved for the grant, it typically takes anywhere from 1-3 years since the list was so long.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. It has now been just about 8 months since we filed our application, and the weatherization people called us! It seems we were bumped to the top of the list because of our LIHEAP qualification in 2009. Sweet! They came out to our house 2 weeks ago to evaluate our home and determine what they can do to help weatherize our home.
So today, the guy from the construction company stopped by at lunch time to take measurements and do his own evaluation. The grant is paying for us to have blown-in insulation in all of our walls, one new vinyl window (to replace an old and broken "window" that is partially plywood), a new insulated steel door in our basement, weather stripping of all doors and windows, a new clothes dryer vent, and new gable vents in our attic! All at NO COST to us! I'm talking about THOUSANDS of dollars worth of labor and materials.
What's more, we haven't even met with their furnace guy yet. It's quite possible that they'll replace our furnace with a brand-new, energy efficient furnace. It's also possible, since our refrigerator is so old, that they'll also replace that with a brand new refrigerator. We'll hear about those things in the weeks to come.
All of this is at NO COST to us. Period.
None of this would have happened had it not been for my 5% pay-cut last year. Amazing.
So what have I learned from all of this? Did God reach down from the cosmic space and force management to cut my pay? Hardly. It simply illustrates to me, quite vividly, that God took that which was meant to harm me and turned it for my good in ways I could have never imagined! My 5% pay cut certainly did not take God by surprise. He was ready to take that situation and turn it around long before it ever happened!
The other lesson I've learned is about giving. Earlier, I mentioned that my beliefs concerning tithing had changed drastically. Right about the same time all of this happened, I determined in my heart that I was not going to keep track of what I was giving. I honestly have no idea what I have given to my church, or to others. I just haven't been keeping track of it. I did not want to be able to point to my performance or my giving as a reason or justification for any blessings (or lack thereof) in my life.
Because of that, I am unable to point to anything I've done and take credit for it. The only thing I've done is what I know to do; Love and serve God, no matter what the circumstances may look like. I've done nothing to "deserve" this. I've not "earned" it any way, shape or form.
I am so thankful to God for His gracious provision for me and my family. I can honestly say, that thing that was meant for evil, God has turned for our good!
So my wife and I and our 2 kids live in a very old house that we bought 6 months after we were married. The best estimate the home inspector was able to give us when we bought the house in 1999 was that it was probably between 100-150 years old. Remember this, as it will be important later.
Last year, God began to deal with me about tithing. Some of you may have seen the paper that I wrote (I posted it here) entitled, Tithing - Where I've been, where I'm at, where I'm going. I wrote this last June to try to flesh out my thoughts and beliefs concerning tithing. It is a 6-page documentation of my beliefs, then, now and beyond. Without going into much detail, I came to the realization that the message of Tithing, as I had heard taught my entire life, was incompatible with the message of God's Love and grace that was being shed abroad in my heart. This too will become important later.
So as some of you know, last May I took a 5% pay-cut at work. Needless to say, this 5% pay cut, while not exactly the end of the world, was certainly quite unwelcome. It meant that we were going to be put into the position, once again, of picking and choosing what to pay and what to push off until next month (or the month after). I'm sure many of you have been there and know how "fun" that can be.
However, this 5% pay cut had an interesting side-effect... LIHEAP. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, our state has an assistance program called the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program. Just on a whim one day after the pay cut, I thought I would check the website and see if we qualified. Remember, our house is every bit of 100 (possibly 150 years old) with no exterior insulation and our furnace is probably about 50 years old. This means INCREDIBLY high natural gas bills for us, particularly in the winter. I'd looked into this in prior years, but we'd always made far too much money to qualify.
However, with the horrible shape of the economy last year, the LIHEAP income guidelines were significantly increased. That increased income guideline for a family of 4 in conjunction with a 5% pay cut at work meant that we qualified for LIHEAP. We were literally just a few hundred dollars under the guideline, and without the 5% pay cut at work, we would not have qualified.
LIHEAP chipped in $300 toward our heating bill last year. This was a tremendous blessing and relief for our family, and already I was seeing how God was taking that which was meant to harm us and turning it for our good.
Along with the application to LIHEAP, we were referred to a weatherization program. Basically, the state gives grants to people to help bring their homes up to date to help reduce energy costs. We placed our application and waited. After 3 weeks, we called to check the status, and we were informed that if we were approved for the grant, it typically takes anywhere from 1-3 years since the list was so long.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. It has now been just about 8 months since we filed our application, and the weatherization people called us! It seems we were bumped to the top of the list because of our LIHEAP qualification in 2009. Sweet! They came out to our house 2 weeks ago to evaluate our home and determine what they can do to help weatherize our home.
So today, the guy from the construction company stopped by at lunch time to take measurements and do his own evaluation. The grant is paying for us to have blown-in insulation in all of our walls, one new vinyl window (to replace an old and broken "window" that is partially plywood), a new insulated steel door in our basement, weather stripping of all doors and windows, a new clothes dryer vent, and new gable vents in our attic! All at NO COST to us! I'm talking about THOUSANDS of dollars worth of labor and materials.
What's more, we haven't even met with their furnace guy yet. It's quite possible that they'll replace our furnace with a brand-new, energy efficient furnace. It's also possible, since our refrigerator is so old, that they'll also replace that with a brand new refrigerator. We'll hear about those things in the weeks to come.
All of this is at NO COST to us. Period.
None of this would have happened had it not been for my 5% pay-cut last year. Amazing.
So what have I learned from all of this? Did God reach down from the cosmic space and force management to cut my pay? Hardly. It simply illustrates to me, quite vividly, that God took that which was meant to harm me and turned it for my good in ways I could have never imagined! My 5% pay cut certainly did not take God by surprise. He was ready to take that situation and turn it around long before it ever happened!
The other lesson I've learned is about giving. Earlier, I mentioned that my beliefs concerning tithing had changed drastically. Right about the same time all of this happened, I determined in my heart that I was not going to keep track of what I was giving. I honestly have no idea what I have given to my church, or to others. I just haven't been keeping track of it. I did not want to be able to point to my performance or my giving as a reason or justification for any blessings (or lack thereof) in my life.
Because of that, I am unable to point to anything I've done and take credit for it. The only thing I've done is what I know to do; Love and serve God, no matter what the circumstances may look like. I've done nothing to "deserve" this. I've not "earned" it any way, shape or form.
I am so thankful to God for His gracious provision for me and my family. I can honestly say, that thing that was meant for evil, God has turned for our good!
