1. Repent of our stinginess and be more generous 
2. Use food wisely at parties, reunions and open houses (take extra or leftover food to a homeless shelter) 
3. Have a family garage sale and give the proceeds to a cause fighting poverty, shelter or food bank
4. Serve at a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen, as a family
5. Meet and get to know people of all socioeconomic levels
6. Make one “poor meal” a month in your home (eat a very, very, very simple meal to remind your family that for many people such a meal is not an unpleasant reality that happens once a month. It is a way of life). 
7. Become actively involved in causes fighting and decreasing poverty – One, Samaritan’s Purse,, Plumpynut
8. Change your lifestyle – Live more simply
9. Start a family charity box or coffee can, where you put extra change, money you would spend for coffee or fast food. Each month determine what charity, shelter, or poor person the money will go to. 
10. Be homeless for a day or night
11. Adopt a child or children
12. Take a homeless person to dinner and actually sit and talk with him/her
13. Skip a weekly trip to the grocery store and donate money to a poor single mother, shelter, or food bank
14. Talk with your children about poverty and its affects
15. Avoid overconsumption
16. Fight injustice and oppression – in schools, among women, people of color, etc.
17. Get involved with Tabitha’s Closet 
18. Invite friends to watch a documentary on poverty and how it affects the futures of poor people
19. Give people what they really need and lack; don’t give stuff away just to be kind or to not feel guilty
20. Educate yourself on at least one aspect of poverty over the next month 

I know we will always have poor people in our world. This simply means we have more opportunities to bless them with our generosity. What are some other do you think we can make poverty history in our world? 

Don’t forget to leave a comment. Later this week I will let you know what organization we’ve chosen and how much we will be contributing. Thanks for your partnership. Grace and peace.

Popularity: 53% [?]

When we were growing up, my father kept a can of WD-40 in the house and in his car. It seemed it was the end all be all for almost everything. But what is WD-40? It literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. In 1953, the chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion – a task which is done by displacing water. Larsen’s unyielding tenacity and persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try. Larsen had, what the Bible calls, chutzpah (khoot-spuh).  

Matthew introduces us to a Gentile woman who had chutzpah (Matthew 15:21-28). Her daughter was violently and cruelly demon-possessed. She had no hope of ever seeing her daughter normal again, playing on the roads, or walking down aisle on her wedding day. She was hopeless, until she heard Jesus was in town, the same Jesus who had exorcised a demon on the Sabbath. Her faith came alive because she had heard about Jesus’ power at work in the lives of others. With this in mind, she approached Jesus boldly and persevered with unyielding tenacity. She had the gall, the brazen nerve, the incredible guts, the audacity to overstep the boundaries of accepted behavior, with no shame, in order to get help for her daughter. She had chutzpah! Jesus responded to the unyielding persistence of her desire and healed her daughter. Take time to carefully read the narrative.

Man, I wish I had that kind of chutzpah in my prayer life. Sometimes I pray and if I don’t get an answer the first time, I give up. I stop praying. I stop approaching. I stop crying out to God. That’s not chutzpah! Chutzpah is having the raw nerve, the gall, the incredible guts, and the audacity to be persistent with God. Now, it is not an attitude of arrogance, but an attitude of unyielding tenacity that recognizes that God is sovereign, good, just, loving and desires what’s best for his people. I wonder how many of our requests God has not granted because we lacked chutzpah. So, when you pray, do it with chutzpah! 

Do you have chutzpah? What prayers have you seen God answer because of your chutzpah? What other questions does this post raise for you regarding chutzpah in prayer?  

Popularity: 38% [?]

Bandleader Count Basie told a club owner, whose piano was out of tune, “I am not returning until you fix it.” A month later, Basie received a call from the club owner and he told him everything was fine. When Basie returned to the club and tried to play, the piano was still out of tune. “You said you fixed the piano!” an angry Basie exclaimed. “I did,” the owner replied. “I had it painted.” The owner solved the wrong problem!

Is your life, ministry, finances, marriage, family and spiritual life out of tune? Maybe you are “painting the piano” when you should be tuning it. Could it be you are not seeing the kind of success you desire in your life because you are not solving the right problems? For example, the answer to getting out of debt is not necessarily making more money. If you make more money, more than likely, you will spend more money, unless you solve the right problem. The issue that needs to be addressed is mismanagement of the money you already make. You need to become a faithful manager of the financial resources that God has entrusted to you.

Are you solving the right problems? Is there a more significant problem that you are overlooking?  Tell me what you think.

Popularity: 12% [?]