A POSITIVE EXAMPLE OF GIVING UNTO THE LORD In the last century, R.G. LeTourneau was a designer and manufacturer of heavy earth-moving equipment. His machinery transformed 5,000 acres of marshland into New Yorks Idlewild (now Kennedy) Airport, tore open the wilderness for the Alaskan Highway, made airstrips for the landing of the first Allied fighter planes on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, and cleared the debris from bombed-out European cities after World War II. In the early years of his business, LeTourneau went into partnership with God. By this he did not lower grace to the level of a bargain. Rather he said, Because I believe that God wants businessmen as well as preachers to be His servants, I believe that a factory can be dedicated to His service as well as a church. In 1935 he irrevocably assigned over 90 percent of the companys profits to the LeTourneau Foundation, described as a not-for-profit corporation whose income and capital can be used only for the cause of Christ. (Moving Heaven and Earth, Donald Ackland, Iversen-Ford Associates, New York). In the first fifteen years, the foundation gave over $2.5 million to other organizations engaged in Christian work, and kept over $2.25 million in its own program of evangelistic ministries. Countless Christian schools and organizations in America have been the recipients of his gift of giving. Scarcely a mission field exists in all five continents where some devoted worker has not been aided through money from this foundation. Altogether, millions of dollars have been given to further the Lords work. LeTourneau said: I have never been much of a preacher of tithing. My Life Verse has been Matthew 6:33, “Give first place to the kingdom of God and what He requires, and He will provide you with all these other things.” MY PHILOSOPHY has been— we should serve God because we love, not because we are making a bargain with Him. Many marriages go on the rocks because it was a bargain rather than love. You do something for me and I’ll do something for you. In the same way people say, IF I DO THIS FOR GOD will He also do something for me? That’s not love, it’s a bargain. I often say, if you love the LORD you will serve Him and if you are not serving Him it proves you don’t love Him and if you don’t love Him it proves you don’t know him. I hope you are now beginning to understand what I meant when I began by saying that I’m not much of a preacher of tithing. If under the law the people of God gave one-tenth to the LORD, shame on us, living under grace, if we don’t do better. The tithe may be a place to begin if you are not now giving to the LORD, but it’s no place to stop. You see what I mean? If you get a vision of what our salvation cost, see Christ on the cross, the cruel nails in his hands and feet, the mocking crowd and the weight of our sin… paying the penalty for you and for me— it will put your service and giving on a different plane. He gave himself willingly to give us salvation from sin. If this grips us, we can’t help but love Him. We will say with the song writer— Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all! Only the grace of God can save us from a superficial declaration of love for God. True love based on an understanding of God’s grace and deep gratitude for the gift of salvation through our LORD Jesus Christ— these will settle the problem of “what should I give God” because my thinking will be turned around to consider that all I am and have belong to Him and I am a steward for Him while serving him in this life. It’s easy to sing, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.” Only God’s grace in a life can make it come true. Man, selfishly inclined, can’t do it in his own power— IT TAKES GOD’S POWER! [The above is from R. G. LeTourneau’s autobiography, Mover of Men and Mountains]
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 00:43:43 +0000
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