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    Fields of Gold
    Fields of Gold
    Fields of Gold
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    Fields of Gold

    By Andy Stanley

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    About this ebook

    A practical and inspirational book based on the principle of sowing and reaping. If we sow fear, what will be our harvest? And conversely, if we sow faith, what will we grow? This book moves the reader beyond fear and guilt about giving and into confidence, security, and excitement. Andy Stanley unpacks our irrational fears about money, helping us to discover that generous giving is actually an invitation for our heavenly Father to get involved in our finances and resupply us with enough seed to sow generously throughout our lifetime.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTyndale House Publishers
    Release dateAug 7, 2015
    ISBN9781414358123
    Author

    Andy Stanley

    Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries (NPM) in 1995. Today, NPM consists of eight churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 180 churches around the globe that collectively serve over 200,000 people weekly. As host of Your Move with Andy Stanley, which delivers over 10.5 million messages each month through television, digital platforms, and podcasts, and author of more than 20 books, including Irresistible; Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets; and Deep & Wide, Andy is considered one of the most influential pastors in America.

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    Reviews for Fields of Gold

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Excellent book. We rationally allocate capital to create shareholder valueand we do it capital to create shareholders valueand we do it truthfully.
    • 5/5
      A must-read book for the true meaning of a cheerful giver. So inspiring!

    Book preview

    Fields of Gold - Andy Stanley

    INTRODUCTION

    designdingbat

    Giving was simple when I was a child. From an early age, I was taught to take one dime out of every dollar I received and put it in the offering plate. I never knew anything else. I was raised to believe that giving was just one of the things you did with money. It was effortless. And since I wasn’t really earning the money anyway, I never felt any fear associated with giving. I certainly wasn’t concerned that giving away money might be a threat to my quality of life. I always had plenty to eat and nice clothes to wear.

    But over the years, as my income increased, I began to notice a slight hesitancy in my giving. I was still giving a dime out of every dollar. But now it was adding up to hundreds or thousands of dollars at a time. And somehow that felt different. Whenever I wrote one of those seemingly large checks, concerns such as these would run through my mind: What if I need the money for something else? Am I saving enough? What if I have an unexpected expense? Is anybody else giving this much?

    My struggle didn’t stop me from giving a set percentage, but it sure took some of the joy out of it. As I began to evaluate my hesitancy, I concluded that my problem wasn’t greed. It was fear. I was slowly turning into a fearful giver. Bottom line—I was losing confidence in my long-held belief that God was who He said He is and that He would do what He’s promised to do. Under the growing pressure to make ends meet each month, I was slowly becoming irrational in my thinking about God, His faithfulness, and my role as a steward of His resources.

    Since that time, I’ve discovered that I’m not alone. For many believers, cheerful giving has become fearful giving. We are not opposed to supporting God’s kingdom with our resources. And we’re really not greedy. But we are concerned. We’re concerned that if we don’t look after our own needs first, they might not get looked after at all.

    Yet the testimony of Scripture, together with the experiences of millions of believers, sends a resounding response to our concerns. Any fear associated with giving to God’s kingdom is irrational. It’s on a par with a farmer who, out of fear of losing his seed, refuses to plant his fields. As absurd as that may sound, many of us are guilty of hoarding the financial seed that God intends to be sown for the harvest that is to come. And it’s all because of fear.

    The principle of sowing and reaping applies to our finances. Those who sow generously can expect to reap generously and receive a bountiful return. Allowing our concerns about the future to limit our giving makes no sense at all. And yet, for many of us there is a lingering fear, a fear that has the potential to rob us of our joy. But worse than that, it’s a fear that could cause us to handle our finances in a way that locks us in and locks God out.

    In the pages that follow, we’re going to unpack this irrational fear of giving. We will study the words of Jesus and we will peer into the lives of several of His modern-day followers. As we do, we’ll discover that generous giving is actually an invitation for our heavenly Father to get involved in our finances. With His involvement comes a promise that should mitigate our fear of giving once and for all. He promises to resupply generous sowers with enough seed to continue sowing generously throughout their lifetimes.

    The result?

    Fields of gold—in this life, as well as in the life to come.

    CHAPTER 1

    DUST IN THE WIND

    introdingbat

    The western sky was growing dark. In a few moments, the entire Oklahoma panhandle would be engulfed in the swirling blackness. Jeremiah Clary began the familiar task of rolling up wet rags and stuffing them in the cracks around the door to keep the dust out. This particular afternoon, the churning winds were carrying tons of airborne topsoil in his direction. Even the slightest opening around a window would result in a solid layer of dirt on every surface in the house.

    The Clary family had been lured to the Southern Plains by the promise of bountiful crops and endless, fertile fields of wheat. And for a while, that’s exactly what they found. But throughout the 1920s, thousands of ambitious immigrants plowed up vast portions of virgin grasslands to plant their fortunes. The Great Depression drove even more settlers westward, and they quickly exploited the organic gold mine of America’s heartland. Then in 1931, the rains stopped. More than 100 million acres of hopes and dreams stood drying in the baking sun. But that was just a prelude to the real devastation. With nothing to hold the topsoil, the once benign winds of the western plains scooped up the loose earth one grain at a time and turned it into a giant sandblaster.

    To make matters worse, the relentless sun radiated the exposed soil, turning the entire region into a vast clay oven that whipped the windstorms into an even greater fury. This unusual combination of earth, wind, and fire bore a resemblance to an apocalyptic wrath. Clouds of dirt rose miles into the sky, leveling everything in sight. Although it had taken a thousand years for an inch of rich topsoil to accumulate, it was blown away in a matter of minutes. In the wake of such a storm, fields of shoulder-high wheat were stripped bare. Tons of soil accumulated in drifts against fence lines, buildings, and dying livestock.

    The drought would endure for a decade. As much as eight tons of soil per acre were lost every year. And all along, farmers like Jeremiah Clary kept thinking that surely the rains would return soon.

    In a circular area touching five states, more than 850 million tons of land were lost. A reporter passing through the region described it as a giant dust bowl. The name stuck.

    Jeremiah lit an oil lamp as the whole Clary house vibrated under the onslaught of the black blizzard. Somewhere in the stratosphere above him was thirty-four dollars worth of Turkey Red, a special blend of seed he had sown the week before. It was headed in the direction of Missouri now.

    Every time he sowed his fields, Jeremiah spent a

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