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I hope everyone is having a great week. Sorry for the long time periods between blogs.
I received a few questions this week from different people about giving to others, giving tithes and offerings to a local church, giving to your man or woman of God... So I would like us to talk today about giving!
You know, the Bible says “God so loved the world He gave” This is the most quoted verse in the Bible. Perhaps the most misunderstood as well. Love and giving are intrinsically tied together. In fact I would say real love expresses itself in real giving. Not just resources, but our time and our energy and our emotions as well.
I was thinking how much we love giving to those we love, and also how much we love those who we give to. Giving thoughtfully selected gifts, which are then carefully wrapped anticipating the day they are opened. This is the same for God too. He thought of you and carefully wrapped His Son for the world. The day that gift is opened, imagine the expression on God's face watching you receive the gift of eternal life!. Imagine the angels who rejoice.
Apostle Paul refers to giving as a grace, and I have found out that giving is a major key to the operation of grace in our lives. The attitude and stance of being a giver activates grace in the life of a believer. I am talking about the giving that is motivated by the love of God. Please understand that it is a privilege to give as unto God; it benefits us, not God. It increases our capacity to receive and develops our confidence in God's ability to sustain us. The condition for this is if we give as unto the Lord glorifying God in our giving, He must be our focus as we do it.
So, here are the 6 Benefits of Giving as unto the Lord, with the right attitude:
1. It delivers you from selfishness.
2. It breaks your dependence on the natural things you can see, touch and taste.
3. It stirs up the joy of giving as you see others enriched.
4. It enlarges your capacity to receive from the Lord through others.
5. You lay up treasures in heaven for the time to come.
6. Your giving today enriches your future.
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hello Pastor Joe and family! It's wonderful to 'see' you and how happy you look. If I'm reading this right, it looks like you are going to be in the Silver Spring/Bowie area this weekend? If so I hope you will please email me and let me know. It would be nice to see you again, and introduce my daughter to you.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to say I hope life has been good for you since we last spoke, it's easy to see it has.
be blessed,
lisa mikanda (lisamik@gmail.com)