giving

The Gift of Mercy

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Blessed are the Merciful for they shall receive mercy. Matthew 5:7 ESV

In the middle of a crisis it feels good to find someone to blame, but it is far better to find someone to help. Last week in Casigno Italy, Father Giuseppe Berardelli died of the Covid-19 virus after giving his respirator away to a younger patient. His  act of sacrificial love is the example of the mercy of Jesus Christ that we all need to learn while we are passing through this valley of the shadow of death.

We are all only on this planet for so long and for all of us our final day will come. We have to choose how our lives will be remembered. When we are gone from this place will people first mention the beauty of our home or the vintage of our car? Will they discuss the brilliance of our investment strategy or the universities we sent our children to? Or will we be remembered as the landlord who forgave the rent, the mechanic who repaired someone’s car for free or the nurse who held a patient’s hand as they drew their last breath?

Mercy is like a flower whose seeds are given to us. We have an opportunity to plant them in the lives of people all around us. Remember that the greatest mercy of all was planted one late afternoon outside of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago as Jesus looked out from His cross and cried, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!” Now He puts that mercy into our hands. So why not look for a way to plant mercy in the heart of someone else today? Remember  the words of Jesus when He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

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The Best Gift is Free

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Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Matthew 5:7 ESV

It is not long until Christmas and some might be thinking about what kind of gifts to give. For the people closest to us we often focus on something personal. For those whom we do not know so well we may stockpile a few generic gifts. But what kind of gift do you suppose God would choose to give?

Well the Bible tells us that He gave us life and breath. The Apostle John goes further and says that God gave His only Son that if we believe in Him we could receive eternal life.  But if we look a little closer we see that when Jesus came, He didn’t just stick around long enough to do miracles and then return to heaven waiting to see if we would believe. He came with one very specific job to do. He came to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins.

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The difference between the Christian and the non believer is not whether we grew up in the right family, are members of the right church, or even give a lot of money to the poor. Our one essential characteristic is that we have come, one by one to the foot of the cross and received the gift of mercy that Jesus came to give. Now He asks us: “Will we be willing to give away the greatest gift that we have ever received?” Why can’t we give mercy to others this Christmas? And why not give it to more than just our loved ones and friends? Why not give it to neighbors, strangers and even enemies? Mercy is the greatest gift we could ever receive or give and best of all it is always free!

 

The Gift of Joy

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 2 Corinthians 8:2 ESV

Our twelve year old grandson is named Christian. Whenever Christian is happy about something he squints his eyes, rubs his hands together and smiles as wide as he can. Christian loves to tell me a joke or to give me some small gift he has made. While he is doing that he will shout out my name and sometimes even jump up and down in excitement. Some say that our grandson has special needs; but I just think that God has given him to our family so that we will know what rejoicing looks like!

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Christian with his little brother

When was the last time you can honestly say that you experienced joy like that? In today’s verse we are introduced to the little church in a town called Philippi who had a giant giving heart. They were very poor believers who had befriended Paul but they discovered first-hand what being more blessed giving than receiving really meant. Perhaps because of their own poverty they understood hunger and when they heard about people who were without food; they eagerly sent as large an offering as they could. Like us in the Western world some of the richer churches groaned when asked to give, and just grudgingly gave what they felt they had to. But the Philippians saw this as a joyful opportunity to give their best and they discovered that in God they were really rich.   They found out just as our grandson has, that giving whatever they had gave them a chance of receiving God’s overflowing joy and that was way more than they could have ever imagined!

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