giving

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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Fish and Loaves

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Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.”… Mark 6:31a

They all ate as much as they wanted.  Mark 6:42

In the space between these verses is the amazing story of how Jesus fed 5,000 men at a place where the apostles were just hoping to get some rest. Sometimes all of us just need to get away. But Jesus comes up with astonishing ways to give us what we need in a way we least imagine.    Imported from phone 796

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The Value of a Day

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When we want to know the worth of a diamond we take it to a jeweler who takes his magnifying glass and looks at the color, counts the facets and so forth. If we need to sell a property we first call an appraiser who comes and looks carefully at it inside and out to ascertain its market value. While our practice is to value a thing according to its appearance God sees entirely differently. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. Mark 12:42-43 Consider the story of the widow who gave her two mites. The disciples were quite surprised when Jesus told them that she had given more than all the others. They had clearly seen with their own eyes the two tiny copper coins fall from her hand into the offering box. But what they had seen was nothing in comparison to what Jesus saw of the inner beauty of her love, sacrifice and faith. If we wish to walk with the invisible God we will discover that nothing in this life is as it appears to us. God takes our actions and puts them under the magnifying glass of heaven. He weighs our decisions and appraises them according to their eternal market value. This is the year God has put into our hands. It won’t matter if we give a dollar or a million, what will count with Jesus is the weight of love measured on His scales in heaven. Right now we have an amazing opportunity. God is watching our hearts. What by our invisible faith, will we sacrifice to God today?