Grains of Sand

Pixabay Remember...generosity. Several times a year my father would come home from work, eat his supper, don his one-and-only suit and leave the house for an hour or so. This was unusual because my father generally only wore a suit on Sundays and to weddings and funerals. When I was a kid I remember asking him once where he was going. He smiled his conspiratorial smile and said, "To see my girlfriend." It was sometime later that I discovered that his "girlfriend" was a nurse and my father a regular blood donor! He gave blood until they finally told him that they couldn't allow him to give any more. Why he needed his Sunday suit to give blood was something I never really figured out, though I suppose he thought that what he was doing was important enough to merit his best foot forward. Dad didn't have much of this world's treasure, but what he could give he gave freely, consistently and happily. You see, generosity isn't just about money. ...

There was a commercial on television a while back that pictured people running around with their hands in the pockets of other people. I can’t remember what the commercial was trying to sell but the image returned to me this morning as I read Exodus 25. There are some who accuse the church of always having its hand out looking for money (which I guess is one notch better than having it in the pockets of the congregation). It was this perception that caused us as missionaries to be extremely careful how we handled teaching about tithing and taking up an offering for the ongoing ministry of the church. Here in Exodus 25 we find Moses receiving instructions from God about the building of the tabernacle, including how to collect the materials from which it would be built. He said: “ Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give ” (25:2, NIV). Stock.xchng There is plenty of teaching in the Scriptu...

Reading: 2 Corinthians 5-9 I was researching some material yesterday for an upcoming series of studies I am preparing. During that research I came across some astonishing facts about money. J. John writes in Ten Laws of Love Set in Stone that: “At the beginning of the year 2000 the three richest people in the world together had more wealth than the poorest forty-seven countries put together. A total of 342 people had more money than half the world’s population put together. We might not be in that 342, but we are rich by the standards of most of the world” (page 37). One of the commercials that really annoys me is that of a well-known actor and political activist who comments on how much money is devoted to bailouts and other things by rolling out lines of money with his foot. Then he puts down one single bill on the floor to demonstrate how much money goes to feed the hungry. He’s probably right, but my reaction to him is: “And where do your millions go except to travel aro...

“ He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done ” —Proverbs 19:17, NIV. One of the subjects that frequently came up for discussion among our people in Venezuela was how to respond to the poor begging for money at so many of the intersections throughout the city. The topic wasn’t whether or not to help them, but which ones were genuinely in need. I always remembered the story told by a colleague of her experience while she was at language school in Costa Rica. It was pouring rain the night the knock came to the door of her house. When she opened the door, a bedraggled woman dressed in tattered clothes stood in the doorway. She was soaking wet and clutching a baby in her arms. There was another small child clinging to her skirts. She told my friend her sad story and asked for any kind of help that she could give her. How could my friend refuse? She gave the woman some money for which she was profusely thanked. After the woman had gone ...