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. ...

Google Images We can only guess at some of the political intrigue that might have been going on that formed the background to the stories of the Bible. We don’t often take into account the cultural tensions that affected how even the saints lived out their lives. In Genesis 14 we catch a glimpse of some of those dynamics of life in the Middle East during the time of Abram. The tensions between the city-states of the time are seen in the early verses of the chapter. One set of kings pitted against another set of kings is described in Genesis 14:1-9. But it appears that even Abram had to protect himself from greedy predator kings by making his own alliances (14:13). Unhappily, Abram’s nephew, Lot, got swept up when Sodom was overrun in the conflict. When the patriarch of the family heard the news, we discover a different side to Abram. The threat to his family brought out the warrior in him and he rallied his household to go in pursuit of his kinsman. Not only did he rescue Lot and t...

One of any pastor's favourite verses to haul out and wave in front of the congregation comes from 1 Corinthians 9:7. Paul writes: " Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver ." The quoting the verse is usually closely followed by the arrival of an offering plate. The context of the verse certainly supports the application. Paul is enthusiastic about the generosity of the saints in providing material resources for their poorer brothers. Cheerful giving doesn't just apply to money. I think of all the work teams and volunteers, young and old, who have made sacrifices to step out in faith to give their time and talents to help others in need. I remember the two elderly farmers who came to Colombia many years ago. One was a self-taught expert in all things mechanical and spent his month or so fixing everything that remotely fitted into that category. His friend was a carpenter and made...