GIVE OR GIMMEE

“Give and take” is a common phrase . . .

over 400 million hits on Google, try it.

It is no accident that GIVE comes first.

If only we lived that way.

“Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.” ― Ben Carson

On Giving – Reconsider Your Thoughts On It

We know the many quotes from the Bible on giving.  We’ve heard so many times such as in Luke 6:38 where we are told “Give, and it will be given to you.”  Sounds like a plan!  I give, I get.  Means to an end.  No, it’s not meant that way, but we so often do look at things in terms of reciprocating . . . it’s not that we really always plot it out that way, but our “this world” society is so driven!  Consider the following:

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.” The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.- Kahlil Gibran –

Wow!  Gibran says it so well!  We tend to consider many things in our giving.  How blessed are we that our Lord didn’t give only to the deserving.  In this season of Lent as we walk His final 40 days on earth culminating with the crucifixion, thinking of all this I can only say if He looked at giving as I so often do He really wouldn’t have had any reason to suffer the dreadful death He bore for us at all for none of us would have been  “the deserving” at all.

As go the trees and the flock, so go each one of us if we are unwilling to give of what we have to others.  Give what?

• our time
• our money
• our talents and skills
• our excess
• our testimony, especially our testimony
• our love, as Jesus did and still does

Just today I had the opportunity to speak to a woman in a store about my testimony.  In sharing with her the Lord was glorified!  In Him I have life and I have it abundantly!  Without Him, I die.  With Him I have ETERNAL LIFE!  John’s gospel say it best, in John’s 10:10 we read “I have come that they may have life.”  

Giving is like breathing.  It is not a means to an end.  It is how we live!  Jesus is our example to follow all the way to the cross!

His Overflowing Compassion. (via allisonfinley)

Jesus was all about compassion. We must be the same if we truly desire to be like Him and win hearts for the Kingdom!

Jesus lived in the state of compassion.  Every word He said, every thought that ran through His mind and every action He performed had the love of the Father running through it.  His Father's heart never left Him. "When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." -Matthew 9:36.  The Message Bible says, "His heart broke."  Does your heart ache for the lost and troubled souls … Read More

via allisonfinley