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| Volume 20 Number 7 July 2018 | Page 15 |
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| Volume 20 Number 7 July 2018 | Page 15 |
Roger Wright
Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:41-44)
Have you ever heard someone say something like, “If I were rich, I would give a lot of money to the Lord’s work? I think of all kinds of good I would do…”? The question for us is this: Even if you are not rich, what are you doing for the Lord with what you have?
Jesus praised the widow who gave the two mites, a tiny amount of money, and He commended her for her generosity. Whether rich or poor, we should give generously. Regardless of our social position, we should give sacrificially. No matter who we are, we should give as an act of loving worship to God who has blessed us with all things.
Notice in the incident above that Jesus made no promise that God would multiply her physical blessings because she gave all. Jesus made no promise that her life would be easier, or even that she would have enough to eat that night. He simply noted what she had done without any expectations, except the pleasure of God. Whatever she did or did not get back in this life, we know that her good works for the Lord did not go unnoticed. Likewise, whatever we prosper in this life though we give sacrificially in the here and now, we know that our good works for the Lord will not go unnoticed or be disregarded in the last day.
We often spend too much time comparing ourselves, our gifts or our works with others. Realize that God our Father sees us as individuals. He knows what we are capable of doing. He loves us and expects us only to give our best, but He does expect our best.
Take a look at your life: your money and other resources, your abilities, and your time. Then, give sacrificially to God. Don’t make a show of it. God rewards what is done in secret (Matthew 6:4). Trust in Him, not in yourself. Know that He is a great and an awesome God whose power is unbounded. Throw yourself totally into His service and into His care every day. In doing so, God will see you and bless you for giving yourself to Him.
Forget Who You Are
Derek Broome
I know some of you have already read the title, and the jokes have already started coming to the tip of your tongue. I also know that like myself, many people have had family members who literally can no longer remember who they are, and that is no joking matter. However, I believe once we are past those things, we all can quickly understand what we are talking about. In James 1:23-24, we read that anyone who is a hearer of the Word but not a doer “is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”
We all can recognize that it makes no sense to hear the Word of God and then to not use it to help change our lives. We also understand how dangerous those kinds of actions are for us and for our souls. In James, the illustration that is used is a man looking at his face in the mirror, and when he walks away, he immediately forgets what he looked like. Is that helpful, or is that dangerous?
When you look in the mirror, there are two things that you see: the good and the bad. If you walk away and forget what you looked like, that does not help you at all. In fact, it could be dangerous. If you walk away, knowing you have sin in your life, but you never do anything to change, your soul is in danger of Hell.
Yet, the opposite is also true. If you walk away and remember none of the good, then you will not be able to experience the blessings that God has put before you. In the world in which we live today, there are many people walking around in sin, and there are many people walking around who see no good in their lives. Both sets of people have truly forgotten who they are, that they are made in the image of God and that they are His special creation. When we turn our lives back to God and remember who He is, we can then, once again, remember who we are and what our purpose is here on the earth.