Friday, December 18, 2020
For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life. John 3:16
Give More - JOY
We continue to Worship Fully, Spend Less and look today at
Giving More. It’s a time when we are
encouraged to think outside and live outside our own wishes and desires and
reach out with both with gratitude and with generosity. GIVE MORE doesn’t have
to mean SPEND MORE! “Giving More” is
about becoming more deeply connected with people and needs in a way that really
matters. God’s gift to us was a relationship built on love. The epitome of
relational giving is the incarnation.
Emmanuel means God with us. We
believe that in Christmas, God became incarnate in Jesus.
The Perfect Act - that He gave
When your heart is right then your actions will follow. The
action of love is to give...personally, sacrificially and sufficiently. Relational
giving for Christians means giving of ourselves in ways that are incarnational,
giving in ways that makes God present in the life of others. It means giving of
ourselves in ways that bring healing, hope, peace and reconciliation to the
lives of others who need those very things from God. It means giving of our own
lives in ways that help to bring new life to others who may be despairing of
the lives they are living. You can’t do that
with a pair of socks. The incarnation
happens every time Christians choose to give more of God through themselves for
the sake of others.
The Perfect Gift - His only
begotten Son
The value of a gift should be determined by the difference it makes in the life
of the one receiving and giving. God saw
our need. He recognized our helplessness. He gave a gift we cannot repay. This was a grace gift. It is the real definition of a gift. It has
no obligation attached to it at all.
He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a
debt I could not pay. I needed someone
to wash my sins away. And now I sing a
brand new song, Amazing Grace. Christ
Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
When we consider the perfect gift, the best place we can
turn is the gift God gave us in Christ at Christmas. He sent His only Son as a tiny baby to be the
savior of the world, yours and mine.
To give may be better understood as sharing.
We have enough plus more than we need which places us in the
position of being responsible for stewardship of God’s resource. Which end do you want to be on? Not to use
God’s resource for His purpose will cause us to be troubled by discontent and a
hunger for more as we put more trust in our resources and consume them on
ourselves. Seeing and touching the needy brings a response of love which cannot
be created by pictures or words. Do you really know the needs of the people in
your life…home, workplace, community?
The Gift of Time
Time is the real gift
Christmas offers us, and no matter how hard we look, it can’t be found at the
mall. Take time to make a gift that turns into the next family heirloom, time
to write mom a letter. Take time to take the kids sledding. Take time to bake
really good cookies and sing really bad Christmas carols. Take time to make
love visible through relational giving. Sounds a lot better than getting a
sweater two sizes too big, right?” Advent Conspiracy
Scripture to Claim:
