Calrifying Pudding

Sundays are precious to me because each week I am allowed to give until I have nothing left.  I’ve got it made because the demands and duties of a pastor’s Sunday usher me into a particular realm that demands my release of myself to God and others.  Far more than it being work, it is my dutiful delight to have a fixed day wherein I serve others more so than any other day of the week.   I love Sundays because I know I will be serving all day.  Certainly I am blessed to give Monday through Saturday also, but Sundays are quite different from those days.  It is impossible for me to come to the church I serve on the Lord’s Day and not be a giver.  God calls me to give my time.  God calls me to give my energies.  God calls me to give my voice.  God calls me to give my money. The Lord’s Day is structured for Christians to be givers and we take great joy in this.  Sundays are the primary day of the week where the Christian is placed into a context wherein it is very easy to give.  It is true, however, that many will attend church services today and show up with a full-blown expectancy to receive.  They will benefit from others who give their time, energies, voice and money.  Certainly one should expect that one will benefit from what has been prepared by others, but some will come with the desire (or expectancy or presumption) to receive as the motivating force for their Sunday.  Have you thought about this?  Why will you attend church services today?  Will you do so in order to be a giver or a recipient of what others give?  What about the rest of your week – are you intentional in your sharing of all that comprises your life?  Is generosity being cultivated in your heart?  Do you know if you are a giver more than a receiver?

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ – the words of the Apostle Paul, quoting Jesus Christ, in Acts 20:35

The Lord Jesus Christ taught us that we are more blessed to be givers than receivers.  It is better to invest your time in others than it is for you to guard your time for yourself.  Jesus taught that. Expending energy to build up someone else pays greater dividends than edifying yourself.  Jesus taught that. Releasing your money into the Kingdom of God has greater enduring value than spending your money on your own kingdom which will never last.  Jesus taught that. Frankly, the issue is fundamentally clear so each of us needs to merely address whether or not we believe the Lord.  We might very well ask if there is evidence that we trust Jesus when He confronts our human nature by turning it inside-out and declaring that we gain when we release.

Actually, I suppose we need not even ask the question because the answer is already manifest.  Let us take five minutes to look at our own lives and we will easily discern the reality surrounding this issue.  Are you more blessed to receive or to give?  The proof is in the pudding.