This is a facebook note I felt moved to write a little while ago. I thought it would be applicable to this thread.
Charity
I'm always getting tagged in these notes from my friends. Sometimes they are funny or tell a cool story, but the best notes I've read have always made me think on a more personal level. So, with my first attempt, it only seems right that I should try and return the favor. I want to write a little bit about what God has been doing in my life.
First, I think that this will come together a little better if I use an example. As a great deal of my friends already know, I went to Panama City this summer for Beach Project. While there, something amazing happened. I don't say that it was amazing because of how good it was, but just that it really seemed like God was using the situation to show me something. I don't want to use any names, but here is the situation... at Beach Project, there is a cost of attendance that you can choose to pay as you go along ($1200). Most people had to use this option since they couldn't raise enough support. One person in particular, who I consider a friend, came to me and asked if I had raised extra support. She was wondering if I had any spare money to help her out because she felt she would probably not be able to meet the requirement without it (at least I suppose that is why she asked). Well, I had not yet paid off my own bill so I told her as much. At the time, I felt like I wanted to help but I wasn't really willing to go that extra mile. I'll come back to this later. Well, later I found out that a friend of mine had given her the money that she needed. Now, this is of not much consequence except that I knew that this particular person was also paying in installments and would often skip going out because he didn't have enough money. In short, he was in a worst financial situation than I was.
Now, I would like to point to a story in the Bible that some of you may have not read before or, at least, you may skimmed over the line that really struck me in it all. That story is the story of David and the census. It can be found in 2 Samuel 24 if you want to go back and read it. I will try to do it justice with a short summation for now. David was a great military commander who had been given his power by God. However, in this story, David makes a great mistake that most of us probably would consider quite minor. David set out to take a census (population count) to find out how many people he could raise in an army if he needed to. This was sort of a test of power for him. Joab, who he ordered to take the census, warned him that his power was with the Lord and that the census was useless, but still David's pride got in the way and he ordered Joab to continue as planned. After the fact, God punished Israel for David's sin. As God is striking down his people with a plague, David cries out to him,
"I am the one who sinned and did wrong. I gave the order for the people to be counted. These people only followed me like sheep. They did nothing wrong. Lord my God, please punish me and my family, but stop the terrible disease that is killing your people."
At this, the Lord took mercy and called off his angels. Still, the Lord required a sacrifice from David. He ordered him to build an altar for it. Now, the place where David was at belonged to someone else so he couldn't just simply build it on his land. So he went to this man and offered to pay for his land in full. This man replied that David could take it for free. He was willing to give all he had after seeing God's wrath. But, and here is the main point of me telling this story, David replied, "No, I will pay the full price for the land. I won’t take anything that is yours and give it to the Lord. I won’t offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing."
Now, this just made me think. Normally, if I am feeling charitable, I use this line of thinking: what can I possibly give that I have extra that will cause the most good? How will giving this affect me? Certainly, having written it down, I can see that this isn't charity at all. It seems to almost be a way to feed my own pride. Still, I am concerned that many others use a similar line of thinking and never think twice about it much like I did. What is more, God has already tried to teach me this lesson last summer (see first paragraph) and still it just didn't register until now. For an example, when a begger comes up to me on the street and asks me for money, my first thought is always: do I have extra money to spare and then, how should I use it to help this person? But why am I so concerned if I have extra money to spare? I think that the answer is that I measure a gift by how much good will come of it--which I think is exactly the disguise that Satan wishes it to take. God judges a gift by how much you have to give up to give it and with the joy you use when giving it.
If anyone actually made it though that, I commend you and hope it was encouraging.
Charity
I'm always getting tagged in these notes from my friends. Sometimes they are funny or tell a cool story, but the best notes I've read have always made me think on a more personal level. So, with my first attempt, it only seems right that I should try and return the favor. I want to write a little bit about what God has been doing in my life.
First, I think that this will come together a little better if I use an example. As a great deal of my friends already know, I went to Panama City this summer for Beach Project. While there, something amazing happened. I don't say that it was amazing because of how good it was, but just that it really seemed like God was using the situation to show me something. I don't want to use any names, but here is the situation... at Beach Project, there is a cost of attendance that you can choose to pay as you go along ($1200). Most people had to use this option since they couldn't raise enough support. One person in particular, who I consider a friend, came to me and asked if I had raised extra support. She was wondering if I had any spare money to help her out because she felt she would probably not be able to meet the requirement without it (at least I suppose that is why she asked). Well, I had not yet paid off my own bill so I told her as much. At the time, I felt like I wanted to help but I wasn't really willing to go that extra mile. I'll come back to this later. Well, later I found out that a friend of mine had given her the money that she needed. Now, this is of not much consequence except that I knew that this particular person was also paying in installments and would often skip going out because he didn't have enough money. In short, he was in a worst financial situation than I was.
Now, I would like to point to a story in the Bible that some of you may have not read before or, at least, you may skimmed over the line that really struck me in it all. That story is the story of David and the census. It can be found in 2 Samuel 24 if you want to go back and read it. I will try to do it justice with a short summation for now. David was a great military commander who had been given his power by God. However, in this story, David makes a great mistake that most of us probably would consider quite minor. David set out to take a census (population count) to find out how many people he could raise in an army if he needed to. This was sort of a test of power for him. Joab, who he ordered to take the census, warned him that his power was with the Lord and that the census was useless, but still David's pride got in the way and he ordered Joab to continue as planned. After the fact, God punished Israel for David's sin. As God is striking down his people with a plague, David cries out to him,
"I am the one who sinned and did wrong. I gave the order for the people to be counted. These people only followed me like sheep. They did nothing wrong. Lord my God, please punish me and my family, but stop the terrible disease that is killing your people."
At this, the Lord took mercy and called off his angels. Still, the Lord required a sacrifice from David. He ordered him to build an altar for it. Now, the place where David was at belonged to someone else so he couldn't just simply build it on his land. So he went to this man and offered to pay for his land in full. This man replied that David could take it for free. He was willing to give all he had after seeing God's wrath. But, and here is the main point of me telling this story, David replied, "No, I will pay the full price for the land. I won’t take anything that is yours and give it to the Lord. I won’t offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing."
Now, this just made me think. Normally, if I am feeling charitable, I use this line of thinking: what can I possibly give that I have extra that will cause the most good? How will giving this affect me? Certainly, having written it down, I can see that this isn't charity at all. It seems to almost be a way to feed my own pride. Still, I am concerned that many others use a similar line of thinking and never think twice about it much like I did. What is more, God has already tried to teach me this lesson last summer (see first paragraph) and still it just didn't register until now. For an example, when a begger comes up to me on the street and asks me for money, my first thought is always: do I have extra money to spare and then, how should I use it to help this person? But why am I so concerned if I have extra money to spare? I think that the answer is that I measure a gift by how much good will come of it--which I think is exactly the disguise that Satan wishes it to take. God judges a gift by how much you have to give up to give it and with the joy you use when giving it.
If anyone actually made it though that, I commend you and hope it was encouraging.
