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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Balancing
Getting With Giving So this is Christmas, a
time when we think about spending. O,
I’m sorry. I must have my
Visa account on my mind. I
meant to say it’s a time to think about giving and not receiving, as
Jesus tells us to do all year long. (Acts 20:35)
Speaking about giving,
Jesus also says that if we give to the least among us, we give to Him.
He also says that if we don’t give to those less privileged, we
don’t give to Him, something He’s not very happy about. (Matt.
25:31…) New Testament thinking
states that it is better to give than to receive, and when we do give we
actually give to Jesus. Last week I wrote about
the traditional Sunday meeting of the church.
Most of what takes place in these meetings is in respect to
getting, not giving. I say
this because most people in the meeting sit and watch what is happening
on the platform with the hope of receiving something from the few up
front. Some of us spend a
lot of time in these meetings. I’ve
calculated that I’ve been in about 10,000 Christian meetings in my 56
years. I’m reminded
of a friend of mine who tried to meet with another Christian with no
success because the other Christian spent most of his evenings in a
church meeting. I’d like to propose a
change in our thinking. Cut
out half of our meetings, some of which may not be that productive
anyway. The time you save by
not attending these meetings spend in reaching out in some format of
giving to others, especially to the non-Christian.
By doing this we begin to balance our getting with giving and
become closer to New Testament thinking as a church group.
We also might just experience the presence of Jesus in our time
of giving as much as we do in our meetings since if we’re really
giving to Him, He must be present to give to.
Of course our giving has
to be in the name of Jesus as His representatives and not simply in the
name of some church or civic group.
I’m not sure that we give to Jesus when we give in someone
else’s name other than His.
I hope and pray you all
have a nice Christmas season knowing that Jesus gave of Himself when He
was placed in the manger. Of
course He now reigns as the Sovereign Lord of all there is expecting us
to follow in His example of giving.
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