When I was a younger player (teen years) I was definitely
more of a scorer than a passer… (old friends are screaming, “Amen!”, right now.)
I’ll be honest, I prided myself on being able to get the ball in the hole; yet I
also knew the game well enough to know that I was the size of a point guard…
…and a point guard is normally known for his passing abilities,
not his scoring. That takes me to a tryout I had at a college in FL. During the
scrimmage I made it a point to distribute the ball and show I could play the point;
following the scrimmage the coach explained that he thought I was a good player
but that he was looking for more of a scorer than a playmaker. My heart was crushed…
I wanted to have him call my friends, so they could explain that I normally was
not that generous with the ball.
That brings me to this week’s point… yesterday our pastor
was preaching about how to “be rich”; note: not how to get rich but instead how
to be rich. In comparison to most of the world, we each have an abundance of
riches and the Scripture gives instruction and warning to those that are “rich.”
1 Timothy 6:17
Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty,… 18 Let them
do good works, ready to give, willing to share,
The reason I shared the story of my tryout is this; just
because I spent one scrimmage trying to be a passing playmaker, it didn’t mean
that is what I was… I was simply a scorer that passed. Pastor Matt brought the point
out yesterday that if your answer to if you are generous is, “Yeah, one time I…”,
then you are not a generous person, you are simply a normally selfish person that gave. (Italics are my words, Matt was
more tactful than that.)
We are called to not just give, but to be generous!
Here is an excerpt from one of the daily student devotions
I write for our school:
2 Corinthians 9: 11 …while
you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving
through us to God.
God has given liberally to us! We are blessed to have
food, shelter, clothing, heat/air, clean water, transportation, etc. I know
that even here at the school we are very diverse economically; (I don’t have a
big house and a boat… but I am super thankful I have friends that do.) But in
the global scheme of things, we are all filthy rich and not quite so diverse…
Notice that the verse in 2 Corinthians says we are “enriched…
for all liberality.”
Now hear it from The Message paraphrase: He
gives you something you can then give away,
Application: What does a thankful man look like?
He looks like a generous man!
Check out how Psalm 112:9a describes a good man (which is
quoted in 2 Corinthians 9):
He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor…
Here is that thought in The Message:
He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless
abandon.
The last part of 2 Corinthians 9:11 states that when we are liberal
in giving it “causes thanksgiving in us to God.” To me that
means we actually experience thanksgiving, not just celebrate it!
Happy Thanksgiving stems from Happy Giving!
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