"Year in Review" - June

Today, we are going to continue our 2009 Year in Review by looking back at the month of June. My favorite part of June was launching some new community service projects ... like our partnership with Sauls Homeless Shelter. My favorite entry came from June 25th...

GIVE

Back to Paul’s letter ... Today, he offers what most would consider an oxymoron.

2 Corinthians 8

1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.

2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.

4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.

5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

6 So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to finish this ministry of giving.

7 Since you excel in so many ways - in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us - I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.

8 I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches.

9 You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.

Give. Most people would think that if you had “many troubles” you wouldn’t have “abundant joy” or that if you were “very poor” you wouldn’t overflow “in rich generosity” or that no one would ever “beg” to “share” (let alone consider it a “privilege”). For most people, none of that makes any sense! I think the key is in verse 5 ... if we are to ever understand this concept of giving (of generosity), we must first give ourselves completely to Jesus. When we do, I think we will see that most of what we thought about this life was upside down to begin with. When we begin to understand who he was (verse 9), we can stop being like most people and start being more like him.