self

Our Love is measured by our generosity

~ ForCommonGround ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve ever wondered just how loving a person is, you need look no further than how generous they are. The Bible defines love as being others focused. That means sacrificing and serving. It’s giving our time, energy, and resources to the improvement and benefit of others.

Generosity is far more than giving money. Think of the selfless parent who devotes every waking hour for their family. Or the spouse who actually stays by their partner’s side through sickness and health, richer or poorer, rain or shine.

Professions of choice can be a reflection of a generous heart. The soldier or policeman who puts their life on the line for freedom and security and their brothers and sisters in arms. Or the teachers who tirelessly strives for children, who are not even their own, to be able to have an education and a future. The nurses and doctors who work incredibly long hours to provide healthcare to society and save lives.

But we can’t set aside the times people use their financial resources to bless others, or more than that, even save others from ruin. I know more than one person who gave a vehicle away to people in need. They didn’t sell it cheap to them, they gave it to them. And they were good vehicles. Not junkets that they never use. I know people who have given thousands and thousands of dollars. Sure, not all of us have those resources, but we all have something. The problem for some of us isn’t that we don’t have enough, it’s that generosity is too big for us.

True generosity, the kind that honors our God, is the kind the causes us to sacrifice. Donating leftovers is no better than throwing table scraps to our dogs. Love is sacrificial therefore generosity must be as well. To be generous, it must cost us something. And I don’t mean that it costs a couple Starbucks drinks. I mean real cost.

Generosity also doesn’t include loans. In fact, God tells us not to demand repayment or to give to those who can repay us. To give a loan, means you’re getting payment in return. Banks aren’t considered generous, they a business. So is the person who gives expecting repayment. And that goes further than money. Reciprocal giving and serving is not generous. If we expect or demand anything in return, it can’t be labeled as generous.

We have to get in the back seat of our lives. If we are to grow in love, we must grow in generosity. Pray for me and I will pray for you. Peace and Christ brothers and sisters.

Christ-like, not us-like

~ ForCommonGround ~ 2 Comments

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

It is, always has been, and always will be the purpose of God to mold His creation to be more like His Son.  In allowing God to do this for us we must die to ourselves. That’s a concept that is both strange and frightening at first. We must live this life from the perspective of who we are in Christ. We are either taking steps towards this or away from it. We know the general direction God wants us to go and He is forever doing His part by guiding us in that path. But it’s up to us to stay on that path. As Ephesians 4:15 says, we are growing in every way like Christ. That means we can’t have areas of our lives that we tell God that we don’t want Him to mess with. We have to refuse to hold back parts of our lives and must be committed to allowing God to have every aspect of our lives to transform us into the likeness of Jesus. Once we became believers the “self” died and Christ lived in us. This is Christ’s life, not ours and just as He died for us we too must sacrifice our selfishness out of love for Christ. We don’t do this as an obligation but as an opportunity to serve our Savior and show our love and affection for Him. The more we make life about Him and about others the more joy we experience in this life and the more our life begins to make sense on a cosmic level.

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Ephesians 4:15 (NLT)

Peace in Christ brothers and sisters!