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Darrell Tunningley: The generosity challenge

“The generosity challenge: Spend the start of the New Year in prayer. Ask God to show you how you can show His love in your community, with the aim of creating lasting transformation not only in your life, but in the lives of those around you.”

Darrell Tunningley in blogpost entitled “The Generosity of our Resolutions” posted on 1 January 2012.

I like this generosity challenge because it’s simply a resolution to pray and follow God’s leading to show His love to the those around us. I’m thinking about this while fly fishing again today on the San Juan River with Sammy.

One thing I love about fly fishing is the solitude it affords for prayers like this one. If you have always wanted to learn about fly fishing and need a guide to teach you, my son is the licensed outfitter for you: www.sammysflyshop.com

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Evangelical Covenant Church: Stewardship and Generosity Resolution

If you are the kind of person who likes New Year’s Resolutions, here’s one for you to consider…

“While we serve a God of abundance, we live in a world of great hunger, poverty, and injustice. Therefore Christ has called us to be stewards of God’s abundance, so that all of humanity may experience life in its fullness (John 10:10). The Stewardship and Generosity Resolution invites Christ followers to live as generous stewards of God’s material and spiritual gifts and calls the church to be a formational, witnessing community that counter-culturally embraces stewardship and generosity. God calls all of us to put our hope and trust in God, to be content and thankful, and to give sacrificially, generously, and cheerfully (Luke 12:16-21; 16:9-13; Phil. 4:11-13). By answering this call, we will reflect God’s abundant provision and make it a reality for a world in need.”

Evangelical Covenant Church, “Stewardship and Generosity Resolution” 2012.

I am thankful for the gift of time off this week with my son, Sammy. We are enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, and fly fishing together on the San Juan River in Navajo Dam, NM. We are also praising God for the privilege of doing this with two of our closest fly fishing buddies (and brothers in Christ), Clay and Charlie Jones.

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James Hamilton: Goodness is love in action

“Goodness is love in action, love with its hand at the plow, love with the burden on its back; it is love carrying medicine to the sick, and food to the famished; it is love reading the Bible to the blind, and explaining the Gospel to the felon in his cell; it is love at the Sunday-class, or in the Ragged School; it is love at the hovel-door, or sailing far away in the missionary ship; but whatever task it undertakes, it is still the same–love following His footsteps, “who went about continually doing good” [Acts 10:38].”

James Hamilton (1814-1867) Scottish minister, in Day’s Collacon compiled and arranged by Edward Parsons Day (New York: IPPO, 1884) 336.

Back in the 1800’s a “Ragged School” was a school for destitute poor children. “Goodness” also known as “generosity” is love in action, and love is the commandment of Jesus that encompasses all others (cf. John 13:34-35). Let us follow in His footsteps empowered by the Holy Spirit.

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William Law: Use money to do good

“If there is nothing so glorious as doing good, if there is nothing that makes us so like God, then nothing can be so glorious in the use of our money as to use it in works of goodness.”

William Law (1686-1761) English cleric, in Day’s Collacon compiled and arranged by Edward Parsons Day (New York: IPPO, 1884) 336.

Give generously today. Don’t just do this because it’s near the end of the calendar year for tax purposes. Use money to do good each and every day because there’s no better way to use it (cf. Galatians 6:9-10).

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Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson: More research on the ungenerous

“Self-preservation and financial security are the main standards by which ungenerous Americans assess their lives. This approach thus stokes an anxiety that at worst is soothed by apathy and a withdrawal from concerns beyond one’s own individual concerns, and at best results in some intermittent caring, volunteering, and financial generosity. This framework also encourages a hoarding mentality…

Attaining the sort of happiness found in material well-being and security, which the majority of ungenerous Americans pursue without regard for others, comes at a great personal cost. The battle is won, but the war is lost. The means people use to achieve this version of happiness leads to a self-defeated end. And that frustrated end obscures the deeper, richer, more complex kinds of happiness humans want, sending them on misguided searches for more of what already does not satisfy.”

Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson in “Giving Makes Us Happy. So Why Do So Few Do It?” posted by Science of Generosity on 3 November 2014.

In biblical terms, Smith and Davidson have revealed that the ungenerous are seeking to gain the whole world, and in so doing, they are losing their souls (cf. Mark 8:36). Why are so many choosing this self-destructive path? Why do all of us at times choose the way of the ungenerous and wander on misguided searches for more of what already does not satisfy?

The answer is simple really. We believe and act on lies. In this case we believe the lies that we need to accumulate in order to attain happiness and to secure our future rather than the truth that God invites us to entrust ourselves to His care, which often flows from family members and fellow believers, and that happiness is found in those relationships and not possessions.

What it all boils down to is that we do not experience life as God intended it, because of our own unbelief. The good news for today, and in 2015 and beyond is that Jesus helps those who believe and yet wrestle with unbelief (cf. Mark 9:24). Since that includes all of us at times, let’s resolve together to believe and ask Jesus to help us with our unbelief. In so doing, we will avoid our own destruction and show people the way to life.

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Deborah A. Block: The Fruit of the Spirit

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… Galatians 5:22-23

“Paul’s “fruit” is singular…The Spirit creates unity characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Paul would insist that the greatest of these is love, and so all of these other fruits are love’s various facets and expressions, or what God produces in human lives and how God’s Spirit equips us to live in the world.

I love this text because it pushes spirituality out of the narrow confines of personal practices and qualities into the Spirit’s realm of community building. God gives the growth, Paul would say, and so this text also reminds us that the spiritual life is not our achievement, nor matter how perfect our practices.

Like the bread and the fruit of the vine, the fruit of the Spirit is the gift of God for the people of God. Like the bread and the fruit of the vine, the fruit of the Spirit is a sign of the real presence and power of Christ.”

Deborah A. Block, in “Table Grace” in A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers, edited by Allan Hugh Cole Jr. (Louisville: WJKP, 2011) 217.

Generosity is the result of God’s work in our lives. It’s a reflection of God’s love through us. If we think our lives are not characterized by generosity, rather than resolving to go do good works, we must submit to the work of the Christ of Christmas in our lives so that His love is made known through us to the world.

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Christina Rees: The ideal gift

“Giving a good gift is much more than handing over a nice or useful object; it’s about communicating a message, a message that often can’t be put into words…The ideal gift, I always feel, should be perfect for the one who is to receive it and also reveal something of the one who gives it. In this way, giving can be an incredibly special and personal act of love…”

Christina Rees in Feast + Fast: Food for Advent and Christmas (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2012) 86.

We pray you have a blessed Christmas with family and friends. We are chilling together as a family in Colorado. We also hope you are able to get alone with God today to thank Him for the indescribable gift of Jesus (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:15).

God’s gift of His one and only Son is “the ideal gift” for all mankind. In that sense, the Christ of Christmas reveals the unfathomable love of the Father for the whole world (cf. John 3:16). Thank you, Father in heaven, for the gift of Jesus!

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Ray S. Anderson: The spirit of generosity is a shared life

“When the Christians gathered to form a new community following the day of Pentecost, Luke tells us that “they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46). As the need arose, they shared even their possessions with each other…

The spirit of generosity was evident first of all in their “one heart and soul.” While some did own property, they did not “claim” private ownership…The common life that they shared conditioned their right to keep what was their own while others went hungry. The spirit of generosity is a shared life…”

Ray S. Anderson in Living the Spiritually Balanced Life: Acquiring the Virtues You Admire in Others (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2001) 65.

Why don’t Christ followers “claim” private ownership? God owns everything (cf. Psalm 24:1)! He entrusts us, as stewards, with private property, but never do we own anything. We are partakers of Christ’s life, which far exceeds the value of any other earthly possession. This truth “conditions” us. It reshapes our thinking and our living regarding people and possessions.

On the eve of the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us humble ourselves in solitude and ask the Father to “condition” our hearts to produce the fruit of generosity (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). This is not about going out and buying more presents. I am inviting you to join me in asking the Father to make us His gifts to the world.

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J.D. Walt: Make room for the unexpected guest

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:6-7

“It wouldn’t be Christmas with Jesus in a neonatal intensive care unit now would it? It wouldn’t be Christmas if some anonymous inn keeper two thousand years ago hadn’t gone the extra mile and made a way when there seemed to be no way.

When you think about it, that’s exactly what God is like; always making a way when there seems to be no way; making room when there is no room. It’s the very point of Christmas isn’t it?

From this we can learn that true hospitality is not about who you have room for, but who you are willing to make room for. It’s not who you invited that tests your hospitality, but the unexpected guest…It’s the unexpected guest who proves to be the most surprising blessing.”

J.D. Walt is Chief Sower at www.seedbed.com and today’s Meditation comes from his 22 December 2014 daily text entitled “Hospitality. There’s Always More Room”. I subscribe to this daily text and commend it to you: it’s spiritually rich and free for everyone.

J.D. is also a dear friend of mine who has warmly reminded us this Christmas week that even as God made a way when there seemed to be no way, we get to make room for unexpected guests.

These unexpected guests may not be overnight travelers. They may be people in distress, friends who drop by to talk, or unexpected phone calls.

Will we deem these interruptions to our busyness or invitations to surprising blessing?

Let’s resolve together make room in our homes and hearts for the unexpected guest this week…and next week…and the week after that…

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John Ruusbroec: Blithe in spirit and untroubled in heart

“The generous man is always blithe in spirit and untroubled in heart, and he flows forth with desire in his works of virtue to all men in common. Whosoever is generous, and loves not earthly goods how poor soever he be, he is like God: for all that he has in himself, and all that he feels, flow forth and are given away.”

John Ruusbroec (1293-1381) in The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (CCEL) excerpt from Chapter XIX – Of Generosity.

How blessed we are than we get to enjoy God’s good gifts and joyfully share them with others (that’s what it means to be blithe in spirit and untroubled in heart)! When we live this way, our generosity is like God.

What hinders such generosity? Avarice, that is, loving things. So in this season of giving, let us be watchful that we don’t fall into the trap of loving earthly goods (cf. 1 John 2:15-17). Instead, let us resolve to love God and others generously.

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