NETTIE-OLOGY: I am a giver, I thrive on helping people help themselves. I am not happy when I cannot give, but I am no fool. YHWH directs my path of giving.
LUKE 6:38 THE EXPANDED BIBLEIt is more than just money that YHWH wants us to give. Your ten percent to the church is not helping your children become better Christians- you must give of your time in order to raise them in the way that they should go. Sending a check off to some missions field in a foreign country is not going to provide comfort to your aging family members or a neighbor. In such a time as this, with the COVID-19 virus around,we must all evaluate what and how we are giving.
Give, and ·you will receive [L- it will be given to you]. ·You will be given much [L- …a good measure…]. ·Pressed down [Compacted], shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap [C- the image is of grain overflowing its container]. The ·way you give to [standard/measure you use with] others is the ·way God will give to [standard/measure God will use with] you.”
The art of giving is based upon you not thinking about yourself.
No one on my block has COVID-19 yet we choose to shelter-in and when we communicate we keep safe distance from each other. Why? Because we all go to the store and we don’t know who has what once we leave our block and we DO NOT WANT TO GIVE someone a virus we might have picked up while we were out.
Many grocery stores are designating a certain time for the most vulnerable, our seniors, to shop before everyone else. There are people who try to manipulate the rule so that they can get what they need.
What you give will be given back to you ‘in spades’! The Bible says: “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom” (Luke 6:39 NKJV).
I believe (it’s just my opinion) that when people do things to manipulate the system to their advantage they have chosen to bless themselves. YHWH has promised to bless us to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2, 22:17), if you are blessing yourself you have in essence told God you don’t need what He has. Far to often I hear people justify their behavior by declaring: “I deserve” whatever they are doing.
MATTHEW 6:1-4 THE LIVING BIBLEIs it bragging? Are people sharing how they “got over” on the system as if it was something to be admired?
“Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, for then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give a gift to a beggar, don’t shout about it as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you in all earnestness, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you do a kindness to someone, do it secretly—don’t tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.
How many times have you seen someone pull up in the handicap parking space and get out of their car fully functional? They have their reward- a special parking space.
How many people ran to the store and purchased more toilet paper than they needed? They have their reward.
How many people give ten percent plus to their church, and refuse to help their children? The church respects them and their home life is a wreck- this is their reward.
How many people were disrespectful to Law Enforcement and now want them to keep sick people away from them? I don’t know how you will be rewarded.
I don’t know how many people will be rewarded during this crisis the world is going through. I do know YHWH is full of mercy.
PSALM 86:15 NEW KING JAMES VERSION
But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
PSALM 119:64 NEW KING JAMES VERSION
The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy; Teach me Your statutes.
PSALM 145:8 NEW KING JAMES VERSION
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.
JAMES 3:17 NEW KING JAMES VERSIONI don’t believe we will have to shelter in until April 30th but it is not the government that will heal our land. Abba Father will heal the land if His children get over themselves. It is His mercy that has held the virus at bay in America and it is His mercy and grace that will deliver us from more death. That does not mean we will come out of this unscathed, many people will see the scars of their selfishness.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Today is the day to give. Call that person you have not spoken to but no you should have along time ago- it cost you nothing but your time.
written by Marsha L F Randolph
NETTIE-OLOGY /NETTIE-ISM reflects the opinions of and is the soul property of the author MARSHA L F RANDOLPH. All rights reserved- do not use without permission. Disagreeing with what is written is not offensive to the author a disagreeable comment will be deleted.
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