Giving

A Sack Lunch

Valerie Cullers 9 Comments

One day a young boy went out to the countryside to hear a man talk about the kingdom of heaven. He came prepared for a long day, and so he brought a sack lunch. Many people came out that day; in fact, there were about 5,000 men, not counting the women and children. They listened all afternoon, and it grew late. The people were getting hungry and there was no place to purchase food, so the teacher’s followers asked him to send the people away so they could go into the nearby towns and villages and buy what they needed. The teacher looked at them and said, “You give them something to eat.”

I’m sure his followers looked at him like he was joking. Finally, one of them took him seriously and found a boy who had a sack lunch. He said, “There’s a little boy who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.” The boy gave up his lunch, the teacher took the food, blessed it, broke it, and his followers passed it around. Miraculously, there was enough to feed everyone.

This is a well known story about Jesus and his disciples. There’s a lot we can unpack here but I would like to talk about one aspect of it. Our God is God of multiplication…not just simple multiplication but exponential multiplication. Knowing that, where does that leave us, and what do we do with the little we have?

So many times, a need arises and we think, “I don’t have much. The little I could give wouldn’t make much difference.” But is that really true? If we serve a God of multiplication, can’t he take what we give and make it go much further? I believe he can. In fact, I have seen it myself.

I have seen him take a bag of clothes and bless several families with them. I have seen him multiply food at dinner so that it served more people than it was prepared for. I have seen him take a box full of canned food and help feed multiple people. Why and how can it work this way?

The key is offering what we have to God, letting him bless it and then multiply it. Don’t be afraid to give five or ten dollars to a worthy cause. It can go a lot further than you think. This principle not only happens in the earthly realm but also in the heavenly one. One ministry I know of, “The Jesus Film Project,” goes around the world showing The Jesus Film in remote locations. Many places are hostile to Christianity, but it doesn’t stop the people from sharing the film. For every dollar a person donates, one person comes to the Lord. These are the statistics, and I believe they are true. Many times, a whole village will come to the Lord after seeing the film. So with just a small donation, people’s lives can be changed for eternity.

What do you have that you could share? Don’t be put off by the size of your offering. Believe in the God of exponential multiplication and let him take your gift, bless it, and bring physical or spiritual life to those in need.

Image Courtesy of Matthias Bockel – Pixabay

Fine Linen

Valerie Cullers 13 Comments

Last week when I was reading the Easter story, I noticed a few things about Joseph of Arimathea. Scripture tells us that Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus after the crucifixion so that he could bury it. The text in Mark 15 tell us that Joseph received permission from Pontius Pilate . It then tells us that Joseph “bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen.”

It struck me that Joseph was giving his best to Jesus. He could have bought any kind of material but he bought fine linen, which must have cost him a pretty penny or denarius if you will. I checked the current cost for linen and regular linen will go for about $5.00 a yard. However, fine linen can run you up to ten times that much, i.e. $50.00 a yard. So even by today’s standards, buying fine linen was costly indeed.

Maybe that doesn’t impress you much. Perhaps you’re thinking, “What are several yards of cloth going to cost you, four to five hundred dollars? So? But that is not the extent of Joseph’s generosity, not by a long shot. The text then tells us that Joseph “laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of stone.” We know from the Gospel of Matthew that this was Joseph’s new tomb. No one had been put in there before. Talk about expensive. Can you imagine the cost of having a tomb carved out of rock? Just like today, an endeavor like that would be extremely expensive; and yet Joseph didn’t hesitate to give his tomb to Jesus. By today’s standards the tomb could have cost upwards of $50,000 dollars.

I don’t know about you but before this past weekend, I had never really considered the cost of what Joseph had done. I knew he shown courage when he asked Pilate for Jesus’ body but I had never really thought about his generosity. When I think about what he did and how quickly he made his decisions, I am impressed.

And the takeaway? For me, it is to examine myself and check my own level of generosity. What would I be willing to give to the Lord? Would I hang on to my money or would I be willing to give him my best? Definitely a question I need to think about as I move forward this year! What about you, how is your level of generosity?

Image by D William. Courtesy of Pixabay