The Journey 195: The Generosity Factor (Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla)
Read: Genesis 22
A Church that gives all its income to the Community?: Unbelievable. This is what I felt when I first read this news item. It sounded incredible too. Alex Murashko reports in the Christian Post about a church in Clinton, Mississippi who decided to give all their tithes and offerings to the community for an entire year. How did this happen. This was the vision of the pastor and leaders of Traceway Baptist Church in Clinton . They began to pray to discern God’s eill on how to serve the community. After two months of praying and fasting, they felt that God was asking them to give generously to the people who were suffering in the community. Hence they decided to give all the tithes and offerings to those in need and that too for an entire year. According to Pastor John Richardson, what he wanted was that others could see and experience the love of the Lord and in the process church becoming a witness to Jesus Christ in the community. The size of the church may surprise you. There are only 50 people who regularly attend this church, yet from April 2010 to April 2011, the church was able to give away $60,000 to people in the community. Pastor John Richardson states everything on the offering plates was given away. People who were helped included abused mothers, people who lost their jobs, people who had no money to pay medical bills and so on. But then how did the church raise the finance to run the church daily, like paying of the utility bills? . The Pastor says that when they were praying as to how to go about, another church rented their premises to them free of cost. Soon lot of others also came up with their generous offering too. Thus the people of the Traceway Baptist church states that when you are generous to others, God is generous to us and also in this way they are creating an antidote for greed. Incredible is the word to describe this church. A church with only 50 members raising 60,000 dollars in a year, for the support of a community is unbelievable. What is more incredible is their commitment to help the people who go through suffering and who are in need.
This week we are meditating on the theme “ Transformation in the life of the sick and the suffering”. The portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 22. This is a very familiar portion where Abraham has been directed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. When we look from the perspective of Abraham, the demand of God is very heartbreaking. The agony that Abraham had gone throughout his life is a pointer to it. Both Abraham and Sara do not have children and that is when God promised them a child. This promise was given when Abraham was 75 years old, but then he had to wait for almost 25 yeast to see the birth of his son Isaac. It is after 25 years of waiting that God gives the son He had promised, but not God wants him back. All these events and experiences are ones that can break and shatter a person and his faith concepts. But not Abraham. Here when he understand that this is what God wants him to do, he lays aside his dreams, and does what God wants him to do. He carries the pain in his heart, yet remains faithful to God. It is this total trust and the ability to fully risk ones life for the sake of God, that earns Abraham the title the “father of faith”. In our Christian living, the members of the Traceway Church, and also Abraham teaches us that until we risk our life to God, our Christian life is futile and our witness in the community lacking integrity. Ready to risk everything for God?
A Church that gives all its income to the Community?: Unbelievable. This is what I felt when I first read this news item. It sounded incredible too. Alex Murashko reports in the Christian Post about a church in Clinton, Mississippi who decided to give all their tithes and offerings to the community for an entire year. How did this happen. This was the vision of the pastor and leaders of Traceway Baptist Church in Clinton . They began to pray to discern God’s eill on how to serve the community. After two months of praying and fasting, they felt that God was asking them to give generously to the people who were suffering in the community. Hence they decided to give all the tithes and offerings to those in need and that too for an entire year. According to Pastor John Richardson, what he wanted was that others could see and experience the love of the Lord and in the process church becoming a witness to Jesus Christ in the community. The size of the church may surprise you. There are only 50 people who regularly attend this church, yet from April 2010 to April 2011, the church was able to give away $60,000 to people in the community. Pastor John Richardson states everything on the offering plates was given away. People who were helped included abused mothers, people who lost their jobs, people who had no money to pay medical bills and so on. But then how did the church raise the finance to run the church daily, like paying of the utility bills? . The Pastor says that when they were praying as to how to go about, another church rented their premises to them free of cost. Soon lot of others also came up with their generous offering too. Thus the people of the Traceway Baptist church states that when you are generous to others, God is generous to us and also in this way they are creating an antidote for greed. Incredible is the word to describe this church. A church with only 50 members raising 60,000 dollars in a year, for the support of a community is unbelievable. What is more incredible is their commitment to help the people who go through suffering and who are in need.
This week we are meditating on the theme “ Transformation in the life of the sick and the suffering”. The portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 22. This is a very familiar portion where Abraham has been directed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. When we look from the perspective of Abraham, the demand of God is very heartbreaking. The agony that Abraham had gone throughout his life is a pointer to it. Both Abraham and Sara do not have children and that is when God promised them a child. This promise was given when Abraham was 75 years old, but then he had to wait for almost 25 yeast to see the birth of his son Isaac. It is after 25 years of waiting that God gives the son He had promised, but not God wants him back. All these events and experiences are ones that can break and shatter a person and his faith concepts. But not Abraham. Here when he understand that this is what God wants him to do, he lays aside his dreams, and does what God wants him to do. He carries the pain in his heart, yet remains faithful to God. It is this total trust and the ability to fully risk ones life for the sake of God, that earns Abraham the title the “father of faith”. In our Christian living, the members of the Traceway Church, and also Abraham teaches us that until we risk our life to God, our Christian life is futile and our witness in the community lacking integrity. Ready to risk everything for God?