Giving

Today the Lord had me change my sermon as we were praising and worshippping the Lord. It was very short but more than 20 teenagers got saved.

Estella & Andres came to help for the two meals. Estella always has made the gelatin and wants to continue the tradition. Monday night we will feed 80 teenage boys and Tuesday we will feed the 150 teenage girls. Everyone has helped to cook turkeys for the last 2 weeks…a total of 33 turkeys.

The tenage boys came with bags of clothes to give to the poor. They did not bring me junk so I am very proud of them. They gave good clothes.

As I shared above the children have been giving me used clothes, not torn, to give to the poor. In fact, even some staff donated their clothes.

Proverbs 19:17 “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord. And that which he gives He will pay him again”. I am sure this is not talking about panhandlers and those too lazy to work. Everytime we go to Guatemala City we see dozens of folks asking for money. Is it our obligation to help all of them?

No, not everyone is truly poor as defined by God. However, there are those who are blind, crippled or have some other situation where it was not their fault they are in the financial condition they are. I believe that we who have funds should help those whom God considers poor.  God tells us not to harden our hearts. There are so many people out of work through no fault of their own.

There are three kind of people in the world as seen in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Robbers……………………….What you have is mine!

Priests and Levites………..What I have is mine!

Good Samaritan……………What I have is yours!

I have always found this Parable and this principle to be an excellant way of determining my giving.

Which are you?

God makes His feelings clear in Proverbs 21:13 “Whoever stops his ears to the cry of the poor will cry out himself and God will not hear.”