Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX

I had to leave the Fellowship Hall and got a glimpse of the sun peaking through the clouds.  I walked out into the parking lot and was treated to a beautiful sunset view.  I took the picture with my Iphone and it is a little blurry but what a beautiful picture it turned out to be.

Our Bible Study was on the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 19.  Tommy Day covered the material for me because we were out of town last week and he needed another night to finish covering it.  Tommy did a very good job and brought out some very good points.  One of them was from verses 16-22.  The rich young man came to him and asked the question “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  Here was a man who had wealth and followed all the commandments but was still searching for the one thing he could do to gain eternal life.  When Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

How often do we grieve over our gift to God?  Is our gift given with a heart that is glad to give?  Are we sad over the things we could have had if we didn’t give?

Jesus call us to share and gives us a guideline, the tithe, one tenth of all that you have coming into your household.  That guideline is the minimum not the maximum because we are called to give our tithes and our offerings.  So the tithe is to be given as if it truly does belong to God and we consider other gifts to be given to the needy.  The rich young man must have been grieved because Jesus told him to give the money to the poor.  His place in society would say that the poor were untouchables and he would have taken the suggestion better if he were told to sell and give it to whom he chose such as relatives or friends.  Jesus did not give him that choice because He knew that the man would selfishly give to those who would be able to give back to him.

Could Jesus’s point be that our gift is to be given with a heart that says we give it with no strings attached.  That the place we worship is to do what it has been charged to do with whatever money is given.  Most mainline denominations have extensive aid organizations that do very well with helping others in ways we as individuals could never afford to do. An example is the United Methodist Church’s UMCOR organization.  The United Methodist Committee On Relief as an organization is supported in it’s entirety by the Church and its giving.  Any gift given to UMCOR then is 100 percent applied to the designated need.  Some disasters such as Haiti, Japan, the Tsunamis and Hurricane relief are examples of the massive aid effort helped by UMCOR.

Any gift given should be given with no strings attached and by a heart that is glad to help others.  Is your heart really in your tithe?  Do you go above and beyond because your heart says to share?  Does your heart reflect the Holy Spirit into the world as Jesus calls you too?

God gives us beautiful sunsets and beautiful hearts.  Take the time to see them both.

Randy