Giving What You’ve Got,
March 29
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25.
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25.
Liberality is one of the directions of the Holy Spirit, and when the professed people of God withhold from the Lord His own in tithes and offerings, they meet with spiritual loss. The Lord does not reward a stinted liberality. He calls upon the people to honor Him with their substance, and with the firstfruits of all their increase.
It is not possible to lay down rules for every case; for in many instances such a course would distress the giver. The circumstances in which some are placed, and which are of God’s appointment, are to be considered. The Lord expects a man to impart of what he has and not of what he has not. With some a tenth of the income would not properly represent the proportion they should give to the Lord, while to others it is a fair return.
How many are losing rich blessings and becoming spiritually dwarfed because they withhold from God His own. The enemy of God and man is constantly at work to divert the treasures which belong to God and to please and honor and glorify the human agent. My family needs call for this and for that, men say, and convenience after convenience is added to the house in furniture, in clothing, in dainties for the table. They fail to limit their desires, when by so doing they would bring blessing to themselves and to their families.
God has made us His almoners, copartners with Him in the great work of advancing His kingdom on the earth. We may pursue the course taken by the unfaithful steward, and by so doing lose the most precious privileges ever granted to men. For thousands of years God has worked through human agencies, but at His will He can drop out the selfish, the money lover, the covetous. He can carry on His work though we act no part in it. But who among us would be pleased to have the Lord do this? ...
The Lord reads every thought of the heart, every impulse of the mind. If we have not the spirit to give freely, we mock Him.
When we show to the world, to angels, and to men that the prosperity of the cause of God is our first consideration, God will bless us.—Manuscript 47, March 29, 1899, “God Loveth a Cheerful Giver.”
Liberality is one of the directions of the Holy Spirit, and when the professed people of God withhold from the Lord His own in tithes and offerings, they meet with spiritual loss. The Lord does not reward a stinted liberality. He calls upon the people to honor Him with their substance, and with the firstfruits of all their increase.
It is not possible to lay down rules for every case; for in many instances such a course would distress the giver. The circumstances in which some are placed, and which are of God’s appointment, are to be considered. The Lord expects a man to impart of what he has and not of what he has not. With some a tenth of the income would not properly represent the proportion they should give to the Lord, while to others it is a fair return.
How many are losing rich blessings and becoming spiritually dwarfed because they withhold from God His own. The enemy of God and man is constantly at work to divert the treasures which belong to God and to please and honor and glorify the human agent. My family needs call for this and for that, men say, and convenience after convenience is added to the house in furniture, in clothing, in dainties for the table. They fail to limit their desires, when by so doing they would bring blessing to themselves and to their families.
God has made us His almoners, copartners with Him in the great work of advancing His kingdom on the earth. We may pursue the course taken by the unfaithful steward, and by so doing lose the most precious privileges ever granted to men. For thousands of years God has worked through human agencies, but at His will He can drop out the selfish, the money lover, the covetous. He can carry on His work though we act no part in it. But who among us would be pleased to have the Lord do this? ...
The Lord reads every thought of the heart, every impulse of the mind. If we have not the spirit to give freely, we mock Him.
When we show to the world, to angels, and to men that the prosperity of the cause of God is our first consideration, God will bless us.—Manuscript 47, March 29, 1899, “God Loveth a Cheerful Giver.”
In the Father’s Arms, March 30
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. John 20:17.
Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped Their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race. This pledge Christ has fulfilled. When upon the cross He cried out, “It is finished,” He addressed the Father. The compact had been fully carried out. Now He declares: Father, it is finished. I have done Thy will, O My God. I have completed the work of redemption. If Thy justice is satisfied, “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (John 19:30; 17:24).
The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ’s toiling, struggling ones on earth are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified. Where He is, there His church shall be. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10). The Father’s arms encircle His Son, and the word is given, “Let all the angels of God worship him” (Hebrews 1:6).
With joy unutterable, rulers and principalities and powers acknowledge the supremacy of the Prince of life. The angel host prostrate themselves before Him, while the glad shout fills all the courts of heaven, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Revelation 5:12).
Songs of triumph mingle with the music from angel harps, till heaven seems to overflow with joy and praise. Love has conquered. The lost is found. Heaven rings with voices in lofty strains proclaiming, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (verse 13).
From that scene of heavenly joy, there comes back to us on earth the echo of Christ’s own wonderful words, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). The family of heaven and the family of earth are one. For us our Lord ascended, and for us He lives. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25) (The Desire of Ages, 832, 835).