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Opening THE Book with Rev John K-S October 2023
 Rev John Kinchin-Smith
Assistant Minister, St Andrew’s Church, Gorleston
What does the Bible teach about “Giving”? First and foremost, the Bible teaches that everything we own and everything we have comes from God. So, when we give, we simply offer him a small portion of the abundance he has already given to us. ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father’ (James 1:17). Giving is an expression of our thankfulness and praise to God. God instructed Old Testament believers to give a tithe, a tenth, because this ten percent represented the first, most important portion of all they had. The New Testament does not suggest a certain percentage for giving, but simply says for each to give in keeping with his income. ‘On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income’ (1 Corinthians 16:2). Notice that the offering was set aside on the first day of the week. When we are willing to offer the first portion of our wealth back to God, then God knows he has our hearts
Then, the Bible teaches that we are blessed when we give: ‘... remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive”’ (Acts 20:35). God wants us to give because he knows we will be blessed when we give generously to him and to others. The Bible also teaches that when we give freely to God, we receive freely from God. ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you’ (Luke 6:38).God promises to bless us over and above what we give. But, if we hold back from giving with a stingy heart, we hinder God from blessing our lives
The Bible also teaches that we should give cheerfully and not under compulsion. ‘Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Finally, the value of our offering is not determined by how much we give, but how we give. A little incident in Mark’s Gospel illustrates this well, when a poor widow gives out of her poverty all she had to live on (Mark 12:4144)
courtesy of the Gorleston Community Magazine
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