{"id":1327,"date":"2011-08-07T05:50:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T09:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1327"},"modified":"2011-10-29T09:20:19","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T13:20:19","slug":"god-gives-to-us-to-give-to-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/god-gives-to-us-to-give-to-him.html","title":{"rendered":"God gives to us to give to Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was a little girl, I would watch as the offering plate was passed over me in church.\u00a0 In the church where I attended, we put in our offerings during Sunday school. As I watched it pass over my head, I could not understand how putting money in the offering plate was giving to God.\u00a0 I\u00a0could be\u00a0giving to the church or the pastor or the ushers but not to God.\u00a0Then as I grew up and added a bit of maturity, I realized that I was giving to the Lord.\u00a0 That fact\u00a0made\u00a0the\u00a0money I put into the offering plate important to me.\u00a0 I knew that the simple act of placing this money into the offering plate made\u00a0my\u00a0check holy.<\/p>\n

Paul taught in II Corinthians 9:7, “Each one should give as you have decided in your heart to give. You should not be sad when you give, and you should not give because you feel forced to give. God loves the person who gives happily.”\u00a0 It seems that the Christians who lived in Corinth were people who were always getting into trouble.\u00a0\u00a0Sexual sins and unforgiveness needed correction.\u00a0 Paul wrote to them to help with their problems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One\u00a0of the apostle’s concerns\u00a0was the Corinthians’ giving to the Lord.\u00a0 Paul helped them to see that they must give to help meet the needs of others.\u00a0 At Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community, our members–who are developmently delayed–carry a deep burden for the Haitian children.\u00a0 When the earthquake came, they give generously.\u00a0 Each Christmas, we give more than 45 shoe boxes stuffed full of toys, school supplies and toilet times for the Haitian families.<\/p>\n

I love that God is practical.\u00a0 Giving to him means that we give to others or\u00a0we\u00a0help support the functioning of the church.\u00a0I was appalled when I learned that sacrifices to other gods are treated differntly.\u00a0 Food items are placed in bowls and put out for the gods to eat. \u00a0Animals come and eat it or it is left to spoil or rot.<\/p>\n

That isn’t the way we give to the Lord.\u00a0 Also, God does not want us to put our money in a box and bury it and then say that we are giving to the Father.\u00a0 He wants us to use the money we give to him to help others or to support the work of the Church.<\/p>\n

The people in Corinth gave to the Christians in Jerusalem because they were hungry.\u00a0 There was a famine.\u00a0 Because it was an agragrian society, no crops also meant no money to buy food.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At Special Gathering, the offerings that we collect from our members help to pay for the county buses that bring people to church.\u00a0 The members help to pay for our newsletter, and we\u00a0help the children in Haiti.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we help to support the work of The Special Gathering.\u00a0 It has been fascinating to see how the amount of our offerings has grown as the level of spiritual maturity has risen in the lives of our members.<\/p>\n

It is gratifying that we see that once again giving to God is different from other religions.\u00a0 Our gifts are used \u00a0in practical ways.\u00a0 Giving to our Lord makes our money holy which in turns makes the help given a holy blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a little girl, I would watch as the offering plate was passed over me in church.\u00a0 In the church where I attended, we put in our offerings during Sunday school. As I watched it pass over my head, I could not understand how putting money in the offering plate was giving to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,40,186,49,16,8,85,12],"tags":[688,696,7,699,715,701,694,689,6],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-prayer-2","category-religion","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nGod gives to us to give to Him - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/god-gives-to-us-to-give-to-him.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God gives to us to give to Him - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was a little girl, I would watch as the offering plate was passed over me in church.\u00a0 In the church where I attended, we put in our offerings during Sunday school. 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