Lately we are experiencing more than usual giving opportunities. I realize that every time a new month rolls around I am asking you to give to something new...a soap drive for the fair outreach ministry, missions offering, student adoption, Operation Christmas Child, Seizing a God-Sized Vision, building fund, etc. This can get taxing, but realize that each one of these opportunities is something God has designed for Calvary Church to express His abundant overflow of grace.
Whenever I am thinking and praying about a giving opportunity I am usually asking myself, "How good has God been good to me?" This question prompts me to want to give as generously as God provides for the Linneruds. You see I am a recipient of a grace that is so abundant it's almost indescribable. Paul describes it this way,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3 ESV)
As grace receivers we are now called on to be grace givers. I believe it is God's desire that we be conduits of His abundant grace to those around us. Paul expressed this as a "debt" or "obligation" in Romans 1:14. The obligation just didn't come out of need, but truly out of a sense of God's grace in his life.
I just happen to feel that the more we give the more we are blessed. We get to be a small part of what God is doing in the world. We may never know how God will use our gifts to change people, but remember how He used a child's lunch? Can't forget that one. He even used a "hodge podge" of people to plant a church in Philippi (Acts 16). We must ask how God wants to use us.
I want to encourage you to give graciously and abundantly in the days ahead. Sacrifice as Jesus sacrificed to meet the needs of others.
Grace & Peace,
Scott
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