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Generous
The story is told that one
day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he
passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim upon the ruler
no
right even to lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold
coins. A courtier was astonished at his generosity and commented
"Sir
copper coins would adequately meet a beggar's need. Why give him gold?"
Alexander responded in royal fashion
"Cooper coins would suit the beggar's
need
but gold coins suit Alexander's giving."
Unknown.
For the past forty years
Eunice Pike has worked with the Mazatec Indians in south-western Mexico. During
this time she has discovered some interesting things about these beautiful
people. For instance
the people seldom wish someone well. Not only that
they
are hesitant to teach one another or to share the gospel with each other. If
asked
"Who taught you to bake bread?" the village baker answers
"I just know
" meaning he has acquired the knowledge without anyone's
help. Eunice says this odd behavior stems from the Indian's concept of
"limited good." They believe there is only so much good
so much
knowledge
so much love to go around. To teach another means you might drain
yourself of knowledge. To love a second child means you have to love the first
child less. To wish someone well--"Have a good day"--means you have
just given away some of your own happiness
which cannot be reacquired.
Bernie May
"Learning
to Trust
" Multnomah Press
1985.
There were once two young
men working their way through Leland Stanford University. Their funds got
desperately low
and the idea came to one of them to engage Paderewski for a
piano recital and devote the profits to their board and tuition. The great
pianist's manager asked for a guarantee of two thousand dollars. The students
undaunted
proceeded to stage the concert. They worked hard
only to find that
the concert had raised only sixteen hundred dollars. After the concert
the
students sought the great artist and told him of their efforts and results.
They gave him the entire sixteen hundred dollars
and accompanied it with a
promissory note for four hundred dollars
explaining that they would earn the
amount at the earliest possible moment and send the money to him. "No
"
replied Paderewski
"that won't do." Then tearing the note to shreds
he returned the money and said to them: "Now
take out of this sixteen
hundred dollars all of your expenses
and keep for each of you 10 percent of
the balance for your work
and let me have the rest." The years rolled
by--years of fortune and destiny. Paderewski had become premier of Poland. The
devastating war came
and Paderewski was striving with might and main to feed
the starving thousands of his beloved Poland. There was only one man in the
world who could help Paderewski and his people. Thousands of tons of food began
to come into Poland for distribution by the Polish premier.
After the starving people
were fed
Paderewski journeyed to Paris to thank Herbert Hoover for the relief
sent him. "That's all right
Mr. Paderewski
" was Mr. Hoover's reply.
"Besides
you don't remember it
but you helped me once when I was a
student at college and I was in a hole."
Edward W. Bok
Perhaps
I Am.
Where your pleasure is
there is your treasure; where your treasure is
there is your heart; where your
heart is
there is your happiness.
Augustine.
If you give what you do
not need
it isn't giving.
Mother Teresa.
In Matthew
Mark
and Luke
1 out of every 6 verses deals with money. Of the 29 parables Christ told
16
deal with a person and his money.
Unknown.
The American
industrialist
Henry Ford
was once asked to donate money for the construction
of a new medical facility. The billionaire pledged to donate $5
000. The next
day in the newspaper
the headline read
"Henry Ford contributes $50
000
to the local hospital." The irate Ford was on the phone immediately to
complain to the fund-raiser that he had been misunderstood. The fund-raiser
replied that they would print a retraction in the paper the following day to
read
"Henry Ford reduces his donation by $45
000." Realizing the
poor publicity that would result
the industrialist agreed to the $50
000
contribution in return for the following: That above the entrance to the
hospital was to be carved the biblical inscription: "I came among you and
you took me in."
Bits & Pieces
March 3
1994
pp. 1-2.
A mother wanted to teach
her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar
for church "Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep
the other for yourself
" she told the girl. When they were coming out of
church
the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given.
"Well
" said the little girl
"I was going to give the dollar
but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be
cheerful givers. I knew I'd be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter
so I
did."
Bits & Pieces
February 4
1993
p. 23.
Charles Spurgeon and his
wife
according to a story in the Chaplain magazine
would sell
but refused to
give away
the eggs their chickens laid. Even close relatives were told
"You may have them if you pay for them." As a result some people
labeled the Spurgeons greedy and grasping.
They accepted the
criticisms without defending themselves
and only after Mrs. Spurgeon died was
the full story revealed. All the profits from the sale of eggs went to support
two elderly widows. Because the Spurgeons where unwilling to let their left
hand know what the right hand was doing (Matthew 6:3)
they endured the attacks
in silence.
Chaplain Magazine.
After Abraham Lincoln
became president
before the days of civil service
office seekers besieged him
everywhere trying to get appointments to various jobs throughout the country.
Once
confined to bed with typhoid fever
exasperated
Lincoln declared to his
secretary
"Bring on the office seekers; I now have something I can give
to everybody."
Unknown.
I have tried to keep
things in my hands and lost them all
but what I have given into God's hands I
still possess.
Martin Luther.
I do not believe one can
settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give
more than we can spare.
C.S. Lewis.
"In Other
Words
" a publication of the Wycliffe Bible Translators
recently told a
story about Sadie Sieker
who served for many years as a house-parent for
missionaries' children in the Philippines. Sadie loved books. Though she gladly
loaned out some
others she treasured in a footlocker under her bed. Once
in
the quiet of the night
Sadie heard a faint gnawing sound. After searching all
around her room
she discovered that the noise was coming from her footlocker.
When she opened it
she found nothing but an enormous pile of dust. All the
books she had kept to herself had been lost to termites. What we give away
we
keep. What we hoard
we lose.
Larry Pennings.
He who gives what he would
as readily throw away
gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity
is in self-sacrifice.
Sir Henry Taylor
quoted
in New Beginnings.
In the latter part of the
17th century
German preacher August H. Francke founded an orphanage to care
for the homeless children of Halle. One day when Francke desperately needed
funds to carry on his work
a destitute Christian widow came to his door
begging for a ducat--a gold coin. Because of his financial situation
he
politely but regretfully told her he couldn't help her. Disheartened
the woman
began to weep. Moved by her tears
Francke asked her to wait while he went to
his room to pray. After seeking God's guidance
he felt that the Holy Spirit
wanted him to change his mind. So
trusting the Lord to meet his own needs
he
gave her the money. Two mornings later
he received a letter of thanks from the
widow. She explained that because of his generosity she had asked the Lord to
shower the orphanage with gifts. That same day Francke received 12 ducats from
a wealthy lady and 2 more from a friend in Sweden. He thought he had been amply
rewarded for helping the widow
but he was soon informed that the orphanage was
to receive 500 gold pieces from the estate of Prince Lodewyk Van Wurtenburg.
When he heard this
Francke wept in gratitude. In sacrificially providing for
that needy widow
he had been enriched
not impoverished.
Unknown.
J.L. Kraft
head of the
Kraft Cheese Corporation
who had given approximately 25% of his enormous
income to Christian causes for many years
said
"The only investment I
ever made which has paid consistently increasing dividends is the money I have
given to the Lord."
J.D. Rockefeller said
"I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever
made if I had not tithed my first salary
which was $1.50 per week."
W. A. Criswell
A
Guidebook for Pastors
p. 154.
Do your giving while
you're living so you're knowing where it's going.
Unknown.
God judges what we give by
what we keep.
G. Mueller.
It's not what you do with
the million if fortune should ere be your lot
but what are you doing at
present with the dollar and quarter you got.
Unknown.
The trouble is that too
many people are spending money they haven't yet earned for things they don't
need to impress people they don't like.
Unknown.
Give according to your
income
lest God make your income according to your giving.
Peter Marshall.
In his book of sermons The
Living Faith
Lloyd C. Douglas tells the story of Thomas Hearne
who
in
his journey to the mouth of the Coppermine River
wrote that a few days after
they had started on their expedition
a party of Indians stole most of their
supplies. His comment on the apparent misfortune was: "The weight of our
baggage being so much lightened
our next day's journey was more swift and
pleasant."
Hearne was in route to
something very interesting and important; and the loss of a few sides of bacon
and a couple of bags of flour meant nothing more than an easing of the load.
Had Hearne been hole in somewhere
in a cabin
resolved to spend his last days
eking out an existence
and living on capital previously collected
the loss of
some of his stores by plunder would probably have worried him almost to death.
How we respond to "losing" some of our resources for God's work
depends upon whether we are on the move or waiting for our last stand.
Eugene L. Feagin.
W.A. Criswell tells of an
ambitious young man who told his pastor he'd promised God a tithe of his
income. They prayed for God to bless his career. At that time he was making
$40.00 per week and tithing $4.00. In a few years his income increased and he was
tithing $500.00 per week. He called on the pastor to see if he could be
released from his tithing promise
it was too costly now. The pastor replied
"I don't see how you can be released from your promise
but we can ask God
to reduce your income to $40.00 a week
then you'd have no problem tithing
$4.00."
W. A. Criswell
A
Guidebook for Pastors
p. 156.
A fellow in our office
told us recently of a household incident of which he had been an innocent but
perplexed spectator. Our friend had called a Venetian-blind repairman to come
pick up a faulty blind
and the next morning
while the family was seated at
the breakfast table
the doorbell rang. Our friend's wife went to the door
and
the man outside said
"I'm here for the Venetian blind." Excusing
herself in a preoccupied way
the wife went to the kitchen
fished a dollar
from the food money
pressed it into the repairman's hand
then gently closed
the door and returned to the table. "Somebody collecting
" she
explained
pouring the coffee.
Caskei Stinnett in Speaking
of Holiday.
Captain Levy
a believer
from Philadelphia
was once asked how he could give so much to the Lord's work
and still possess great wealth. The Captain replied
"Oh
as I shovel it
out
He shovels it in
and the Lord has a bigger shovel."
Today in the Word
July
1990
p. 28.
When you go to a doctor
for your annual check-up
he or she will often begin to poke
prod
and press
various places
all the while asking
"Does this hurt? How about
this?" If you cry out in pain
one of two things has happened. Either the
doctor has pushed too hard
without the right sensitivity. Or
more likely
there's something wrong
and the doctor will say
"We'd better do some
more tests. It's not supposed to hurt there!" So it is when pastors preach
on financial responsibility
and certain members cry out in discomfort
criticizing the message and the messenger. Either the pastor has pushed too
hard. Or perhaps there's something wrong. In that case
I say
"My friend
we're in need of the Great Physician because it's not supposed to hurt
there."
Ben Rogers.
When God's work is done in
God's way for God's glory
it will never lack God's supply.
J. Hudson Taylor.
The following article is
based on a sermon by missionary Del Tarr who served fourteen years in West
Africa with another mission agency. His story points out the price some people
pay to sow the seed of the gospel in hard soil. I was always perplexed by Psalm
126 until I went to the Sahel
that vast stretch of savanna more than four
thousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel
all the
moisture comes in a four month period: May
June
July
and August. After that
not a drop of rain falls for eight months. The ground cracks from dryness
and
so do your hands and feet. The winds of the Sahara pick up the dust and throw
it thousands of feet into the air. It then comes slowly drifting across West
Africa as a fine grit. It gets inside your mouth. It gets inside your watch and
stops it. The year's food
of course
must all be grown in those four months.
People grow sorghum or milo in small fields.
October and
November...these are beautiful months. The granaries are full -- the harvest
has come. People sing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground
between two stones to make flour and then a mush with the consistency of
yesterday's Cream of Wheat. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll it into
little balls between their fingers
drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it
into their mouths. The meal lies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep.
December comes
and the
granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal. Certainly by
January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day.
By February
the evening
meal diminishes. The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb
to sickness. You don't stay well on half a meal a day.
April is the month that
haunts my memory. In it you hear the babies crying in the twilight. Most of the
days are passed with only an evening cup of gruel. Then
inevitably
it
happens. A six or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with
sudden excitement. "Daddy! Daddy! We've got grain!" he shouts.
"Son
you know we haven't had grain for weeks." "Yes
we
have!" the boy insists. "Out in the hut where we keep the goats --
there's a leather sack hanging up on the wall -- I reached up and put my hand
down in there -- Daddy
there's grain in there! Give it to Mommy so she can
make flour
and tonight our tummies can sleep! "The father stands
motionless. "Son
we can't do that
" he softly explains. "That's
next year's seed grain. It's the only thing between us and starvation. We're
waiting for the rains
and then we must use it."
The rains finally arrive
in May
and when they do the young boy watches as his father takes the sack
from the wall and does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of
feeding his desperately weakened family
he goes to the field and with tears
streaming down his face
he takes the precious seed and throws it away. He
scatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes in the harvest.
The seed is his; he owns
it. He can do anything with it he wants. The act of sowing it hurts so much
that he cries. But as the African pastors say when they preach on Psalm 126
"Brother and sisters
this is God's law of the harvest. Don't expect to
rejoice later on unless you have been willing to sow in tears." And I want
to ask you: How much would it cost you to sow in tears? I don't mean just
giving God something from your abundance
but finding a way to say
"I
believe in the harvest
and therefore I will give what makes no sense. The
world would call me unreasonable to do this -- but I must sow regardless
in
order that I may someday celebrate with songs of joy."
Copyright Leadership
1983.
Take a look at your own
heart
and you will soon find out what has stuck to it and where your treasure
is. It is easy to determine whether hearing the Word of God
living according
to it
and achieving such a life gives you as much enjoyment and calls forth as
much diligence from you as does accumulating and saving money and property.
Martin Luther.
In II Cor. 8-9 giving was:
and it:
Church centered (8:1)
Blessed others (9:1-5)
From the heart (8:2-9) Blessed the giver (9:6-11)
Proportionate (8: 10-15) Glorified God (9:12-15)
Handled honestly (8:16-24)
Lloyd Perry
Getting
the Church on Target
Moody
1977.
Charitable giving per
capita 1980: $214
1990: $490
U.S. charity that got the most private donations in 1990: The Salvation Army
$658 million.
Americans who never give to Salvation Army bell ringers at Christmas: 5%. Those
who always give: 23%.
Age group that gives the highest percent of income to charity: Ages 65 to 74 is
4.4%. The lowest: Ages 18 to 24 is 1.2%
Personal income Americans gave to charity last year: Poorest households: 5.5%.
Wealthiest households: 2.9%
Estimated value of time volunteers gave in 1989: $170 billion.
U.S. News and World Report
December
1991.
The average church member
contributes between 1.5% and 2.5% of his total income specifically to the
Lord's work.
Lloyd Perry
Getting
the Church on Target
Moody
1977.
We'd all like a reputation
for generosity
and we'd all like to buy it cheap. There is a recent study that
seems to affirm the effectiveness of this priority system by demonstrating that
church dollars accomplish far more than television dollars. Robert Polk
director of the Cooperative Program Promotion for the Baptist General
Convention of Texas
came to this conclusion after analyzing the 1986
expenditures of leading TV ministries as compared to the Southern Baptist
Convention.
First
he studied how the
$684 million given to six leading TV ministers was used. Beside paying for TV
time
he discovered that the donations supported 4 schools
1 hospital
3
churches
2 ministries to needy children
1 ministry to others in need
and 1
home for unwed mothers.
He then studied how the
$635 million given to the Southern Baptists was spent. The contrast is startling!
For the Baptist donations supported 52 children's homes
48 hospitals
(including 23 overseas)
67 colleges and universities (enrolling over 200
000
students)
and 33 nursing homes; it also supported 3
756 foreign missionaries
3
637 missionaries in the USA
and ministries to students on 1
100 campuses.
These funds also supported six seminaries (enrolling a fifth of this country's
seminarians)
and the ACTS television network carried on cable in many cities.
Robert Polk.
American church members
may be getting more selfish as their incomes rise according to a recent survey
of 31 denominations. Funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment
Inc.
Empty
Tomb
Inc.
a nonprofit research and service organization in Champaign
Illinois
contrasted changes in per-member giving patterns with changes in U.S.
per-capita disposable income. The report points out that although income after
taxes and inflation increased 31 percent from 1968 to 1985
per-member giving
as a percentage of disposable income was 8.5 percent less during that same
period. "People are objectively richer
but the wealth is not expanding
the ministry of the church
" said Sylvia Ronsvalle
who founded Empty Tomb
with her husband
John
in 1970. Their study further reports that most of the
money donated by members to their churches stays within the local congregation.
"We may be seeing an accommodation to lifestyle expectations among
evangelicals that will rob them of their commitment to the church
" said
Ronsvalle. According to the survey
24 of the 31 denominations showed a
decrease in giving as a percentage of disposable income.
Christianity Today
September 2
1988
p. 47.
The U.S. Department of
Commerce has recently released statistics on American churches
clergy and
church schools. Church Law & Tax Report gave some interesting figures:
Number of U.S.
congregations: 294
271
Churches with fewer than 100 members: 60
300
Churches with fewer than 500 members: 205
556
Churches with 1
000-1
999 members: 21
691
Churches with 2
000 or more members: 13
958
Last year churches
received $49 billion in revenues
of which $40 billion came from contributions
$1.4 billion from wills and estates
and $2.5 billion from fees or charges for
services. There are a total of 348
000 clergy employed in the United States
and they have served an average of 15.8 years in each position.
Of special interest are
the statistics on who is supporting these churches. Persons 65-74 years of age
donated the largest percentage of their income (3.1 percent) and those 18-24
the least (0.6 percent). Increasingly
those with lower incomes gave a higher
proportion of their income to charity than higher income individuals. Persons
with household incomes of under $10
000 gave 2.8 percent of their total
incomes
while those with incomes over $100
000 gave only 2.1 percent. The
average annual contribution to the church was $715 per household.
Pulpit Helps
August
1992
p. 8.
The study found that
households with incomes below $10
000 give away an average of 2.8% of their
income
while households with incomes between $50
000 and $100
000 give away
only 1.5%. Nearly half of the total contributions to charity in the U.S. comes
from households with incomes below $30
000. The average total giving to charity
per household was $790. From Independent Sector
a Washington based nonprofit
organization that recently conducted a study on provate giving to charity.
"Confident
Living
" February
1989 p. 20.
Percentage of personal
income the poorest households in America gave to charity in 1992: 5.5 percent.
Wealthiest households: 2.9 percent.
Youthworker Update
quoted in Signs
of the Times
March
1993
p. 7.
In 1983 U.S. churchgoers
donated $21.5 billion. But if churchgoers had donated 10% of income
they would
have given $134 billion. 80% of the money given paid the congregation's
expenses.
Unknown.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones told a
story about a farmer who went into the house one day to tell his wife and
family some good news. "The cow just gave birth to twin calves
one red
and one white
" he said.
He continued
"We
must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together
and when the time comes
we will sell one and keep the proceeds and we will
sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lords work." His wife asked
him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord. "There's no need to bother
about that now
" he replied
"we'll treat them both in the same way
and when the time comes
we'll do as I say."
A few days later
he
entered the kitchen looking unhappy. "What happened?" his wife asked.
"I have bad news
" he replied
"The Lords calf is dead."
"Wait
" said his wife
" you didn't decide which calf was the
Lords." "Yes" he said
" I decided it was the white one
and
the white one died. The Lords calf is dead."
Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
A missionary
speaking of
the need on the foreign fields
was to receive an offering to help out with the
work. A man was sitting next to the aisle about halfway up. He had folded his
arms and sat with a grim look
a scowl and a frown. He evidently didn't want to
be there. Perhaps his wife had made him come. When the usher held the plate in
front of him
he just shook his head. The usher jiggled the plate invitingly.
Still the only response was the head shake. The usher leaned over and
whispered
"It's for missions
you know." Still the scowl and a
mumbled sentence
"I don't believe in 'em." This usher was a sharp
man. He leaned down and said
"Then you take some out. It's for the
heathen
anyway."
Unknown.
A fellow in our office
told us recently of a household incident of which he had been an innocent but
perplexed spectator. Our friend had called a Venetian-blind repairman to come
pick up a faulty blind
and the next morning
while the family was seated at
the breakfast table
the doorbell rang. Our friend's wife went to the door
and
the man outside said
"I'm here for the Venetian blind." Excusing
herself in a preoccupied way
the wife went to the kitchen
fished a dollar
from the food money
pressed it into the repairman's hand
then gently closed
the door and returned to the table. "Somebody collecting
" she
explained
pouring the coffee.
Caskei Stinnett in Speaking
of Holiday.
A man had a heart attack
and was rushed to the hospital. He could receive little company and was not to
be excited. While in the hospital a rich uncle died and left him a million
dollars. His family wondered how to break the news to him with the least amount
of excitement. It was decided to ask the preacher if he would go and break the
news quietly to the man. The preacher went
and gradually led up to the
question. The preacher asked the patient what he would do if he inherited a
million dollars. He said
"I think I would give half of it to the
church." The preacher dropped dead.
Unknown.
Leftovers are such humble
things
We would not serve to a guest
And yet we serve them to our Lord
Who deserve the very best.
We give to Him leftover time
Stray minutes here and there.
Leftover cash we give to Him
Such few coins as we can spare.
We give our youth unto the world
To hatred
lust and strife;
Then in declining years we give
To him the remnant of our life.
Author Unknown.