March 16, 2015
In Secret
Sunday I visited a church
whose ministry started out focused on the homeless; however, the disadvantaged
are now well ministered to through community organizations and other faith-based
groups. Many people, as well as churches, support these other groups, so there
is no need for an individual church to offer food, clothing and shelter to the
poor. Strangely it feels like the responsibility for caring for the poor has
been snatched from hands of church. And yet Jesus says, “But when you give to
the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees
what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matt 6:3-4 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Man’s a reflective creature. That isn’t to say his duty consists of only reflecting God. We also reflect others around us. A great deal of what we know and are come from these reflections. Moreover, our very processes of thinking and feeling involve inward reflections. From these, lines of thought and networks of ideas take on meaning and become representations of what we are and how we feel. All this reflecting brews self identity. Jesus said to not let our generosity and love go through this self identity process of so much reflection. Don’t look back on our giving to glory in it. Don’t look back on it to count what we could have had otherwise, or what others wouldn’t have if not for what we gave. Don’t measure. Don’t calculate. Just give, bless, thank the Lord for supplying, and go back to work. Let the fulfilling of the recipient’s need be sufficient motivation for the giving.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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