Dear Partner,
Extravagant gifts originate from
grateful hearts! Thank you for having such grateful hearts and giving so
extravagantly toward the television outreach of BWC, Sunday, February 22.
Together,
we all gave over $60,000 Wow! What extravagance!
God loves extravagant givers…and while
the Bible has many examples of extravagant financial givers…
· Solomon sacrificed 1,000 bulls when his tithe was only 1
bull. That was an extravagant gift.
· King David gave more than $21 billion to build God’s House.
That was an extravagant gift.
· Abraham—like God Himself—gave his one and only son. That was
an extravagant gift.
· The poor widow in the New Testament gave her 2 pennies. Yes!
Even that was an extravagant gift.
Yet, the greatest gift we can ever give
God is ourselves. Have you given Him all
of you? Are you generous to a God who is excessive in His love, grace and
generosity toward you?
A story that demonstrates giving the
most important gift is found in John 12:1-8. It was six days before Passover.
Jesus had arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus—who had been raised from the
dead—lived. Mary and Martha, as well as Lazarus, hosted a dinner in Jesus’
honor.
While they were all gathered
there—disciples included—Mary poured an expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet and
wiped them with her hair. It was an act of honor.
But one of Jesus disciples, Judas
Iscariot—the same one who betrayed him later—objected: “Why wasn’t this perfume
sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”
Sounds pretty righteous and
levelheaded, doesn’t it?
But it was selfish. While Judas
pretended to care for the poor, at heart, he was a thief, and as keeper of the
moneybag, he would help himself to what was in it. So, when Mary poured the
perfume on Jesus’ feet, all Judas saw was money leaving his pocket. His outward
façade of supposedly caring for others is the oldest cover-up in the book for
selfishness.
You’ve heard Judases before:
·
“How could anyone own such an expensive car?”
·
“She could have helped a lot of people with the money she
spends on clothes!”
·
I sure could do a lot with the money that they spend on….”
But what did Jesus say?
“Leave her alone. It was intended that
she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the
poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
Selfishness will often be couched in
false spirituality. Jesus saw through Judas and defended Mary’s actions. God
wants us to have the best and He wants us to give our best.
The
Most Extravagant Gift
Both Mary and Judas had their own
relational approach to Jesus. Mary’s was extravagant and Judas’ was selfish.
It’s interesting how two people, both in an up-close relationship with Jesus,
could view Him so differently…and treat Him so differently.
Mary’s extravagant gift was worth a
year’s wages. What generosity!
But is that how we evaluate what an
extravagant gift is? What size gift would impress a God who owns everything?
The most extravagant gift you could
ever give is yourself. All He wants is all you are and all you’ll ever be.
That’s really what Mary gave that
day…and that’s what you gave Sunday, February 22, toward our television
outreach. You gave of yourself to help reach the world with a message of hope
and life.
Thank you, Partners for making a
difference. Thank you for always giving so faithfully. Thank you for caring
more about others and always being others-minded. Our focus is outward,
searching for the lost and introducing them to our God of hope and love.
Experiencing the Power of Possibility!
Posted on
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
by Scott Johnson