Living and Giving

 Give out of what you have is a common, conversational way of saying...

II Corinthians 8:12 "For if the eagerness to give is there, the acceptability of the gift will be measured by what you have, not by what you don't have. (CJB)

Whom did Jesus exalt for giving? Well, it seems the only person he really drew attention to, as an example of a person who gives more than others... was the poor widow. You can find that story in the gospels of Mark and Luke. 

Question- Now, how, when she gave so little, so very, very little was she the one who gave the most?

Answer- Jesus was the only one who understood and worked with true math. You see, he knew how much she had and he knew how much she gave. Therefore, Jesus knew that she gave the most.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, in this story, the poor widow gave all her money to an 'institution' that was responsible for taking care of the poor,... the temple, synagogue, church. If and when reading Mark 12:35- 44, you will take note that Jesus was teaching in the temple so we could say 'He was the preacher that day.' When He was done teaching, 'He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.'

What's really interesting is what Jesus did after that... He didn't resume teaching to all the people in the temple, about 'who gave more,..' He called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

I'm going to be a bit funny here and suggest... 'I guess she liked the preacher.' 

But, even more importantly, did she trust the preacher? Because the story doesn't say, yet we must ask... where would she live and how would she live if she gave all she had?

Let's fast forward to today... and the cost of living in Canada... where I live... for a single person, information I just looked up, on the internet, says that average, yet very large number is approximately $3300- $3800 per month. 

My best question now is... where will we get what we need to live on?