What Do You Give Away?

By Chief Petty Officer Christopher Evanson [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Most of us have given something away. Birthdays, weddings, showers, retirements, multiple events during a person’s life are gift-giving opportunities. There are organizations to which we give – religious support, community organizations, children’s activities. We’ve ample opportunity to give something of value away to be of value to someone else.

Usually, there is a monetary value, but often there is sentimental value. A woman passing down a ring to her daughter, a favorite tool goes from father to son, handmade trinkets from child to parents.

We often give of ourselves, time donated for good causes, even our blood to save lives, as in CPO Evanson’s photo. A few, very few, offer their lives. Jesus says they are special people – we had one who spent his last months flying B-17s out of England toward Germany. He died 7 July 1944.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

Are your friends close enough, loved enough, that you would die for them? How about for people that dislike you, speak against you, or even deny you exist? The verse we’ve all heard:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Do you read that and think “So what? God sent a man to his death. Why is that different?”

Two verses – and a few more – tell me that God gave Himself:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

And, I like one that gives Abraham’s prophetic words:

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:8)

God will provide himself. And, He did. Not a lamb, but a full-grown ram in the thicket. Just as He provided a baby in Bethlehem who grew to spread God’s salvation, and understood fully what was being done. The four gospels tell how He lived His life, and the remaining New Testament tell how His life changes others.

Believing a creator exists is a lot easier than believing that Creator loves enough to feel what we feel, live by the limits we live by, and fight the physical temptations we fight, too.

Why?

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

How?

That returns us to Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, and John 3:16. Please take time to read surrounding verses.  In fact, read all of John, and continue through the Bible. Be like the Bereans when you read, with readiness of mind and searching to see if these things are so:

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11)