I have
showed you all things,
how that so
laboring ye ought to support the weak,
and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he
said,
It
is more blessed to give than to receive.
Acts 20:35
Giving and Receiving
I would like to share
an old story that goes like this:
And unusual tree grew
outside the gates of a desert city in the Middle
East.
It was an old tree, a
landmark as a matter of fact. It seemed to have been
touched by the finger of God, for it bore fruit
perpetually.
Despite its old age,
its limbs were constantly laden with fruit.
Hundreds of passersby
refreshed themselves
from the tree as it
never failed to give freely.
But then a greedy
merchant purchased the property on which the tree
grew.
He saw hundreds of
travelers "robbing" his tree,
and he built a high
fence around it.
Travelers pleaded with
him,
"Share with us."
The merchant quoted in
return,
"It is my tree, my
fruit, bought with my money."
Then a strange thing
happened.
The old tree died!
What had happened?
The law of giving, as
predictable as the law of gravity, had expressed its
immutable principle:
when a tree stops
giving, it stops bearing,
and it dies.
(Author Unknown)
This story illustrates
well the law of giving and receiving. And when I
think of how much we take from God's world, we
should bow in guilt at how little we give to His
work.
We can never do enough
for our gracious Lord!
"But this
I say,
He which
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly;
and he
which soweth bountifully
shall reap
also bountifully."
2Corinthians 9:6
