“So why are you now trying to out-god God?” ~Apostle Peter

Tags

Acts 15, Generosity, God is God, Jesus, Rules

Can I out-god God? No, I can’t.

• God is God. Peter laid in on the line with the early Christians who wanted to maintain the old agreement about the religious rules and regulations. He wasn’t having any of it. He knew something that is the main thing.
• I can’t out-god God! I can try to reach God by being good but it won’t work. It is only out of His generosity that I move beyond missing the God’s goal for me and operate in the realm where I fulfill His every desire.
• Keeping the rules won’t get me into His world. Jesus has a new plan that has nothing to do with that. God is God. And God is great. Nothing is impossible with Him.

So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too? Don’t we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us just as he did those from beyond our nation? So what are we arguing about?

Source: Acts 15:10-11

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"Live generously." ~~Jesus

Tags

Generosity, Jesus, Jesus Sayings, Love, Matthew 5

God is so very generous to me. Although I don’t deserve it, He lavishes me with every gift imaginable. I can’t even think of every thing He is going to do for me.

Jesus demands that I live generously. Love God; love others! That is His command in His mission for my life.

Jesus wants me to move beyond just living and to live generously. When I think about my “to do” list for the day, is “be generous” at the top of the list?

 Live generously.” ~~Jesus (Matthew 5:48 The Message)

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God.” ~Apostle Paul

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1 Timothy 6, Generosity, Good works, Jesus, Rich, Share, Treasure

Do Good

I need to go after God. I want to be rich in helping others. I want to be extravagantly generous, just like Jesus, the Messiah.

I want to focus on building up treasures in Heaven that will last forever. I want to gain life that is truly life.

Life that is focused on building wealth here is not life at all.

God’s generosity will take care of what I need.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

1 Timothy 6:17-19

“Live out your God-created identity.” ~Jesus

Tags

Generosity, Grace, Jesus, Jesus Sayings, Matthew 5, Maturity

Jesus has a great way to simplify what He is saying. Jesus is very direct and doesn’t beat around the bush.

So, Jesus challenges me to grow up.

I know I am a child of God and live in His World (Kingdom). I know Jesus is in charge of my life when I let Him be.

“God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything.” ~Apostle Paul

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2 Corinthians 9, Apostle Paul Sayings, Generosity, Giving, Jesus, Messiah, Wealth

Generosity of God. He is in a good mood.

Why do we have money? Does God give us money to increase our standard of living?

God gives us money to meet our basic needs. The rest is for his purpose and to help his people. God’s goal for us is to be generous. We need to focus on increasing our standard of giving.

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the winds,
    giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
    never run out, never wear out.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

2 Corinthians 9:11 The Message (MSG)

Jesus, the Messiah and our Master, challenges us to be generous. “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” Matthew 5:48

So here’s what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart’s been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t. The heart regulates the hands. This isn’t so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you’re shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written,

Nothing left over to the one with the most,
Nothing lacking to the one with the least.

I thank God for giving Titus the same devoted concern for you that I have. He was most considerate of how we felt, but his eagerness to go to you and help out with this relief offering is his own idea. We’re sending a companion along with him, someone very popular in the churches for his preaching of the Message. But there’s far more to him than popularity. He’s rock-solid trustworthy. The churches handpicked him to go with us as we travel about doing this work of sharing God’s gifts to honor God as well as we can, taking every precaution against scandal.

2 Corinthians 8:14-20 The Message (MSG)

 

"Keep open house; be generous with your lives." ~~Jesus

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Generosity, Jesus, Jesus Sayings, Matthew 5, Messiah, Open

King Jesus, the Messiah, wants us to radically open. He links this to being generous. Everything we are belongs to our Father. Jesus knows that by opening up to others, we’ll prompt people to open up with God. They will see this generous Father we have in heaven. They will see, through our openness about God how wonderfully generous he is. What a loving Father He is.

This is core to the new agreement with God. God’s goal for us is that nothing is be hidden. Nothing is to be closed. Transparency is required. Jesus demands it.

“Keep open house; be generous with your lives.” ~~Jesus (Matthew 5:14-16 The Message)

“And where does that leave our proud religious claim of having a corner on God? Canceled.” ~~Apostle Paul

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Apostle Paul Sayings, Generosity, Gift, Jesus, Messiah, Righteous, Romans 3

Being “religious” carries some weight with God doesn’t it? Unfortunately, not a bit. Not even a little. Being Jewish or Baptist or Muslim doesn’t do it.

There is nothing we can do, even being religious, to get in right standing with God.  Out of sheer generosity God put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of King Jesus, the Messiah.

“And where does that leave our proud religious claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled.” ~~Apostle Paul (Romans 3:29 The Message)

“Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won’t have to hunt for happiness.” ~William E. Gladstone

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Generosity, Happiness, Happy, William E. Gladstone

Be Generous

There is a correlation between being content and being happy. Beyond that, sharing what we have and who we are leads us to be more than happy.

Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won’t have to hunt for happiness. ~William E. Gladstone

"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor." ~~King Solomon

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Blessing, Generosity, Jesus, King Solomon, Poor, Proverbs 22, Wise Sayings

Generosity is interesting. It brings a blessing back to me.

That blessing takes many forms. The greatest is the joy of doing what our Father desires. He says to give and obedience is it’s own form of blessing.

The focus of generosity should be on the poor. Solomon challenges us to have a mission with our generosity. Here, we have lots of opportunity for sure.

GOD is generous. He is caring and in a good mood. Always.

Jesus has a goal for us. We are to be generous.

A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor. ~~King Solomon Proverbs 22:9

"The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller." ~~King Solomon

Tags

Generosity, Solomon, Stingy, Wise Sayings

Be Generous

Solomon nailed this one dead on.

Generosity brings more generosity. The more you give the more you like to give. It just gets better and better.

Being stingy gets you nowhere.

God’s goal for us is that we be generous. Our focus should be on how generous we can be. We should have a contest with ourselves to outdo our last act of generosity.

“The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.” ~~King Solomon (Proverbs 11:24)

"If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water."~~Jesus

Tags

Generosity, God is Good, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Sayings, John 4, Water

Generosity of God. He is in a good mood.

Jesus knows first hand the generosity of God. Everything starts from God caring and His generosity. Jesus knows that God is a loving Father.

When we ask for a drink of water, he reminds us (challenges us) to focus on what is important. Water will only quench our thirst for a brief period of time.

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit (living water) who empowers us for all of eternity. We have that now.

May I drink from the living water of Jesus and realize the power of His Holy Spirit. May I realize that now.

“If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”~~Jesus (John 4:10)

“Rich as he was, Jesus gave it all away for us.” ~~Apostle Paul

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1 Corinthians 8, Apostle Paul Sayings, Generosity, Jesus, Love, Poor, Rich, Sacrifice

As the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah had all the riches of our Father. Yet He chose to give it all away. He did it for us. He did it so we could share the riches of our Father as well.

It is His nature to be generous. His generosity is contagious.  He loves to give to us. God, like any father, He delights in making things happen for us even if it means a sacrifice on His part. Now that is love.

God’s goal for us is to be generous, like He is. Generosity is contagious.

You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus the Messiah. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—in one stroke he became poor and we became rich. 2 Corinthians 8:8-9

Do we know our assignment?

Tags

Generosity, Jesus, Resurrection, Romans 1, Urgent

We have been given an assignment. God has things he wants us to do. Some of that got started with the prophets. That was all preliminary to what we need to focus on right now to achieve His goals for the world. We received the gift and we need, urgently so, to pass it on to those God has called to be a part of His mission.

And so, we must devote our self as someone who is completely owned by our Master. He is our Master. We must do all that He asks of us. And we must be urgent about. There is not time to sit around eating bon bons. Souls are at stake. This is God’s goal for us.

May I trust Him every step of the way. May I get on with it urgently.

I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus the Messiah, on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God’s words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God’s friends. The sacred writings contain preliminary reports by the prophets on God’s Son. His descent from David roots him in history; his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, setting him apart as the Messiah, our Master. Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus the Messiah! And I greet you now with all the generosity of God our Father and our Master Jesus, the Messiah. Romans 1:1-7