Giving

Coneflower - Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA

Give and it shall be given to you.

A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and

 running over will be poured into your lap.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6:38

Have you ever wished that you had a large sum of money to give to your favorite charity, or perhaps a tragedy-displaced family or Christmas child?  Two of my favorite charities are the Angel Tree project and Smile Train.  Angel Tree provides Christmas gifts for disadvantaged children in your own city, and Smile Train provides medical personnel in third world countries the money, supplies and training to provide cleft palate surgeries for children.

This last week, there was a tiny article on the Internet regarding a donation by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Foundation to a Somali aid group to help it expand its health services to displaced mothers and children in Somalia’s war-ravaged capital of Mogadishu.  The $340,000 donation is an enormous amount for this charity that serves 300 women and children a day in the Badbaado camp for displaced people. The U.S. estimates that 750,000 people are at risk of starvation in southern Somalia in the next few months, and that the drought and famine have so far killed more than 29,000 children under the age of five.  Jolie-Pitt's generosity will ensure that the Somali charity can save as many people as possible.

Most of us do not have $340,000 to hand out to anyone, but we do have a few dollars to fill a box for Operation Christmas Child, or to give as a donation to the bell ringer at the Salvation Army kettle, or to hand out the car window to the homeless family huddled with their homemade sign. No matter how poor we are, there is always someone who has far less.  Our lives are enriched and blessed by sharing a gift with someone less fortunate than ourselves.

Prayer Needs for Today

For the families and children of Somalia

For the homeless and destitute in your area

Abducted

Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth,

and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart 

was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5

Authorities in Kansas City spent most of yesterday searching neighborhoods, after spending Friday searching creeks and landfills for a two and a half year old toddler that was abducted from her crib early Tuesday morning.  The child’s mother put her to bed on Monday night at 10:30 pm, and her dad discovered her missing when he came home from work at 4:00am on Tuesday morning.  The father said that there were random lights on in the house, the front door was unlocked, and a front window was open when he arrived home – all unusual events.  Three cell phones were also missing. The parents concluded that someone entered the home through the window and took their precious child. 

What could someone possibly want with a toddler girl?  The question produces nightmares of possible answers.  There are 800,000 missing children every year in the United States, approximately 2,000 a day.  A three-year-old girl disappears in West Virginia on September 24.  A second grade boy vanishes in June of 2010. A nine-year-old girl evaporates in thin air in February of 2000; her parents still have no idea what happened to her.

It is impossible to hide your children from the world, to watch them 24/7, or be by their side every waking (and sleeping!) moment.  Our complex and ever-moving society does not give us that privilege.  We do, however, have a God in heaven that never slumbers or sleeps.  Draw your children to you each morning and commit them to God’s care and keeping for that day.  Never let a day go by that you do not place them in the Lord’s hands.  He has promised, Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.  Claim that promise for your children today.

Prayers Needs for Today

For the families of abducted children and those who search for them.

By Faith

Photo courtesy of Facebook

All these people [Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah]

were still living by faith when they died.

They did not receive the things promised:

they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

Hebrews 11:13

I was raised in a church that believed in the imminent return of Jesus Christ to this earth.  The “nearness of the Second Coming” was mentioned in practically every sermon and every prayer on a weekly basis.  Soon and Very Soon was a song we sang in our little children’s classes, and We Have This Hope was a frequent hymn choice for the worship service.

We have this hope that burns within our hearts,

Hope in the coming of the Lord.

We have this faith that Christ alone imparts:

Faith in the promise of His word.

We believe the time is near when the nations far and near

Shall awake and shout and sing:

Hallelujah!  Christ is King

We have this hope that burns within our hearts,

Hope in the coming of the Lord.

-Wayne Hooper

As I near my mid-60’s, I am beginning to wonder if I, too, will still be waiting for the promise when I die.  Generations before me have only seen the promise “from a distance.”  Do not misunderstand me:  my faith and belief are still as strong as they were when I was a little child.  I continue to pray that Christ might return during my lifetime.  However, this one thing I know:  when the “fullness of time has come,” Christ will return for His people. Hallelujah, Amen.