Mind You - He is watching you!

Home is the place for first learning. This is even true for Johan. He watches each and every move of ours - may it walking, raising of hand as a sign of refreshing, speaking, singing, praying, shouting, scholding. If i raise my voice, he say "Minndda", if it coughs, he asks me to spit, if i cough while drinking water, he asks me to hit on top of my head or he shouts "Palli" - an healthy act to distract you. He learns a lot through his eyes. He learns a lot through his sound. He make different types of sounds and learns from its echos too. He notices the obvious, which elders tend to miss.



The visions passing through the television has a great impact on him - especially the advertisements. He knows many of the commercials by its music. He know whatz the next caption which is going to be said in many of the media ads. This made me realize the power of ads on children and why there is a huge effort behind commercials.

He watches every move of others. In the church, he observes the choir processions and imitates it at home. At home, Johan becomes the bearer and his parent follows up.

Schooling - Ripe?

Johan is growing in wisdom and stature finding favor in God and man.We are trying to get him enrolled in any preschool in Coimbatore. The search is on. When I sat back and tried to ponder on the reasons for sending him to school at an age of 2.5 years or even earlier, I got a few and I list it in the order of compulsion.

• Peer Pressure
• Fear of not getting admission later
• He should learn

I am sure, Johan would take up the first point of concern for himself over a period of time. In other word, Is it the parents who impart this unnecessary virtue to their kids?

Johan turns 2

Johan became two years young on Saturday, 5th September 2009. We had a small get together in our apartment. Johan's friends were there to celebrate his birthday along with us.

This was followed by a small prayer fellowship with the family members. This was indeed a blessed occasion.

The building block which he received as a present seems to be somethings which he is looking for piece of amusement for him. He has infact named the two pieces of character with the names of his cousins. He arranges it one on top of the other and once its over he says Yaeeeeee by rising on his feet and with the right hand shot directly to the top - what a way to display his achievement. And we, the parents sit back and rejoice the savior for the joy which we receives.

His Aunty has also given his a air filled chair. More that sitting of the teddy bear chair, he prefers to understand the physics involve in the same. There are three valves for this seater. One for the hand rest, another for the seat and the last one for balacing the weight and ensuring that children will not fall down when he moves around. This is the lowest part of the chair.Johan tries to reduce the air within by putting the chair upside down by removing the lid of the lowest position. When this happens, the chair will ask behave the same way was we try to ride a motor bike with a flat tyre. I have to blow air again to fill it up and ensure that he wont fall down from it.

There are lot more exciting things which he does - like singing the song "Mellula", throwing my blackberry off as if giving it to crow - what he learnt from the wrong act of us. We tend to show him throwing off the stuff to the crow. He think we are indeed throwing it and ensure that it reaches the nearest crow.

More things to come....

The Grace of Giving

Introduction

The scripture considers the act of giving as Grace of giving. This is evident from the example which Paul gives to the Corinthian Church. In 2 Cor 8, Paul talks about the generosity of the churches in Macedonia. If we study the bible, in those times, there were two churches in Macedonia – Philippians Church and Thessalonica Church. Even though the Philippians and the Thessalonica church members were extremely poor, still they were very generous to the Christians in need. They, in fact, contributed generously to the collection which Paul has been raising for the Church in Greece. And Paul is sharing this to Corinthian church – who were in fact richly blessed by God’s grace – both materialistically and spiritually.

 Before going into the grace of Giving, let us try to understand the word grace.

• è  Grace:
  

Bible scholars define grace in the following ways

o   God’s unmerited favor

o   God’s enabling power.

In both the cases, God’s unmerited favors and God’s enabling power – both are immesurable. So when we consider Grace of giving, the first and the foremost though which should come to our mind is giving towards to Lord is immeasurable.

Why & what should we give?

•   Stewards of God’s resources :
  

In 1 Pet 4:10, Peter preaches that every Christian has received many gifts from God.

In 1 Cor 12:7, Paul preaches that every gift (manifestation of the spirit) is given for the common good of the members of the church.

In other words, the bible is clear that we are all stewards or temporary custodians of the gifts we posses.

In 1 Cor 4:2, we see a beautiful verse about Stewardship. Paul says – “Every steward is men who are entrusted about something and anyone who is entrusted with something should be faithful to exercise of his responsibility.

So, whatever God has given us, we should give back to him responsibly.

 

•   Imitators of God
  

In Eph 5:1 Paul reminds us to be imitators of God. In other words, we are called to give in the same as way as God has done i.e. joyously, generously, faithfully.

In John 15:5 , Jesus says “I am the vine and you are the branches”. So whatever we, the branches receives we have to give to others.

 

•  God shares eternal life to us
  

In John 3:16, “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whoever, believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

So, if we have received this eternal life through believing, it is utmost duty to share this good news to others as well.

 

• We have received much
  

If we stop for a while and take stock of all our blessings which we have received, we would quickly identify how over whelming is the Lords generosity towards us.

In Luke 12:48 Jesus says “ For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required”. So the message is clear – Our talents and possessions are not for our own enjoyment, but for the benefit of the world around us.

Mat 10:8 says “ Freely you have received, Freely give”.

 

Whom are we suppose to give?

• The Needy – Bible mentions a few needy souls.
  

a.       Needy – In Act 6:1-3, we see in early churches, special men were with full of spirit and wisdom were chosen to serve food for the widows and the needy. Stephen was one among of them.

 

• Giving unto others – Within and outside the church.
  

An example for this is 2 Cor 8. Earlier we discussed how the Macedonian churches were helping the church in Greece as per the instruction from Paul. This is one classic example for giving within and outside the church.

 

• Church supported ministries
  

Paul was supported by the Philippians churches. Of course, we all know that Paul was a tent maker and he earned part of his living by himself.

Nevertheless, we see Paul also thanking the Philippians Church in Phil 4:15-18. He says that when he came to Macedonia, there was no on to support him except for the Philippians Church. The Philippians Church also helped him when he was in Thessalonica. Paul says, the gift which you have given is a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

 

• Teacher and Preachers of the Gospel
  

Gal 6:6 says let him who is taught in the word share with him that teaches all good things. In other words, if we have received any instructions from the word, then we are suppose to share our resources with the instructor.

1 Cor 9:14 says, the Lord commands those who preach the Gospel should receive their living from the Gospel.

I think this requires no explanation.

 

Principles of Giving (or How are we suppose to give)

•  A giver should be generous & willing to give
  

In 1 Tim 6:17,18 Paul is addressing those who want to get rich to be generous & willing to give, thereby becoming rich in their deeds and those deeds done for God will remain forever.

 

• A giver should be generous & cheerful in his giving.
  

In 2 Cor 9:6, 7, the bible teaches us that whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Further, in the next verse, Paul says, Each man should give what he has decided in this heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

 

• God asks us to tithe.
  

In the OT, we read that God wants us to title i.e. give 10% of all what we have not only money for the Lord (Lev 27:30).

And it doesn’t stop with OT. In Luke 11:42, we see Jesus commanding on tithing. That’s the reason why many other churches consider the offering time as – “Time to give God’s tithes + our offerings”.

 

•  God expects us to give systematically and regularly.
  

In 2 Chron 31: 11 & 12, Hezekiah gave orders to prepare the store houses in the temple of the Lord and this was done. Then they faithfully brought in their contribution, tithes and dedicated gifts.

 

• God expects us to give sacrificially.
  

The grace of giving displayed by Macedonian churches in 2 Cor 8, was considered as a sacrificial giving since they were themselves in utter poverty.

 

Jesus said, the two mites offered by the widow in the offering box as the greatest as she gave “all she had”. This is another sacrificial giving.

 

 

Blessings of Giving

• Giving increases faith – In Mal 3:10, bible says, “Bring the whole title into the store house that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessings, that you will not have room enough for it”
  

That’s the confidence which God is providing for all those who give.

 

• God is just God & He will not forget you
  

In Heb 6: 9.10 - We are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. ¹⁰God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

So, our Lord is not a debtor to anyone.

 

•  Prosperity
  

In Prov 11:24-26, “A generous man will prosper. He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed”.