CANDY

When I was a younger kid, one night a year, we’d dress up, and hit up the neighborhood for some free candy.  This was long before “Harvest Festivals” and “Halloween Alternatives.”  I wanted candy.  They had candy.  It was a no brainer.  Off to the neighbor’s house we went. We knew the rules of the game:  ring the bell, shout the phrase that pays, “Trick or Treat!” and into our bags flowed “Smarties,” “Nerds,” “KitKat,” and my personal favorite, the “Reese’s Pieces.”

I’ll never forget one year, I walked up to a house, rang the bell, shouted the magic phrase and was greeted at the door by a mom and her toddler.  The toddler had already hit the candy bag pretty hard.  His face was smeared with the perfect blend of chocolate and toddler slobber.  With grimy hands, he gnawed on a “Tootsie Roll.”  The mom chose THIS moment to be a teaching moment, “Give the boy some candy!” And I watched as he placed his slobbery, gnawed on “Tootsie Roll” in my bag of treats.  “No!” she said, “A new piece of candy.” But the damage had already been done.  

Shouldn’t we be the most generous of people.  God asks us to give.  So, how do we do it?  Are we handing over our slobbery leftovers or our best?  

¹⁰ For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. ¹¹ Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. ¹² So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.2 Corinthians 9:10-12 (NLT)

Paul give us several giving lessons:

SEED IS FOR SOWING AND BREAD IS FOR EATING:  Everything we get from God fits into two categories:  SEED and BREAD.  It’s important to know the difference between the two.  Bread is for us to eat and seed is for us to sow.  When you sow seed, it grows into more.  The problem is people eat their bread AND their seed.  When you eat it all there is no harvest.  Then you wonder why you’re not blessed.  You ate the part that was supposed to be sown.
INCREASE IS FOR GENEROSITY:  Why does God bless us?  It’s to be a blessing.  I’m not knocking down the idea of having nice things.  If He’s blessed you, great!  But understand that all you have isn’t just for you.  God places more in our hands to be generous. 
GENEROSITY LEADS TO NEEDS MET AND GRATITUDE TO GOD:  I read this week: “No man ought to live to himself; the two great ends of every Christian’s life ought to be, the glory of God, and the good of others, especially such as belong to the household of faith.” (Poole)