Daily Devotions With Greg Laurie ~ ”Blessed Are The Generous” ~ Monday, 28 October 2013
"And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "(Acts 20:35)
Do you know any generous people? They're easy to recognize. They're the ones who always pick up the check for your meal, and they never remind you of it. Maybe they don't have a lot of money, even, but they say, "I'll get it. Don't worry about it."
They know a little secret: It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Now, when we were young, we didn't necessarily believe this. We believed it was more blessed to receive than to give. Remember what it was like at Christmas? We wrote up detailed directions for our parents so they could find and buy the gift that we wanted them to put under the tree. It was all about receiving. But as we got older, we started to enjoy giving more.
I think that is true for Christians as well. When we first come to Christ, it is all about receiving because we are messed up and needy. We come to God with our sin, He forgives us, lifts that burden off us, and fills us with His peace. Then we start hearing the Word of God and begin learning, growing, and maturing. All this is good because it is what young Christians are supposed to do.
But just as babies get older and mature and ultimately become adults, young Christians need to eventually grow up. Instead of coming to church and making it all about them and what they get out of it, they need to learn the joy of giving. They need to ask, "What can I do to help others? I have been blessed, and I want to serve the Lord now. Where do you have a need?"
If you give, it will be given to you. And I have found that generous people are blessed people.
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TODAY’S BIBLE READINGS:
Job 19:1 Then Job answered,
2 “How long will you torment me,
and crush me with words?
3 You have reproached me ten times.
You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
4 If it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
and plead against me my reproach;
6 know now that God has subverted me,
and has surrounded me with his net.
7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,
and has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory,
and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.
My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me.
He counts me among his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together,
build a siege ramp against me,
and encamp around my tent.
13 “He has put my brothers far from me.
My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away.
My familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.
I beg him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife.
I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me.
If I arise, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me.
They whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh.
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends;
for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God,
and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26 After my skin is destroyed,
then in my flesh shall I see God,
27 Whom I, even I, shall see on my side.
My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger.
“My heart is consumed within me.
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
because the root of the matter is found in me,
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”(Messianic WEB)
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the Prophets,
“Behold,* I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you:✡
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord!
Make his paths straight!’”✡
4 Yochanan came immersing in the wilderness and proclaiming the immersion of repentance for forgiveness of sins. 5 All the country of Judea and all those of Jerusalem went out to him. They were immersed by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. 6 Yochanan was clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen. 8 I immersed you in† water, but he will immerse you in the Holy Spirit.”
9 In those days, Yeshua came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was immersed by Yochanan in the Jordan. 10 Immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 A voice came out of the sky, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
12 Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him.
14 Now after Yochanan was taken into custody, Yeshua came into Galilee, proclaiming the Good News of God’s Kingdom, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
16 Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 Yeshua said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.”
18 Immediately they left their nets, and followed him. 19 Going on a little further from there, he saw Jacob the son of Zebedee, and Yochanan, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him. 21 They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, 24 saying, “Ha! What do we have to do with you, Yeshua, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!”
25 Yeshua rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”
26 The unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28 The report of him went out immediately everywhere into all the region of Galilee and its surrounding area.
29 Immediately, when they had come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with Jacob and Yochanan. 30 Now Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 He came and took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them. 32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick, and those who were possessed by demons. 33 All the city was gathered together at the door. 34 He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35 Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went out, and departed into a deserted place, and prayed there. 36 Simon and those who were with him followed after him; 37 and they found him, and told him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
38 He said to them, “Let’s go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may proclaim there also, because I came out for this reason.” 39 He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, proclaiming and casting out demons.
40 A leper came to him, begging him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, “If you want to, you can make me clean.”
41 Being moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand, and touched him, and said to him, “I want to. Be made clean.” 42 When he had said this, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean. 43 He strictly warned him, and immediately sent him out, 44 and said to him, “See you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”
45 But he went out, and began to proclaim it much, and to spread about the matter, so that Yeshua could no more openly enter into a city, but was outside in desert places: and they came to him from everywhere.
2:1 When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was in the house. 2 Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them. 3 Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him. 4 When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on. 5 Yeshua, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6 But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Yeshua, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?’ 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.”
12 He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
13 He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them. 14 As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Halfai, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed him.
15 He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Yeshua and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him. 16 The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 When Yeshua heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
18 Yochanan’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do Yochanan’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”
19 Yeshua said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made. 22 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”
23 He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”
25 He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? 26 How he entered into God’s house when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” 27 He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”(Messianic WEB)
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1-800-821-3300
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