Today Our Daily Bread 2 Cor 9 & 2 Cor 2:14

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her daily journal.

2 Corinthians 9:1-15
Administering the GiftThe Importance of Giving Cheerfully1 Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; 2for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority. 3Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; 4lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you!) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. F14 5Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation.
The Cheerful Giver6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9As it is written: "He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever." F15 10Now may F16 He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 12For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, 13while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, 14and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. 15Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Footnotes F14: 9:4 NU-Text reads this confidence. F15: 9:9 Psalm 112:9 F16: 9:10 NU-Text reads Now He who supplies ... will supply ... .
~Lena’s Journalin’~
I think it’s neat how Paul is instructing the church in what one would consider a natural matter. He shows them how natural things speak of spiritual things in demonstration. By ministering to a natural need, doors open up to meet spiritual needs. Willingness to give natural things, such as money to the work of God in another person’s life, shows that one has compassion and is open to the blessing of God. When a person is not very giving or willing, that shows that their heart is also a bit closed to receiving things of the heart from God. Money is very personal to people, things of the heart are very personal to people. God wants to deal with us in the deepest parts of us, our hearts. So He asks us to give of what means a whole lot to us and then we all find out what is inside, and what truly is important to us. Is money the most important thing? To some it’s all they have, exactly! Ever heard the song, “Give it all to Jesus?” Money represents security, comfort, provision and trust. Touch a person’s money, and touch on some deep heart issues. God wants to be our source, supply, dependence, our everything. Many times money will test these issues.
Paul was impressed that this group of people, this church, was more generous than others he’d encountered. He was teaching them another lesson too, integrity. They’d said what the desired to do, how much they’d wanted to help so and so, now was the time to prove it. many times money is proof of what we’ve said. It was time to “put their money where their mouth was”. He was helping them see how important words and expressed promises are. We’d never let God or anyone else, see the end of it, if they promised something and did not come through, that offends us, right? Paul was teaching them to back up their zealous words with physical action. It was not about the specific amount, unless they’d stated a specific amount, it was about how much of our hearts we are willing to give to God and His work. It is also a gage of faith. If we really believe in something, we will show it by support.
The amounts are always relative to what we have and how much we can “spare” of what we have, right? God is so awesome in how he sees things. Like the tithe, is 10% no matter who gives it. 10% of $1000 is 10%, 10% of $100 is also 10%. 10% is 10%! I believe God sees more in proportion than he does amounts. One could give $10,000 and another give $15 and the smaller amount would be the greater gift? How so? God sees the heart. Man looks at what appears, #’s, God looks at the heart. Paul said, give cheerfully, not because someone is making you, or you have to do it, but because it is an expression of what is inside of your heart, a person given over to God and His work, a person who does not hold back the deep things of His heart from God’s great work, someone who is not all about, me me, me, but who loves outside of his-self, caring for the needs of others, the promotion of others, the work of God in others.
I’ve seen money do the work of God in effective ways over and over again. I know that sounds weird, because $ can’t buy love, right? Or does it? Not really, but really too. It is the symbolism and the expression behind the gift. It is the gift who has a face for the one receiving.
When someone doesn’t have money, doesn’t have what they need in life and are even in misery over their lack, it can often be used as a tool to open up a heart to the grace and love of God through Divine provision.
When I was 16, my mom was divorced, she was destitute and was doing her best to care for 3 girls at home. We ended up living in a desert valley in an old small house, which was homemade years and years before by our great Grandpa. He didn’t have need of it exactly and was gracious enough to allow us to live there for a bare minimum “rent”. Mom was quite thankful, we were fine, just making teenage adjustments of new friends in a new place etc.
Then winter came, it was cold as cold could be, INSIDE of the house. It so happened that there was no insulation! Ugh. Mom could not afford much in the way of energy bills, so we scrimped and hesitantly filled the expensive propane tanks. Mom had Grandpas’ old car, which was on its last legs. Living where we did, there was no trash service, because the propane bill was so expensive, Grandpa had but in a wood burning stove, which needed to be fed wood, which someone had to cut or buy etc. We made do as many others make do. Being 16, I knew things were quite rough. Things had been rough for a long time, but in different ways, rough is relative also. Rough before, was alcoholic parents, and even poverty that came from some of their choices. Rough was moving a lot, or hearing your parents arguing, and desiring peace, but not having much at home. Rough was seeing Mom sad and abandoned, as we all were. That was rough at 16. That was rough at any age. So, social services was trying to help mom “get back on her feet”, they had her go “back to college” and gain a bit of training so she could “better herself”. She was doing a good job trying, but there was still that element of betrayal and hurt and the whole thing of dealing with that. Grandma had prayed for us her whole life as an adult and mother. We knew Grandma was a Christian, but that was Grandma and HER faith, we respected that in her, but had not considered it much for ourselves.
Mom was in classes and met a kind fellow, who began to listen to her dilemmas’. He was not listening to sympathize; he was listening to see what god would have him do. He knew a lot of other people like Him that were accustomed to listening too, he asked them to pray. He began to obey the Lord and take time to share what and who he knew with mom. She was ready to listen. He would come over the house and share more. I would come and go and hear a bit here and a bit there. He was very zealous with his faith in who he knew. I heard enough as a passer to know who he was saying he knew, it was God. I wasn’t too impressed except by His countenance and the attention he was paying my mom, which seemed to be one of genuine concern. I would have to prove that one, we’d already been betrayed. It seemed he was not after mom really, just her soul!
What I hear would work in me as I came and went. He would invite us to his church.
I would come and go, and came and went to parties, I was in a band.
One night we were out very late and I’d decided to stay over at a friend’s home down the road. I told mom I’d be home mid- morning. My friend and I walked to the house, which was about 2 miles away. The approach of our home was up a hill and you wouldn’t see the yard until you were up the hill and over the embankment that was there. As we approached that Saturday morning, I saw activity, people, young men in their early 20’s or late teens. I saw the man, who immediately grabbed me and told me he wanted to introduce me to everyone. I was not sure I was in the right place. I was being swept off my feet. There were about 15 guys, strangers. They were in various places, some in the attic, insulating, some in the front yard, fixing the car, some in the backyard, hauling trash and cutting wood. I wanted to know who they were? That would come later on. I somehow knew, knowing my own nature, that they all could have been sleeping in, or doing something fun somewhere else, and with someone else. I realized they were not hired by my mom or the man, because we could not afford it, if we could afford it, we would have already had the job’s done, we were not lazy, just poor.
They stayed until the jobs were done. Then mom fed them food and they all came in and started talking as I’d heard the man talking before. I recognized the language, of love. I recognized the zeal. Even the young men felt the same as the older man did! That amazed me, and some of them were good looking too! They sang, about God. I sang, but not about God, and not like this, with a heartfelt passion. They were not seemingly tired or complaining about the day of unpaid work. I was pricked in the heart! It reached into a very deep part of me, my need. My need was for a Savior and a Lord, but that door was opened by an extension of a natural hand, one willing to put money where their life was!
I accepted the man and the men’s invitations to church. I listened because they gave me the proof I needed to say a prayer of surrender to God one night in my bedroom. They opened up my heart and I gave it to Jesus. That was 26 years ago. I’m as zealous as those men were, and will never stop, there are others like me out there that were gonna die and go to hell and live here in a hell hole being alone and miserable all their days. if I won’t give and tell and give and open doors and pray, as my Grandma did.
I’m compelled. Obligated? Maybe, but only by my understanding of His passion for me, my family, and the world and an extreme desire to make Him known to whoever will listen and know. Give, and it shall be given back to you- good measure- pressed down shaken together and running over. Amen!
My mom had made a great choice then, to invite angels of God into our home, September of 1979. Thank you, MOM! I love you!

(daily repetitive verse)
2 Corinthians 2:14
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.