Recently, I've heard a series of sermons on generosity, and they've really impacted the way I live and also my view of missions. The main idea is that God enables us to live beyond ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 9:11 Paul writes, "You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." God compels us to live a life of giving, and that as we give, we will be blessed with more to give. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down and 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. The call of Christ to give and to serve is not one that should be taken so lightly. The more God places longing in my heart for missions, the more I realize the call to live sacrificially. I think one of the most beautiful pictures in the bible of sacrificial living is the love of Christ for the church described in Ephesians 5. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:25-27). Dietrich Boenhoffer describes this vividly, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." I hope that you will seek God's face and ask Him to charge you to live generously.
May the love of Christ compel you,
Amber
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