Most of us consider ourselves to be generous people. Yes, there’s always a little extra we could give but between our online donations to our Facebook friends’ marathon fundraising pages, our enthusiastic purchase of our colleague’s homemade baked goods at the work charity bake sale and our weekly contribution to the offering at church each Sunday, we’re not doing to badly. Or are we? According to data compiled as a result of the Science of Generosity survey, 45 per cent of Americans gave no money to charity in the past year. Among this 45 per cent are almost 4 in 10 who, in the same survey, said they believed having a generous self identity was important. While the survey doesn’t reflect the charitable attitudes of Americans as a whole, what it does highlight is that we can fundamentally believe in the virtue of giving but it’s something that can take a backseat in our day-to-day lives. Can you remember the last time you gave spontaneously? How about the last time you increased your giving? These Bible verses will help remind us why we need to make being charitable a priority. Psalm 41:1 – Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. Isaiah 58:7 – Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:10 – And if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. Matthew 5:42 – Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Luke 14:13-14 – But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Luke 21:3-4 – ‘Truly I tell you, he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’ Hebrews 13:16 – And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Originally posted 2016-03-16 13:07:07.
What comes to mind when you think about heaven? White clouds, pearly gates, everyone clothed in white, angels? It’s not hard to become obsessed with heaven – how we get there, what it looks like, who we’ll meet there – and it’s not hard to get it wrong when it comes to describing or defining it. Our perceptions and understanding of heaven can easily be skewed by how it is portrayed in the media, in literature and by our own personal desires of what we want it to be. These seven Bible verses detail some of the imagery of heaven, answer the burning question of how we get there and help put our thinking about heaven back on the right track. Matthew 7:13-14 – ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it.’ John 6:44 – ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.’ John 6:50-51 – ‘But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ John 14:2 – My father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 2 Corinthians 5:1 – For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Revelation 4:8 – Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” who was, and is, and is to come.’ Revelation 21:1-2 – Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Originally posted 2016-03-16 12:45:13.
This is a story about how sometimes the ones we love the most can fail us and how it’s the people we least expect who lift us up when we fall. The Lucci quadruplets are only 19 years old, but they’ve endured so much. Bianca, Madison, Tiffany, and Paris Lucci had a picture-perfect life: a massive home in Beverly Hills, successful parents, and a pool to boot. Behind the glamorous exterior, the family was falling apart. The quadruplets’ father was extremely abusive. He constantly beat and neglected his daughters, even breaking one of their arms. Perhaps the most disturbing part is that while he would leave his daughters to starve and withhold affection, he would feed and dote on their brothers. One day, their mother told the girls she was going out to get them presents… she never came back. When the girls were 11, they were put in foster care. Each time the girls — who were separated — would find a good foster home, their father would sabotage them. He would tell their foster parents that the girls were horrible and convince the parents to reject them. Yet, the Lucci quads were resilient. In the darkest moments, strangers would extend kindness. Teachers noticed they went hungry every morning and brought them breakfast. Some foster parents treated them as though they were their own. Staff at the group home mentored them. Now the quads are sharing their story to show that when their family was nowhere to be found, their community was there to save them. They are grateful to the foster care system because they don’t think they’d be where they are now without it. Watch their triumphant story below. Originally posted 2016-03-16 12:37:56.
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