Seize the Moment – Day 647
A Season of Generosity!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, December 24.
It’s Christmas Eve and you are invited to join us at our 6:30 PM Christmas Eve Service. Please join us for the wonderful time of singing Christmas carols, lighting the Christ Candle on the Advent wreath, and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World.
There are seasons of generosity! The Christmas season is a great example of this as it is a time when people give gifts and make large donations to their churches and charities. Christmas is a time to remember Jesus Christ. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” This season reminds us to be generous as God first gave to us (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:19).
There are seasons of generosity built into the rhythms of creation! There are seasons of harvesting, both in the farmers’ crops and out in the wild. I love it when I am out on a hike and come across wild berries. It is majestic to come across wild berries on the Appalachian Trail. There is no desire to hoard them because you just eat as you walk and leave the rest for other hikers, with whom you are sharing the trail.
Like the hiking community on the AT, God’s people are to share their harvest as a gift from God, remembering that all good gifts from Him (James 1:17). In Deuteronomy 23:24-25, God commanded His people to be generous with their harvests, both those who raised the crop and those who were allowed to graze or glean from it:
When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat grapes until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your basket. When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.
Seize the moment and be generous in season and out so that the world may know of God’s great gift of Jesus Christ to the world; to you and me (1 John 3:16-18; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15)!