Front matter
THE WAY OF GIVING Learning to Live
Generously
By R. Herbert
2022, Tactical Belief Books – an imprint of TacticalChristianity.org .
The text and images in this e-book are copyright. All rights reserved. ISBN 979-8-88796-611-3 [4DC] This book is not to be sold. It is made available by the publisher without charge and free copies can be downloaded from: TacticalChristianity.org, LivingWithFaith.org, or FreeChristianEBooks.org. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ® NIV ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society ® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. In a few cases, the BSB (Berean Study Bible ©), CSB (Christian Standard Bible ©), ESV (English Standard Version ©), NLT (New Living Translation ©), and WEB (World English Bible ©) are cited, and these translations are also gratefully acknowledged.
About the Author: The author served as an ordained minister and church pastor for a number of years and holds an earned Ph.D. degree in the languages, cultures and archaeology of the ancient Near East and biblical world. He writes for a number of Christian publications and for the websites TacticalChristianity.org and LivingWithFaith.org. His other e-books are available for free download from those websites and from FreeChristianEBooks.org.
Cover: Base image © by rozum.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: What Giving Is All About PART ONE: THE WAY OF GIVING 1. Ten Reasons to Give 2. Patterns of Giving 3. The Power of Giving 4. The Gift of Giving PART TWO: HOW NOT TO GIVE 5. Giving to Get 6. Junk for Jesus? 7. Holding Back 8. Giving Too Much? PART THREE: GENEROUS GIVING 9. What the Good Samaritan Gave
10. The Giving Church 11. The Treasures of Cirta 12. Hannah's Gift PART FOUR: OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE 13. The Savvy Samaritan 14. Charities That Make a Difference 15. Giving Is Not Just About Money 16. The Gifts the Wise Men Gave CONCLUSION: Excelling in Giving About Our Books
INTRODUCTION:
What Giving Is All About If you have ever read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, you will remember the character of the miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who in his old age finally learns generosity and through it, happiness. Most people are not as unwilling to make giving a part of their lives as Dickens' character, but most people will also admit that there is a bit of Scrooge within the human nature of all of us.
As a result, people may only give to their relatives and close friends. Or, if they give charitably, perhaps it is only when they feel social pressure to do so. This is strange because even from a purely physical perspective, it is well known that giving enhances the lives of those who give. Social scientists have found, for example, that those who exhibit a good degree of generosity are often happier and experience less stress and conflict than those who do not make giving a part of their lives.
In their compelling and carefully researched book The Paradox of Generosity (Oxford University Press, 2014), sociologists Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson show that those who give regularly of their income and those who volunteer their time are more likely than others to be happy, to find more meaning in life, and to be in better health. Smith and Davidson conclude, in fact, that giving has a multitude of measurable benefits and that "The absence of generous practices has the capacity to shape people negatively, just as much as the presence of generosity affects them positively."
This is not surprising to the Christian who knows and believes the words of Jesus – that "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). Jesus was not just referring to physical blessings, of course, but to spiritual blessings also (as we will see in the first chapter of this book).
The Bible puts a strong and ongoing emphasis on giving. The Scriptures begin with the story of what God gave humans at the beginning of history and end with what he wants to give them at history's end. Between these bookends of giving, the Bible teaches generosity in the majority of its sixty-six books.
Why do we see this constant stress on giving found throughout the word of God? The answer is found in the nature of God himself. Every Christian knows that God is love (1 John 4:7–8), but what exactly is that love – how can we best define it? The answer is found in that best known of all New Testament scriptures: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 ESV, emphasis added). In this verse the apostle John shows that giving defines God's love: he gives because he loves.
John makes this connection between God's love and the practice of giving even more clearly in his first epistle: "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" (1 John 3:17). The Scriptures show that ultimately, whatever else it may be, love is giving, and the God of love is truly a God of giving. Giving lies at the heart of God's nature and at the center of what Christianity is all about.
This book is based on that simple truth: if we really want to learn about God and how we can grow to be more like him, we need to learn more about how to give. This is a compelling reason to make giving a priority in our lives. Yet as we will see, there are many more reasons to give and far more opportunities to be generous than we often realize – even if we think we have little or even nothing to give. In fact, there are amazingly powerful ways in which we can all accomplish good through the kind of giving God encourages.
PART ONE:
THE WAY OF GIVING