Dead Sea or Jordan River? You have a choice. The Dead Sea contains a treasure chest of rich deposits of valuable minerals that are just sitting there. The Jordan River is where spiritual life flows, John was God's voice in the wilderness and baptized there; Jesus preached the kingdom of God has come there; Elisha sent the Syrian king to be healed there. God paid the supreme price for your sin, raised you from the dead with Him, gave you the power of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. and gave you a great commission to go and do likewise what Jesus did. To be a couch potato with all He has given you is an insult to what He has made you and all His great work in you.
Jesus instructed us to "Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." Luke 6:38. 1 Peter 3:9 reaffirms this principle, saying you are called to bless that you may receive the blessing. That is essentially why the fourth Hebrews 6 foundational doctrine is laying on of hands, or in other words, give what you have got. That is why in Psalm 23 David declares He fills your cup to overflowing, so that it can run over to those who need a drink of His goodness.
Let's take this one step further. Jesus loves you and gave His life for you. The greatest love anyone can give, according to Jesus, is to lay down your life for someone else. And to make the case even stronger, Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as He loves us. So by giving what you have, your talents, your resources, your time, you follow the pattern of lifestyle set by Jesus, to lay His life down freely to bless us. Part of the foundation of moving on to maturity, to becoming the kind of Christian that God intended you to be, is to have the mindset that the purpose of your life is to love God by willingly doing whatever it takes to bless. God loves and honors a cheerful giver.
We are blessed exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think, so lay up treasures in heaven for eternity by sharing the good news in word and deed. Jim Elliot, missionary to the Quechua Indians of Ecuador, succinctly explained and applied this principle. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
Holy Spirit, give me the power to overcome my flesh and help me choose to touch with your love the lives you have put in my life, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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