Day 204: Eager to Give & Build

2 Corinthians 9; 2 Kings 22:1-23:34; Nehemiah 3

"You believed the message about Christ, and you obeyed it by sharing generously with God's people and with everyone else." This chapter in Corinthians is all about giving. God blesses us and gives us stuff in this life so that we can bless and give to others. We are not forced to give but we should be eager to. When we give, we can trust that God will provide for our needs and so we don't have to have stingy about the amount. If we truly love Christ and want to follow his example, we will give as much as we can to the church and people in need. Christ gave it all, we can at least give something back.

Yay, Josiah! The first king to really do things exactly as God intended! What is so fascinating is that no one had apparently been reading God's Law. The priest is cleaning out the temple and finds it, shares it with Josiah, and he is shocked and terrified. He and the people had no idea what God expected of them because they had never read his word. I think the same is true even today. Many "Christians" claim to love The Lord but they never open scripture to see what he actually says. Since I have started studying the word every day, my life is totally different. Like Josiah, I've been shocked at what I've read and see that so much of my life was not lining up with God's word. Since then, I've been able to make changes in an attempt to be more like Jesus. God's word is powerful and every person should read and investigate it, not just take their pastor's word for what is in it.

The rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall took a lot of different people. Each person had their section and did what they could. Some came from a ways away and built the wall, others built the section right outside their house. Each of us have been given a responsibility in the kingdom of God, whether we have to go afar and serve people, or whether we go right outside our door and give.