Numbers 5-6

Mark 4:1-20

“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

Christians are more generous than any other sector of society. Why is that? Because, when we walk with Jesus, money is no longer our master, money is no longer driving us; it is no longer lord of our lives.

During the 2019 Christmas season at The Peoples Church (Toronto, Canada), we created a campaign called “Light the Way” not only to bring awareness of the Venezuelan refugee crisis but also to raise $100,000 for the Colombian church that had been meeting the needs of refugees who were fleeing the failed state of Venezuela.

Colombia had tens of thousands of people pouring over the border every day, carrying everything they owned on their backs. We wanted to respond generously and give to the Colombian church to support their feeding programs, medical care services, children’s education and trauma counselling for the Venezuelan refugees. We took up offerings that Christmas and there was a great Spirit-led generosity that broke out from our congregation towards the needs of our brothers and sisters over there.

Among the congregation was one woman who had a lot of jewellery in her possession. During the Christmas season, God was talking to her about all this jewellery that she had but did not wear often. When she heard about the needs of the refugees, she felt like God was leading her to donate her jewellery to help the refugees. She contacted Pastor Brett McBride and brought bags and bags of gold jewellery to the church as her offering. The church’s bookkeeper took all the gold jewellery downtown to a smelter, where all that gold was weighed and the worth of the gold was somewhere between $22,000-25,000—that’s a lot of jewellery! Some of us may have wanted to keep that full amount or a portion of it to ourselves, but the woman felt much joy, freedom and liberty as she divested herself of the gold jewellery and shared it with others who were in need.

How do we explain what the woman did? Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24). Bottom line: we cannot serve both God and money.

When we choose to walk with God, He begins to free us from some of our possessions that may be taking ownership of our lives. While we may not have $25,000 worth of gold jewellery lying around our home, we do have things that have taken a hold of our life. May we release what we are holding onto so dearly so that we can fully serve God as the One and only true Master of our life.

Dear God, thank You for what You have blessed me with. I want to be set free from holding tightly to my possessions. Show me ways that I can bless others with what I have. Praise You!