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Giving the Lords way
As I read Leviticus 19:9-10 "`When
you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges
of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go
over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have
fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD
your God” thoughts from my past come to mind.
Many years ago while in prison and working
on Georgia State Prison’s 10,000-acre farm we would plant
hundreds of acres of each vegetable kind. These would be used to
feed the 15,000+ inmates in the prison system at that time. Each
year we were given a quota we had to meet, and once the quota
was surpassed by 10% we would stop our harvest and canning or
processing of the crop.
The prison system was not allowed to take
the excess crop and sell it nor were we allowed to give the
vegetables away. We, most of those who worked on the farm, knew
many of the guards as well as their families; often on our
birthdays or other occasions we would find a birthday cake or
some small gift, which we knew was provided by one of the staff.
This was done at a risk to there losing their job if caught.
I don’t think any one of us every thought
of a Bible verse or any thing else other than friendship, which
made people do this. We as inmates knew that many of the guards
who were paid to watch us had families and that often the pay
was not enough to provide for all the needs they had. So at the
end of harvest, whether it be potatoes, beans, corn or any other
crop we would take and bag up excess vegetables and place the
bags at the end of rows near the roads which laces through the
prison fields. The guards knew we were doing this, they also
knew that it was something we were not supposed to do. But never
the less the bags filled with food for the body would be gone
the next morning.
At the time I thought it was just not
letting “good food” go to waste. Now years later I am able
to look back and see where bonds of respect and friendship were
built between guard and inmate. Not through some spoken word or
any program, but rather through just doing little things for
someone who you had a compassion for. I also see where being a
follower of Christ, a true born again Christian allows you to do
and see things in a different prospective. And many times the
things we do for others, God has lain out as our responsibility
in His word long before we even read them.
Let us not love in word or in tongue,
but in deed and in truth. —1 John 3:18
In the church today there are many who have
no idea of the responsibility the have to God, I even question
if most read the Bible on their own and even have any kind of
relationship with God. Certainly if they did the would realize
that with being allowed to have use of the resources God has
loaned us there comes the responsibility to use them as He
intended. Most believe God has provided only for them and if you
don’t have anything, then surely you must be the one without
God in you life. Wow are they off the mark. Not even close to
having an understanding of what or how God want us to live our
life.
Frankly I believe they are so wrapped up in
getting all they can for themselves that they pay little or no
attention to the messages preached or lessons taught in church
and Sunday school; they are struggling to keep up with the
neighbor, to have more and bigger, to plan for an uncertain
future, which may be spent in heartache and grief struggling
with health issues brought on by years of stress in trying to
get all they could so they could one day enjoy it.
Every thing they did had to involve them
receiving something in return, even with their finances they had
to have a tax deduction before they would even consider helping
another. And for freely giving a reasonable tithe to the church,
forget it, most give only what little they can after the have
met the desires.
Far too many are willing to offer a quick
prayer, then off to tend to their stuff. Mini warehouse’s,
rented storage buildings and basements are filled with items
which may never be used by the owner, but in a world where
everyone has come to believe “he who dies with the most,
wins”, what else could be expected. Why give it to some one
who could really use it when you can spend money to store it so
it can be divided as spoils after your death.
Think about it, God asked us to share
what we have, especially our excess.
Clyde
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