|
|
Latest Forum Posts
Posted by Peter DM - 05/09/2010 23:48 Posted by isawusaw2 - 05/09/2010 23:30 Posted by Peter DM - 05/09/2010 23:09 Posted by isawusaw2 - 05/09/2010 17:57 |
Who will you be voting for in the coming federal election?
|
|
|
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
|
|
Article by Cameron Spink
It is rare to hear of stories of extreme charity. So when I was scanning the internet I was genuinely surprised to see the story about Karl Rebeder who is giving all his significant fortune (valued at around $4.8m) to charity. Whilst those deemed the rich of our society do give substantial amounts of money to various causes it is usually out of their excess and has no impact on their everyday lives. However, Karl has given his entire lifestyle away.
One can’t help drawing parallels between this story and the lesson that can be learned from Luke 21 regarding the poor widow. Jesus makes clear that the widow’s act of giving surpassed everyone else’s because she gave all she had and gave out of her poverty. This means that what she gave affected her livelihood.
This example is not regularly followed, even by us who are called to follow it. You see, when we give it is out of our excess, it doesn’t affect how we live. Our interests come before all those others whom we could influence. We do not give all we have to give and do not surrender everything to God. Sometimes it seems we forget who is the one providing for us and who is the one receiving. And so we should all be challenged to question of what it means to give everything to God and trust Him completely as we are called to do.
A final point that jumped out to me from the story about Karl Rebeder was the reason he was giving his fortune away. Karl Rebeder specifically states in the article that money “prevents happiness to come”. Not only does this reinforce the adage ‘money can’t buy happiness’ but it is also a reminder to always question why you are being charitable. Christians are called to be generous because God was compassionate to us first. However, the reality is that we have our own purposes in acting in a charitable fashion.
|
Add comment
|
|
|
