George Dalton's Column

What do you have to give?
By George Dalton

Mark 12:42-44 - 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. 43 Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."

When this lady came to church that day she had no way of knowing that the Lord of the universe was watching her, and two thousand years in the future people would be talking about her two pennies. Why do I bring this up today, because some of you might be feeling bad because you can’t give as much today as you could two years or three years ago. God doesn’t care about the size of the gift he only cares about the heart of the giver. If you only have two pennies like this lady but you are giving it out of love then God can take those two, pennies and do unbelievable things with them.

Let me tell you a story about a young man who died at age 31. Shortly after arriving in America he started a preaching school. Two years later he contacted TB and died. In his will he left half of his estate to his beloved wife and half to the new school.

The amount of his bequest has never been officially determined because much of his estate consisted of land in England which was not readily converted to cash. Respected historians, however, put the bequest at around $375 dollars.
Yet the school that bears his name is one of the most respected Universities in the world. Harvard University.. John Harvard was born in 1607 and died in 1638, and his total estate was only worth $750.00 of which he gave half to the school, and look what God has done with a $375.00 gift.

It is not how much you can give to God, it is how much can God do with what you give.

Copyright © 2010 George Dalton.  All rights reserved.