Dearly Beloved of Yeshua,

GIVING

Last month, on Sunday May 11th, Mother’s Day, my son Jonathan gave me the great honor and privilege of preaching the sermon at his congregation here in Ft. Lauderdale. He also asked me to speak on a specific topic: Giving. He said to me, “It should be easy for you, Mom. You’ve lived it.” Perhaps, but I have always felt the weight of handling the Word of God properly and accurately, ever mindful of James 3:1 that says, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgement.” My dilemma was choosing which of my God-stories (and how many) to use in my message. I chose “God’s House on the Beach” to begin and would like to share it with you—although the complete story is in the book I am writing.

It was 1977, and Neil and I had been believers in Yeshua for four years. We had been taught about giving by our pastor at the Oakland Park Assembly of God. This included tithing and cheerful (literally “hilarious” in the Greek) giving above the tithe. One night, after thinking about our giving history, I said to Neil, who handled all our finances: “We’re tithing, right?” “Yes,” was his answer. “So, have you seen any Windows of Heaven open up lately? That’s supposed to happen according to Malachi 3:10. Doesn’t God say to test Him?” I believe that I asked this out of curiosity, not out of arrogance, since God doesn’t “owe” us anything. Neil said that the Lord had certainly blessed us, but nothing really supernatural had happened.

God must have been listening because a few weeks later, during our summer vacation, as Neil and I were driving on the Connecticut Turnpike during a visit to relatives up north, I had a vision of a large house on the beach. I sensed God saying, “I am moving you into a large house on the ocean and will send My children to live with you.” (We had been discussing the possibility of starting a family.) When the vision lifted, I looked up and saw a sign that said, “Seaview Ave. Lordship Boulevard.” I wondered if God was moving us to Connecticut. To make a very long story short, seventeen days later we became the owners of a 4 bedroom, 5 ½ bath oceanfront home on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Neil was teaching at Broward College at the time, and I was not working. We had a little over $300 in the bank. It was truly a Windows of Heaven miracle.

Over a period of eleven years, we had more than 65 people live with us, mostly young women believers who needed a safe, godly place to live in a time of transition or storm. Among them were two Catholic Charismatic nuns, a traditional rabbi and his family of five, and three Jewish believers who moved to Israel after their time with us. God’s amazing gift came with its challenges, some sacrifice and pruning, and much death to self-all part of His marvelous plan for our lives. My point #1 in my message: The God of the Bible is an Extravagant Giver.

God’s Lavish Giving

The Bible makes it clear that all good gifts come from God: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

The word for gift in modern Hebrew is matanah (mah-tah-NAH). I fondly remember our almost yearly visits to a Breslov rabbi and his family of ten in Jerusalem. Although they were not yet Messianic believers, we enjoyed each other’s company, and the children especially looked forward to our visits. They called me “Matanah” when they saw me, since we always arrived with gift bags filled with all sorts of goodies. Consider God’s matanot—all His extravagant gifts:

His Son: God’s most extravagant gift. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).

Wisdom: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Abundant Life: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10).

All Things: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

Forgiveness: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

Love and Mercy: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,” (Eph. 2:4).

The Holy Spirit and His Gifts: “‘If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!'” (Luke 11:13).

Grace (This one is powerful from the Amplified Version): “For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift]” (Jn. 1:16 AMP).

It occurred to me that WE, believers in the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, are a Gift to Him. Yeshua, in referring to His followers, said: “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all…” (Jn. 10:29). Thinking about the month of June and weddings, I picture a bride walking down the aisle on her father’s arm. Then, a rabbi or pastor might say, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” The father says, “I do.” Our Father in heaven gave us, the Bride of Messiah, to be married to His Son, the Messiah. We are a matanah! We say “I do” to Yeshua when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior. He receives us as His beloved bride and a gift from His Father.

The Purpose of God’s Lavish Giving

God gives to His children so that we may be a channel of blessing to others. He gave me a house on the beach, not only to delight me, but to bless many others—including my mother. She told me, after we traded family antiques as part of the purchase of the house, something that I did not know—that her lifelong dream had been to live in a beachfront home. The beach house had a separate apartment above the garage that my parents got to enjoy.

Early on I learned a lesson from Luke 12:48, “…For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” The Lord wants us to participate in His giving cycle—He gives to us, and we give to others. The two seas in Israel are often used as an example of this. We can either be like the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea. The first receives and gives; the second receives and holds onto what it receives. That’s why it’s dead. The result of God’s gracious giving should always be increase for His kingdom. We use His gifts for the Glory of God … whether it be our money, our knowledge, our time, our talents, or the gifts of His Spirit.

A Giver Needs Receivers

The Cycle Continues: Giving After Receiving

We read in Acts 20:35, “…And remember the words of the Lord Yeshua, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” That is true, but we have nothing to give until we receive it from God —hope, faith, love, encouragement, wisdom, knowledge, patience, and all the fruit of the Spirit. Love, especially. You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving. The natural man is selfish and seeks things for his own benefit. The new creation, born of God’s Spirit, has His loving, giving nature on the inside. God’s Ruach compels us to give—of ourselves first. Money is the least of our giving in God’s kingdom. A kingdom principle is mentioned in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” God’s children are supposed to be givers, following our Father’s example. Know this: We can never outgive God!

I found a quote in my files from “Women’s Health” of December 2014, which comments on the benefits of giving: “Generosity can trigger extra happy hormones that may keep you cheerful for up to three months. A receiver’s high, by contrast, typically lasts only a few weeks to one month.” Joy comes with being a generous giver.

Real Giving Begins When We Climb Down

In my message on Mother’s Day, I mentioned Zacchaeus, the very unpopular, rich tax collector in Jericho, who heard that Yeshua would be coming to his city. Since the crowds would be large and he was very short, he climbed a tree to get a good view of the Messiah. “And when Yeshua came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully” (Luke 19:5-6). Something happened to Zacchaeus when he “came down” (humbled himself) to welcome the Messiah to his home. He was transformed. A selfish man who had stolen from many received salvation and immediately became a giver. “Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold'” (Luke 19:8).

Just as we love because He first loved us, we give because He first gave (salvation, freedom from sin, eternal life) to us. I am so thankful that the Lord taught us to give from the very beginning of our walk with Him. We have never asked for donations on our Jewish Jewels television programs and rarely have asked for funding in our newsletters, except for Israel Mercy Missions. Many of you have also learned to receive from God and give freely. We have been eternally blessed by your generosity.

Traditional Views on Giving

The concepts of giving and righteousness are intertwined in traditional Judaism. The Hebrew word tzedakah (tze-DAH-kah) or charity comes from the root tzedek, which means righteousness. Therefore, a person’s righteousness is related to their giving (money and good deeds). Righteousness, in Messianic Judaism and Christianity, is not determined by what we give. It is imputed righteousness through faith in the blood atonement of the Messiah Yeshua. This righteousness can never be gained by human effort. Our giving is out of gratitude for God’s love and forgiveness. A good summary is found in Romans 9:30-32, “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.”

There are eight levels of tzedakah or giving in Judaism, like a ladder that one climbs gradually over time. From lowest to highest: 1) giving begrudgingly, 2) giving cheerfully but inadequately, 3) giving adequately after being asked, 4) giving generously before being asked, 5) giving anonymously, where the recipient does not know the donor, 7) giving anonymously, where neither the giver nor the recipient knows the identity of the other and 8) helping someone become self-sufficient—find a sense of purpose, a vocation, a job, or a career. This transforms the person from being a recipient into becoming someone with the capacity to give to others. (Sounds like soul-winning, mentoring, and discipleship!) (Anonymous giving sounds like Matthew 6:1-4.)

“Abba, Father, I receive Your gift of eternal life and freedom from the bondage to sin through Your Son, the Messiah. Please help me to be a better receiver and giver as I receive blessings from Your loving hands and pass them on to others. I have freely received, and I desire to freely give. I want to be a gift (matanah) to my Heavenly Bridegroom! Amen.”

Always grateful for your generous giving to Jewish Jewels,