Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Gift, The Giving, and The Giver

The following is an insightful article written by Darrell Scott:

"I John 4:12 says, 'No man hath seen God at any time.' Yet, Moses 'saw him who is invisible' (Hebrews 11:27), and the promise given to the pure in heart is that they shall see God!

"Even as it takes a new-born baby time to develop the ability to focus its eyes on an object or person, spiritually reborn babes in Christ have to go through stages of development before the eyes of their understanding are enlightened enough to 'see him who is invisible.' Let me share three of those stages with you.

"The first stage is Seeing the visible things of God. We see manifestations of him in all of nature. David said, 'I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands' (Psalm 143:5). As we meditate and muse on the visible works of God, our eyesight begins to focus past the visible to the invisible realm.

"This is when we discover Stage #2, Looking through the visible to the invisible things of God. Romans 1:20 says, 'For the invisible things of him . . . are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.' 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, 'While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.'

"Looking at invisible things through visible things prepares us for Stage #3, Looking through invisible things and seeing God, who is ALL IN ALL. This occurs as we develop the single-eye vision of Matthew 6:22.

"In John 12:22, there were certain Greeks who wanted to 'see' Jesus. In response to their desire, Jesus pointed them not to himself, but to a grain of wheat! Seeing the process of a grain of wheat being planted and the watering, growing, and harvesting that follows, enables one to 'see' the invisible principle of death, burial, and resurrection. This in turn should enable us to look beyond the principle of life to the God of the principle!

"When a child receives a gift from someone, the tendency is for the child to be so occupied with the gift that the motivation and the person behind the gift is ignored. But, as time passes, and maturity sharpens the child's awareness, he begins to see the reason the gift was given. He begins to see through the tangible to the intangible.

"Giving can be motivated by pure love, but it can also be motivated by greed or revenge! There have been times when young people have resented expensive gifts that were lavished on them by parents who were too busy to give of themselves.

"As long as we only look at the visible gift, we miss the invisible purpose, motivation, or design behind the giving. A fish that has never been snagged by a hook only sees the worm, but in the Louisiana bayous where the author was raised, there are some wise old bass and white perch that have learned by the things they have suffered to 'look for the hook'!

"Seeing the motivation behind the gift, or the intangible behind the tangible, is important; however, eventually we learn to focus in on the one who stands behind both gift and motivation, the giver himself. The motivation behind the gift is only an extension of the character of the giver. If the giver is evil or greedy, then, regardless of its appearance, the gift may be tainted by the giver. On the other hand, if the character of the giver is perfect, selfless, and loving--regardless of the gift's appearance--it can be received with joy and appreciation.

"Jesus said in Luke 11:11-13, 'If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts . . . how much more shall your heavenly Father give.'

"What Jesus is saying is that God will not give us something bad when we ask for something good. If earthly fathers with questionable character can give good gifts to their children, how much more will our heavenly Father with a perfect nature and flawless character give us what is best for us.

"It is imperative to look beyond the visible to the invisible realm, because sometimes when we ask for eggs God gives us what appears to be scorpions. We ask for fish and receive what looks like a serpent. This is only frustrating when we walk by sight, and not by faith. When we walk by faith, we 'see through' the shadows of the temporal into the substance of the eternal.

"In the past I have asked for patience, and have been given tribulation (Rom. 5:3, Ja. 1:3). I have asked for maturity and received suffering (2 Pet. 5:10). I have asked for more love to be manifested through me, and have been given seemingly unlovely people to deal with! So I have learned that when I ask for bread, what I get may look like a stone--but it isn't! So, I bite into it in faith, and sure enough, it turns out to be nutritious and edifying. Incidentally, I learned years ago that Satan can make stones look like bread! That's another important reason to develop 'see-through' vision.

"James 1:17 says, 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.'

"Two times the word 'gift' is mentioned in the foregoing scripture. However, in the Greek language, two different words are used in this passage. The first 'gift' is the Greek word dosis which means 'the act of giving.' It does not refer to the gift itself. In other words, dosis means the way in which a gift is given, the motivation behind the gift. The second Greek word for 'gift' is dorema, which means 'the thing given.'

"In essence, this verse teaches us that God's purposes in giving to us are always good, and that every gift that He gives is perfect. However, this verse also goes on to describe the character of the giver: 'The Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.'

"There may be times when what we receive in life will appear in the form of trouble, confusion, and sorrow. But we can rest assured that when we ask in faith, we will receive perfect gifts given with pure purposes from an unchanging God."

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