All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
Acts 2:44-45 (NIV)
No one sacrificed like the early church. The Bible says in Acts 2:44-45, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (NIV). These early Christians didn’t give just their money. They were generous with everything they had. They were radically generous.
God doesn’t just give you resources for your own enjoyment but to make a difference in the world around you. God never blesses you just so you can sit on what you have. He blesses you so you can bless others.
Here are four things you need to remember as you use your blessings as God intended.
Your blessings should flow to others.
“Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand” (Philippians 2:4 The Message). This is the first law of blessing: It must flow outwardly.
How do you bless others? By meeting a need, whether it is for physical or emotional support, financial help, or practical advice.
When you bless others, God takes care of your needs.
Luke 18:29-30 says, “I can guarantee this truth: Anyone who gave up his home, wife, brothers, parents, or children because of God’s kingdom will certainly receive many times as much in this life and will receive eternal life in the world to come” (GW).
When you focus on helping other people, God assumes responsibility for your problems. And that’s a real blessing, because he’s much better at handling your difficulties than you are.
Your blessings to others will come back to you.
The more you bless and help others, the more God blesses your life. Luke 6:38 says, “Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing” (The Message).
The more you’re blessed by God, the more he expects you to help others.
Jesus said it this way in Luke 12:48: “Much is required from the person to whom much is given; much more is required from the person to whom much more is given” (GNT).
You are blessed to be a blessing. That’s a hopeful, encouraging truth to remember. In a world that urges you to just look out for yourself, find ways to be radically generous to the people God has placed in your life.
Globalization and the attendant concerns about poverty and inequality have become a focus of discussion in a way that few other topics, except for international terrorism or global warming, have. Most people have a strong opinion on globalization, and all of them express an interest in the well-being of the world's poor. The financial press and influential international officials confidently assert that global free markets expand the horizons for the poor, whereas activist-protesters hold the opposite belief with equal intensity. Yet the strength of people's conviction is often in inverse proportion to the amount of robust factual evidence they have.As is common in contentious public debates, different people mean different things by the same word. Some interpret "globalization" to mean the global reach of communications technology and capital movements, some think of the outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others see globalization as a byword for
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