Exchanging Gifts

“God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will overflow in every good work. You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous in every way, which produces thanksgiving to God through us”

— 2 Corinthians 9:8,11

So much of bending culture toward God's kingdom involves seeing differently. The world around us tends to be impersonal and transactional. Here's a small way we can disrupt the prevailing system. Next time you need a product or service, see that commodity as a gift of love to you or your family—God's provision. Someone (probably several people) conceived, designed, manufactured, shipped, and delivered it to meet a need. In exchange, you will bless them and their families with your money—also God's provision. This can be more than just a transaction. It can be an exchange of love.

Is this just semantics? Maybe sometimes. But this way of thinking can shape attitudes in our work. And it can help form our hearts toward gratitude and away from entitlement. It may even influence who we 'do business' with. God's kingdom consists of giving and receiving, not buying and selling.

Witnesses

What was it like to live through 2020? Someday that question will be asked just like some of us have asked about the Great Wars and the Great Depression. We will have lots of stories to tell. And our lives will tell a story too. We are all being changed by the patterns of this year.

The same is true of our life with God. When Jesus says we will be his witnesses (Acts 1:8), he means people will learn about him through our own story. With our lips, we tell of our relationship with him. And with our life, we show how we are being changed by the patterns of his kingdom.

“When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and found out that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were astonished and took note of the fact that these men had been with Jesus.”

— Acts 4:13

Can you see it?

All those side-by-side pictures on social media. How fast can you find what's different? For us who are "in the world but not of it", difference-seeing is an important skill.

What's of God's kingdom? And what's of the world?

Jesus shows us what God's kingdom is like (Parables, the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, his own life). The Apostle Paul does too (1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5, for example). They draw the contrast so we will do the same in our own time and place. Can you see it?