Dec. 3.98: Lftd - "God stretches his blessings"

"And God is able to provide you with every blessing
in abundance, so that you may always have enough
of everything and may provide in abundance for
every good work."
-- 2 Corinthians 9:8 (RSV)

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In The Peter Principle, Stan Toler writes: 

I was a church planter at one time and felt impressed 
by the Lord to send $50 to some missionaries. 
When I shared with my wife what had been laid on
my heart, we took a look at our checkbook and found
$54 in our balance. Not much room for error there.

She said, "Honey, I wasn't raised quite like you, but
I trust you and have faith in your stewardship
commitments. Let's do it." So I wrote the check and
sent it to the Carters in Arizona, who were
ministering to Native Americans in a small
reservation village. Even though I knew it had been
the right thing to do, I did begin to wonder how we
were going to manage. 

The next day I went to the post office, and amazed
I picked up a letter from a student at Asbury
Theological Seminary who had been one of my
roommates at college. The letter read, "I just had
you and Linda on my heart and felt impressed to
write you. I'm enclosing a check for you, knowing
you will probably put it in the offering plate next
Sunday, but it is not for your church. It is for you." 
Fifty bucks! 

When the check we sent arrived in Arizona, Doug
Carter called immediately. "Stan, your check just
arrived. What timing! We had an appointment with
the doctor for our daughter, Angie, but we had no
money to pay the bill. I was just about to make the
dreaded phone call to tell the doctor, but I paused
to look at the mail first, and there it was. The Lord
was right on schedule, wasn't he?" 

How could God touch a poor church planter on the
shoulder and say, "Send $50 to missionaries in
Arizona," even though he knew the church planter
needed it, and at the same time touch a student at
Asbury Theological Seminary on the shoulder and
say to him, "Send $50 to the Tolers"? A cynical
person might ask, "Why didn't God just impress the
Asbury student to send his $50 directly to the
missionaries in Arizona?" 

To the first question I say, that's how God works.
To the second I suggest that God wanted to pour
out his blessings on three families instead of two. 

-- Source: Leadership, Fall 1998
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"Call to me and I will answer you, 
and will tell you great and hidden things which
you have not known."
-- Jeremiah 33:3 (RSV)

"Bring the full tithes into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house;
and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and
pour down for you an overflowing blessing."
-- Malachi 3:10 (RSV)

"And let our people learn to apply themselves to
good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need,
and not to be unfruitful."
-- Titus 3:14 (RSV)