Now, there are two important points to be considered before giving to charity :-

1) The Bible says "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as hypocrites do in synagogues and in streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6:1, 4)

This means that you must give in secret and not before men or to be seen of people. If you are seen by people, then you already recieve your reward from people. If you are not seen by people, then Almighty God who sees you shall reward you in secret. It is reward from God that you must seek for and not reward from people. Therefore, let your giving be unknown to others.

2) The Bible says "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." (II Corinthians 9:6, 7)

This means that if you give less, you will recieve less and if you give more you will recieve more. And, you will be appreciated by God, if you give happily. If you give unhappily and complainingly, then it is better you don't give at all for you shall receive nothing in return.

The Bible was written by God-chosen men and contains words of Almighty God Himself. Therefore, these words never fail. God himself is 100% guarantee for these words.

So, my dear friend, if you do not give due importance to charity then you lose chances of receiving above mentioned blessings which God has in store for you.

The choice is yours.....

Pardon me if I have hit you hard at some places. The Bible says "Faithful are wounds of a friend; but kisses of an enemy are deceitful." (Proverbs 27:6). And also, that "He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with tongue."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C.J.L.J.Rao is Owner of a small internet business online which provides netizens with resources for building income on web. Send me email - cjljrao@yahoo.com Visit My Website - http://earningcashonline.cjb.net

Learning to be content does not mean that we can’t seek to improve our current situation. It does mean that we must have balance as we seek to improve. We shouldn’t be so focused on improvement that we fail to thank God for our current blessing(s). Lacking proper balance, our pursuit to improve may lead us to be ungrateful for our current blessing(s) from God. This would be a great mistake on our part as Christians.

Needless to say, learning to be content places a demand on our faith. Faith is key to a successful journey with Jesus Christ. Faith will allow us to handle any evil (Ephesians 6:16). We have merely to step out on faith and trust God. All of us should pray for God to increase our faith, so that we can be content even as Paul was content.

Finally, re-read Philippians 4:10-20. Next ask yourself, “In my current situation, am I content as Paul was content?” If not, then ask, “Can I learn to be content as Paul was content?”

Copyright 2002, Stanley T. Crawford, is editor of, “People of Bible,” and webmaster of http://www.whatismyname.com. All Rights Reserved. mailto:scrawford@whatismyname.com