Time, Treasures & Talents

Hi Girls :)

If you were in my small group last Friday (that means you, Michaela, Chelsea, Amy & Lynette!) you might remember we talked about Time, Treasures & Talents.

For those of you who don't know, two weeks ago at church, Mark (or Mr Bonnici) told us about something he called "A Month of Commitment" for November. Basically, he wants us to increase our giving to the church. This doesn't just mean money.


Time is to do with how we spend time with non Christians, or people who are less fortunate than us.

Treasures is to do with what we value - money and possessions.

Talents is to do with what we participate and get involved in, and how we use our gifts.


Mark challenged every one of us to increase our giving in these 3 areas.



I read a lot of blogs online in my spare time. One of them is a book club started by two Christian women Angie and Jessica. It's called Bloom.

Everyone in the book club is reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It's a book about being "overwhelmed by a relentless God" and how we can aspire to love others the way God loves us.

The latest chapter we are up to, Chapter 7, is all about loving others less fortunate than us.
(If you want to watch the video where they talk about Chapter 7, you can find it here.)

Angie (seriously love her) talks about Time, and how often we only manage to "squeeze God in" when we find a spare moment. This is so true for me. I have so much going on (no excuse, really) that I often only pray & read my bible at night right before I go to sleep. Someone once said to me, imagine that God was your husband and that was the only time you spent talking with him. What a sad relationship that would be if the only time we communicated was when we were in bed, half asleep! Yet that is what I - and I think we - deem to be acceptable to God.


I could type out the whole of Chapter 7 here, because I think it is so relevant, but I'll stick to a few quotes.

About halfway through the chapter, Francis Chan asks "How would my life change if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ - the person driving painfully slow in front of me (ha! I am terrible at this!!), the checker at the grocery store who seems more interested in chatting that ringing up my items, the member of my own family with whom I can't seem to have a conversation and not get annoyed?"

I think this is so aimed right at us. I know I get frustrated when my plan doesn't work- when I'm running late because of the slow driver in front of me, or the chatty girl at the shops, or when my mum is driving me nuts nagging about something.

The Bible (in Matthew) says the greatest commandment of all is to love. To love the Lord, and to love your neighbour as yourself. Basically, God is telling us that by loving others (even those we don't want to love!) we love Him.

In the same chapter of Matthew, the disciples are confused why Jesus goes off at them for not offerring him food when he was hungry or water when he was thirsty. They tell him, we've never seen you ask for things like that! Jesus tells them that whatever they've done for anyone else, they have done for him (Matt. 25:40)

Francis Chan says "Jesus is saying we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are sufferring. He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ Himself. Ask yourself this: If you actually saw Jesus starving, what would you do for Him?"

I think that is so powerful, and so convicting. We should treat everyone they way we would treat Jesus if he was walking down the street next to us - but we don't.



When I was in America in April, Claryse & I caught a bus to the shops a few blocks away from Disneyland. We had dinner first, but as we were leaving the restaurant, we noticed it had gotten really dark. We decided to catch the bus back to the hotel and forget about shopping. Once we finally found the bus stop, we realised we had just missed the bus and a lady sitting under the bus shelter told us that the next one wouldn't come for fifteen minutes. Seeing as we had so long to wait, I struck up a conversation with the lady. After a while she asked us to mind her bags while she went to the bathroom, and Claryse whispered to me "You know she's homeless, don't you?"

I had no idea. The fact that she was shouldn't have changed my attitude towards her.
But it did. Fear crept its way inside me and I started freaking out. I was sure she was going to come back with a knife or a gun or something and hurt us. I was praying like crazy. If I remember right, I'm pretty sure I said "God, I don't want to die a few metres away from Disneyland!!!"

The whole thing was bizarre. Of course she didn't hurt us. In fact, she helped us figure out which bus station to get off at. But just that little bit of information - that she was homeless - changed my whole view towards her. I wanted to get as far away from her as possible, when in fact Jesus says these are the very people we should be approaching!


Since we were stranded and couldn't really escape, Claryse & I ended up initiating a conversation with her about God, and it turns out she had a lot of knowledge, and believed in God and Heaven and the Bible. Things I never would have known if I'd just run off like my fear told me too.

Now, I'm not saying go look for some homeless people in her neighbourhood and start evangelising. I think your parents would kill me if I did. But, I didn't go looking for this homeless woman to talk to. God just presented her to me; put her in my path, and I couldn't possibly avoid it. Nor should I want to.

Our love is shown by how we live our lives. The Bible says we should love with actions, and in truth. Sometimes that's scary. It takes us out of our comfort zones. But don't you think that being crucified was uncomfortable for Jesus? If he willingly, knowingly did that for us, don't you think it's the least we can do to make the effort to sacrifice some of our time, our treasures and our talents to give him glory?

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