Magnanimity

Hello all! This is Maisha typing for her Dad again:
He says, "For various reasons, I have been thinking a lot about generous people. I guess that is because so many of you have been so generous to me and my family and to others in general. I realize that this generosity is in stark contrast to much of the world.
Generosity is defined as unselfishness, especially in the area of giving of your money or time. When you look up generosity in the dictionary there is a synonym for this word and it is, "magnanimity" (that is a mouth full :-) which means largeness and open handedness and being extremely liberal and generous of spirit.
The idea of living with an open hand is such a godly thing because it symbolizes the person that really doesn't hold onto the things that they are blessed with. The generous person understands that all good things come from God, and that everything belongs to God anyway. I understand this by first hand experience because when you've come to the end of yourself, as I have with this whole ordeal...and so many of us have experienced this as well...we realize that the truth is that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At the end, we are stripped of everything. So, since nothing really belongs to us anyway, we are just stewards of what belongs to God. It is right and good to live with an open hand...one that freely gives of what has been given to us. In so doing, our life becomes a lot bigger...it has a ripple effect. It multiplies itself and it touches and encourages and helps so many lives. What I realize is that if you live from that place of generosity, you receive generosity.
We often times act as if we have a right to be selfish and this is not right. You look at the example of Jesus who, unlike us and being God, actually had rights; however, He put those rights aside for our benefit. The scriptures teach us that Jesus, even though He was God, didn't consider His being God something to be held onto.
It says in Philippians 2, "Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

I found the following scripture to be so applicable to our church:
"Now I want to tell you, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done for the churches in Macedonia [or Hope Chapel, Kihei or anywhere in the world!] Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more. And they did it of their own free will..."
2 Corinthians 8: 1-3

We love you! Kit, Shelly and Family