Author: Betsy

Magic 8 Ball

Posted on by Betsy

False.

No.

True.

Yes.

These were the last four words of a New York Times game I play called Connections. The game starts with 16 words, and the challenge is to find four sets of four words that are connected somehow. I usually get the first two sets pretty easily but often struggle with the third. Obviously if you solve the third set, the last set is revealed. So imagine my joy when not only did I get down to the last set, but I actually knew what the connection was!! Look again at the list. Obviously the connection is “Magic 8 Ball answers.” Right?

Nope. These are binary question options. Binary question are closed-ended questions that restrict the possible answers to two distinct, often opposing choices. I obviously spent too much time in my childhood playing Magic 8 Ball.

Do we ever use God like a Magic 8 Ball, shaking him up and turning him over to see what the answer is? Have you ever prayed about something and then flipped your Bible open and demanded the answer be on the page where it falls? Are you guilty of turning God back over again in hopes of getting a new/better/different/more acceptable answer to your problem? I think a lot of us are guilty of this. When a decision or issue confronts us, we turn to me-directed rather than God-directed solutions. I recently had to have a minor surgery that I was not looking forward to. I was sure I didn’t have the time for a two-week recovery. In the meantime, a church member has been actively dying for months now. I reasoned that if I ended up having to do the funeral on or near surgery day, that was God’s way of telling me not to have the surgery. Can you believe such nonsense? By the way, I had the surgery, and the church member is still chugging along. Foolish me! But how easy it is to slip into these kind of negotiations with ourselves.

God desires to have a deep relationship with him where we don’t have to guess about his purpose for our lives. He provides us with the Scriptures for transformation, not random information. He overrides our desire to know outcomes with an invitation to simply trust that he knows the outcome and will be with us

Proverbs 3 (New International Version)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Are you desperately trying to figure something out? Are you negotiating or testing God to skew the answer to your liking? You can trust him to show you the way. When we read Scripture and pray with submissive hearts, God is revealed. Try it and see.

Free Bird by Kathy Schumacher

Sheer Silliness

Posted on by Betsy

Isn’t it amazing how many experts there are in the world today? Gosh, all you have to do is open TikTok, X, or Facebook and voila, there they are. Everyone now has a PHD in something, it seems. You can find all kinds of nutritional, medical, and health advice. Not to mention all the online science experts who pontificate their opinions on vaccines, weather, climate change, etc. Political, financial, and global experts abound and have lots of great information to share on these platforms.

I hope you are reading the sarcasm in my tone. Based on what I am seeing, this new faux brand of PHD must stand for Pretty Horrible Disinformation. A friend recently told me that the Canadian wildfires were deliberately set by an all-female firefighter crew. She knew that because she saw it on TikTok. According to the Pew Research Center, about 52% of adults who use TikTok get all of their news there. TikTok! Lord, have mercy.

Paul wrote about the sheer silliness of the (good) news to those who were rejecting it. Christ dying on the cross for the salvation of the world was unacceptable to the supposedly wise people. God used their preconceived ideas to turn their conventional wisdom upside down and the so-called experts in the Jewish and Greek communities were exposed as fake news readers.

1 Corinthians 1 (The Message)

18-21 The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,

I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I’ll expose so-called experts as shams.

So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered stupid—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

Don’t look to the pulpit here for “preaching.” What Paul is saying is that we are all called to share the wisdom of God in our testimony. We are all responsible for sharing the truth of Christ-crucified with everyone we meet. You are the news anchor of the Good News and are meant to be broadcasting it every night. You, my friend, are the preacher, called to bring others into the only way of salvation: Jesus Christ.

22-25 While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so cheap, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.”

So let us go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified to the world. People will accuse us of being absurd. But human wisdom is nothing compared to what we know to be true about the Resurrection. In God’s wisdom, we will find strength to combat the silliness of the world. Preach on, my friends!

Erin’s Might by Michelle Robertson

Flawed Clay

Posted on by Betsy

There is a potter in Wanchese, N.C. named Bonnie who has magical hands. I have visited her shop many times, from all the way back to when we used to come here from Georgia for vacation. I purchased a small plate and matching wine cup in a pattern she called “Outer Banks” that featured sea oats and dune grass. I used it in my office as a personal communion set for when I was serving communion at small events such as end-of-year Bible Study celebrations, staff communions, and women’s retreats. The senior pastor I served with liked it so much, he had me commission her to make six sets for the church.

One year when we were visiting, Bonnie had the showroom door open to the shop area where she was throwing clay onto her spinning wheel as she talked about how to make pots and such. My daughters were fascinated. It was amazing to see an unattractive lump of sticky dirt be transformed into an elegant and useful fruit bowl.

Her work always made me think of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. You may be familiar with this passage, as it gives us a familiar analogy of God being the potter and people being the clay.

Jeremiah 18 (Common English Bible)

18 Jeremiah received the Lord’s word: 2 Go down to the potter’s house, and I’ll give you instructions about what to do there. 3 So I went down to the potter’s house; he was working on the potter’s wheel. 4 But the piece he was making was flawed while still in his hands, so the potter started on another, as seemed best to him.

Let’s pause there to examine the beauty of that moment. The potter was on the wheel, working with what seemed to be uncooperative clay. The piece was flawed, so the potter took action. He remade the piece while it was still in his hands. Indeed, as long as we remain in God’s hands, he is able to remake us and help us start over.

5 Then the Lord’s word came to me: 6 House of Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter, declares the Lord? Like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine, house of Israel! 7 At any time I may announce that I will dig up, pull down, and destroy a nation or kingdom; 8 but if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I’ll relent and not carry out the harm I intended for it. 9 At the same time, I may announce that I will build and plant a nation or kingdom;10 but if that nation displeases and disobeys me, then I’ll relent and not carry out the good I intended for it. 11 Now say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem: This is what the Lord says: I am a potter preparing a disaster for you; I’m working out a plan against you. So each one of you, turn from your evil ways; reform your ways and your actions.

In this section, we see that God is able to both judge and show mercy. He makes it very clear that the flaws and marring of the people that they brought on due to their apostasy were completely their choice. So is the next step: It is up to them to return or get destroyed. The potter has the opportunity to re-mould the clay or throw it away all together. He promises to relent from bringing down harm if they will stop doing evil and obey him. It is their choice.

It is our choice as well. God desires to make us into a people of courage, beauty, refinement, and blessing. We can be these things if we allow him to mould us into righteousness. As the old hymn goes, we can do this by waiting, yielding, and staying still long enough for God to shape us into the people were are meant to be.

Have Thine own way, Lord,
  Have Thine own way;
Thou art the Potter,
  I am the clay.
Mould me and make me
  After Thy will,
While I am waiting,
  Yielded and still. (United Methodist Hymnal #382)

Are you ready to allow God to have his own way with your life?

Wanchese Pottery Chalice and Paten

Estimated Costs

Posted on by Betsy

One of my daughters is building an addition to her house. The twins are finally old enough to separate, and Nana and Papa need a guest room that doesn’t involve stepping on Legos and maneuvering around a large kitchen play set and train table to get to their suitcases when they visit. We all sat down happily and talked with the builder about the specifics of this two-story addition. After drawings were completed, costs were estimated and then re-estimated, materials were ordered, and a very tricky electrical box was approved by the city to be moved, we are almost finished. The foundation was poured months ago and we just can’t wait for the result. No more sleeping in the play room!

I can’t imagine taking on even a small building project like this one without a lot of pre-planning, can you? I mean, how could you even know if the vision for more space was even possible without all of the measurements and calculations? Every good project begins with a serious sit down where costs are estimated.

Jesus used this same analogy when he talked to his large crowd of followers about calculating the cost of following him. You may be surprised at some of the language he used:

Luke 14 (Common English Bible)

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. Turning to them, he said, 26 “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, spouse and children, and brothers and sisters—yes, even one’s own life—cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever doesn’t carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Jesus was clear that everyone is invited to accept God’s invitation to come to him. But becoming a disciple of Jesus involved a different cost. Jesus had built his legacy and his ministry on redefining love and was audacious enough to suggest the being a disciple meant hating your former life. You couldn’t have allegiance to anything before your allegiance to Christ if you were willing to become his student-learner.

Every single hearer of this would have immediately understood the image of carrying your own cross. They had witnessed multiple crucifixions and watched wretched, beaten down criminals dragging their crosses to their crucifixions. Carrying your cross leads to humiliation, pain, and death. Before a man was hung on his cross, a cross was hung on him.

28 “If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when you have laid the foundation but couldn’t finish the tower, all who see it will begin to belittle you. 30 They will say, ‘Here’s the person who began construction and couldn’t complete it!’ 31 Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand soldiers could go up against the twenty thousand coming against him? 32 And if he didn’t think he could win, he would send a representative to discuss terms of peace while his enemy was still a long way off. 33 In the same way, none of you who are unwilling to give up all of your possessions can be my disciple.

Jesus’ stern words here leave no room for interpretation. Each of us bears a different cross but bear it we must. And all of us must abandon our personal seeking and striving for whatever had charmed us previously in order to walk this way with Jesus. Jesus instructs us to sit down and calculate the costs.

Remember that as he said these words, he was walking to Jerusalem toward his crucifixion. The crowd thought he was walking toward his new empire, but he knew the way he was going and the cost he would pay there.

The building of Christ’s kingdom is the work of Christ’s disciples. And like every building project, the cost usually comes in higher than originally anticipated. Jesus is calling! What price are you willing to pay?

New View

Table Manners

Posted on by Betsy

My grandson recently tried out for a part in the school musical “Willy Wonka.” Immediately we all knew he was too tall to be an Oompa-Loompa, so he read for the lead parts of Willy and one of the Grandfathers. He did well enough to get a call-back after the first audition, and finally the cast list came out. He will be playing the part of a squirrel. Who knew there was a squirrel in that play? I’m assuming that the squirrel is a non-speaking part. I asked my daughter if he was disappointed and she responded that he was very happy to be cast in a part. They had twice as many kids try out as they had parts and he was pleased to be included. Please forgive my Nana-bragging, but I was thrilled with his response. This kind of humility serves kids well as they grow up. While some need to constantly be pushing to the front and be the center of attention, those who have a broader view of the joy of just being part of a team or company will have an easier go of things.

Our Scripture today counsels the same thing. Jesus tells a parable about people who have been invited to attend a banquet. He noticed some were filled with a feeling of self-importance and pushed their way to the front.

Luke 17 (The Message)

7-9 He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Embarrassed, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.

10-11 “When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around all high and mighty, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

There is something beautiful about the way The Message frames this advice. “If you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” We are all image-bearers of One who is way more important than we will ever be. When we reflect his image to the world, and not our own over-inflated egotism, the world can see that humble Shepherd in us. The fruit of this humility is exhibited though our generosity, our service to others who are sitting way at the low end of the table, our willingness to put someone else’s needs before our own, and our quiet acceptance of playing the squirrel in the school play. Be yourself, even if it is a non-speaking part.

12-14 Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”

Who is Jesus telling you to invite to your table today? Who can you bless with a seat of importance? Which misfits from the wrong side of the tracks need your kindness and attention? Invite them. God will return that favor on the Last Day.

Come to the Table by Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church

A True Labor Day

Posted on by Betsy

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Labor Day “is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.” We celebrate this day every first Monday of September by ceasing our work and taking time to appreciate industry, ingenuity, and the ability to provide economic support for our families and communities through our labor.

For those of us who live and work on the Outer Banks, Labor Day signals a transition from the hectic summer season to the slower paced life of OBX Fall. Don’t tell our visitors, but fall is at the absolute best time to visit the Outer Banks. Crowds are way down, traffic is much lighter, and the restaurants are still open for business. It is the closest to heaven on earth one can experience if you ask me.

Labor Day always makes me think of Jesus’ beautiful words about resting from our work:

Matthew 11 (New King James Version)

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am  gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

This beautiful invitation is especially poignant today as we hit the pause button on our usual obligations. We are offered the opportunity to cease from our work and set down all of our burdens, especially those that have been put upon us. Traditional thinking about yokes indicated a level of obligation to God’s law. But Jesus invites us to yoke ourselves to him like a young ox yoked to a strong bull ox. Our burdens are made lighter because he bears them with us in his gentle and humble way.

Are you burdened and heavy laden? Do you need rest not just from work but for your soul today? Yoke yourself to Jesus. His yoke is easy and light.

American Pie by Becca Ziegler

A Man of His Word

Posted on by Betsy

I was blessed to be raised by two wonderful human beings. They taught me by example to be fair, honest, hardworking, and trustworthy. My father was a true man of his word. When he made a commitment, he kept it, even when it wasn’t easy or convenient. Dad was a Barbershop Chorus singer and an active Mason. He poured hours of time into both those activities, never missing a rehearsal or a meeting unless he was very sick. On the night he died, he had gone to chorus practice and came home with a headache, which was the first symptom of the brain aneurism that took his life. All of his friends from both his lodge and his chorus talked about him being a “man of his word.” I knew this to be true as his daughter. He never made a promise to me that he didn’t keep, and if he felt he couldn’t do something, he never promised that he would.

I thought about my Dad today as I was reading Ezekiel 37, the famous “dry bones gonna rise again” passage. Ezekiel was the Southern Kingdom of Judah’s prophet during the exile in Babylonia and was told by God to prophesy to the Jewish refugees about the future of their nation. God showed him a vision of a valley filled with dry dead bones as far as the eye could see. God asked Ezekiel if he thought the bones could live, and Ezekiel replied, “Oh God, only you know.”

There are three things to take away from his response. First, Ezekiel had no hope in the bones, but great hope in God. Second, he certainly would never presume to know that God was planning to do with the bones. And third, while he didn’t know, he was confident that God knew.

This is a beautiful reminder to us when our hope has dried out. When we feel helpless and find ourselves at a loss for what to do next, when some aspect of our joy has flamed out and we can’t reignite the spark anymore, and when something has truly died in us, that is when we need to remember that God can bring anything back to life by simply saying the word. Or in our case, the Word: The Word that was with God in the beginning, the Word that was God, the Word we call Jesus.

Then God told Ezekiel to command the winds to breathe new life into the bones by the power of the Spirit. When Ezekiel did this, the bones knit themselves together and formed muscle and sinew until they stood on their feet as one huge living army.

Take a moment now to read the end of this passage. It is a lovely statement of how God always keeps his promises.

Ezekiel 37 (New Revised Standard Version)

11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people.14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”

The bones that were the people of Israel were brought back to life even after all the destruction their apostasy brought on their heads. They indeed would return as one nation to Jerusalem and would rebuild the Temple in due time.

God always keeps his promises! He is a man of his word, and in his word is full of the power to heal, revive, and breathe new life. Do you need God’s life-giving intervention today? Call on his Spirit.

Rise Again by Becca Ziegler

Willful Hearts

Posted on by Betsy

Many years ago when my kids were little, we vacationed here on the Outer Banks and spent most of our days at the beach. I remember a day when after getting the umbrella up, the chairs laid out and the towels and sand toys distributed, I left to go on my usual solo walk. About a mile out I saw a dolphin’s body that had washed ashore which was a very upsetting sight. When I returned, I mentioned it to my husband. Immediately my oldest asked to go see it. Knowing how disturbing this would be to her little eyes, I told her no. She returned to playing in the sand behind our chairs in the shade of the umbrella, and my husband and I returned to our books. About ten minutes later, I realized she was gone. Sure enough, she had decided to walk down the beach to see the dolphin for herself, regardless of my answer. It was possibly the most terrifying five minutes of my life as we frantically searched the beach until we found her. I asked her what she was doing, walking away like that, and she retorted that she hadn’t liked my answer, so she decided to go find the dolphin anyway. Kids!

And yet we often treat God the same way. We don’t like his answers, so we stubbornly charge off on our own to satisfy our needs. Even though in our minds we know that God provides everything good for us, we still follow our own willful hearts and ignore his advice and warnings.

Psalm 81 addresses this problem.

Psalm 81 (Common English Bible)

I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up from Egypt’s land.
    Open your mouth wide—I will fill it up!

11 But my people wouldn’t listen to my voice.
    Israel simply wasn’t agreeable toward me.
12 So I sent them off to follow their willful hearts;
    they followed their own advice.
13 How I wish my people would listen to me!
    How I wish Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would subdue their enemies in a second;
    I would turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would grovel before me,
    and their doom would last forever!
16 But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”

This psalm was written by Asaph for a festal event such as the Feast of Tabernacles where the wilderness journey was recounted and a reading of the Law occurred. This section tells the story of Israel’s stubborn refusal to hear and obey that Law, and the consequences of that behavior. Clearly God allowed them to walk away to pursue their own agendas, knowing that it was the only way they would learn the bitter reality of disobedience.

God longs to satisfy us with honey from the rock if only we would listen to his counsel. What is God telling you today? Is he telling you to stop something? Start something? Come back to him?

Don’t walk away anymore. It will only lead to heartache. Open your mouth wide and God will fill it with goodness.

Walk in God’s Ways by Kathy Schumacher

Set Yourself Free

Posted on by Betsy

A woman who had come for counseling struggled to get her truth out. This often happens in counseling. People fear condemnation and judgment, but more so, they are terrified to hear themselves speak the truth out loud. Truth is like squirting an entire tube of toothpaste onto a plate. Once it is all out, it is impossible to get back into the tube. Finally, as she stumbled and hesitated, I reminded her that I once did five years of jail ministry and thus I am impervious to shocking confessions. Truly, the things that I heard in that setting will rank as some of the most disconcerting moments of my entire ministry. Clergy visitation in prison is a constitutional right, and clergy who take on this task are simply heeding the words of Scripture that tell us to attend to those in prison. But it is far from easy and it can leave a mark.

I kind of fell into it backwards: A church member’s teenage son had shot a friend and killed him in their home. She called me in a panic and asked me to see him in the jail. I visited once a week for the next five years, and the Christian guards started asking me to see other inmates who had requested a clergy visit. A stream of offenders flowed in and out of the clergy room every week, and I listened, counseled, read Scripture, cried, and prayed for these lost souls. One inmate confessed a crime so heinous, it left a deep wound in my soul that I can never forget. But obedience to God’s directive to be his representative in a black clergy shirt week after week left me no choice. I met with him the following week and continued our visits until he was transferred to a state facility.

Today’s Scripture from Hebrews is one of the many places we are told to remember the prisoners. I love how the Scripture begins with the injunction to keep loving each other like family. Can you love an inmate like a brother? Can you love a stranger like family? How about someone who has brought you pain?

Hebrews 13 (Common English Bible)

13 Keep loving each other like family. 2 Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it. 3 Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place. 4 Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery.5 Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. 6 This is why we can confidently say,

The Lord is my helper,
    and I won’t be afraid.
What can people do to me?

7 Remember your leaders who spoke God’s word to you. Imitate their faith as you consider the way their lives turned out. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Ironically, the inmates I visited and the woman in my counseling office had something in common: They were all prisoners. She was imprisoned by her sin and the suffocating box she had trapped herself into. She was as chained as anyone I saw in the jail, and yet the key to her liberation was just as easy to find as it was for the inmates. True confession, deep honesty with yourself and with God, a determination to turn away from the behavior, and a willingness to make reparation to the person you have hurt will lead you to your freedom.

In all of this, the Lord is our helper. There is no need to be afraid. Jesus’ promise to never leave or abandon us means that there is nothing we can do to separate ourselves from his forgiveness and grace.

Are you in a jail of your own making? You know the way out. Set yourself free.

Freedom

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Posted on by Betsy

I am watching seagulls vie for position on my neighbor’s dock pilings this morning. One barely gets settled when another one flies in aggressively and knocks the first off his pins. I think the writers of the movie Finding Nemo captured the seagull personality perfectly when they showed them selfishly hoarding their fish while yelling, “Mine! Mine! Mine!” These creatures are single minded, self-centered, and the epitome of greed. One might even say that they are bird-brained.

Today’s Scripture is a beautiful parable on greed from the Gospel according to Luke. Jesus tells a story about a greedy farmer that has a wonderful punchline.

Luke 12 (The Message)

13 Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”

14 He replied, “Mister, what makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?”

15 Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”

16-19 Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’

20 “Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’

21 “That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

How about you? Are you filling your barn with selfishness? Do you have so much stuff that you need extra storage spaces to contain it? When was the last time you wore that coat/used that expensive kitchen appliance/set the table with that fancy china? Do you look at a world in need and think “Mine! Mine! Mine!”?

Don’t be a bird-brain. Treasures stored up on earth spoil and decay. Fill your barn with God and give away all that you can. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot. Life is defined by being as generous to others as God has been to you.

Proverbs 11 (Common English Bible)

Those who give generously receive more,
    but those who are stingy with what is appropriate will grow needy.
25 Generous persons will prosper;
    those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

Birds of a Feather