{"id":641,"date":"2016-08-15T22:59:52","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T03:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/generosity\/"},"modified":"2016-08-15T22:59:52","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T03:59:52","slug":"generosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/generosity\/","title":{"rendered":"Generosity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Henry Ford<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Auto maker Henry Ford was vacationing in Ireland when he was asked to contribute toward a new orphanage. Ford wrote a check for two thousand pounds, which made headlines in the local newspaper. But the paper inadvertently reported the gift as twenty thousand pounds. The director of the orphanage apologized to Ford. \u201cI\u2019ll phone the editor straight away and tell him to correct the mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cThere\u2019s no need for that,\u201d Ford replied, and promptly wrote a check for the additional eighteen thousand pounds.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Today in the Word, December 16, 1995, p. 23.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Resource<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; C. Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 192<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Alexander the Great<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The story is told that one day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim upon the ruler, no right even to lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins. A courtier was astonished at his generosity and commented, \u201cSir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar\u2019s need. Why give him gold?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Alexander responded in royal fashion, \u201cCopper coins would suit the beggar\u2019s need, but gold coins suit Alexander\u2019s giving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Source unknown<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Mazatec Indians<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>For the past forty years Eunice Pike has worked with the Mazatec Indians in Southwestern Mexico. During this time she has discovered some interesting things about these beautiful people. For instance, the people seldom wish someone well. Not only that, they are hesitant to teach one another or to share the gospel with each other. If asked, \u201cWho taught you to bake bread?\u201d the village baker answers, \u201cI just know,\u201d meaning he has acquired the knowledge without anyone\u2019s help. Eunice says this odd behavior stems from the Indian\u2019s concept of \u201climited good.\u201d They believe there is only so much good, so much knowledge, so much love to go around. To teach another means you might drain yourself of knowledge. To love a second child means you have to love the first child less. To wish someone well\u2014\u201cHave a good day\u201d\u2014means you have just given away some of your own happiness, which cannot be reacquired.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Bernie May, \u201cLearning to Trust,\u201d Multnomah Press, 1985<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><b>Paderewski<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>There were once two young men working their way through Leland Stanford University. Their funds got desperately low, and the idea came to one of them to engage Paderewski for a piano recital and devote the profits to their board and tuition. The great pianist\u2019s manager asked for a guarantee of two thousand dollars. The students, undaunted, proceeded to stage the concert. They worked hard, only to find that the concert had raised only sixteen hundred dollars. After the concert, the students sought the great artist and told him of their efforts and results. They gave him the entire sixteen hundred dollars, and accompanied it with a promissory note for four hundred dollars, explaining that they would earn the amount at the earliest possible moment and send the money to him.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cNo,\u201d replied Paderewski, \u201cthat won\u2019t do.\u201d Then tearing the note to shreds, he returned the money and said to them: \u201cNow, take out of this sixteen hundred dollars all of your expenses, and keep for each of you 10 percent of the balance for your work, and let me have the rest.\u201d The years rolled by\u2014years of fortune and destiny. Paderewski had become premier of Poland. The devastating war came, and Paderewski was striving with might and main to feed the starving thousands of his beloved Poland. There was only one man in the world who could help Paderewski and his people. Thousands of tons of food began to come into Poland for distribution by the Polish premier. After the starving people were fed, Paderewski journeyed to Paris to thank Herbert Hoover for the relief sent him.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>\u201cThat\u2019s all right, Mr. Paderewski,\u201d was Mr. Hoover\u2019s reply. \u201cBesides, you don\u2019t remember it, but you helped me once when I was a student at college and I was in a hole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'>Edward W. Bok, Perhaps I Am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Henry Ford Auto maker Henry Ford was vacationing in Ireland when he was asked to contribute toward a new orphanage. Ford wrote a check for two thousand pounds, which made headlines in the local newspaper. But the paper inadvertently reported the gift as twenty thousand pounds. The director of the orphanage apologized to Ford. \u201cI\u2019ll &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/generosity\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Generosity&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}