You can't out-give God!

2:55 p.m. Today's project is to take all of the fixings for taco salad--corn & black bean relish, 4 1/2 pounds seasoned meat, shredded cheese, lettuce, chips and salsa--to Home Fellowship Bible study this evening. Before heading to the discount grocer Winco, actually before leaving for church, I checked my various accounts, and found that I had a budget of $11.00! All I had to get was the meat and a small package of cheese to go with what I had in the house, lettuce, a couple of bananas and a can of evaporated milk, and that would actually be do-able at this store.

Pastor John gave an encouraging message about giving and serving today. Thank goodness that I had just tithed on my teentsy Mary Kay profit this week! Having my own business is a joy for me, whether I make a lot of sales, or spend more time booking and recruiting for the next week(s). Rockin' week or slow, 10% gladly goes to the Lord!

And I think that when we ladies take a meal to share, we have a wonderful opportunity to give goods and time to the Lord also. With that in mind, I steered the cart, with Steve holding on and keeping up comfortably, to the hamburger section to get two 3 lb. chubs of 20% fat hamburger. Not too fatty, not too lean and tasteless. Yes, I am a nitpick about all things edible! I was delighted to see the chubs for $3.18! Wow, I knew I was in the right place!

We went through the check stand and found out how much that meat really cost, $18.00! What? (Oh, seems the meat was $3.18 /lb)!  This was more than my budget, but I needed to fulfill my meal obligation to our group of approximately 20 people. Well, I had to go through with it, because I wasn't going to find hamburger cheaper anywhere. Sadly, I had to dip into my Israel savings, comforted by the fact that I'll have money coming in on Tuesday to replace it.

But still, I felt bad, doomed  to miss out on Israel, and wretched, thinking of Proverbs 23:5,

Will you set your eyes on that
  which is not?
For riches certainly make
  themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle
  toward heaven.

(Not to mention the devil's taunting insults that rained on my head)!

But putting the matter into the here and now, at least I am able to meet my obligation and promise to our Home Fellowship friends. We got home and as of this writing, the spicy meat is simmering away in my huge crock pot, and all of the other ingredients are in containers in the fridge.

Admittedly, I found myself being mopey this afternoon, with the cash register fiasco, a smelly dead rat upstairs which will have to be removed on Monday (caught in one of our rat man's traps in our crawl space), and dwelling in the sin of unbelief, despite the scripture we read this morning, 2 Corinthians 8:1-2:

Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.

What a good example for the rest of us, recorded for history and all time and eternity!

For some reason, before sitting down to type this, I checked my Gmail. Lo and behold, the Lord had caused a total stranger to place a $100 order on my Mary Kay personal website today! Her credit card was already entered; I just needed to include a free gift and process it for home delivery. Done and done, 50% profit!

I am so glad that God never slumbers nor sleeps, but is active in our affairs seven days a week!

Believer, never get tired of believing this fact:

YOU CAN'T OUT-GIVE GOD!