Each Wednesday, a devotion is posted here, sent via email to our email list and also posted on our Facebook page. If you would like to be part of our email list please contact the church office. In addition, check out past Devotions on our Facebook page.
I often receive feedback that the devotions are rich in content and are complex. Reading devotions whether short and concise or longer and complicated should never be read once quickly. All types of devotions should be read multiple times using contemplation, reflection and pausing. In those spaces of contemplation and reflection we experience the Holy Spirit interacting with us. Sometimes, individuals will reach out and provide their thoughts and reflections on their devotion. My intent has always been to create a dialogue. So read these in the way that best works for you to experience the Holy Spirit and create a dialogue with others in our community.
Wednesday February 19, 2025
Hi St. Andrew's UMC Community ....
Did you know that from July - December 2024 we provided $1000 dollar's worth of gift cards to grocery stores and over 20 bags of food for those in need? Your generosity allows St. Andrews to live the scripture out of helping others. You are a blessing to the community. Today we take time to consider how another person is living out the gospel by giving.
Provide Always
Deuteronomy 15:11 (ESV) - For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
1 John 3:17-18 (ESV) - But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
It is inspiring when I read about those who purposefully and intentionally help others through the lens of not just abundance but due to a calling by God. I am thankful for St. Andrew’s UMC for their willingness to put dollars, time and effort to helping the disadvantaged. Even this morning, we received a call from someone who needs help with food that doesn’t have a stove, just a microwave. And due to this church’s generosity, we are able to help.
Adenah Bayoh (https://adenahbayoh.com/adenah-bayoh/) is another person who helps intentionally. She is New Jersey’s first Black female affordable housing developer and is quoted saying:
Bayoh said developing properties that simply "occupy space" isn't her goal. “But really building buildings that solve generational issues. That solve problems for communities that we talk about all of the time. I'm not interested in building anything that is not impactful,” Bayoh said. (from: https://gothamist.com/news/meet-adenah-bayoh-new-jerseys-first-black-female-affordable-housing-developer).
We are called in both the Hebrew Scritpures and the New Testament to love and be generous. Which doesn’t sound difficult right? However, we are called to love all and be generously generous. That is more difficult to love all and to be overly generous. In fact it doesn’t make sense and just about any pastor or therapist will say things like: you need to care for yourself, you can’t be co-dependent, you can’t self-sacrifice, you don’t have to give things up to give, etc.
We are called to go above and beyond an Adenah does that. Yes, she is financially secure now and yet she continues to give in ways that provide for those in need. However in 2008 financial ruin lurked behind her and she:
“I said to myself … this can either be the defining moment of my young life. This can either make me or break me. The choice is mine,” Bayoh said. “ And what I did was I rolled up my sleeves, and I started fighting the banks,” she said. (https://gothamist.com/news/meet-adenah-bayoh-new-jerseys-first-black-female-affordable-housing-developer). God calls us to never give up regardless of the odds. When do you give up loving all and helping others? Is it when things are too touch for you?
She continues to live out love and generosity with her newest venture.
Next year, 46-year-old Bayoh plans to begin moving families into a building she’s constructing on Newark's South Side, where she grew up. Once finished, the five-story building will contain 40-units, which will all be priced affordably for low- and moderate-income families. Five of the units will also be set aside for recently homeless families in need of transitional housing while they get back on their feet, Bayoh said.
But the building isn’t just providing housing. Each unit will have free Wi-Fi and families will be given a computer when they move in, Bayoh told Gothamist. And the children living in the building will also have access to free on-site after-school tutoring. Bayoh said she has made these additional services possible by forging partnerships with community organizations, like the Newark YMCA. (https://gothamist.com/news/meet-adenah-bayoh-new-jerseys-first-black-female-affordable-housing-developer)
Where do you live out love for all and generous generosity? Where do you get stuck in loving all – even those that make it impossible to be loved? Where do you get stuck in generously giving? How would your life be transformed if you loved all and practiced generously giving?
Dear God, help me to live in loving ways and practice generous generosity. Help me to not let my greed and pride win but let Your love overtake me and let me actions and thoughts flow from Your love. Amen.
(image from: https://adenahbayoh.com/adenah-bayoh/)
by Rev David Piltz
