WOMAN WHO OFFERED PRECIOUS OINTMENT

There's a principle found throughout the Scriptures concerning giving, it says:

When you give, you gain what you cannot buy with your money.

In Mark 14:3-9, a woman gave Jesus a gift of precious ointment.

There were some present who called her gift a "waste."

They said the ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor.

Jesus rebuked their hypocrisy, for gifts given from the heart are always accepted by the Lord.

This woman gave Jesus something precious, her best gift, the best she could do. When you give to the church, is your gift merely a token gift or is it, a generous gift, coming from your heart filled with love?

Notice what else Jesus said about this woman's gift: "I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

She couldn't buy that kind of testimony for any amount of money; but giving obtained it for her.

Your giving does not stop when you put a check in your Stewardship envelope.

Your giving continues to live on as a testimony to God's presence.

Your money is transformed into the service of Orthodoxy on the parish, Archdiocesan, Metropolis and Patriarchal level.

You can't put a price on that.

You cannot buy an eternal soul, but through giving you can make eternity possible for your soul, your family's and for others.

You cannot buy the blessings of God, but through giving you can release God's blessing through the Church.

Are you giving in the spirit of the woman who anointed Jesus with the costly ointment?

Have you increased your Stewardship Commitment for 2013 over 2012's?

If you haven't maybe you should reconsider?

Does your giving reflect generosity of spirit, which provides blessings that "money cannot buy."

Is your Stewardship Commitment for 2006 a loving gift, a generous gift, a gift coming from your heart?

Let's all join hearts and hands this year in the Body of Christ and give our best to the work of the Lord for 2013. May the Lord say about you: he has given his best, she has given her best.