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A very generous person helped almost 200 shoppers at a Pennsylvania Walmart have a brighter Christmas when they paid off all of the store’s layaway items. Store Manager Ryan Kennedy said he got a phone call from a mysterious person who offered to pay off all $46,265.59 worth of layaway items. A few days…

Grandpa Petry's possessions given to me by mom at Christmas. n (Giving & receiving something of great value.) n (These mean nothing without a personal connection.) o Pocket knife. o Pocket tape measure. o High school class pin. o Book from great-Grandpa Petry from 1904 – “The Twelve Apostles”

Select all the text in this box and paste your illustration here... Source: Magazine Name, January 1, 2006

If you give what you don’t need, it isn’t giving. In the latter part of the 17th century, German preacher August H. Francke founded an orphanage to care for the homeless children of Halle. One day when Francke desperately needed funds to carry on his work, a destitute Christian widow came to his door…

MAGNOLIAS..........By Edna Ellison I spent the week before my daughter's June wedding running last-minute trips to the caterer, florist, tuxedo shop, and the church about forty miles away. As happy as I was that Patsy was marrying a good Christian young man, I felt laden with responsibilities as I watched…

Author Tony Campolo tells how he disembarked from a plane only to discover he was scheduled to speak to a group of women at a World Day of Prayer event he had forgotten about. He rushed over to the meeting—held at a large, wealthy church—and arrived exhausted, not knowing what to say to the women gathered…

INSPIRING THEM TO GIVE Outstanding Christian leader and founding pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church identifies five principles for inspiring people to give. ♦ The EDUCATION principle: Both believers and seekers need to be reminded of the practices of biblical money management regularly. • The…

Giving Based on God’s Promises for the Future Gary Fenton told this story at deacons meeting 9/28/2009: His first church was very small—about 25-40 there on Sunday mornings. The offering was on a sign in the front of the church along with the attendance. It was usually about $100, some of which Gary…

John Grisham's newest novel, The Street Lawyer, opens with a homeless man taking several lawyers hostage in their office. Wanting to determine how much each lawyer donated to the poor, the hungry, and the homeless, the man orders one of the lawyers to obtain the others' tax records for the previous year.…

The Macedonian Example 1 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even…

A fellow decided to buy his girl some perfume for Valentine's day, so he went to the cosmetic counter in his girl's favorite store. The prices were horrific! No matter what the sales lady showed him, even the tiniest bottles were beyond his budget. Finally, he asked her: "Can you show me something really…

A Barna Research Report states: Among born again adults, there was a 44 percent rise in those who gave nothing last year. Compared to 1999, the mean per capita donation to churches dropped by 19 percent in 2000. One-third of born again adults said they tithed in 2000, but a comparison of their actual…

During the second week of March, Bob Simmons, the head football coach at Oklahoma State University, could not be found. One rumor placed Simmons on a recruiting trip. Another rumor said that he was having a kidney transplant. Even the Oklahoma State Athletic Director did not know the coach's whereabouts.…

A new study from The Barna Group reveals that just five percent of American adults tithed (i.e., made donations of at least 10 percent of their income to religious institutions or other charities) in 2007. The most likely groups to tithe were evangelicals (24%); conservatives (12%); people who had prayed,…

Select all the text in this box and paste your illustration here... New Study Shows Trends in Tithing and Donating | April 14, 2008 While theologians debate whether or not the practice of tithing - donating ten percent (or more) of one's income to churches and charitable groups - is a biblical responsibility…

Wife to husband on Christmas morning: “You angel! Just what I need to exchange for just what I wanted.” Speaker’s Sourcebook, Eleanor Doan, page 111

Admit it, you’ve been there (maybe even just a few days ago). You receive a gift that makes you grimace — an orange tie with purple stripes, perhaps, or a battery-operated radish peeler. You can’t be impolite and say, “I don’t like it. I want to exchange it.” So what do you say? Fortunately someone has…

“Giving, Pretty God for a Dime” A man and his ten-year-old son were on a fishing trip miles from home. At the boy's insistence, they decided to attend the Sunday worship service at a small rural church. The father forgot to bring any cash, so he reached in his pocket and gave his son a dime to drop in…

In 1995, a brother and his sister decided to revive the spirit of Christmases past and exchange gifts. She was doing well financially; he wasn't. She was a prominent accountant at a large corporation, and he, though older than his sister, was still establishing himself in his career. On Christmas Day,…

I heard about a teacher who asked the children in her class about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. She thought it might be effective to inch toward its meaning by having them playfully correct some wrong ideas. "Now let me think," she began. "Thanksgiving. That's the day when we think about all the…

Someone I know very well was recently challenged to give to a Christian college. They met with the director of Development and thought, “Well, I know he’s going to ask for money, so here’s what I’m planning to do.” Now the number he picked out to give was respectable, but not really generous. He knew…

Giving Continues During Economic Downturn The results of a new study show that, while most Americans plan to spend less on Christmas presents this year, almost half are now more likely to give to charitable organizations. A World Vision survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive, reveals that…

A man reputed to be very wealthy never gave a cent to charity. An eager beaver working on a hospital drive resolved to break through this stone wall. By talking to a number of people he got extensive information on the man’s income and assets. Then he went to the man’s office and after his heartrending…

As Churches Push Donations, Congregants Balk; 'That's Not the Way God Works' By SUZANNE SATALINE November 23, 2007; Page W1 Can you put a price on faith? That is the question churchgoers are asking as the tradition of tithing -- giving 10% of your income to the church -- is increasingly challenged. Opponents…

Dr. Frederich Pfotenhauer, president of the Synod during the Great Depression, said in his report to the Synod convention in 1932: “It is true that the present economic conditions throughout the world induce us, if we do not keep our vision clear, to curtail our church activities. No doubt, money is…