{"id":580,"date":"2013-08-30T13:51:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T18:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/?p=580"},"modified":"2014-11-25T10:15:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T16:15:22","slug":"give-or-not-to-give","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/30\/give-or-not-to-give\/","title":{"rendered":"Give or not to Give"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a strange thing indeed to sit down with someone who walks into church and is looking for assistance.\u00a0 I am not new to speaking with strangers or evaluating needs or truth, but this was in a prior &#8220;life&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Someone walks in, who I have given gift cards before and now wants money for over the counter meds that the doctor&#8217;s office would not write a script for. This person is employed and it is difficult to determine need vs. dependence now on what has been done in the past to pay for needed items.<\/p>\n<p>Just the idea of the evaluation gets messy and the questions that arise can be, doing is hurting and doing my be helping, not doing may be helping and not doing may be hurting. \u00a0 All that really can be done, is pray, trust in the Spirit and give as guided.<\/p>\n<p>Money was given out to cover the meds and tax. \u00a0I trust this was the correct decision and that the Spirit was guiding and will guide not only myself but the one that received the funds.<\/p>\n<p>These types of situations we can come across all the time. \u00a0You see people on the street that are in need and asking for money. \u00a0Then you hear of the stories of people who panhandle for a living and live very nicely. \u00a0I would however rather trust that the Spirit is guiding me and leave it in the capable hands of God that when I give, I give and the Spirit will work as needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a strange thing indeed to sit down with someone who walks into church and is looking for assistance.\u00a0 I am not new to speaking with strangers or evaluating needs or truth, but this was in a prior &#8220;life&#8221;. Someone walks in, who I have given gift cards before and now wants money for &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/30\/give-or-not-to-give\/\">[Read more&#8230;]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,21,83,4,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-580","6":"format-standard","7":"category-christian-love","8":"category-faith","9":"category-sermon","10":"category-spirit","11":"category-trust"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m6h5-9m","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":492,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/15\/gospel-centered-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":0},"title":"Gospel Centered Change?","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"June 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio Version Galatians 1:11-17 11\u00a0For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man\u2019s gospel. 12\u00a0For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13\u00a0For you have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Grace&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Grace","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/grace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/01\/final-loss\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":1},"title":"Final loss","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"May 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"(This post has been imported from my blogspot account. \u00a0If you are seeing this, do not fret....My posts will continue still on this site.) Today I make my final post to this blog. Class is quickly coming to an end and so is this project, in one sense. After this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Loss and Grief&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Loss and Grief","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/lossandgrief\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.thesun.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/01455\/chaplin_main_1455384a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1458,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/15\/be-still-and-trust-in-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":2},"title":"Be Still and Trust in the Lord","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"December 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Due to a technical glitch, there is no audio or video of this sermon. Sunday, December 13, 2015 \u00a0Advent Third Sunday of Advent Year C Old Testament Zephaniah 3:14\u201320 New Testament Philippians 4:4\u20137 Gospel Luke 3:7\u201318 John\u2019s baptism is a break from how the Jews traditionally removed their sins.\u00a0 Once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Advent&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Advent","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/advent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":974,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/18\/greatest-commandment-holy-spirit-great-commission\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":3},"title":"Greatest Commandment + Holy Spirit = Great Commission","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"June 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Audio Link Genesis 1:1\u20135, Genesis 1:26-2:4a 2 Corinthians 13:11\u201313 Matthew 28:16\u201320 I have not done this before but today, I want you to pull out pens or pencils and write something on your bulletins.\u00a0 Write it in a place that you can see, so you can take this with you,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Christian Love&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Christian Love","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/christian-love\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/h1W86a10BN8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/07\/tooooooooo-busy\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":4},"title":"Tooooooooo Busy","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"August 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of you may know, I am on internship now. \u00a0 Although I do not believe that the load is anyway too much, in fact it is light right now, but I manage to become still, that person distracted by shiny objects and \u00a0such find ways to be busy. \u00a0When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Faith&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.andysavage.net\/assets\/1116\/god_touching_adam.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.andysavage.net\/assets\/1116\/god_touching_adam.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.andysavage.net\/assets\/1116\/god_touching_adam.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/24\/to-fear-death-vs-to-fear-dying\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":5},"title":"To Fear Death vs To Fear Dying","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"February 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have posted this to both of my blogs this time. As a Christian, I have the faith in God, that there is a promise of life not death upon the physical death. \u00a0This is a belief I find hope and comfort in.\u00a0 The idea of death is not anxious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Loss and Grief&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Loss and Grief","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/lossandgrief\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_Tof3kEgqgoM\/SSDo_TfBzOI\/AAAAAAAABoA\/myTQBBrgHHc\/s320\/mirror2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}