Thought of the Day !!

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
                                    Matthew 5:42 (ESV)

A story I found somewhere and once used in a sermon goes like this:

There once was a monk who found a precious jewel.  The monk was a traveler, and during one of his travels, he met a man.  The man had no food and asked the monk for some.  The monk, happy to share with the hungry man, opened his bag to get some provisions.

Upon opening the bag, the man saw the jewel.  On impulse the man asked the monk if he could have it.  Amazingly, the monk gave the precious stone to the man.

The traveler departed quickly, overjoyed with his new possession.  However, a few days later, he came back searching for the monk.  He returned the stone to the monk and made a request: "Please give me something more valuable, more precious than this jewel.  Please give me that which enabled you to give it to me."

A person's earthly instincts would be to keep the jewel, yet a person's spiritual insight tells him or her that the jewel is not as important as another human being.  

In the love of Christ,
greg