Today's Devotional

August 9, 2005

Subject:  We Give, They Receive

Acts 20:35 - "I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."

I glanced at my junk mail inbox to see what kind of trash I had been getting and these were the last three that I received; one was entitled, "Look at this now."  Another had as the subject line, "see this right now."  The third one said, "Carlen, do you want a brand new digital camera?"  The think about spam and junk email is that it attempts to draw you in by peaking your curiosity.   It plays upon our most basic instincts.  When reading the subject, you can actually believe that they want to "give" to you.  In reality, upon further inspection, you always find that this is not the case.  

The people who generate those emails realize that most people like to receive.  Truly, most people would prefer to receive and so that's why the solicitations peak your curiosity with the hope of "getting" something.  Surely you want a "brand new digital camera."  Oh and I just checked my mailbox five seconds ago and this email just came in, "Carlen, Receive your free $1,500 K-mart gift card," so for the sake of this devotional, I'm going to track it down to the bottom line.  Hold on for one second.  Well it'll probably be an hour, but you don't have to wait because the devotional is not real-time.  Standby.

Okay the first thing you notice when you open the email is the huge word "FREE" and in letters only people with 20/15 vision can see, it says, "when you complete sponsor offers."  So I went to "sponsor offers" and rejected them all.  After I got through about the 50th offer, it told me that I must accept one.  Bottom line, they wanted a lot from me.

Yes people like to receive.  Whether it's gifts or money or anything else.  When someone comes offering something, people perk up.  Well what an opportunity for those who have been designed to give, the Christians.  That's what we do, so if the world is looking to receive, let's do what we do and give.  As the passage and famous quote of our Lord Jesus says, "it is more blessed to give than to receive."  Let's ask the world if they "want a brand new digital spirit?" and get them to answer our spam.

Carlen