♦O 27, 2022

As the Montgomery Baptist Association of Churches, we serve as a family of Great Commission believers to
empower the full kingdom potential of all River Region Southern Baptists to carry out the following directives:
1) Empower God’s people to meet human needs and plant gospel seeds;
2) Saturate the River Region with community evangelism and church planting; and
3) Call out the called to carry the message of Jesus Christ across the street and around the world.

We Are Never More Like Jesus

Than When We Are Giving
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure,
pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will
be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use,
it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
Mary and I are blessed with a five-year-old
granddaughter named Gianna. “Gianna” means “God is
gracious.” God has been gracious to the Hughes family
through this witty, intelligent, creative, and giving
Neal Hughes child. Her parents are raising Gianna well, and this
Director of Missions
precious little girl has taught us a lot.
Ours is a family that lives geographically miles apart. Two of our three
children and their families live in the Orlando metro area (Winter Springs and
Oviedo). Our youngest lives in Baltimore. We regularly visit via duo and
zoom, and travel to each other’s homes as well as go on an annual vacation.
Mary and I grieve that they are not “down the street,” but God has been
gracious to help us stay close.
Every Monday, I write Gianna an old-fashioned letter, with a stamp, address,
card, everything. Following a long tradition of my grandmother writing me
and always putting chewing gum in the letter, I chose to put two quarters
taped to the inside of the card. A few months ago, Gianna called me and stated
her case: “Poppy, I have been thinking that you have given me fifty cents
weekly for a while. Don’t you think it is time to give me a raise?” Recently,
she and Gianna’s mother were arguing about eating what was before her. Our
daughter Laurie used the classic line, “When you grow up and have your own
money, you can eat whatever you want. But until then, you must eat what
mommy fixes.” To which our winsome granddaughter replied, “You forget I
have Poppy. He will give me money.”
Here are a few lessons we can learn on generosity from a five-year-old:
The Lord has commanded in His word to give generously. In the Old
Testament, God instructed to give a tithe. In the New Testament, the Lord
implied that a tithe is a bare minimum. Churches and all those they support
would not have money issues if everyone understood biblical economics. It is
true; we are never more like Jesus than when we are giving. Like the name
Gianna, be gracious as God is merciful to us.
The Lord expects us to ask and trust. Like Gianna, we need to trust our
heavenly father to provide for our every need. He has cattle on a thousand
hills. Are you praying about your needs personally? Like Luke 6:38, are you
trusting the Lord to provide for your needs if you are faithful to Him with your
tithes and offerings? I do not know about you, but I had never missed one
dime when I gave the Lord’s work. Trust the Lord and leave the rest to Him.
Seek first the kingdom. Funny thing, our daughter says that Gianna faithfully
waits for my letter, which seems to come to her mailbox on Friday. Laurie
said that when she gets it, she does not wait for the letter to be read, wisdom
from her grandfather. She dives in, gets the money, and puts it in her piggy
bank. Hopefully, Gianna will learn patience and gratitude as she grows older.
A sign of an immature Christian is always, “What is in it for me? Is God going
to give me what I need so I can get what I want?” A better value would be to
follow Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you.” God does not
admire a greedy heart, but he does honor a person after His own heart.
Hudson Taylor said, “God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack for
supplies.” Another preacher said, “If it is God’s will, it is God’s bill.” The
lesson we learn is to trust and obey Jesus. He is all we need. Let us follow His
plan and trust Him for the rest. I challenge you with God’s Malachi
admonishment:
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my
house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not
throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that
there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10

Together WE Can!
Neal
Montgomery Baptist Association • PO Box 3319 • 20 Interstate Park Dr. • Montgomery, Alabama 36109 • 334-271-6227 • www.mgmbaptists.org
This publication is made possible by your churches’ contributions to Associational Missions.