For the Christian, a program like this is a good reminder of how Jesus calls us to live every day; likewise, it is a chance for us to show the world how generous God truly is; not just within this 40 days of generosity campaign for Titusville, but every day. After all; God owns everything. We are His stewards; we are His vessels. We cannot claim anything as our own, as it has always belonged to God from the beginning. As Pastor Scooter Morrison re-iterated this past Sunday: “The world needs to see His reflection in our lives.” We accomplish this statement by living our lives in Christ, and by being Spirit led.

Jesus gave us the greatest example in how to live this kind of life. He lived it Himself and He taught it to us through stories. One the most powerful stories He taught was that of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-36).

The Good Samaritan story is an act of ridiculous and radical generosity. When we give to individuals in the world as the Samaritan gave to his cultural enemy who lay half dead along the side of the road; people stop seeing us as being generous, and start seeing God. It is easy to give to those who are like us; however, only a God kind of generosity can give to an enemy and a sinner.

There are two very important concepts to grasp within this story. The first is that the righteous walked by the man and refused to help him. I personally feel they did this because the man who was robbed was not what they would consider a righteous man. Jesus worded Himself very carefully when he said “a man”. Notice He did not say a holy Jew, or a man of God, or even a good man; He just said a man. To me this means that the man was a sinner; just like you and I. The second concept is that the person who does come to the aid of this “man”, is an enemy to the man himself. Jesus was speaking to a crowd of Jew’s, so it is to be assumed that this man was a Jew himself. The Jewish people and the Samaritan people could not stand one another, and had a huge racial discrimination towards one another. In other words, they hated each other. Yet it is the enemy, the despised Samaritan, which comes to the aid of this man.

Jesus clearly taught us that we are to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:24). Clearly this Samaritan was living out the commands and teachings of Jesus.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15, ESV)

The question we must ask ourselves is do we love God enough to keep His commandments when it comes to generosity? Can we give with that same radical mercy that the Samaritan gave with? Can we give to our enemies, and can we give to the sinner, the outcast, and the poor? Can we be generous to someone who is completely different than us?

Let us not forget that God has been merciful and generous to us; should we not show the same generosity to others?