It is quite often spoken from the pulpit about the need to give (particularly when the finances are a little on the low side), but today I wish to talk about the need to receive.

You see there are many in this church who are good at the giving any cause, no matter what, they will be there to help, but at the same time they would shudder to receive - dare I even say it - Charity!. They would rather go without or even make arrangement to pay it back, but they cannot accept the gift of others. Charity is "Unconditional Love". Agape, that highest of all loves is translated as Charity in the King James version. Yet so many people refuse to receive charity. I believe that this very thing that makes our church weak.

There is a fundamental Christian principle of receiving - This is the Grace we speak of. We receive eternal life, we neither earn it, merit it or buy it. We receive - God gives.

If we were honest, we generally prefer to give rather than to receive. In Africa, and also in Morpeth, we had to learn to receive because God’s people gave to us. And was the hardest lesson to learn. I believe that our reluctance to experience the generosity of others stems from a failure in our own selves.

When I receive something from another, I am indebted to that person for the gift. I give control to the other party. Think of the story of the Pharisee in Matthew 6 gave alms. He gave them with a flourish and a fanfare, and the giving made him important. The one who received was not important. So to receive means to surrender control, to become unimportant.

To receive means to admit a weakness. When I am given something that I am unable to provide for myself, there is a need to acknowledge that I have the need of another - I become dependant, and I am no longer independent.

From a Christian perspective, both these circumstances are stumbling blocks because they are signs that we are proud and our pride in our independence will bring us down. We are unable to surrender control at the deepest level. Our refusal to receive the help that others offer is really a refusal to receive help from God. It is this spirit in itself that stops us from giving, because our underlying motive is that we ought to be independent, self reliant and as such we ought to be responsible for our selves, so we cannot be generous because we might need what we have for our own purposes. There is no place in heaven for the self made man or woman.

You see, it is as we learn to become good receivers, that we can become open to God and his purposes, and as we become open to these, then God can really use us for his purposes.

Perfection in the marriage relationship occurs when each party is so concerned to give the other what they need, that they will risk themselves, and I believe that the same is true in the church. We need to so concerned with the needs of others that we will use what we have for them - confident that our needs will be met by others in the family of God. Is this not the image of the Body, each part working to support the other and in turn each part receiving support from the others.

To learn to receive is important, because we create the dynamic required to manifest the body of Christ in the world. When we learn to surrender our pride and independence and to receive from others in the Kingdom, then we are capable of receiving from God. The Spirit of God can step in and equip us with his gifts for our use and we have the confidence to act beyond our own resources and to trust in the provision of others, in the provision of God.

This is a higher dimension of the faith life. We live dependent on God, and the things that we have are not ours but his to use through us. Now this is scary stuff. It takes a lot of faith to let go and let God, but unless we do, then can we truly say that we recognise him as Lord and God. The challenge is to allow God to take over, to take control. This was the sin in the Garden - the fruit which gave knowledge of Good and Evil, gave the power choose and to control ones destiny independent from God.

Where are you today? Have you let God take over all of your life, or are you struggling to do it all yourself?

AMEN.