Welfare. Food stamps. Socialized medicine. Homeless shelters. Some call these kinds of programs incentives, others call them entitlements. Some say they provide hope, others say they discourage ambition. Democrats believe the government should provide for the poor, Republicans believe the responsibility of benevolence belongs to each of them.

I've been thinking about this debate since earlier today. As I exited off the interstate while talking on my cell phone, I saw a man standing at the stoplight with a sign begging for money. Dave makes sure he and I keep a stash of $20.00 bills (which he calls Samaritan money), and we give them out to needy people we find along the way. So while I juggled the steering wheel, the cell phone, and the traffic moving forward, I pulled out $20.00 and quickly handed it to the man as I drove past. Several minutes later, I could still feel the strength of his grip and the roughness of his skin as he grabbed the money with his eyes as well as his hands.

The Bible is clear that we are to give to the poor, not only in money but in other ways as well. However, Jesus added another dimension to giving, too. The temporal things He offered to men and women in His day were always accompanied by the eternal. To the Samaritan woman at the well, He told her about the mess she'd made of her life, but also how she could get out of it by believing in Him (Jn. 4:1-24). At the pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed a man who'd been sick for 38 years, then He said, "You have been made well. Sin no more . . . ." (Jn. 5:14). And when someone brought a paralytic man to Jesus, He said, " 'Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you. . . Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house' " (Mt. 9:2; 6).

Jesus never gave anything without offering the eternal. As a matter of fact, the purpose of every work that He performed (healing, raising the dead, speaking into people's lives) was intended to draw the recipients to Jesus, who received so much more than the immediate need that had initially brought them to Jesus. He got their attention through the temporal in order to present the eternal.

I believe that's what He wants you and me to do, too. Anybody could have offered money to the man out the car window today, but only a believer could offer him hope. That's why various faith-based initiatives find more success than government ones in assisting the needy. They not only help hurting lives, they change them by letting them know the Reason behind their giving.

Recently while my son and his friend were home from college, they encountered a homeless man in our downtown area. The beggar asked them for money to buy food. "Sure," my son's friend answered. "Let's go into this Subway, and you can pick out anything you want."

After the man ordered a meatball sandwich and drink, Clint and his friend headed with him to a bench outside. It was there that the man, seated between these two young men, heard about Jesus. When they later parted ways, the man could have no doubt as to why these boys had shared what they had. Like Jesus, the boys gave him the temporal while offering him the eternal.

I wish I'd done the same with the man at the exit earlier today. I wish that along with the money, I'd also handed him something to tell him about Jesus. I can only pray that God will take care of letting him know. But I believe you and I can be more deliberate about how we feel and respond to various benevolent opportunities. Perhaps I should have saved the $20.00 and given it to someone else with whom I could have had a face-to-face encounter. I'll never know, but when I consider causes such as welfare, food stamps, socialized medicine, or homeless shelters, I'm determined to get behind the ones where recipients can also find hope.

Otherwise, they'll just get hungry or sick again without experiencing a changed life. Giving plus. That's what Jesus did, and it's what we should do, too.