John, I love that scripture and have used it as a sword on many occassions back in my "faith-period" days.
To me, then, it meant NO WAY was I ever going to be hungry or not taken care of!!!
then I started thinking of MANY believers who indeed were hungry and starving to the point of death all around the world all the time since time began to now...
so it must have another meaning to it and not literal...that was one of the first stepping stones God used to bring me out of the faith message, then slowly out of the church world, then to Ray...
Linny, my husband is like that also...I need to run to catch up to his cheerful giving...
I have a dear friend who was a missionary teacher in Guatamala for 4 years. It was a routine scam for people to run in front of a slow moving car and then pretend to get hurt...for a few American dollars they would not alert the authorities.. My friend would always want to pay as she felt they only did this as they were poor, but she was strongly urged NOT to pay them nor to get involved w/ the authorities either as they would take bribes.
Once, here in the US, I was teaching at the time, and knew of a student on free breakfasts and lunches, but was dropped off at school in a cadillac and always had the latest fad clothing!!
So sad to think of all the situations that put people into begging or scams of begging.
there but for the Grace of God go I.....