During World War II, Ernest Gordon was a prisoner along the Thailand border held by the Japanese with several hundred others. He didn't have any relationship with Christ until he was in what they call the death house where prisoners were sent to die. There was really no hope. Some friends pulled him out of there, and he managed to recover. After recovering, he began to trust Christ and give his whole heart to God.

It was several months later that an old friend of his named Dodger, who was just months from dying, came to visit Ernie. Dodger came very hopeless, very depressed. Ernie wanted to do what he could to encourage him. They talked a while, and as Dodger was getting ready to leave, Ernie felt as if he hadn't yet really helped him. He remembered a novel he borrowed from another friend and asked if Dodger had anything to read.

Before he gave the novel to him, he took the only Thai bills he had, a few bot--the only money he had--stuck it in the pages of the novel and gave it to Dodger. Ernie gave so courageously. He needed the extra nourishment that would come from those few dollars to live. He chose instead to put himself in a place of depending on God to supply for him. That's courageous giving.

After Ernie gave that book and money to Dodger, Dodger became a new man. He only had a few months to live. But he somehow found the energy to volunteer in their make-shift hospital, helping the orderlies. He volunteered for the dirtiest job in that whole place. Every day he went and collected the foul-smelling rags that the orderlies used to scrape off the skin ulcers of dying patients. Ernie would take these foul-smelling rags and scrape them, boil them, clean them, take them back for use on other patients. He'd find eggs for people who were starving and needing the extra nourishment. He'd make a mess kit for somebody who had lost his. He made a bucket for somebody who didn't have a bucket to wash himself.

Ernie gave in a courageous way, and it transformed Dodger into this amazing servant of God. And through Dodger, God provided help for so many others. Where did it begin? Just a few bot slipped in the book that Ernie gave to him. Our courageous giving unleashes the miracle provision of God, if we're willing to trust him.