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What is your offering?
Posted : 5 May, 2010 06:18 PM
Hey everybody =) This is a little bit long� Sorry� I know how you all aren't fond of the lengthier posts.
So, I admin an online Christian women�s group. Each month, we have a discussion/study topic that we work on for the month. Anyway, thought I would just share this one with you all, for your reading pleasure (haha), contemplation, and discussion. (And please be nice� I�m still learning like the rest of you and am not a Bible scholar by any means!)
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A few weeks ago, I was finishing up my reading of 2 Samuel and came across this: "But the king [David] replied to Aranuah, 'No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them,'" (2 Samuel 24:24, NIV). These words have stayed with me... the idea that my offerings to God ought to cost me something�that they ought not to be my leftovers or only what is convenient or fun for me to offer.
A few days later, I was randomly flipping through my Bible and came across a devotion (I have a women's devotional Bible) in the book of Malachi that talks about honouring God. It discussed getting our priorities straight and sacrificing our own desires for the sake of serving the Lord. In feeling quite convicted about that, I read through the book of Malachi. Now, in pondering it all over in the course of the following days and weeks, I am convinced that my offerings are completely inadequate. And I'm not talking about money here; I'm talking about pouring out everything that I am and that I desire, surrendering it all to Him, and letting myself be consumed by Him only and be used for His purposes alone.
Chapter 3 of Malachi talks about robbing God "in tithes and offerings." It relates obedience in those things to the blessing received from the Lord: "'Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it...'� And it states that service to the Lord is how we can know the righteous from the wicked: "'And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.'"
While the book of Malachi is referring to Old Testament offerings, I don't believe that the principles discussed are not of any relevance today. Let's look at what else the Bible has to say about offerings to explore this idea further.
In chapter 22 of Genesis we see that God instructs Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering, as a means of testing his fear of Him. Abraham went about complying with God's request, but God spared Isaac: "'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.'" Abraham offered a ram instead and called that place on the mountain "The Lord Will Provide."
In the first half of Leviticus, the Lord details out 5 different offerings to Moses which must be practiced by His people: the burnt offering, the grain offering, the fellowship offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. Among the multiple functions of these were thanksgiving, worship, expiation/atonement, consecration, and communion/fellowship. Collectively, they were expressions of repentance, surrender, and the desire to fellowship with God.
As we can correctly argue, we are no longer required nor instructed to observe these specific offerings because of Christ's work for us on the cross: "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy," (Hebrews 10:11-14). However, this does not mean that we are exempt from bringing offerings to God. 1 Peter 2:4-5 states: "As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
So what can we say of modern-day offerings to our Lord? They ought to acknowledge and trust in the Lord's provisions. They ought to express our thankfulness. They ought to be an act of worship. They ought to glorify and point to Christ's atonement on our behalf. They ought to show our complete dedication to the Lord. They ought to both express our intimacy with the Lord and further that fellowship with Him.
We are in error if we think that accomplishing those things costs us nothing, for it requires of us everything. "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God," (Ephesians 5:1-2).
I had this friend who told me this story of a woman he knew of... She was at some kind of performance (like a play or something) with her son. Evidently, she wasn't appearing to enjoy herself. Her son leaned over to her and asked her what was up. She explained that she felt guilty indulging in this carnal pleasure when there was work to do for the Kingdom. Inspiring, eh? I so wish I could claim such devotion, passion, and humility, but I can't. I'm not there yet and I feel a bit like pond scum compared to that! But how wonderful it would be to offer ourselves so completely to the Lord that earthly pleasures just don't bring us happiness any longer.
As we discuss this topic, here are some questions to ponder:
Are you withholding anything from the Lord? Are you withholding good things that could be used to further the Kingdom? Are you withholding not-so-good things that you need to lay down at the foot of the cross and let Him transform? Is it important to serve outside of our comfort zones? How important are our attitudes when we serve? How do we sacrifice to the Lord in the mundane things of everyday life? How can we manage our time as to make the Lord our #1 priority?
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