Good morning! Jesus served as the ultimate sacrifice, appeasing God's justice so that we might live. Does God still ask for sacrifice in our Christian life? When church income is down, the minister will often roll out the ol' sacrificial giving sermon. It is easy to become cynical about this as by following a few radio and television ministries you can hear the same message a lot. That is only a part of what I'm writing about this morning. I think that God still likes to savor human effort. Part of that is the curse Adam fell under after his rebellion. We remember the toil and thorns bit from Genesis. We might call our sacrifice a tribulation or the testing of God, but we do still bring a sacrifice to the altar in a manner of speaking. This isn't to say that God is up in Heaven with a 'pay me first' sign before His throne. Grace is still the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
However, we read in Revelation of prayers offered to God as sweet incense. We could call our prayers and times of Bible study a sacrifice to God. We don't think of a prayer as all that difficult. A time of Bible study may not seem like much of a sacrifice. Times will come in this life where finding and taking the time to study the Bible and pray quietly alone for an hour becomes a sacrifice; one which we find slips away from us as another day passes in toil. I'm going through such a time now, and suddenly my prayer for understanding has been answered. An hour of Bible study can indeed become a matter of sacrifice requiring forethought, planning, and actual effort on my part to set aside many other tasks crying out for accomplishment. Now I begin to understand when one of you complains of having no time for devotions with God.
As my understanding increases, I hope that all of us will become more understanding when our preachers ask for faithful tithing. A little sacrificial giving might not hurt as much as we like to think. Remember too that none of us can out give God!
Bucky
No comments:
Post a Comment