Thurs Devo: Gift Management

 In addition to our local churches, there are also so many wonderful Christian organizations furthering the cause of Christ in the world. We have so many different ways we can give to God’s work. The Israelites in Moses’ day didn’t have near as many choices or opportunities. Most of their financial gifts were to one place – the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle).

Numbers 18:21 and 24       ²¹ “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. ²⁴ …I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord. That is why I said concerning them: ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’”

Just like our tithe at church goes toward the living expenses of our church leadership, the tithe of the Israelites went toward the expenses of the priests and Levites who did all the work at the tabernacle.

Sometimes I wonder if my gift is being used most effectively. However, it struck me that God didn’t tell the Israelites not to give their tithe if the Levites weren’t doing their job efficiently. He gave no caveat. The Israelites were to give to the Levites and the Levites were to give a tenth of that back to God. No exceptions!

Numbers 18:25-29   ²⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering. ²⁷ Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. ²⁸ In this way you also will present an offering to the Lord from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the Lord’s portion to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.’  

Giving is an act of worship and obedience to God. The gift belongs to the Lord. If we try to micro-manage how our gifts are used, then we probably aren’t giving from our heart in true worship of God. God will hold the recipients accountable for the use of our gifts.

How will you and I prepare to give cheerfully, in sincere worship and obedience to God? After prayerfully considering where and how God would have us give, we can leave the rest in His hands!    

Alice

Selfless Fulfillment

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.  Philippians 2:3-4

This year, my department did some volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.  It was a lot of lifting, hammering, and performing of laborious work, and after each day, you felt physically spent.  Not a typical day for someone who works in a call center.  However, there was something else that I felt after it was all was done; fulfilled.  It was not because of what I or the team of us had accomplished.  Rather, it was what we were doing in service to someone else.  In this case, it is another family.  What could be better than that?  The spirit within me was awakening, and yes, I felt humbled because I had an opportunity to spend a day out of work giving freely to someone where many do not have such liberties.

Giving of ourselves to God and to others is what we must do as Christians.  It is easy to see ourselves as focused on others.  However when we are caught up in our own lives, do we turn a blind eye to a person in need in lieu of our own ‘stuff?’  Reading Philippians 2, you get an idea of Paul’s heart for new followers of Christ becoming selfless, and he speaks of Christ’s example.  In verses 6-7, he says:

Though (Christ) was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.

He describes one of Christ’s many perfect selfless acts, which is what the life of Jesus should represent to us.  He could have just stayed in Heaven as God, but He chose to serve others as a sacrifice for all sins.  For this, we cannot ignore our own obligation to serve others.  It is woven into us, and is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.

There is a reason for the saying ‘It is better to give than receive.’  While a worldly view obsesses over the ‘me’ or ‘selfie,’ we know of the righteous path taught by Jesus Christ, the master himself.  After washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus said, “And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.” (John 13:14-15)  So the next time you feel down or depressed, do not fall into the trap of self-doubt and isolation.  Instead, find a way to give to another as Christ has given to us.  How will you respond when conflicted with the needs of you and another?  How can you challenge yourself to give more of yourself to others?  My prayer is that we selflessly give more of ourselves knowing in the end we will find the fulfillment that only a Christ centered life can give.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Me first

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (NASB)

Hello,

When we think of Biblical principles, we don’t often think of “Me First” as one of them. However, I do think there are some things in the Bible that call for a ‘me first’ attitude. Ephesians 4 lays some of these out – we are to be ‘me first’ in kindness and forgiveness when it comes to our interpersonal relationships. (We can’t be me first with those things between us and God – thankfully, He beat us to it already!)

Our society is a heavy ‘me first’ culture. It wants us to put ourselves first in everything – except kindness and forgiveness. When it comes to those two things our culture wants us to carefully examine how much has really been given to us, and extend no more than what we must.

Why bring up the cultural opposite? Isn’t that to be expected? Sure it is! However, I believe there is power in knowing where our culture and society are counter-influencing Biblical principles – as that awareness helps us tune in and more carefully examine the messages of our culture.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Go away!

Genesis 3:8-9

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

I’m sure we have all at had a point or two in our lives where we did something and wanted to hid because we were ashamed.  After the fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve hid. 

My son right now is at a stage where he knows when he’s done something wrong and if I come into the room, he’ll tell me, “Go away Momma”.    He knows that Mom is not going to allow him to keep doing wrong.  Yesterday at church, he wanted to sit with us instead of going into the nursery so we allowed him to.  He was being pretty good, only needing an occasional reminder to be quite.  As he was sitting next to Daddy, I looked over only to have him yell, “Go away Momma!”.  Thankfully his yell isn’t too loud but I chuckled to myself, thinking I was only checking in on him.  It then made me think about my life.  Do I ever find myself telling God to go away? 

Have you ever told God to go away?  While I surely hope that none of us truly want him to go away from us, I do hope that we feel the quilt when we do something wrong that makes us ashamed of what we have done. 

In verse 9, God called out to Adam, “Where are you?”   God already knew where Adam was, but he wanted Adam and Eve to realize what they had done wrong.  Next time you do something wrong and you feel like hiding from God because you are ashamed, remember that he knows where  you are and is just waiting for you to admit your wrong doings.