Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Offerings for Jesus”. I did not post a “thought” last week. But this lesson is a continuation of sorts from then. Last week on tithes, and this week of offerings. I must say, we had a spirited discussion last week at our Rock Springs church over this issue. The discussion alone was most helpful. Tithes are tithes… offerings are offerings.
But both lessons inform us that God will “bless” us as we give. And this raises an interesting question, “what is this blessing” or “what is it like”? Is it prosperity? Is it material blessing? Precisely what is this blessing? If we look carefully, Scripture will tell us. Acts 3:26 gives us the answer.
“To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” This is the blessing God has in-mind for each of us. By following Him and His ways we are turned from our sin and therefore “blessed”. But if we refuse to turn from our own ways, if we refuse to follow Him and instead follow our own ways, then self-serving is strengthened in us and iniquity abounds.
God is such a savant. He knows us so well. He knows that the money we earn (which represents our time, our life), is very important to us. Money puts a number value to our lives. A number value, dare I say, to our worth from society’s point-of-view (not God’s point-of-view). So, when we return our tithe and offerings to God, we are giving him a tenth of our work life, and a portion more of it for offerings. This is serious. Are we willing to give a tangible equivalent of our life back to God?
But it is really more than this. Much more. God does not want just 10% (plus offerings) of our money or our time. He wants all of us. He wants us to give to Him all that we are and all that we have. So, the tithe and offering is more a token. A token of the greater giving. He doesn’t need us to give money. We need to give money. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34). Our hearts (mind, intellect, motives) were meant to soar into the very stratosphere of God’s love. But if not, we will bury our hearts in the mud, where our very souls will die. And the wings of love that were to carry us into Heavenly realms of being, will shrivel and drop-off… useless… buried in the things of earth.
As EGW so wisely said, “selfishness is death” (Desire of Ages, pg.417). Our tithing and offerings are a tangible token of the giving of our entire selves. Let us give tithe and offerings. But let it be a symbol of the greater gift of ourselves. Again, as EGW says, your “life must be cast into the furrow of the world's need. Self-love, self-interest, must perish. But the law of self-sacrifice is the law of self-preservation. The seed buried in the ground produces fruit, and in turn this is planted. Thus, the harvest is multiplied. The husbandman preserves his grain by casting it away. So, in human life, to give is to live. The life that will be preserved is the life that is freely given in service to God and man. Those who for Christ's sake sacrifice their life in this world, will keep it unto life eternal” (Christ’s Object Lessons pg. 87-88).
Amen.
With brotherly love,
Jim