Tag Archives: Offering

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The Fruit of Generosity

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Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:1o-11 (NIV)

I confessed in yesterday’s post/podcast that I wasn’t very generous when I was young. I explained my generosity has increased with my spiritual growth and maturity. If you actually read the chapter today, you’ll notice that there is no textual separation between the end of yesterday’s chapter and the beginning of today’s. It’s like those who determined where the chapters and verses should be (btw, that happened in the early 1200s) put the chapter break smack dab in the middle of Paul’s discussion about generosity and the Corinthian believers making a financial offering to the believers in Jerusalem. So, as today’s chapter continues his discussion of generosity, I’d like to continue and dig a little deeper into my own experience of generosity growing with spiritual maturity.

I have a tat on my right bicep referencing Psalm 112. Many years ago as a young adult, husband, father, and businessman I happened upon Psalm 112 in my reading. I was at point in my life journey in which I wanted God’s blessing. I wanted to do things right, and be who God created and called me to be. Psalm 112 begins: “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands.” It goes on to describe a blessed man of God and it penetrated my soul as I read. This described the man I wanted to be – the man I was striving to be.

I memorized Psalm 112. I quietly began using it as a personal guidebook. Twice in the lyrics of the ancient Hebrew song it references generosity:

Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
    who conducts his affairs with justice.

…and few lines later…

He scatters abroad his gifts to the poor,
    his righteousness endures forever;
    his horn will be lifted high in honor.

(Note: I read and memorized Psalm 112 in an older version of the NIV translation that used masculine rather than gender neutral language. For the sake illustrating its impact on me personally at that time, I’ve quoted the older, masculine version.)

As I recited, meditated upon, and sought to live out the description of Psalm 112, I continued to run headlong into the theme of generosity not just once but twice. It was at that point in my life that I began to seriously think about and address my family heritage of Dutch frugality (and well-hidden greed), my own deep seated patterns of financial irresponsibility, and my complete lack of generosity.

Wouldn’t you know it, as Paul addresses the subject of generosity as a spiritual matter with the believers in Corinth in today’s chapter, he references Psalm 112. I love the way God connects everything.

Two observations about generosity from my meditations on the chapter this morning:

First, Paul references what I had to learn along my life journey. Generosity is a spiritual matter of the heart first and foremost. God’s Word and Spirit had to sprout and take root inside me and force me into some much needed personal cultivation and pruning. Only then, through time and process did the fruit of generosity begin to emerge consistently and with increasing abundance. Paul is referencing this same spiritual process within both the Corinthian and Macedonian believers.

Second, generosity follows a clear spiritual pattern that is rooted all the way back with the freed Hebrew slaves in Exodus when He provided for them “daily bread” in the form of a miracle food called Manna.

Here’s the pattern:

God provides me with what I need daily —>

I spiritually learn to be content with what I need (not want) —>

What I have beyond my needs, I “scatter abroad” to others —>

Note that the metaphor here of “scattering abroad” is that of a sower sowing seed. This connects to Jesus’ parable of the sower sowing the seed of the Word of God. Now, hold that thought.

My generosity produces a crop of gratitude, thanks, and praise in others that both returns to me as a gift of righteousness and spreads through the others as they grow spiritually and are inspired to become generous themselves. Their gratitude, praise, and growth is righteous spiritual fertilizer that comes back to me and boosts the yield of generosity in my own life.


Paul repeats that the result of generosity is spiritual abundance in both the giver and the receiver that then spreads to others.

I can’t help but once again contrast this with what I’ve always heard spewed by televangelists and prosperity gospel preachers. They preach that if you give (them and their ministry) money then God will bless the giver financially as if generosity is an affluent financial investment strategy. Give ME your money, and God will give YOU MORE MONEY. The focus is on the money, especially the money going into their pockets.

In the quiet this morning, I come back to Psalm 112 that I had placed as a tattoo on my right bicep because the right arm is a metaphor of blessing, and the bicep is a metaphor of strength. It reminds me daily that my strength is in being a man blessed by God; The blessed man God created and called me to be is increasingly and perpetually content, generous, grateful, and fruitful.

That is what Paul is trying to teach his friends in Corinth.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

I’ve Never Regretted Being Generous

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And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
2 Corinthians 8:10-12 (NIV)

Wendy and I quietly reached a milestone in recent weeks. In 2007, we began sponsoring a young girl in Kenya named Nyaguthi through Compassion International. Our small, monthly financial gift helped provide for Nyaguthi and her family’s basic needs along with her education. This was not, however, just a mindless financial transaction. For almost twenty years we have corresponded with Nyaguthi, learned about her life and desires, celebrated her birthday and holidays, and she has likewise gotten to know our family through our letters and photos.

Just a few weeks ago Compassion informed us that Nyaguthi is now finishing up her university education. At 22, she is graduating out of the Compassion program and will launch into finding a job and starting her life journey as an adult. I can’t explain the joy this makes us feel. We’ve watched her grow up. Her photos have been ever-present on our refrigerator. We have and will continue to pray for her.

In today’s chapter, Paul addresses a specific matter with the followers of Jesus in Corinth. The followers of Jesus in Jerusalem were experiencing terrible persecution. Some were being killed. The were being ostracized socially and financially which made life difficult just to manage life’s basic needs. Others were desperate to flee Jerusalem and seek safety in other regions, but lacked the means to do so. Paul and believers in the area of Greece were generously gathering money to send to Jerusalem to help out their spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ.

As I read Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthians to be generous, I was struck by his emphasis on desire. He directly writes that he is not commanding them, twisting their arms, or manipulating them. This is not a televangelist’s trickery of promising God will turn their financial gift into profitable personal gain. He simply appealed to the desire to be generous that he’d witnessed in them the previous year. He appeals to their eager willingness to be generous, to give what they can for others who are in need. Paul goes on to reference what he also wrote about to the believers in Philippi (Philippians 2) regarding Jesus’ example leaving the riches of heaven to become an impoverished human being, that anyone who believes in Him might know the riches of God’s grace and inherit Life both abundant and eternal.

I confess that I was not a generous person as a young man. Generosity has been something that has grown within me as I have grown and matured in God’s Spirit. Wendy has taught me much in both her heart and example. One of the things that I continuously realize and remind myself: I have never, not once, regretted being generous. Not only do I lack any regret, but I look at Nyaguthi’s face on our refrigerator, think of how she’s grown in body, mind, and Spirit over the years, and I feel a surging desire to be more generous. The words “eager willingness” that Paul uses in today’s chapter describes my feelings rather well.

So, in the quiet this morning I am celebrating Nyaguthi’s launch and also thinking about the task Wendy and I have before us of beginning our sponsorship of another child.

I am eager to do so. I have never regretted being generous.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

“New Things Come”

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“New Things Come” (CaD Lev 9) – Wayfarer

On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.
Leviticus 9:1 (NIV)

I have learned over almost 45 years as a disciple of Jesus that this spiritual journey as His follower is all about my transformation. It’s the gradual migration from my earthly and worldly mindset into having my mind fixed on the things of God. Treasures on earth lose their perceived value for me as spiritual treasures are considered increasingly more priceless in my mind. What I desire becomes less significant (in fact I desire things less) and what God desires of me becomes more of a priority. This is literally what Paul was writing about when he told the Corinthian believers: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

In today’s chapter, Aaron and his sons are facing an abrupt transformation. The chapter begins by describing the events as taking place on the eighth day. In yesterday’s chapter, God told Aaron and the boys to camp out at the entrance of His tent for seven days. Granted, this seems like a strange request to our logical sensibilities. Today’s events take place on the eighth day. God is using His base language of metaphor again. What does everyone know, from the very beginning of the Great Story in Genesis took place in seven days? Yep, creation. How long were the dudes camping with God? Yep, seven. It is now the eighth day. Something is new. A spiritual transformation has taken place. Something new has been created in Aaron and His sons. The dudes are now priests of the Most High God.

In today’s chapter, Aaron performs the priestly duties and sacrifices for the first time. This is new. Another thing that is abundantly clear is that Aaron performs the offerings exactly as prescribed by God through Moses. The text is painfully repetitive as it recounts Aaron’s exact actions detail for detail. In fact, it’s one of the strange things about Leviticus that drives modern readers bonkers. As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, two things came to mind.

First, I returned to the reality that these are events are taking place in the toddler stage of humanity thousands of years ago. Writing is a relatively new technology that few know and reading isn’t even a thing for the masses. Things were passed down orally and as an actor currently working on my lines for a role in a play I am reminded that repetition is the key to memorization. When toddlers watch Sesame Street they are introduced to a letter and a number and those are repeated over and over and over again in that episode. The repetition was likely helpful and necessary to the ancient Hebrews learning these detailed instructions.

Second, there is a spiritual lesson taking place even in Aaron’s exacting conformity to God’s instructions. Five hundred years or so later, the Hebrews will decide they want a king and they will choose a guy named Saul. Saul will subsequently decide that he can perform these offerings even though he’s not a son of Aaron as prescribed. Samuel tells him:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

One of the spiritual lessons God is attempting to teach His fledgling people through this sacrificial system is the importance of obedience. The obedience is more important than the sacrifices themselves. In fact, God makes this abundantly clear in Psalm 50:

“Listen, my people, and I will speak;
    I will testify against you, Israel:
    I am God, your God.
I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices
    or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
I have no need of a bull from your stall
    or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine,
    and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains,
    and the insects in the fields are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
    for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?“

At the end of the chapter, as a result of Aaron’s obedience in presenting the offerings according to the instructions, the “glory of the LORD” shows up in the form of fire. So this spiritually transformed dude who is now a priest obeys God, does as instructed, and God responds. It’s the eighth day. It is a new beginning for Aaron and the boys. Old things have passed away. New things have come.

Which is exactly what God has spiritually done in me through being joined with Christ thousands of years later. In fact, spiritually speaking that transformation includes making me a priest of the Most High God, as well (see 1 Peter 2:9).

In the quiet this morning, I find myself marveling once again at how God’s message is consistent even as He communicates it differently at different points of the Great Story, even as I communicate about these same things differently to my toddler granddaughter than I do to her adult parents.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Of Fat and Blood

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Of Fat and Blood (CaD Lev 7) – Wayfarer

“Say to the Israelites: ‘Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats. And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal.”
Leviticus 7:23-26 (NIV)

Living in Iowa, one is spoiled when it comes to a good steak. The other week while Wendy and I were on a cruise, we treated ourselves to a fancy, upscale dinner at the ship’s onboard steak house restaurant. It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The steak I ordered was, however, just okay. The truth is that for one-third the price I could have gotten a much better steak at my local grocery store.

One of the things you learn about steak when you live in farm country is that fat is good. Fat is what helps make the lean meat even tastier. Steak experts talk about “marbling” of the steak and the fat to lean ratio. It’s a whole thing.

We are also spoiled by having fat cows. For the ancient Hebrews living in the desert wilderness, fat was a luxury and a sign of abundance.

One of the things modern readers struggle with in reading Leviticus is understanding some of the rules God put down. They seem so strange to our 21st century lives. This is true even for Biblical scholars and experts. There are certain things in this ancient Hebrew priest manual that are mysteries lost to us in the course of time. Others, however, can be understood when you translate God’s base language of metaphors.

In today’s chapter, God gives instruction that the fat of a sacrificed animal is God’s alone. Some portions of certain sacrifices could be eaten by the priests (it was how the priests and their families were provided for), some might be eaten by the person who brought it, but only God could have the fat. Fat, being a sign of health and abundance was the best. It is part of a recurring theme God is teaching the Hebrews through this entire sacrificial system. Bring God the best: the first fruits of the harvest, animals without defect, and the fat of the animal.

As for blood, it was deeply associated in the Hebrew mind with life itself. When a person was injured or slain and the blood spilled out of them, it was to them a person’s life spilling out. And God makes it abundantly clear throughout the entire Great Story that life is sacred. God even boils down the Great story on multiple occasions to a simple choice of life or death:

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” – Jesus
John 10:10

To consume the blood of another living being was metaphorically consuming its sacred life.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, there were two things that emerged for me.

First, I found my heart and mind returning to the idea of giving God our best. The truth is that for most of my life I feel like I gave God my leftovers. It was only as I matured in my understanding that everything I have is God’s and nothing is really mine that I truly understood generosity. Generosity is not me giving something up, but rather it’s me stewarding and channeling God’s goodness and provision to others.

Second, God is beginning to teach His people about the difference between the sacred and the ordinary. He’s introducing His people to the concept of holiness, and I believe that it was another thing that is easy for humans to twist into something it’s not. I believe it was another thing that Jesus came to reclaim and return to a heart understanding.

But there’s more of that to unpack in the chapters ahead. It is now time for me to engage in the sacred task of my vocation.

Have a great day, my friend!

uote

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

My Choice

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My Choice (CaD Lev 1) – Wayfarer

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.”
Leviticus 1:2 (NIV)

Imagine an entire nation of people wandering in the desert. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children; Perhaps millions with their flocks and herds. For four hundred years these people had been slaves in Egypt. They were told where to live, what to do each day, and they were given little or no choices in life. Their ancestor, Abraham, had made a covenant with God hundreds of years before, but they knew little about the God of Abraham. It had only been stories passed down through the generations.

Then, the God of Abraham showed up. He revealed Himself to Moses and miraculously delivered them out of their slavery in Egypt. Now they find themselves living in the wilderness. Everything has changed. This nation of people have an opportunity to begin a whole new way of living life together in community with their God, and with one another. It is, perhaps, the greatest social experiment in human history. It still resonates in our daily lives if we will but recognize it.

Today our chapter-a-day journey wades into perhaps the most ignored and misunderstood book in the entire Great Story. The book of Leviticus was a set of instructions for the newly appointed priests among this fledgling nation of newly freed slaves, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There were twelve tribes of them, and God through Moses appointed one tribe, the tribe of Levi, to handle priestly duties. Within the tribe of Levi, the descendants of Aaron (Moses right-hand man) would be the official priests who handled sacrifices. Keep in mind, just a month or so ago these Levite dudes were just slaves like everyone else doing what they were told to do in Pharaoh’s construction projects. Now they are priests of the God of Moses with no earthly idea what that means or what they are supposed to be doing. Leviticus is their guidebook.

The book opens by describing the five major types of offerings (burnt, grain, fellowship, sin, and guilt) that the people will bring to God, and how the priests are to handle them. Today’s opening chapter deals with burnt offerings. There were two things I noticed immediately as I read today’s chapter.

First, it says “when” people bring a burnt “offering” followed by “if” that offering is one of three potential types (a bull, a sheep, or a bird). This is not compulsory. The burnt offering is first and foremost a choice that is made by the person or family bringing it. The Hebrew word for “offering” means literally to “bring.” It is a choice. The entire act is one of willful devotion to God.

Next, there are three potential burnt offerings representing different economic realities. A bull could only be offered by a family with herds, which were objects of great wealth in their socio-economic system. A sheep or a goat were more common and represent a more “middle class” reality among the people. Birds were relatively cheap and plentiful for those who were on the poorer end of the economic spectrum of that day. In other words, God is allowing for people across the entire socio-economic spectrum to show their devotion at whatever level they can afford. Everyone is welcome.

As I meditated on these things in the quiet this morning, I was struck by the fact that God is amazingly consistent in His message and method. He initiated everything by appearing to Moses and freeing the Hebrew tribes from slavery. Now He is asking for them to make a free and willful choice to express their devotion and gratitude by coming to God with an offering, whatever they can personally afford.

“I chose you. I loved you. I saved you. Now, I want you to choose me and here is how you can do that.”

It is the same paradigm that God would display through Jesus a few thousand years later.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17 (NIV)

Or, as John would put it in one of his letters:

“We love because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:18

As I head out into a new and very busy work week, I’m reminded this morning that it is the same for me as it was for the former Hebrew slaves trying to figure out how now they should live. God has lovingly done everything for me. He has loved me, saved me, delivered me from my slavery to sin, guided me, provided for me, and blessed me. Now, I have the opportunity to choose to, in return, offer my love, gratitude, and devotion by living my life and relating to others with His love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

It’s my choice.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

When Generosity Becomes Compulsory it Becomes Something Else

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Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV)

In today’s chapter, Paul continues his encouragement to the followers of Jesus in Corinth to be generous. Paul was specifically asking them to give to an offering that was being collected to support impoverished fellow believers in Jerusalem. Paul wanted all believers in Greece and Asia Minor to give so to help their fellow believers in Palestine and it was a significant personal undertaking that had social as well as economic implications. If believers in the “gentile” world gave to the predominantly Jewish believers in Judea then it could only help tear down the walls and prejudices between the two groups.

Yesterday morning Wendy and I were discussing Paul’s encouragement to generously give to their fellow believers in need. Our conversation deepened from the subject of yesterday’s blog post on generosity to the section of Paul’s letter about equality. Paul argues that those in plenty should give to those who have little so as to bring a level of equality between all.

The conversation between Wendy and me quickly meandered into the fact that the early church is often seen as a shining example of socialism. Based on the evidence, there is no doubt that the followers of Jesus in the first century, connected by a common faith, supported one another financially and were encouraged to do so. As our conversation progressed, Wendy and I surfaced what I believe are some important distinctions in the contemplation of today’s chapter.

The giving and sharing among early Christians was not uniform system but an organic one. It looked very different in varying locations and times. During my life journey I’ve personally become weary of the way our culture (the institutional church in particular) loves to turn everything into a repeatable, marketable formula. We love to try and package what Holy Spirit did at church A and market it in a cool new program so that churches B through Z can easily replicate the experience. It usually creates popularity but I rarely see it result in a replication of spiritual power.

I’ve learned that there’s a reason why God gives us wind as a word picture of Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit mysteriously blows here and quickly moves there. Holy Spirit waxes for a time in one place then inexplicably wanes. You cannot manufacture it or replicate it at will as much as we try.

Paul’s offering was never made compulsory. Money was not demanded of the believers in Corinth. Rather, they were encouraged to be generous and the decision of what and how much was to be sourced in their own hearts. I find this a critical distinction. In Paul’s paradigm each believer was to give as each believer determined and was led personally by God’s Spirit. Paul certainly gave a full court press of encouragement explaining that generosity was a part of spiritual maturity and provided examples of other believers giving. There were, however, no formulas or discussion of percentages of income. There was no larger governing authority demanding it of the Corinthians, nor were there material consequences to be doled out if they chose not to give.

This leads to a final thought. The giving and sharing between believers in the early church happened on a micro-economic level. This was a  relatively small societal sub-culture connected to one another by a loose system of communication and a common faith. It wasn’t an authoritative institutional system trying to provide for all of society. There was no governing authority compelling believers to pay a percentage of their wealth and income to be redistributed to others as that particular governing authority determined. My experience is that things which work on a micro-level in small groups, especially things which are spiritual in nature, are rarely successful at being systemized and institutionally applied at a macro-level across society.

I hope no one will read what I’m not writing this morning. I am not arguing for or against socialism as an economic or governmental construct. I’m not arguing for or against any economic or governmental system or another. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, and thus we experience the never ending debate around our globe.

The conclusion my heart is coming to this morning is this: As a follower of Jesus, no matter what the societal economic system I find myself living in, generosity is an essentially spiritual act. My free choice and willing decision to give of what I have been given to others in need is, and should be, an act of loving kindness. What’s more, as a follower of Jesus the measure to which I give should be personally motivated by the measure of love and grace I have received from Christ Jesus.

As soon as my generosity becomes compulsory, it becomes something else.

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Perpetual Embers

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A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out.
Leviticus 6:13 (NRSV)

My family vacationed at the same place every year. Camp Idlewood on Rainy Lake in Minnesota was where we spent two weeks in early August every summer. There was a campfire pit just outside the boathouse and a fire was lit every night as families gathered around to swap stories, sing songs, and enjoy each other’s company.

As childhood gave way to the tween and teen years, we were allowed to stay later and later at the campfire. Eventually the parental unit would head to bed and we were allowed to hang out at the campfire until the wee hours of the night. Occasionally the wee hours gave way to dawn and we would still be there huddled around the fire pit.

I remember those nights watching the fire evolve from blazing bonfire to glowing embers. Still, we would stoke it and tend it and keep it going through the watches of the night as conversations continued, friendships were forged, and camp romances occasionally were sparked to life and then quickly went out.

I thought about that campfire as I read this morning of the ancient sacrificial fires prescribed by God through Moses. They kept going. Wood was added. The embers were stoked. The spiritual conversation and relationship continued around the fire.

This morning I’m reminded that my worship, my sacrifice, and my offering to God is not a compartmentalized act confined to a Sunday morning. It is a campfire in my spirit which does not go out. Every day, every stretch of the journey it blazes, it ebbs, and I tend to it;  I stoke the embers into flame again and again. God and me perpetually around the fire through the watches of the night, into the wee hours, and on to the dawn.

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I’m an Epic Fail at Gift Giving

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If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of the finest flour: either thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in or thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with olive oil.
Leviticus 2:4 (NRSV)

I have a confession to make. I am generally an epic failure when it comes to gift giving. In fact, forget the “generally” and just call it epic fail. The procuring and giving of gifts doesn’t come naturally like it does for others I know and love. I have to think about it. I’m forgetful about special days. I constantly second guess myself. I agonize over what the recipient would want and enjoy. Once the gift is given I am insecure about the gift I gave and agonize over whether I should have given something else.

The truth of the matter is that my agony over gift giving is, in part, because it points to a core self-centeredness in my soul. It feels like an inability to know and love others better than I love myself. I hate that. I need help.

In today’s chapter, God’s ancient rules state that a blood sacrifice should be accompanied with a gift. The grain offering was basically a loaf of bread made with the finest ingredients. It required that the giver remember, think, set aside time, prepare the gift by making and baking it, then bring it to God at the altar. The blood sacrifice was about atonement, the grain offering was about gratitude.

For forty years the nation of Israel wandered around the wilderness in search of the promised land. Each night God sent a gift known as Manna. It arrived with the dew each morning. It was bread from heaven and it sustained them in the long march.

Now God says, “if you want to say thank you, make me a nice loaf of bread.” It tells me that you remember the manna. It says to me that you appreciated my gift and were grateful. It is consider-ate. I appreciate the thought. I value the sacrifice of time and effort you took to think of me in this way. It’s a tangible expression of your love.”

This morning I’m feeling, once again, repentant. I’d like to think that I’ve made progress in this spiritual journey. I know I have. Nevertheless, God’s ancient prescription to be a good and grateful giver of gifts reminds me this morning of core changes that have yet to be made; work still in progress after all these years.

This is a reminder to me that no matter how much progress I’ve made I still need help. I still need a savior. I still need forgiveness, and mercy, and grace. And, it strikes me that this is exactly the point of God’s ancient law in the first place. The law was given to ultimately make our need perfectly clear to us. To which, God responds with a gift. You will find it wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

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A Ceaseless Offering

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art and praisePraise the Lord.
Psalm 135:1 (NIV)
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 135:21 (NIV)

I couldn’t help noticing that the lyrics of Psalm 135 are bookended with praise. I love it when artists layer their work with meaning. The song writer was not only expressing praise, but he consciously chose to start and end with it. What a word picture. Praise is not to be a moment in time but continuous momentum from start to finish. Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Praise is not a tithe, but a whole and ceaseless offering.

I sit here at the beginning of my day and at the end of a work week…and offer praise.

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The Christmas Ham Puts it in Perspective

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Source: Tennessee Traditions
Source: Tennessee Traditions

When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Malachi 1:8 NLT

When I am neck deep in a stage production, my heart and mind tend to get focused on the play. Last night was first rehearsal for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which I’m directing. Here in the early morning hours my brain is already pondering last night’s rehearsal and what needs to be accomplished in the weeks and months ahead. So, it’s no shock that when I read this morning’s chapter I made immediate connections with the story. It’s one of the things I love about God’s Message. It always meets me where I happen to be in the journey.

In the play, a family of bullies from the “wrong side of the tracks” invades the small church Christmas pageant. It’s sweet, funny, and heart warming. In the process of the play this rag-tag group of sibling ruffians hear the story of Christmas for the first time and began to internalize what it means.  The older brothers, who play the three wise men, decide to forget the fake  props of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and instead bring the ham from their family’s welfare Christmas basket (still wrapped with a bow) to the baby Jesus. After the show, they refuse to take the ham back even though it’s their family’s Christmas meal. “It’s a present, and you don’t take back presents,” one brother explains.

I was reminded of the Christmas ham this morning by Malachi’s prophetic rant about the cheap props we too often offer to God. We have everything and yet we tend to give to God what we don’t want or need. We offer our leftovers and hand-me-downs. Then, just like the old widow that Jesus spied at the collection box one day, someone who has nothing gives everything they have and reveals our paltry offerings for what they truly are in the eyes of the Great Recipient.

I’m guilty as charged this morning. Have mercy, O Lord. I’m sorry.

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