Sermon Central
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Giving To God!
Contributed by Bala Samson on Jan 11, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Friend, it’s one thing to count, think thousand times and give a few rupee notes from the plenty that you have or drop all that you have into the offering box and trust Him for the future.
Giving to God!
Lord, I wish I had more to give you…….
“After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. “(1 Samuel 1:24)
Choked with emotions I start this article! It’s an emotional subject for me!
A friend of mine walked into our home, after I resigned my multinational bank job and moved into a rented place, he asked, ‘are you shifting?’, looking at the over-stuffed and crowded rooms. We had to not only accommodate our household items but also stuff our ministry equipments like music instruments and other stuff in the same place. We did not have any closed cupboards to keep our clothes and the worst was the open back door! The house owner promised to fix a back door but delayed in doing it, so we had to sleep for nearly a week without a back door. This was the first nightmare that we experienced after I walked out of my job to work full time for the Lord – subsequently there were numerous ones that we had to confront during the course of our ministry – we have come out unscathed though, to narrate His glory today! Praise the Lord!
The Lord looked lovingly at a widow who gave her all and He was floored! (Mark 12:42) When the widow dropped her two coins into the offering box, she actually had nothing left behind and moreover the Bible says she was a widow; the Lord looked at her giant offering and was marveled. In fact, the widow dropped the coins because of her one hundred percent trust in the provisions and care of the Almighty, and I guess she whistled along the way, the lyrics of her song should have been something like this:
Lord, I wish I had more, I wish I had more,
Two coins is all that I have,
Lord, BUT I wish I had more to give you…….
Friend, it’s one thing to count, think thousand times and give a few rupee notes from the plenty that you have or drop all that you have into the offering box and trust Him for the future. This is like walking on a tight rope trusting God to hold you! When I resigned the job to work for the Lord, I was a mother of two kids and the second one was a kid - today we trust more in medical insurance, accident insurance, old age pension, and all such safety measures and we meticulously arrange for them while we shove God, church, Bible and prayer in the shelf. Are you listening?
Friend, severe afflictions, humiliation, persecutions and loneliness had prepared the heart of Hannah to part with ‘Samuel’ that she had hungered, craved and yearned for. The Bible says: “She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.” (1 Samuel 1:10) Thus, Hannah made a strong, focused petition to God for a ‘boy’ child, not to swagger and brag later on but she went on to dedicate the child to be a Nazarite and for the services of the Lord all his life. This was no emotional outburst! This was a wholehearted offering! You would never understand this as long as you calculate your money when you give your offerings. Hannah did not promise to give the child to God for a period, but she vowed:” I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head."
Friend, Hannah becomes a ‘champ’ when she gets her little baby ready to be dropped at the temple ‘for good’. I was touched with her whole hearted offering as she brings a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine along with the baby. She does things properly! She did not emotionally rush to the temple but she followed the order and did things as per rules. With the following words, she leaves her kid behind at the door of the temple:
28 Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD."And he worshiped the LORD there.”
A three year old baby worships the Lord while the mom tearfully bids him goodbye!
Today we have orphanages operating in shabby, over- crowded rooms because people have forgotten to give their offerings!
Today, there is NONE, I repeat none to offer their buildings for schools run for the poor and under-privileged, there is so much of struggles, pain, humiliation because people have forgotten to think of the poor and abandoned kids.
Today, we have churches without proper roofs, proper buildings and enough space to run the ministry, because we have forgotten God. For two years we conducted our church in a rented upper portion of a building in Hyderabad, that did not have any windows; water would seep in during rainy season and the heat would strike the building in summer.
