When God is bringing judgment upon
Israel in the form of a plague of death God instructs David to offer a
sacrifice and he gives him the precise place to do this. The site is the
threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and Araunah wants to give it to the
king free of charge plus everything needed for the sacrifice. I think we learn
a very valuable lesson from David’s response … “No, I insist on buying it, for
I will not present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me
nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24 NLT) Wow, does that not cut you to your core?
How often do we give God what cost us
nothing? Many times our churches are full of these types of gifts … hand me
down toys for the nursery, used playground equipment, tattered books for the
library, and all sorts of various decorations. Now giving the churched used but
still good gifts is nice and appreciated if it is something the church really
needs. But how often do we replace our TV with a new one and give the old one
to the church. That gift, while appreciated did not really cost the giver. If
our gifts really cost us, too many churches would not be feeling the budgets
grow smaller and smaller.
I wonder what the church could do if
its members gave an offering to their church like David did; offerings that caused
them to stretch their faith, offerings that caused them to rely on God, offerings
that really caused them to sacrifice. If this was the type of giving our
churches experienced more mouths could be fed, more poor could be clothed, more
life skills could be taught, but most importantly the reach of the gospel would
go much further and much deeper.
At West Side we believe highly in
prayer. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If
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