My Very Best Contribution [Todd]

So, we are nearing the homestretch of Give Love Away 2009, the season where we are hoping and praying that God will unleash an unprecedented outpouring of generosity through Next Level folks so that we can love on Rock Rest, folks who new car and home repairs, the Spring Hill neighborhood, and the families who take part in Kid City.

October 11 is Challenge Sunday and we are all considering how and what we can give, in an economic time when many of us have very little we can give!

As I am considering my own gift I have been drawn again and again to one passage of Scripture, Malachi 1:6-8, which you can get to right here

In those days, the way people offered their "stuff" to God was through the gifts of animals as part of their corporate worship and as a way of providing for those in need. Apparently, the people - or at least many of them - were short-circuting the radical generosity process by hand-picking lambs that had flaws. They were lame or blind or deficient in some way - definitely not the best. They were keeping the best and most profitable lambs for themselves.

And God was not amused.

"Are you nuts?" he asked (my rough translation from the Hebrew).

"Do you know who I am? What I have done for you? How worthy of respect and worship I am? Do you really want to do this - offer me shabby stuff and call it a "gift"? Try giving this sort of subpar effort to your boss and see how long you have a job!"

Here is the thing - God does not need our lambs or our cash. It all belongs to him anyway (Psalm 24:1-2, which is right here )

But he knows that if our heart is oriented towards loving him and others - if we are seeing things the way he wants us to see them, which is aligned with Reality and the purposes of His Reality - then we will naturally offer God our very best gifts. And as we do we will experience the joy and freedom he means for us to have.

So, as you make your Give Love Away 2009 decision...are you committed to offering God your very best gift? The risky one? The one you aren't sure you can pull off?

I am...and I can't wait to see Him show up!