Hello
Have you ever wondered about how and what one or to give back to God? Today’s Holy Nougat™ offers a delightful morsel.
“As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the Lord your God. “You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Exodus 34:26 NLT
Many of us struggle with giving, more so giving to God. Giving back to God is always a win-win, because our God does not owe debts. One might ask what constitutes the best of one’s first harvest or first fruit offering of one is not a farmer. Recognition of one’s context is a valid starting point, but it cannot end there.
The first fruit offering was not part of the regular tithe offered up to God, but continued the tradition of giving back to the Lord the first born animals and children within ones household and holdings. In redeeming such, one recognised God’s miraculous gift of freedom from bondage for the Israelites and consequently for us all.
What is freedom worth to us, does it have an intrinsic or extrinsic value? What would we offer to a savior for freedom (On thinking of the current international refugee/migrant crisis, I’m confident that there would be some consensus on that group that freedom is worth the best of one’s best).
Quantifying that best involve accessioning the approximate value of the market value of our tithe and offerings in an agrarian context and discerning what that translates to in real life; offering to God the first salary/bonus of the year (chronological or calendar) or seeking God’s guidance about what is a pleasing sacrifice to God and acting on that. That could even include offering our services to our religious organisation for free (perhaps for a month).
Whatever it is that we give however, let us give willingly and generously to our marvelous, magnificent and holy God who always prepares good gifts for our well-being.
Reasonable?
All for God’s pleasure and glory.
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
