Wednesday, July
18, 2018
After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you
love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,”
Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then
feed my lambs,” Jesus told him. Jesus
repeated the question: “Simon son of
John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,”
Peter said, “you know I love you.” “Then
take care of my sheep,” Jesus said. A third time he asked him, “Simon
son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a
third time. He said, “Lord, you know
everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus
said, “Then feed my sheep.
John 21:15-17(NLT)
Yesterday we looked at how
I, as young boy, was introduced to the meaning of God’s offering plate in
worship services, and how God spoke both peace and faith into my life while the
ushers collected the people’s love gifts.
Today I want to share just a bit of what I learned about those quiet
moments, and what God intends for our hearts when we will be quiet enough to
listen.
In short, I learned that the
offering time can be one of the most intense moments of worship. From what I know about church musicians (you
can learn a lot living with one for more than a half-century), it isn’t just
mailed-in on Sunday. A pianist or
organist will spend considerable time selecting an inspiring, relevant piece of
music to play while the plate is being passed.
It is akin to the pastor considering the nourishment that congregation
needs from a sermon. It is the liturgist’s
pulling-together just the right worship components to lead us to the
throne. It is the care the church custodian
takes in vacuuming the carpets and pews to create a suitable, uncluttered space
to worship.
For me, all of that often
comes together at the offering plate. I
imagine that is so, because often in worship that is one of the few times I get
to be silent and still. Most often I am
moving around in worship or talking. But
when the offering plates are being passed, I listen. The music might be familiar or new to my ear,
but I get to put together how God is speaking faith into my heart again,
because I’ve dropped my check into the plate, and that is the exact moment I
have second thoughts about the candy bars down at the Rexall Drug store. In my youth it was candy bars; now it’s the
mortgage, and new tires my car needs. In
short, it is temptation to not give, or at least not
give so much.
And in the stillness of
familiar refrains of Near to the Heart of God, or My
Faith Has Found a Resting Place, or something by Bach or Beethoven,
unknown to me, that I couldn’t name if my life depended upon it…it is in those
times I realize being faithful to give money isn’t at all about giving money;
it’s really all about putting Russell in that gold-plated plate. It’s about remembering the times when it was
a choice between being faithful with the little stuff (money), so that I will
be able to understand a little more of how God was taking care of the big
stuff; things that really mattered.
There are too many times of
that to share even a sample of the depths, height, and breadth of God’s love
showered on my family. We aren’t rich by
most people’s standards, but we have lived in God’s blessing. And in that blessing we have hardly missed a
meal, or ever gone wanting for the assurance that the eye which is on the
sparrow, also keeps watch over us.
And it’s even more than
looking back over a lifetime of blessing – it’s the expectancy of where my new
quarters, dropped in the offering plate, are going to land; it’s what God’s
hand will do to strengthen His kingdom with those quarters, and those quarters others
have dropped in the plate, as God expands and multiplies those gifts to meet the
needs of people I never met, and will probably never know this side of glory.
I love the offering plate;
in those times I meet my loving Father as we work together in His world.
For You Today
When next you put your offering in
the plate, kiss it, bless it, and pray over the good things God will do with it
when it leaves your hand. And then be
very still; hear what He speaks to your soul.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Public Domain
