Every Sunday at our church there is a segment called "Kids Giving to Kids." It is a special time when the children of the congregation are encouraged to give money to help children who are not as fortunate as they are.
Each Sunday in the middle of our scripted, carefully planned worship service, there is a brief period of utter chaos. After depositing his coins, a four-year old forgets the way and wanders up the wrong aisle, looking for familiar faces. A three-year-old girl squeals with joy as she runs to offer her dollar bill. There is noise and irratic movement and disorder. And we love it.
This morning as I looked around the room, I saw a Dad providing coins to his children so that they could participate. The children were so excited to be able to give. Obviously, they don't have money of their own; they trusted their dad to provide what they needed in order to make their offering.
I have always loved the name for God Abraham used: Jehovah Jirah, the Lord provides.
In Exodus, God told Moses how to construct the Tabernacle. After Moses told the people what was needed, they came forward, giving their gifts: precious metals, colored threads, and all sorts of things that could be used in the construction. In Exodus 35, all of the men and the women -- each who was willing -- made a freewill offering to God. They gave what they had.
In each case, God had provided the things the Israelites had. And because the people had the things, they could feel the joy of participation in the work God had called them to do. Because the Father was generous to them, they were, in turn, able to contribute.
In much the same way, we are given good gifts from God so that we can share what we have. Just as the dad provided coins to his children this morning, our God provides what we need to be able to participate in what he has called us to do.
What a wonderful glimpse of a loving Father.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Alive
Occasionally I like to post things I read that catch my interest. Here's an excerpt from Hearing God by Dallas Willard:
"What is life? In all its various levels and types, life is power to act and respond in specific kinds of relations. For example, a cabbage has certain powers of action and response and a corresponding level of life. There is a difference between a cabbage that is alive and one that is dead, thought the dead one still exists. This can also be said of a snail or a kitten.
"But a live cabbage can make no response to, say, a ball of string. That is precisely because of the kind of life that is in it. Though alive as a cabbage, it is dead to the realm of play. Similarly, a kitten playing with the string can make no response to numbers or poetry, and in that sense the kitten is dead to the realms of arithmetic and literature. A live cabbage, though dead to one realm (that of play) is yet alive to another -- that of the soil, the sun and the rain. The situation is similar with the kitten.
"Human beings were once alive to God. They were created to be responsive to and interactive with him. Adam and Eve lived in a conversational relationship with their Creator, daily renewed. When they mistrusted God and disobeyed him, that cut them off from the realm of the Spirit. Thus they became dead in relation to it -- much as a kitten is dead to arithmetic. God had said of the forbidden tree, "in the day you eat of it you shall die" (Gen 2:17). And they did.
"Biologically they continued to live, of course. But they ceased to be responsive and interactive in relation to God's cosmic rule in his kingdom. It would be necessary for God to confer an additional level of life on them and their children, through "being born from above," (Jn 3:3) in order for them once again to be alive in God, to be able to respond toward him and to act within the realm of the Spirit."
"What is life? In all its various levels and types, life is power to act and respond in specific kinds of relations. For example, a cabbage has certain powers of action and response and a corresponding level of life. There is a difference between a cabbage that is alive and one that is dead, thought the dead one still exists. This can also be said of a snail or a kitten.
"But a live cabbage can make no response to, say, a ball of string. That is precisely because of the kind of life that is in it. Though alive as a cabbage, it is dead to the realm of play. Similarly, a kitten playing with the string can make no response to numbers or poetry, and in that sense the kitten is dead to the realms of arithmetic and literature. A live cabbage, though dead to one realm (that of play) is yet alive to another -- that of the soil, the sun and the rain. The situation is similar with the kitten.
"Human beings were once alive to God. They were created to be responsive to and interactive with him. Adam and Eve lived in a conversational relationship with their Creator, daily renewed. When they mistrusted God and disobeyed him, that cut them off from the realm of the Spirit. Thus they became dead in relation to it -- much as a kitten is dead to arithmetic. God had said of the forbidden tree, "in the day you eat of it you shall die" (Gen 2:17). And they did.
"Biologically they continued to live, of course. But they ceased to be responsive and interactive in relation to God's cosmic rule in his kingdom. It would be necessary for God to confer an additional level of life on them and their children, through "being born from above," (Jn 3:3) in order for them once again to be alive in God, to be able to respond toward him and to act within the realm of the Spirit."
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