Thought of the Day !!

"What a weariness this is," you say, and you sniff at me, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in the flock and vows to give it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is reverenced among the nations.
Malachi 1:13-14 (NRSV)

Malachi was coming down on the priests about accepting poor offerings and bringing them to the Lord. The command by God was to bring the first fruits, not what was left over. They were supposed to sacrifice the best of their flock, not the straggler that couldn't keep up.

Today we live altogether differently because of the shed blood of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. We are saved by God's grace and not how many offerings we can present or how well we can live. But does that mean that we're not still called to make offerings to the Lord?

Paul writes in Romans that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices. We are to give our hearts and our lives to Jesus as offerings to God. But the question that we ought to consider is this. Are we living in a holy and acceptable way (or trying to anyway)? Or are we living for ourselves and giving any leftover time and money and energy to God? If it's the latter, are we any different from those priests that Malachi was coming down on so long ago?

Give your first fruits to God because He wants to bless them and bless you. When we give ourselves to Him and His service we find joy abundantly.

In the love of Christ,
greg