Today's Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 26 verses 1 through 5:
When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor."
Many people think of their gifts to God as pay for the preacher's salary and the upkeep of the building.
My salary is a nice benefit, and I'm grateful for the generosity; but that's not the primary reason for the gift. The real reason for giving is that it keeps us humble, and helps us remember where we came from.
America is a land of plenty for a lot of people who read my writings. But even if you have much now, chances are you aren't more than one or two or three generations away from pretty-near poverty. Our ancestors came over here in ships, on buggies, and in the arms and on the backs of big brothers who hardly had another stitch of clothing other than what they were wearing.
Giving to God reminds us, as today's Lesson says, that our ancestors were "wandering Arameans". Or, you might say they were wayfaring strangers, religious refugees, shackled slaves, and Scotch-Irish paupers. They were all poorer than church mice, and even less. But somehow they made it.
By God's grace they made it. And by our first fruits we remember it.
And it keeps us humble . . .
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment