INTENTIONAL OFFERINGS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When you collect money for God's people, I want you to do exactly what I told the churches in Galatia to do. That is, each Sunday each of you must put aside part of what you have earned. If you do this, you won't have to take up a collection when I come. Choose some followers to take the money to Jerusalem. I will send them on with the money and with letters which show that you approve of them. If you think I should go along, they can go with me.

1 Corinthians 16:1-4 (CEV)

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I remember my early years of life when I started to live on my own. I had to learn how to form a budget, carefully planning each month to pay my bills, buy food, and hopefully have some money left over to save. It was a very deliberate, focused approach to money management.

As I became a Christian and started serving in the church, I learned how important offerings were to the work of ministry. There wasn’t some miraculous manna money from heaven that fell every month to pay the expenses of the church and its work. Rather, it was the contributions of the congregation that either helped the church succeed or contributed to its failure.

Once I understood this, I made it a point to add one more budget line item to my list, a deduction for church offering. It was completely intentional and rightfully so for our Lord expects us to return a portion of what He has provided to His kingdom work here on earth.

This matter of intentionally setting aside money to contribute towards the work of the church is far from a twenty-first century phenomena. For as we see in the opening verses of the final chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is providing direction to the church in Corinth in regard to their giving. Look again at his words here:

When you collect money for God's people, I want you to do exactly what I told the churches in Galatia to do. That is, each Sunday each of you must put aside part of what you have earned. If you do this, you won't have to take up a collection when I come. Choose some followers to take the money to Jerusalem. I will send them on with the money and with letters which show that you approve of them. If you think I should go along, they can go with me.  1 Corinthians 16:1-4 (CEV)

Paul’s guidance to the Corinthian Christians wasn’t something new. He had given the same counsel to the Galatians in regard to their offerings. The believers in Corinth were to set aside a portion of what they earned each Sunday to send to Christians in Jerusalem who were suffering terribly from persecution and in need. Paul would be coming and would expect the offering to be ready when he arrived. He then would provide letters validating approval of those designated from the Corinth church to deliver the offerings to Jerusalem. In order to remove any concern the Corinthian Christians may have over their money getting to Jerusalem safely, Paul offered to accompany them.

It’s clear that God’s word calls on believers to make intentional offerings. This begins in the Old Testament and continues in the New. Today, the call remains the same. Christians are blessed by God with resources – time, talent, and treasure - to live and carry out the work He wants them to do and He expects that all three be used to His glory. When it comes to His treasure, the money He bestows upon us, He wants us to set a portion aside to purposely offer to the church each Sunday. If we all do our part, the church will always have what it needs to carry out what God desires.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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