OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICE

I was invited a while ago to volunteer my writing skills at a new Christian web site. The creator knew me from another site and felt I could make a worthwhile contribution to this ezine she was creating. Her simple desire was to bring honor to the Lord by sharing uplifting and interesting stories about Christianity.

And I was more than happy to do it. From my view as long as the Lord was honored that was enough reward from me. It would be something I would regard as an offering of obedience. This would of course require a sacrifice of time and energy, but then from my view those are things that belong to the Lord anyway.

So I have embarked upon the simple quest of having the Lord lead me to individuals and organizations that I felt he would want shared in this ezine. Again my only desire was to simply honor Him. Beyond that I had no concern in terms of personal gain or attention for myself.

So far I have managed to contact a couple of wonderful servants of the Lord who have been willing to grant me the chance to share their service to God. But along the way I have also discovered sadly that in some cases what I perceived to be a ministry devoted to God was in reality more concerned with money.

That I have to admit sadden me. For I know that one has to have money to survive in life, but honestly should it really be the driving force behind serving the Lord.

Of course I have to let the Lord judge whether this one ministry was truly serving him or just using the name of Jesus to create a profitable business. Only he can know what lies at the heart of anyone.

As for myself, I am grateful to be free to serve the Lord where he provides me an income from a regular job. And it gives me a simple joy to know I can share what I think he wants me to share and don’t have to add some little blurb about needing support for this “ministry.”

I am not against anyone serving the Lord in a full time capacity such as a pastor and being compensated for such a calling. That is certainly a scripturally proper and correct way to serve God if one is so called.

All I wonder and reflect upon is how easy it is to lose the merit of service when dollar signs somehow echo in the mind. There is joy is the ministry and if it takes money in order to find that joy instead of the Holy Spirit is it really God inspiring the calling?

That is one of those questions I can’t answer for anyone else. As for me, well I’ll just plugging away in my modest effort to share whatever light the Lord grants me to share. And hope along the way it merits a ray of inspiration that helps another soul. If that brings some hope and joy to another person’s life and brings any honor to my Lord it is enough payment for me even if it doesn’t grace my bank account.