Putting the cart before the horse

It has been said that we are human beings and not human doings - making the point that who we are is more important than what we do. And whilst this is of course true we can't separate who we are from what we do. The Bible tells us that we will know what is inside people by the 'fruit' that we see on the outside.

But we need to be careful that we get these things the right way round. We don't do the outward stuff in order to change what is going on on the inside. No. It is the things that are going on on in the inside that will affect the way things are on the outside. God is always more interested on the inside - if that's not right then the outward stuff counts for nothing.

And so when it comes to thinking about offerings and sacrifices (as we were last time - see last post) the things that we offer to God must always be our response to everything that God has already done for us. We don't 'do things for God' in order to earn his love or forgiveness or because of a guilty conscience. Sin has already been dealt with by Jesus' death on the cross. The only offerings left available to us are those voluntary offerings that are offered as worship in response to God's love for us.

So what kind of things do we offer? Not animal sacrifices. Romans 12:1 talks about offering our whole lives as a living sacrifice. The answer then is 'everything'. In line with Leviticus 1-7  - some of the offerings were offered to God alone, and these were burnt up, some were partly offered to God and partly to the priests, some were for God, the priest and the offerer.

So it is right that some of our time and some of our resources are sacrificially given over to God - e.g. giving up 3 hours a week to help out at a church run community toddler group, or regularly giving a percentage of your income to the local church and other charities. But we should also see all the stuff that we keep for ourselves as being an offering to God and use it wisely in ways that will bring glory to Him.

A bit more later...