Junk...

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici

"But if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God."--Deuteronomy 15:21.  Moses, regarding animal sacrifices, reminding the people that whatever they offer is to be the very best.  God does not want junk.  

Junk.  In the last blog that I wrote we looked at the fact that God wants to be first in everything, including in our material gains.  God does not want junk.  As a disclaimer, I just want to say up front, this particular blog might step on some toes and make some people uncomfortable but I think this is something we all need to be reminded of, myself included.  

Junk.  Consider for a moment the image above.  It's a pretty disgusting sight isn't it?  This is an image from a scrap metal yard taken by the gentleman acknowledged above.  The image above is not something we would probably want to look at for an exorbitant amount of time.  But let me ask you this, have we ever taken time to step back and ask ourselves if what if God sees our sacrifices, financial in this case in the same way we look at the image above, with disgust.  What if God sees our "sacrifices" as junk? 

Junk.  I was reminded of the fact that God wants our very best in a couple of different ways over this last weekend alone.  First, it was Sunday morning during the prayer for our offering at services where the person praying recognized that with blessings come great responsibility.  Second, last night during the sermon, our preacher at the Bear Valley Church of Christ reminded us of Luke 12:48 which says that to him whom much has been given, much will be required.  So this begs the question how much has God given us? As a result, how much is He requiring of us?  

The fact that God has given us much. Nay, I would go so far as to say He has given us everything due to the fact that He gave His Son to die for our sins thereby meeting our greatest need.  However, it is no secret that God stopped there.  God continues to shower us with blessings day in and day out, whether we recognize it or not.  Even after meeting our greatest need through the gospel message,  God continues to bless us.  Simply put, this is all because of how much He loves us.  So if this is the case, how can we even think to give Him nothing more than our "scrap metal" or simply what is left over, our junk???  

So what does this all mean to us?  Well God wants the first of everything we have.  God wants the best of everything we have.  Of course, we are no longer required to sacrifice animals but God still expects us to give back and yes that includes with our money.   My encouragement to you this morning is this.  With the next paycheck you get, instead of thinking of all the bills you have to pay, first decide how much to give back to God and then figure out your bills second.  After all, isn't it God that has given you the means to be able to make your bills in the first place???  If you are already of this mindset, my encouragement is to try to give more.  After all,  God wants more than just junk.  

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!