Sunday, March 26
Author: Chuck Roberts, Senior Associate Pastor
INTRODUCTION
From Sunday, March 26, through Sunday, April 30, Peachtree will provide additional devotionals to help us all think through what God is doing in our midst and through the Renewing the Promise Campaign. These Campaign Devotionals will run on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
FROM THE BIBLE
So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded.” Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.” Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
Exodus 36:1-7
DEVOTIONAL
Wow. Just WOW.
Imagine what it must have been like; Moses tells the people of God that the Lord has asked (asked?) them to contribute to the work that will result in the construction of the Tabernacle, the “traveling worship space” they will carry with them for forty years of wilderness wandering.
It will take time and be messy at points, but to worship God in the way the Lord has designed, everyone needs to pitch in.
Yes, there are some who have the capacity that others do not. They were the ones who were going to get their fingers dirty, their backs worn out, and their thumbs hit by hammers. But everyone needed to play a part; for many, that meant making whatever contribution they could.
And every morning, people were coming forward, making freewill offerings. Freewill, that is, not compulsory. They gave from the gracious generosity of their hearts that God could be worshiped.
Years ago, in another ministry context, the church I was serving in a different city determined it was time for some renovations. The Session went to work, devised a plan, and laid it out to the church, asking for financial support. Lib and I were new in our marriage, we were talking about starting a family, and it was that season of life when sometimes we simply “did not have two nickels to rub together.”
But we both knew that this was something we needed to do, and as we talked about it, it was something we wanted to do. We looked at what we planned to give to the church in a calendar year (we’d determined early on that I could not ask people to tithe—give ten percent—if we did not do that as well) and committed the same amount over a three-year period. There were months when it was tough, and as the campaign was winding down and we were about to leave the church to serve another, there was a pretty big chunk we had not yet given. We wondered what we could do.
Then out of the blue came a check that enabled us to fulfill what we wanted to give to the campaign. I remember laughing as Lib intoned King James language: “The Lord doth provide!”
We have seen that so many times through years of faithful response to God’s call and provision.
I believe we—Peachtree—can see a similar superabundance of response to Renewing the Promise, as did Moses and the people of Israel, if and when we all trust that “the Lord shall provide!”
PRAYER
Life and grace giving Lord, I thank you for the gifts of this life and the promise of the life to come. Work in my life today to help me know how I can respond to Your invitation to partner with You in the campaign my Church is embracing. Help me to be faithful to You, Lord, and to trust You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.