We are called by God to give the first fruits of our labors. Whether our money or our sons, the message is clear. God wants our best. Not because He needs it, but because our first fruits represent our love for our Heavenly Father.
Do you give your earthly father “seconds?” If he joins you for dinner, do you feed him what was left from the night before? Of course not. Even if your earthly father is not around, your Heavenly Father is always there for you, no matter what. We can never “pay Him back” for the gift of salvation, but we can give the best of what we have.
For us, first fruits represent a sacrifice. But in God’s economy, we are just sending it on ahead. He alone holds on to our most precious possessions until we return.
What better way to show our love than to give our very, very best; our sons? They are, after all, on loan to us from God. We were the selected parents who saw a child grown into a man; a man of compassion, purpose, responsibility, and love for others. A man (or woman) who understood sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13
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I just keep expecting to hear Rhys’ voice as he comes dashing in the door with a Rockstar in his hand: “Mom, can you…”
Can we ever answer their questions again? Can we ever be the same again?
The answer of course, is no. Nothing will ever be the same for us since the loss of our heroes. But here is where God’s message is perfectly clear. We are daily re-made, inching ever closer to the creation that the Father desires us to be. We are the work of His hand. Continued »
Every once in a while God reveals Himself. Most often it happens when we are so tied up in our own lives that we miss it. But every now and then even Hollywood or in this case the Ukraine equivalent, just stumbles over something remarkable.
The following video shows the winner of ” Ukraine’s Got Talent”, Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.
Kseniya Simonova says:
“I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment.” Continued »
I’m learning a lot about trust lately. So many messages I’ve listened to this week and so many passages I’ve read in the Bible have reminded me this week what trust in the Lord is all about.
Trusting in a plan we cannot see is hard. I don’t understand the plan where my son never reaches 21, where I never get to see him again, where he doesn’t get to hug his little girl. But seriously, if I understood everything about God, wouldn’t that make him a very small God? I am certainly not one of the brilliant minds in the universe, so my understanding of God and his plan would just put Him into the “man behind the curtain” category; no omniscience, no omnipresence, no omnipotence…just some guy behind the curtain. Continued »