The Sack

 I've been greatly impacted by the life and ministry of a Chinese believer known as Brother Yun, the Heavenly Man. His experiences as part of the heavily persecuted church in China are filled with miracles of deliverance and power. To read of them is both spiritually exhilarating and humbling at the same time.

In his book, Living Water, he tells of when it came time to send out some brethren for the spreading of the Gospel, they would gather to worship and exhort. They would also pass around a sack for the purpose of receiving an offering to support the ones going out. He said that the norm was for people to give all they had to support the mission. He writes, "There was no holding back." Being that almost all were simple farmers, it was a truly sacrificial offering. Sometimes there would be those among them who had absolutely nothing materially or financially to offer. so they would, "men and women alike, with tears streaming from their eyes, literally get into the offering sack when it came to them. They wanted to signal to God that their lives were all they had to give and they were willing to give them for His glory."

How does that contrast with our giving lives here in the west? We speak a lot of being givers and of being generous. By our own standards, we may be, but by the standard of those simple Chinese believers? They don't see giving to HIm as a matter of percentages, but of totality. After we give our "percentage," how many of us really see all that is left as also being His? Completely His? How many of us are willing to put much into His "sack," but not ourselves? How many of us have invisible lines drawn in our lives as to just how much of ourselves we will put into His sack when it passes by? 

How many times have we read or heard Jesus' telling of the rich Pharisee and the widow in poverty? The Pharisee gave a large offering and felt he'd won God's approval. The woman gave two pennies, which was all she had. Jesus said it was her offering and not the Pharisee's that the Father found acceptable. The Pharisee gave out of his riches. The widow gave all of hers. It was not the amount. It was their heart that moved the heart of God. 

How like that Pharisee are we really? Do we put much into the sack and feel we've really worshipped Him, all the while holding back what it is He most desires....ourselves? All that is us, our past, our present, and our future. Our hopes and dreams. Our desires. Our wounds. Our failures and our sins. All that we are given over to all that He is. All of ourselves in His sack. Nothing kept back. Nothing is ours. All we are and have is His. We give our all and all for His glory.

We don't need to wait for our next worship gathering to make this offering. We can do it now in our own time of personal worship. The sack comes to us. What is it that we will put into it? 2 Chronicles 16:9 reads, "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." As His eyes fall upon us, on you and on me, do we offer Him parts and pieces of our lives, or all of our lives? 

Blessings,
Pastor O