“Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the LORD?”
--1 Chronicles 29:5b
Today’s verse is a question King David asked his people and it’s a question I want to ask you today.
Will you consecrate, will you dedicate yourself, to the Lord when it comes to giving to God’s Kingdom work?
“Now, Pastor,” you may say, “I just can’t afford to give to my church. I just can’t afford to support a missionary or Christian organization right now.”
Well, you know, I know it may feel this way. It may feel like you’re too strapped to give to God’s work. And I know that there are people who find themselves in an emergency situation financially right now.
But if I could, I’d like to make a case as to why now is the time… perhaps more than in recent memory… for you and me to dig deep to contribute towards Kingdom work in our world.
Because of the state of our economy, almost every person in this nation and in hundreds of nations around the world has been impacted financially. Some have lost jobs. Some have seen pay cuts. Some have seen their retirement account plummet. Every person I talk to these days seems to be affected in some way by the economy!
People are experiencing fear and uncertainty on a level that perhaps they never have before. The upcoming election only increases those feelings. And as a result, people are more open than ever to the gospel. They realized they’ve based their hope on something that’s fleeting… like a job, a stock portfolio, whatever. And they’re looking for something more, something that really lasts!
That’s why you and I must be more determined than ever to make sure these people can hear the Good News of the gospel. We can’t cut back now. We can’t scale back, not when there’s a hunger for truth like there is now.
So I’ll ask the question again that King David posed to the people of Israel: “Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the LORD?” Will you?
It’s my prayer that you will see the need in our world today, and willingly say, “Yes!”
WE MUST BE MORE DETERMINED THAN EVER TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN HEAR THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL.
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.”
Luke 8:54–56
One of the best statements on eternal life I have ever read came from evangelist D. L. Moody. He said, “Some day you will read in the papers, ‘D. L. Moody of East Northfield is dead.’ Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”
Death is a great fear in our world—for many people, the greatest fear that they have. Yet while there is sorrow in the death of a friend or loved one, for a believer, death no longer has the power to harm us. Jesus has all power, even the power over death. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Death did everything in its power to hold Jesus in the grave, but it failed. The power of the tomb has been defeated once and for all, and can live in the authority and power given to us by the One who died and rose again to live forever.
Today’s Growth Principle:
For the Christian, death is simply the door that allows us to enter the presence of our loving Saviour.
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