1 Chronicles 29:1--9
Ooh have been so busy with Celebrate! and stuff that I haven't really had the time to post here. I think this blog's a great idea and I've been so encouraged by what has been shared, especially by Haggai 2:1-9. Keep the posts coming in! As the youngest member of the IGNYTE@PL team, I must first say to everyone: qing duo duo zhi jiao. (:Was just spending some time with God today and He guided me to this passage:
1 Chronicles 29:1-9
Gifts for Building the Temple
"1 Then King David said to the whole assembly: "My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the LORD God. 2 With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities. 3 Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: 4 three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, 5 for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate himself today to the LORD ?"
6 Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. 7 They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. 8 Any who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the LORD in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. 9 The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD. David the king also rejoiced greatly."
Above the resources David dedicated to building God's house, he gave of his personal treasures- gold and silver (v3). That's different from resources. (v2) Though we may not be building God's house physically, but we are building His house in the spiritual sense. We may not have gold or silver to offer, but what we have are talents and giftings He has blessed us with, in addition to our time and energy.
In this season, God has been challenging me to give MORE to the building of His house, "over and above" what I have been giving, especially as we move into PL. Honestly, I'm a person who's quite stingy with my time and am quite commitment-phobic, because I don't want to pile too many things on my plate and not be able to manage. Sometimes I do feel reluctant to take on new responsibilities in school and even in ministry. But God reminded me of Luke 12:48-
"... From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
And yet, to give more of ourselves, we need to give "freely and wholeheartedly" (v9). The people's sincere devotion to God and the building His house is evidently palpable in this passage. Note that what David and his people gave to the Lord were called gifts- gifts for building the temple. A gift is given out of love, out of a personal desire to please. God didn't demand them to give- there was no obligation to. Yet, they gave because they believed in a vision, a vision of seeing God's temple built and His Presence inhabit that place. It was a project that involved the entire nation (v6-9) and this is something I'd like to see in IGNYTE- that all of us would want to give the gift of our time, energy and talents to the building of God's house.
We build more than just a building or a youth ministry. We build His kingdom. And if we as leaders want to see our youths follow in our footsteps, we need to set the example, just as what David and his leaders did (v9).
What are some of our "personal treasures" today that God may be prompting us to give? Let them be unconditional gifts of love to the Lord, as we sow wholeheartedly into the exciting vision for IGNYTE@PL that God has placed in our hearts.
Exciting stuff ahead! Let's keep running on for Him!
in His love,
mich lee
(haha now there's michelle leong too so must add surname. And I get the record for the longest post so far! Geez I know I'm verbose. *sheepish grin* Record-breaking attempts anyone? :))
posted by Anonymous @ 9:14 PM
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