Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.
“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
“Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.
“Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.
“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.
“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

• Exodus 23:16-19

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

• Luke 18:22-27

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

• Luke 19:5-10

When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;
    then they forgot me.

• Hosea 13:6

When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

• Malachi 1:8

“The reality is that, whether we acknowledge our wealth or not, being rich is a serious disadvantage spiritually. As William Wilberforce once said, ‘Prosperity hardens the heart.’
“When talking to a wealthy person who wanted to go to heaven (and doesn’t that describe most of us?), Jesus said, ‘ “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he [the rich man] heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’ “ (Luke 18:22-24). He says it’s as hard as a camel to go through the eye of a needle-in other words, impossible. But then Jesus offers hopeful words: ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’ (v. 27).
“In the very next chapter, as Jesus enters Jericho, we see exactly how the impossible becomes possible with God. There, the wealthy tax col­ lector Zacchaeus gives half of his money to the poor and pays everyone back four times what he has defrauded them. And Jesus declares, ‘Today salvation has come to this house’ (Luke 19:9).
“The impossible happened that day–a rich man received salvation!

“God wants our best, deserves our best, and demands our best. From the beginning of time, He has been clear that some offerings are acceptable to Him and others are not. Just ask Cain, upon whose offering God ‘did not look with favor’ (Gen. 4:5).
“For years I gave God leftovers and felt no shame. I simply took my eyes off Scripture and instead compared myself to others. The bones I threw at God had more meat on them than the bones others threw, so I figured I was doing fine.
“It’s easy to fill ourselves up with other things and then give God whatever is left.”

• Francis Chan, crazy love

If the subject of a tithe, or ten percent, ever comes up in conversation, people get angry if you suggest that the ten percent is before withholding.  After all, you did not see your entire pay because the government took the firstfruits.  But the Bible does not make any distinctions, one way or the other.

But whether you give ten percent or only five percent, is the offering to God given in the right spirit?  Ananias and Sapphira lost their lives, not because they withheld part of the purchase price, but they bragged about how this was the full purchase price when they had done their own “withholding.”

I personally cannot stand the annual stewardship campaign.  The church spends 10% of their sermons on giving more money to the church – if you are lucky that the campaign only lasts 5 Sundays, 6 Sundays and it is over ten percent.  I set this site up as a no advertisement site.  Those in control may change that at some point, but I wanted no barriers in receiving a message from God.

But a church has a budget to keep.  Have you noticed how the money people of the church almost, or maybe not almost, worship the budget and if you ever mention “faith”, they break out in hives?  I never put an amount on a pledge card.  Jesus taught that if at all possible, do not ever make a vow.  Should that not include a vow to God for His church?  Can the money people base their current spending on a proven track record without a budget based upon pledges?  You know, do as Christ taught – live by faith?

Like I said, they break out in hives, and who wants to see that…

But these same money people, some of them, give $10,000+ to the church each year, like clockwork, between Christmas and New Years.  Why?  It was not ten percent of their salary that they received monthly or even more often.  It was ten percent of the year-end bonus, given to the church as a tax break.  Please, cash it fast so that there is a record of the giving prior to January 1.  Otherwise, “I wasted the effort.”

So, what is the mindset?  Giving from the heart, helping the budget for the church which pays employees monthly, or getting the tax break?

These people are necessary in most churches in the country.  These big time money people give most of the budget for the church.

But is it firstfruits or is it leftovers?

I may not give ten percent of my income, and I may not give it all to the church.  The Voice of the Martyrs, Navigators, the local Christian television network, and St. Jude get donations.  The largest of those being Navigators.

But my firstfruits are my writings.  I spend most of my waking hours at the computer or thumbing through reference books and the Bible.  Do we spend ten percent of our time worshipping God each day, or is that just an hour on Sunday?  I doubt if I have ever seen a money person in Sunday school, at least it is rare.  Time is money and Sunday school takes up an extra hour!  Come on!  The worship service is already too long.

This post has rambled a bit, but one last note about firstfruits versus leftovers.

The word firstfruits is in the Bible 32 times (NIV), but those “knowledgeable” folks at MSWord put a red line underneath it when I type it.  Is it a word?  Yes.  Is it spelled correctly?  Yes.  But it is such an archaic concept that they list it as being misspelled.

It is no wonder that people give God their leftovers.  We have conformed to this world instead of being transformed and prepared for the next.

Lord, fill me with Your love.  Thank You for loving me.  I kick myself when I have a day where my brain runs in circles and very little gets written, but honestly, I do not have a life outside my writing and Sunday school class preparation and the prayer team.  I could give a few dollars more, but at times, my giving puts me in the hole.  Yet, I give, and You give back so much, in tangible ways and in the intangible.  You are an awesome God.  Praise be Your name.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.