One of my favorite hymns is Jesus Paid it all. The refrain says so much in so few words: "Jesus Paid it all,
all to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."
To me, this should be the guiding factor after giving our lives to Jesus. He paid it all, I owe everything to Him. But that's not how it often works, is it?
As I am concluding my study of the Old Testament, I noticed a pattern. God would rescue Israel, they would be grateful, for a while, then go right back to what was destroying them. Or, they would have a time of prosperity, and would continue their sacrifices to God, but would worship Idols as well. And God, who is a Jealous God, would show over and over that He was going to have none of it.
I think in the Modern Church, we can reflect the Israelites of the Old Testament quite a bit. We think because we come to church, offer a sum of our earnings, check off all the boxes, God is pleased with what we do. That's how it works, right? Right??
Unfortunately, since the beginning, there has been worship God outright rejects. He rejected the offering of Cain, and to the church of Laodecia, He said "I will vomit you out of my mouth." Ananias and Sapphira were stricken dead, not because they held back a portion of their offering, but because they said they gave all to take away from God's recognition. God will not share us, and so we cannot come to church on Sunday Morning, and give a portion of ourselves, then chase after the empty idols of work, busyness, sports, and whatever else (not necessarily bad things, but things that become objects of worship). God wants all or nothing. He wants our time, treasures and talents. He wants complete and utter devotion. Grace is free, but it isn't cheap; let's not act like it is.
1 Chronicles 21:18-30 English Standard Version (ESV)
David Builds an Altar
18 Now the angel of the Lord had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 20 Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and paid homage to David with his face to the ground. 22 And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” 23 Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” 24 But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 25 So David paid Ornan 600 shekels[a] of gold by weight for the site. 26 And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the Lord, and the Lord[b] answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. 27 Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon, 30 but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Footnotes:
a 1 Chronicles 21:25 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
b 1 Chronicles 21:26 Hebrew he
