RTW February 12
Unity In the Work
Take a sacred offering for the LORD. Let those with generous hearts present the following gifts to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze;…
Exodus 35:5
My Takeaways
Something Old
God could have spoken the Tabernacle into being, but instead chose to invite His people to be part of the miracle.
Something New
Perhaps instead of
- Seeing the miracle – God wants us to experience His presence in the miracle.
- Thanking God for His miraculous provision – He wants us to see how He can use ordinary people to do an extraordinary thing.
- Grumbling about the things – we can see the blessing of unity to accomplish something.
Something to Do
Be part of the miracle.
Each one of those verses that Wendy mentioned stuck out to me today-but for different reasons. My title could be “Dont Be Stingy”. The Lord doesn’t want My offerings out of any obligation-nor does he want me to serve others solely from that place of obligation. As a way to earn His (or another’s) love and acceptance. Psalm 51 comes to mind here. He wants my broken and contrite heart. Rather than sacrifice. THAT is my sacrifice. And I need Him to create in me a pure heart – a steadfast and WILLING spirit.
To do: live generously today. With my time, with my words, with my thoughts.
Well spoken Mary! Thanks for your comments.
Unity, YES, generosity, YES! I also saw that leaders were leading the people, a very orderly plan, a master plan, people using their talents as well as resources…So many times we volunteer to be part of an effort at church, but are not led, or trained or given the scope of what is involved and then the next time volunteers are needed, people aren’t as willing to just sign a blank slate committing themselves without knowing if they can really fulfill what is needed. A lesson for how to achieve unity is given in today’s lesson!
~Resting on the Sabbath day is mentioned again. This indicates to me that it is important and for our good.
~My Something To Do for today is to ask the Lord to make me willing and eager to give to the work of the church and to use the skills and abilities He has given me to serve.
God provided all the resources need, as well as, the people, with skill, to do what He asked of Moses. When God calls me to do sometime trust him to provide. Also, be ready, and prepare, to be a generous giver of money, rescoures, ability and time whenever God asks of me. My thoughts today were what can I be doing now to be better equipped to give and serve when God asks of me? I can make wise financial decisions that will leave room to give generously. I can make wise decisions with my time and commitments so I have the margin of time to give generously. I can continue to build on the abilities and gifts God has given me to be ready to use them generously for him. Get ready to be us by God!
Hannah, as I read today that Bezalel and Oholiah not only excelled as craftsmen and designers but were also able to teach their skills to others, I thought of Jonathan. He is very skilled in designing and making things out of wood, being able to build homes and buildings and do any remodeling project, as well as instructing his workers. I know he has served the church with these skills that God has given him.
I noticed that some were givers and some were workers. We all have something to give if we don’t have money/or in this case items of value we can still give of our time and skills.
This reading reminds me of Operation Christmas Child (Samaritan’s Purse). There were a few people at my church who were in charge of this effort, then there were all those from my church who gave hundreds of filled blessing-boxes. Then the leaders brought the boxes to a specified donation church where there was yet another group of people coordinating all the different surrounding church donations. And then all those donations were shipped to Samaritan’s Purse for inspection and, eventually, worldwide distribution.
What an effort! What willing hearts! What unity as we all worked together to bless the children! What generosity! It was incredible to be a part of it!
And this was the result:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/2018-occ-special-report/?utm_source=12991-OCC-Special-Report-Announcement-Eblast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=m_YOCC-19EB&utm_content=hero-image-gif
I hope the link comes through. If it doesn’t, you can probably go to SP’s website and see it.
I love this program. Have participated for many years -such a simple act of love with great results!
I asked god, what was the purpose of how long the curtains where, how many rings, the color,etc? It came to me that it was teaching them to listen and obey. Because they was always so disobedient, doing things the way they wanted. It was a lesson of working together and obeying, by telling them what they needed, and how they needed to make it. They came together as a whole to work on this project showing great teamwork.
The workers spend endless hours converting the offering materials into an actual tabernacle. Most of the Christian life is just that. Obedience. Sometimes tiring obedience. When understood, joyful obedience.The workers had no idea what would take place once the tabernacle was complete. The “wow” always comes later.
Thought it was really awesome how everyone got these materials. God had a plan, He knew when the Israelites left how useful the materials they took from the Egyptians would become.