First fruits?….giving Tuesday…

 First fruits?…giving Tuesday…

Fall sales have passed, Black Friday is over…cyber Monday has finished…oh, but some are extended for further bargains…

And now, by the way…let’s give something…it’s Giving Tuesday…last but not least…

Or maybe it should be first and the most…oh well, at least it is acknowledged….

I think this every year as this day approaches…I get multiple solicitations for “Giving Tuesday”, some with matches of funds to double the giving…it feels like an “add on” sale or last minute thought instead something planned…something CELEBRATED….giving is an act of worship…an act acknowledging Who really owns it all…Who really gives the ability to give…thank YOU…

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 

As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 

And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.

Exodus 23:16

and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

Numbers 13:20

And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 26:10

We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord;

Nehemiah 10:35