Luke 21:1-4, “As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Over the years this particular scripture verse has always intrigued me. Jesus downplays the rich who gave their tithes because they had it to give; they simply gave an offering. He lifted up and exalted the poor widow who gave all she had because her gift was a sacrifice. She gave all she had to give.
Saturday evening at our Next Step Recovery worship celebration, we had two world class speakers in our midst. Michael Slaughter, our pastor, author and a personal mentor of mine and Frank Thomas, pastor of the largest church in Memphis, TN. Mike and Frank have been friends for twenty years and Mike asked Frank to preach at Ginghamsburg this weekend as we honored the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
Needless to say Dr. Thomas hit the ball out of the park as he spoke of God’s grace and mercy represented in the story of Cain and Abel. Although Cain killed his brother, God gave Cain a second chance and Cain made the most of it. All of us in the recovery community could totally relate to the story, for without God’s grace and mercy we would have all been destined for hell.
We also had a very powerful personal testimony given by a recovering alcoholic. The music, as always, was beautiful. The the Holy Spirit was alive and well.
What is so crazy is the fact that even though we had all of these powerful people, witnesses and experiences, they all took a back seat compared to something else I witnessed on this particular evening.
Each week at our recovery service we hand out “Next Step” tokens. It is a tradition in the recovery community to give metal tokens to people commemorating various lengths of clean time. Our Next Step tokens have our logo on one side and Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” on the other side.
During our “token moment” I noticed a small, feeble looking man making his way to the front of the church. He approached the lady handing out the tokens and he started to put something in the plate where the tokens were. I went over to see what he was doing and he looked at me, mumbled something I could not understand and slowly opened his arthritic fingers to show me he had a small handful of change. I’m not talking quarters, he had mostly pennies and a few dimes and nickles.
I told him the offering plates would be passed in a minute and he could give his offering then. Once again he mumbled something and waddled back to his seat in the rear of the church. After the token moment, I went to the rear of the church to make sure my friend would see the offering plates being passed. He didn’t need my help because as soon as he saw someone passing the plate he rose from his seat and waddled as fast as he could to the plate and as I heard the change hitting the bottom of the plate, tears formed in my eyes.
I had just witnessed the scripture from Luke Chapter 21 as noted above.
My friend’s offering, I mean sacrifice, trumped all the great happenings at my church on this night and he really made me wonder how much of my life is simply an offering instead of a sacrifice.
…just sayin’
God never ceases to amaze me.
P.E.A.C.E.
Jay@EagleLaunch
I was standing right behind this man as I went up to get a token. I had no idea what he was doing but did witness this happen. I am not surprised to hear of this “awesomeness” (if that is a word) as Saturday was absolutely amazing. I completely agree…as I am just beginning my personal relationship / journey with God…he never ceases to amaze.