My husband and I pastored a church for almost twenty years in the northern part of the United States. We raised our four daughters there, saw many souls saved, did many renovations and improvements on the existing church building and parsonage as well as purchase the adjoining property to use as rental property to assist with the church’s finances. We have been gone from there for thirteen years now, moving South to follow the calling of the Lord, however, we carried with us many wonderful memories that we cherish to this day. We went through many hardships there, however, challenging times teach us, make us stronger and more resilient. There is one specific memory though that came to mind when I was reading the scripture and was prompted to draft this article. It revolves around second hand ‘stuff.’
Now I know a lot of people who are avid garage sale surfers, and I mean no disrespect to them. Though I must admit that I did have to swallow my pride often when the girls were growing up and go to second hand clothing stores to keep them clothed, I did not peruse many garage sales, for the simple reason that my husband despises them. He was never privy to the second hand stores either, because he did not care for them and was also busy and preoccupied with the affairs of the church and job. I think he disliked them though, partly because growing up he saw so people that he knew, going to yard sales on a regular basis and buying junk they did not need or would never use, just because it was a ‘good deal.’ I did get him to admit however, that if I had a specific item in mind that I needed or wanted for the house and had a specific place in mind where I would put it and use it, he thought that would be all right to look around at yard sales for it, on occasion. I did not do this much because I did not want to cause any contention between us. You have heard it said, ‘You must pick your battles.’ We have been married for forty years now, so I think I made the right decision there. Well back to the story, I did know many people personally, who would look at the newspapers weekly and follow the whole circuit of sales that were going on in our small town and the surrounding areas. I do agree with my husband’s assessment to a point; however, I know that people must do what they need to survive and try to make things as nice as they can, within their available means.
The word ‘stuff’ was used quite a bit up north, and I had never really heard it used so much until we moved there. It is really a catch all phrase and can be used as a noun or a verb. An example using it as a noun could be, “Could you please help me unload all of this stuff out of my trunk?” Or if you are using it as a verb, one might say, “Could you just stuff that into the trunk please.” To stuff we know means to put, or force something into a space, but with these two examples we are left with no idea what was put in the trunk or taken out of the trunk, because ‘stuff’ can be just about anything. What we encountered was that people were always bringing ‘stuff’ to us or to the church, however, it was their second hand, often broken, worn out or thread bare items. This was a new concept to us and quite disconcerting at times, because when dealing with people, there are always feelings and emotions involved. The human spirit is a delicate condition, and a small matter can offend greatly. We were often put between a ‘rock and a hard place’ as they say. Accepting broken worn out items with grace that were not desirable or usable, only to put them into the storage room until the opportunity arose where we could kindly dispose of them, hopefully upon someone else’s suggestion. The storage room, attic and garage became full of ‘stuff,’ rotating and being recycled on a continual basis.
As the years went by, we found that people were doing this out of a loving and kind spirit. They had not been taught the concept of first fruits or bringing offerings without spot or blemish, but their motivation and hearts were sincere toward God. They were trying to be a blessing to us with what they had. Mark 12:41-44 shows this concept as well, “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” It is not the size of the offering that counts, but the motivation of the heart that God sees and rewards. Though we were young and had followed the will of the Lord to go to that town, as we matured and got to learn the people more, we had to repent and have a change of heart and attitude towards their ‘gifts,’ aka ‘stuff.’
Now having become very transparent and vulnerable in showing some of our growing pains, there is also a point where the children of the Lord must mature in their walk with the Lord as well. As we learn and partake of the sincere milk of the word, and grow and mature, we should not continue to think like children. The scriptures give us a couple of admonishments along these lines. 1 Peter 2:1-3 states, “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” Hebrews 6:1 says, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection (or maturity); not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.” 1 Corinthians 13:11 says, “ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” And Hebrews 5:12-14 states, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teaches you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
This brings us back to the topic I touched on earlier that young Christians may not yet know, and that is the topic of first fruits. Proverbs 3:9-10 tells us, “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: So, shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” This is not just a command, admonishment, or a ‘because I said so’ statement, but rather a covenant statement. A covenant is an ‘if and then’ proposition. ‘If’ you give as instructed by scripture, ‘then’ you will be blessed beyond measure and will not want for anything. Psalms 23:1 says in essence, that because I have made the Lord my shepherd, therefore, because of this fact, I shall not want. Malachi 3:10 is also a covenant statement, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Luke 6:38lets us know, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” There are innumerable scriptures regarding giving, offerings, tithes, sacrifices, and first fruits, and we will not be able to cover them all here, however, I believe we can see the trend of how God’s promises are measured on a covenant scale and not as man measures.
Since we are more mature, and we now know these principles and have a grasp on a few of these concepts, why do we buck against this beautiful process that has been put into place? You have heard it said that if you are holding on so tightly to what you already have, you cannot open your hands to receive what the Lord has in store for you, which we know must be even greater. The heart is the culprit. Jeremiah stated in the Old Testament, in chapter 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” In the New Testament, in Matthew 15:8-20 Jesus is teaching, “This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defiles not a man.”
James puts it this way in James 1:12-15, “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” And Paul states in Galatians 5:19-26, “ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” Matthew 6:19-21 states, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” We must know the word andcontinually be growing in the Lord, because if not, our hearts will lead us astray. The expression, ‘Just follow your heart’ is a misnomer. We must follow the principles of the Word of God that we have been taught, because the heart leads through emotions and not through understanding.
Let us read the account that prompted me to write this article. It is found in Matthew 26: 6-16, “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, what will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him.” Mark 14:3 “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she break the box and poured it on his head.” Luke 7:37-38 tells it this way, “And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.” Each account points out different nuances of the story from the perspective of the writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Where she was from, her station in life, the condition of her heart, her attitude toward Jesus, what she brought and how she presented it to Him. She brought the most precious thing she had and had probably been saving it for a momentous occasion. She broke the bottle, poured it all out and did not keep anything back, it could not be reused, and she did so with a contrite and humble spirit. What a lesson we can learn from this sinner lady on repentance, reverence, sacrifice and love! However, the disciples did not all view this in the same way.
Why so often are the ‘works of the flesh’ as Galatians stated, like envying and covetousness, namely greed, found in the house of God? The disciples had indignation toward the woman and the situation, and said to Jesus, “to what purpose is this waste?” Firstly, this boggles my mind that they had walked with the Lord for three and a half years and were still so clueless. Secondly, it is amazing that they had the audacity to say this to Jesus, yet this shows us how the lust of the flesh cannot be gotten rid of on our own. It takes a supernatural change within us through the infilling of the Holy Ghost and the renewing of our minds for us to be able to ‘walk in the Spirit’ successfully. There was one disciple, because of his wrongful response to his mistake, Judas Iscariot, who did not get the privilege to experience this glorious miracle of the Holy Ghost for himself, because his greedy heart led him astray and he allowed Satan to take advantage of his weakness. Repentance was available to him, just as it was to Peter when he denied the Lord, but Judas did not find his way back. To me he had such an unnecessarily tragic end. Now, before we are too harsh with judgement on Judas Iscariot, let us examine our own hearts!
As my husband and I as young ministers learned that the people in our congregation in the Northern part of the United States were giving, less than best items to the church out of a pure heart, we also years later learned that this is not always the case. As we moved south, following the call of God, we found quite a different story. Though we moved to what is considered the ‘Bible Belt’ and the south is known for its ‘southern hospitality,’ the culture and people were vastly different than we had become accustomed to. As we worked our way through culture shock and again learning the people, we found that they also were generous givers to the house of the Lord with a few differences. Firstly, they did know, whether by actual teaching or observation, the principles of first fruits and of giving your best to the Lord and they took immense pride in giving. Though this was refreshing, as we again underwent another maturing process as it were by fire as the purging of gold or silver does, to skim away the dross from our lives, we became privy to another sad fact. Secondly, their motives behind the ‘stuff’ as they say in the north or ‘offerings’ as they say in the south, were not always pure. Thirdly, they were not willing to ‘break the ointment bottle’ as the woman with the alabaster box did. They had limitations to their ‘offerings.’ Fourthly, they wanted to control how the ’gift’ was used. When the lime light was off of them, or they thought someone else was benefitting too much, they stopped giving, without regard to the Word of God or the leading of the Spirit. They would say as it were, like the disciples did to Jesus, “To what purpose is this waste?” Another way to put it, is “What benefit will I get from giving this ‘gift’?” this attitude extended to even believing they owned the church themselves, which is contrary to the very definition and purpose of the church. How are these works of the flesh found in the Church of the living God. The culprit is the heart!
I must insert here that this is only a ridiculously small part of our story and testimony, since we have lived and traveled all over the world, grown up in the church and have been in the ministry ourselves now for over forty years. Also, let it be said that no matter where you go, north, south or in a foreign land, you will have those in the church who have pure motives and those who do not, and those who endeavor to walk in the Spirit and those who do not. No one knows the heart but God. Just as the twelve disciples of Jesus were a mixed group, so is our world and the church of today. I am just sharing what came to mind when I read the story for the umpteenth time, of the little lady with the Alabaster Box. In fact, I used to sing that song that was written, many years ago and it always touch me. We do not know the cost of the oil in each person’s alabaster box nor how great a sacrifice it is for the little widow woman who gives only two mites in the offering plate.
As we have already read, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Greed, envying, covetousness, hatred and all the ‘such like’ as Paul said in Galatians, are not meant to be found in the mature Christian. We must examine our hearts and do a thorough cleaning. In Psalm 139:23-24 David prays, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” This needs to be our prayer daily. No sacrifice for the Lord is too great, nor any gift too costly. All that we have we have received from Him and belongs to Him. 2 Corinthians 9:7 states, “Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” Let us reiterate Matthew 16:19-20 where Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” If you should come across someone who asks you or has the attitude of, “To what purpose is this waste?” Let them know that this is not waste, but it is going into an ‘Escrow account’ for your heavenly mansion, in a Pearl gated community that is build four-square, and that has streets of gold!