Tag: Sacrifice

A Lesson in Sacrifice

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”  Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the LORD had commanded.  When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him; and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground.  Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”  Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.  All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God respond favorably to you.”

But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.  David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the LORD answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel. – 2 Samuel 24:18-25 (NRSV)

Sacrifice requires at least one element in order to qualify as sacrifice: it must cause us a deficit of some kind.  For David, it would be easy to assume that his deficit was the cost of the threshing floor, but the real deficit for David was his reputation. By purchasing the threshing floor from Araunah, David was declaring the place of sacrifice as his and his alone.  David was living out his own words, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalms 51:17)

In today’s society, going without cable or eating out less are considered sacrifices, but they are not the ones that get us closer to the heart of God.  The kind of sacrifices that we need to teach our children about will cost us something.  They need to see in us the willingness to put our reputations, our careers, even our lives at stake for the sake of being right with God, our family and our community.

It is interesting to note that the threshing floor and the surrounding hill became the building site of the temple.  This place that was a billboard for David’s sin would become the dwelling place for God and the place of worship for His people.  This is what sacrifice does for His people – it expands His residency and gives us opportunity to worship.  Teaching our children to sacrifice like David will take time, but it will increase God’s living space in their lives and room to worship Him.

Lord, help me to be a man of sacrifice.  Give me the tools to conquer pride and selfish ambition so You can overcome the unconquered areas of my life.  Let me be an example of godly sacrifice to my children for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Trust

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

Now the camp of Midian lay below him
in the valley. During that night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up, go down
against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are
afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to
what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So
he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites,
the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley,
thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the
seashore.

Gideon arrived just as a man was
telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of
barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with
such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

His friend responded, “This can be
nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has
given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”

When Gideon heard the dream and its
interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel
and called out, “Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your
hands.” – Judges 7:8b-15

It is no great secret that the
Israelites were successful whenever they put their trust in God.  However, God is not one to allow His children
to fall into a lazy unexercised trust.
He asks us to live out an active, expanding trust.  In paring down the number of fighting men to
attack the Midianites, God is upping the trust factor, exercising Gideon’s
trust and the trust of those who were following him.

Sometimes we have to up the ante to
get our kids to understand that they can trust us. We need to fulfill a silly
request or meet some unreasonable request.
Our ability to provide safety and security will be tested and we will make
sacrifices and investments to pass the test.
On the other side of the coin, we need to instill in our children the
desire to be trusted.  While the Israelites
had to trust in God to be victorious, they needed to be trustworthy to carry
out God’s plan.

Trust is a beautiful thing.  It overcomes our fears, helps us see without
our eyes and takes us directions we would never pick left to our own devices.
Trust is the spark that lights the fire of revival, it is the seed planted in
the ground out of site with the promise of a harvest.  Trust is taking 300 men against
thousands.  It is raising children in the
way they should go and then letting them go.

I want my children to trust me and I
want them to be trustworthy in increasing measure.  Lord, help me to be trustworthy for Your
kingdom and my children. Amen.

Our Children Do Not Belong to Us

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. – Genesis 22:1-3 (NRSV)

We have all had reality checks. These critical intersections between our perception and the truth help us change direction or motivate us to move with more purpose in the direction we were headed. Sometimes we have been the mouthpiece for God to speak truth into someone’s delusion. Other times we needed to hear good sense from anywhere God could get through to us. But I know of only two people who God asked to sacrifice their sons – Abraham and Mary.

However, Abraham’s story calls us to an attitude as fathers; to a posture toward God regarding our children. It is a simple, but difficult truth – our children do not belong to us. Everything is His and we are entrusted with what He chooses to give us, including our children. Some may say this is a cop out on being responsible – making our children God’s responsibility – but this is a kneejerk perspective and a misunderstaning. More often than not, we take better care of what is entrusted to us than we do the things we own. It is a matter of accountability. I only have to account to myself for what I own, but I must account to someone else for what has been entrusted to me.

Abraham, by his actions, proved that he was totally in tune with this concept. He moved forward on God’s command without hesitation or complaint, understanding that it was fully in God’s rights to ask whatever He wanted of Abraham. So how do we get to that same place of immediate and unquestioning obedience in our lives? The answer is practice.

Abraham had a long track record of going where God told him to go, and had learned that the promise was only going to come on God’s terms. He had plenty of opportunities to practice his righteous response to God. The reality is that God has a plan for our children’s lives that may involve risk and we need to be prepared to support them in following God’s plan. If we want to have the response that Abraham had, we need to start practicing on the easier things now.

Today is an opportunity to offer your children to God as a sacrifice. Certainly not to the extreme that Abraham was asked to go, but we must be willing to let them grow and go beyond our comfort zone. Pray for the strength and courage to let your children go where God wills to do what He wills. Pray for insight into the gifts and abilities that God has given to you children. Ask for the wisdom and patience to lead them forward in prayer into a life of obedience, sacrifice and love. Amen.

Hammer and Nail

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, FatherhoodLeave a comment

Hammer and Nail

 

Muscled hands, calloused and rough,

Work with care and a gentle touch.

Tree to timber with saw and stone;

Through patient skill a form has grown.

A stable manger of humble scale,

Put together by hammer and nail.

 

A babe is born inBethlehem;

A wooden manger a bed for him.

Babe becomes child, child becomes man;

The Carpenter’s skill flows through His hands.

Left His home on a long, hard trail.

Earning His keep by hammer and nail.

 

Love has led Him to a lonely hill;

The Cross His burden for doing God’s will.

The mockers taunt, the angry yell,

Those sinners He would save from hell.

A slaughtered Lamb to rend the veil.

Hung on the Cross by hammer and nail.

 

I strike a blow each time I fail;

Hand and foot, hammer and nail.

A Lesson in Sacrifice

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”  Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the LORD had commanded.  When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him; and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground.  Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”  Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.  All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God respond favorably to you.”

But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.  David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the LORD answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel. – 2 Samuel 24:18-25 (NRSV)

Sacrifice requires at least one element in order to qualify as sacrifice: it must cause us a deficit of some kind.  For David, it would be easy to assume that his deficit was the cost of the threshing floor, but the real deficit for David was his reputation. By purchasing the threshing floor from Araunah, David was declaring the place of sacrifice as his and his alone.  David was living out his own words, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalms 51:17)

In today’s society, going without cable or eating out less are considered sacrifices, but they are not the ones that get us closer to the heart of God.  The kind of sacrifices that we need to teach our children about will cost us something.  They need to see in us the willingness to put our reputations, our careers, even our lives at stake for the sake of being right with God, our family and our community.

It is interesting to note that the threshing floor and the surrounding hill became the building site of the temple.  This place that was a billboard for David’s sin would become the dwelling place for God and the place of worship for His people.  This is what sacrifice does for His people – it expands His residency and gives us opportunity to worship.  Teaching our children to sacrifice like David will take time, but it will increase God’s living space in their lives and room to worship Him.

Lord, help me to be a man of sacrifice.  Give me the tools to conquer pride and selfish ambition so You can overcome the unconquered areas of my life.  Let me be an example of godly sacrifice to my children for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Trust

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, Parenting2 Comments

Now the camp of Midian lay below him
in the valley. During that night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up, go down
against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are
afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to
what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So
he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites,
the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley,
thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the
seashore.

Gideon arrived just as a man was
telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of
barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with
such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”

His friend responded, “This can be
nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has
given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”

When Gideon heard the dream and its
interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel
and called out, “Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your
hands.” – Judges 7:8b-15

It is no great secret that the
Israelites were successful whenever they put their trust in God.  However, God is not one to allow His children
to fall into a lazy unexercised trust.
He asks us to live out an active, expanding trust.  In paring down the number of fighting men to
attack the Midianites, God is upping the trust factor, exercising Gideon’s
trust and the trust of those who were following him.

Sometimes we have to up the ante to
get our kids to understand that they can trust us. We need to fulfill a silly
request or meet some unreasonable request.
Our ability to provide safety and security will be tested and we will make
sacrifices and investments to pass the test.
On the other side of the coin, we need to instill in our children the
desire to be trusted.  While the Israelites
had to trust in God to be victorious, they needed to be trustworthy to carry
out God’s plan.

Trust is a beautiful thing.  It overcomes our fears, helps us see without
our eyes and takes us directions we would never pick left to our own devices.
Trust is the spark that lights the fire of revival, it is the seed planted in
the ground out of site with the promise of a harvest.  Trust is taking 300 men against
thousands.  It is raising children in the
way they should go and then letting them go.

I want my children to trust me and I
want them to be trustworthy in increasing measure.  Lord, help me to be trustworthy for Your
kingdom and my children. Amen.

Our Children Do Not Belong to Us

On By cdyeagerwritesIn Children, Devotions, Fatherhood, ParentingLeave a comment

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. – Genesis 22:1-3 (NRSV)

We have all had reality checks. These critical intersections between our perception and the truth help us change direction or motivate us to move with more purpose in the direction we were headed. Sometimes we have been the mouthpiece for God to speak truth into someone’s delusion. Other times we needed to hear good sense from anywhere God could get through to us. But I know of only two people who God asked to sacrifice their sons – Abraham and Mary.

However, Abraham’s story calls us to an attitude as fathers; to a posture toward God regarding our children. It is a simple, but difficult truth – our children do not belong to us. Everything is His and we are entrusted with what He chooses to give us, including our children. Some may say this is a cop out on being responsible – making our children God’s responsibility – but this is a kneejerk perspective and a misunderstaning. More often than not, we take better care of what is entrusted to us than we do the things we own. It is a matter of accountability. I only have to account to myself for what I own, but I must account to someone else for what has been entrusted to me.

Abraham, by his actions, proved that he was totally in tune with this concept. He moved forward on God’s command without hesitation or complaint, understanding that it was fully in God’s rights to ask whatever He wanted of Abraham. So how do we get to that same place of immediate and unquestioning obedience in our lives? The answer is practice.

Abraham had a long track record of going where God told him to go, and had learned that the promise was only going to come on God’s terms. He had plenty of opportunities to practice his righteous response to God. The reality is that God has a plan for our children’s lives that may involve risk and we need to be prepared to support them in following God’s plan. If we want to have the response that Abraham had, we need to start practicing on the easier things now.

Today is an opportunity to offer your children to God as a sacrifice. Certainly not to the extreme that Abraham was asked to go, but we must be willing to let them grow and go beyond our comfort zone. Pray for the strength and courage to let your children go where God wills to do what He wills. Pray for insight into the gifts and abilities that God has given to you children. Ask for the wisdom and patience to lead them forward in prayer into a life of obedience, sacrifice and love. Amen.