wahlau's online hut

bible has this part that says:

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

so often this verse has been "abused" in telling everyone to give offering cheerfully. Well, i do believe that we should give God a portion of what we have (better still, tithe) and we must do it cheerfully (else what's the point of offering if we are giving out unwillingly). It is not about God being poor or stingy, or even He relies on our offering. He has(or even owns) everything, so we should not have such thinking in our minds.

but one thing i do often think, is that many things God ordered us to do are actually for our own good... today we went through one. We have always the pleasure of being chauffeur by a loving sister in christ to church. Today we left home pretty rush (after a nice breakfast together with her of course) and i realised i have forgotten to bring my wallet right before i get into the car. In such situation, each of us might face following decisions:

1. well, run back to the house and pick up the wallet (after opening numerous doors and locks, not forgetting locking them later when getting out).

2. we know of course good that God is not poor, so why not just postpone the offering of the week to the next weeks (which sometimes you get surprised finding more money in wallet then expected, not knowing they were supposed to be given as offering last Sunday).

3. get my wife to go back home to take my wallet 

of course, i have chosen the first decision... not because i am particular about offering or what. But i think it would at most cost me a few minutes, and we have the few minutes' luxury to have me gotten my wallet out from home. So i went back in.

as soon as i arrived at the house door, a thought came suddenly into my mind: "hey dude, have you not ignited the stove to heat up the soup from last night 5 minutes ago?"

yes, man, you hear me right! we have got a pot coooking hot in the kitchen as we left the house! as i walked in to the house to pick up the wallet, i started thanking God. He does not need my money, but He sure knows that i should turn off that stove before we go off for a few hours of good time in the church. So with wallet back to where it should be (back of my pants, where else) i went into the kitchen and ah-ha! the soup was then already boiling, a good time to turn it off :) (so cool i was, almost like a cucumber :p).

After i got into the car, told tzeying about it, and we do think God is gracious and of course humorous in this sense. Indeed He knows how to get things right, before our house get burnt down just because of some overnight soup. :)

and yes, we had a great time on Sunday. Hallelujah amen!