7-25-2015

Good Morning All!!

          Leviticus 1:3; “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord.”

    At the death of Admiral Hyman Rickover, former president Jimmy Carter relayed a story about an interaction that he had with the admiral.  Jimmy Carter served on Admiral Rickover’s staff and was responsible for writing a report for the admiral.  He turned the report in and the admiral asked him, “is this the best you can do?”  Then First Lieutenant Carter told him, “well there is one part that is a little weak.”  The admiral, without looking at it, handed it back to him and told him to fix it.  This occurred a couple of more times until the admiral asked again, “is this your best?” Carter answered, “yes sir, it is.”  The response he got was something that stuck with him.  “Always do your best, you deserve it, God deserves it and the people you work with deserve it.”

    Most people, especially parents, coaches and bosses, have this same attitude.  Give it your best effort.  I can remember telling my ballplayers to “do your best; if you don’t try your hardest and you lose you will wonder the rest of your life if it could have been different.”  We teach our children to seek excellence.  We ask our employees for the best effort for the customer.  We ask everyone we work with to give it their best effort so we can take pride in what we do or produce.  Yet, often times we feel it is acceptable to give God what’s left.

     How often do we look in our wallet and think “I’ve given enough” or listened to the plea to aid a neighbor and think “I’ve helped enough”?  How often when thinking about attending worship services, we’ll go if there is nothing else to do?  Are we giving God our best?  God asks for our best, not because God needs it but because giving your best shows your love.  Think of your family; you try to give your best.  You cook your best, you clean your best, you demonstrate your love to them the best that you can.  We do this, not because we have to but because we want to.  Why do we give God our best?  Because in doing so, we are saying that God is more important than what we are giving so we will give the best I can.  

    Give God your best, give him your all.  He asks us to “lay down our life” to put behind us our selfishness and self-centeredness.  God wants us to put him first to give him our best as a way to show him love and thanks for what God does for us.  He gives us his best, his son, to redeem us from eternal separation.  We love because he first loved us.  We should always give our best because he gave his best first.

Father, I often hold back with my love.  I keep back the best because I am selfish.  Forgive my selfishness and lead me to give my best to you.  Lead me to love my neighbor with the same transforming love that you give to me.  Lead me in your righteousness. In the precious name of Jesus I pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret