Recently, I’ve been curious about the background of the Halloween tradition. Given its name, I’ve never quite understood what it was really about. The root word "hallow" means to make holy, to sanctify, to set apart for God. Although the costumes, candy, dunking for apples and carving of pumpkins may be fun, our celebrations often do not make clear what (if anything) is being hallowed. While I considered those thoughts, Deuteronomy 14: 22&23 came to mind. This passage begins with an instruction that could easily be paraphrased “Be sure to hallow a tithe of all you produce each year” and the passage ends by explaining the purpose “ so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always”. Reflecting on this passage, I realized that our reverence for the Lord is enhanced as we hallow our offertory gifts to Him. As I think about offertory giving in our churches today, I wonder how often givers consider their gifts as holy, sanctified, specifically set apart for God. I wonder if our approach to giving helps us to learn to reverence the Lord. I wonder, if as with Halloween, many of us have lost sight of the intent and therefore fail to fulfill God’s intended purpose for our giving.
In today’s episode, we continue to affirm the importance of what our giving reveals.
As always, I invite you to receive Monday’s Meditation as “food for thought “ for the week, then let it become “fuel for action” for the weekend and beyond.
The is audio podcast is available on my website: morethanthegift.net and the iTunes Store. Links are provided in the "Additional Resources" section of this blog. if you don't have iTunes on your computer, a link is provided below to download the iTunes software.
After listening to the podcast in the iTunes Store, I encourage you to offer a review and to send an invitation to a friend or loved one to listen also.
A separate link for the podcast website is also provided .
Use this blog for your comments, questions and testimonies regarding the episode.
Keep praying with me!
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