Market Value
But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for YHWH, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” 1 Chronicles 21:24
Costs Me Nothing – Nancy Pearcey makes an astounding application of David’s principle. She says, “The application to our own day is that we cannot ‘take for the Lord’ work done by another person. Nor can we make an offering that ‘costs me nothing.’”[1] The Hebrew word is hinnam, a word that essentially means gratis. David recognizes that true worship has a cost and that cost must be mine alone. My offering means nothing to me or to God if I didn’t pay the price for it.
Let’s consider some practical circumstances where this biblical principle should be applied. I remember going to church as a child. My parents gave me money to put into the offering plate. It wasn’t my money. It didn’t come from my allowance. It taught me that the offering I gave came from someone else’s effort. While I am quite sure that my parents’ motivation was to demonstrate the need for tithing, the real lesson was that tithing didn’t cost me!
Some months ago someone notified me that a newspaper was using my work with someone else’s name attached to it. Besides the fact that this is plagiarism, the offering this person made to his community was actually a sin. It cost him nothing to take what I wrote and use it “for the Lord” as it if were his. He needs to talk to David.
I often hear the objection, “You should give away everything you write. After all, salvation was free. Freely you have received, freely give.” I think this misses the point. My rescue was enormously expensive. It required terrible sacrifices, from the first death to clothe my ancestors to the last death on the cross to bring me home. I received the benefit without paying the death penalty, but that did not make it free. Because my deliverance was so expensive, my offering should reflect that expense. Nothing is free. Even a gift must be purchased by someone. Yom Kippur presses home this point. It isn’t free.
Now a personal application. In the last two years I have appealed to you for support. God has been pressing me on this decision. I realize that I should have left it in His hands. I work for an audience of One and my offering to Him must come at cost to me if it is to be worthy. My appeal attempted to defer that cost and make some of it your burden. I repent for this lack of trust in the sovereignty of God. Please forgive me. If any one feels as if I have taken what was yours, I stand ready to return it to you.
David knew that worship must cost us. That’s what makes it so wonderful. What does not come from my effort or my assets has little value. When I give what I earned, the sting is replaced by joy. Both feelings are important to God.
Topical Index: cost, nothing, hinnam, gratis, 1 Chronicles 21:24, worship, sacrifice
[1] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, p. 374.
First things first. Brother Skip, I have never met you, but I want you to know this morning, you are loved.
Greatly. (and appreciated). You have said,(and rightly so)- “love is benevolence toward another at cost to myself.” Love in “high-def/HD!” We may also (rightly) say “love is measured by sacrifice.”
Three days ago, I had arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder. Seventeen staples later,(typing slowly with one finger), “here am I”. I have received constant, assiduous, attentive care from my wife of over thirty years. The words we spoke before the presence of Elohim have been ringing in my head: “in sickness and in health.” She is (one of) G-d’s many gifts to me. She has been an amazing demonstration of sacrificial love. For this I am grateful. I’ll say straight out- there is no way I ever would have made it without her.
This morning I would like to rewind the clock and return (once again) to the cross. There never has been, nor will there ever be, a greater demonstration of love than Calvary. “But G-d demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Love is measured by sacrifice. Let us consider (once again) the exorbitant price that was paid to redeem us: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
This from Larnelle Harris:
Your love endured the cross,
Despising all the shame
-That afternoon when midnight fell,
Your suffering cleared my name
-And that sin-swept hill became
The open door to paradise
The cost was great, yet you paid the price.
You paid much too high a price for me
In tears and blood and pain
To have my soul just stirred at times
Yet never truly changed.
You deserve a fiery love
That won’t ignore your sacrifice-
Because you paid much too high a price.
You grace inspires my heart
To rise above the sin
Of all the earthly vanity
That seeks to draw me in
Then to tell a jaded world of love
That truly saved my life
-A love that paid
Much too high a price.
Yes, David. We agree. Love, so amazing,- so Divine, demands my life, -my soul, -my all.
Thanks for your words, Carl. Someday we will meet. In the meanwhile, get better and be blessed on this day, Yom Kippur.
Carl, your passion and conviction is so wonderful to read! That song is a good reminder of just how high a price was paid. How easy it is to forget…
I hope your shoulder is better soon! Thanks for posting, despite the slow and arduous task of typing with one finger.
Carl, Wife, and All of Read This,
Since Carl often brings his thoughts to the Cross, I want to write of something written by Madame Guyon: She was born in France, and lived from 1648-1717. I have her autobiography, it has been translanted into many languages, and published by Moody Press. ” She was imprisoned unjustly. She lived and died in the Catholic Church, but her writings have won her both Catholics and Protestant Admires in several countries in her lifetime. This intimate, personal portrait of a woman true to Christ in a confused and sinful world will convict and inspire any sensitive Christian who reads it with an open heart.” — The small book that I want to copy from is one that I just found of hers recently, “Experiencing God through Prayer”, Chapter 7,— The Bitter and the Sweet,–” Be patient, dear ones, during suffering. It was through His suffering on Calvary that Jesus gave the greatest display of love.—– No, beloved friends, you will not find onsolation in anything other than the love of the cross and total abandonmnet. If you will not savor the cross, you canot savor the things of God. __It is impossible to love God without loving the cross. If you savor the cross, you will find even the most bitter things to be sweet.—-(And she has much more to say on the cross). Madam Guyon taught her thoughts to others on Prayer, and never intended they be published, but later others insisted on that.– Then this week, I received an e-mail from a Lutheran Minister via my cousin, on another subject, but his personal logo was, ” ! Peter !: 19, I shouted when I read it, ” For we are redeemed, not by our own resources or efforts, but with the precious blood of Christ.”—– With this verse, and Madame Guyon’s remarks, may you rejoice and be thankful for all things, for your body is on the MEND. Sincerely, LaVaye ,and Ed, too- who has suffered several ankle surgeries. He was-an athlete—but today, he still walks, works, and golfs often. without pain,–nearing 82 years of age. God is faithful— Carl, Ed said he reads your comments and appreciates them so much, and wanted me to write and encourage you. Ed does not write on e-mail.– He loves to read and speak about the— “The Cross”.– One of his favorite books is “The CROSS”, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Please get your hands on a copy! ( This author gave up his position as physician to England’s royal family to become a missionary to miners and dock workers. He later was minister of Westminister Chapel in London for 25 years.
Skip, it is good to hear of your conviction. When I read your plea to everyone to give more, it is the same thing that I have heard many times from the “religious organizations” that are run by the traditions and understanding of men, not Jehovah Rapha, and I was grieved and prayed for you and the ministry of the Lord through you. It is wonderful to see Him working to that degree in you. Many would not have heeded that conviction. Thank you for your obedience and know you will be blessed.
Skip,
Your honesty is beautiful and heartrending. It’s humbling to watch you step out in faith and humility, truly faithing (that’s my version of using faith as a verb). I just want you to know that what little we are able to give we give gratefully and joyfully. You bless us so much with your writing, encouragement, and conviction. I’m glad we’re able to contribute in some small way, and hopefully, to bless you a little in return.
I hope you have a fabulous time Down Under (take lots of pictures). That’s one place I’ve always thought would be awesome to visit. 🙂 Have fun!
Skip,years ago Monte Judah teached on this same issue: a sacrifice is only a sacrifice if you, of course, sacrify something (of yourself) or that it cost you. If I make an offering that does not cost me anything, it only means something to the world, not to the Lord. He used the excample of giving your lotto winnings to the poor.
Years ago this idea rocked my boat and now you’ve done it again.( in time for Yom Kippur). I love to give( I’m not bragging, I’m a bad bussinesswoman, I can’t sell anything) and the one reason is because I know that what I have to give comes from and belongs to the Lord, anyway. But at the same time, I am terribly guilty in giving, without it costing me anything. Just offering enough so that you still have enough left and this makes me feel terrible, for the need is so much more!
As for not asking payment for work done, I believe is between you and the Lord.
I use to feel that anything that comes from the Lord( it was His ideas in the first place) must be free to pass on to the next person. You were only the privileged,obeying, person through whom He worked. But still who am I to decide when and what is suppose to be free( with that pricetag hid away), and whether or not this is how you should provide for your family. And where do you draw the line? Should only written work be free? May be thats’s not fair. What about other talents: painting, singing ect. that we use to worship with. Or what about the person that feels he doesn’t have other talents that he can offer for free. His offer is the 9-5 job. I cannot recall what the Hebrew view is on getting paid for a 9 to 5 job.
This is a bit confusing to me, thats why I believe you must listen to the Lord when you should put an earthly pricetag on something or make an costly offering from the heart.
All I know, is that no moneys of this world can pay for what Today’s Word meant to me and everybody I shared it with and thats why I pray that the Lord alone will spoil you with His blessings!
I just wrote a very long comment and it was rejected for an error. Oh well, I’ll try to reconstruct a short version of it. It went something like this.
Yes, Skip, but what about “a labourer is worthy of his hire”? You have spent an enormous amount of time, money, study, resources and sacrifice, in order to offer your work to us. If work is worship, and the 9 to 5 worker mentioned above is offering his work as unto the Lord, is he required to refuse payment for his work? Or is he allowed to fulfill his obligations to his family and community with his earnings, and offer his tithes and alms? Does this not apply to you also? If a doctor spends at least 12 years in school and residency, shoud he then, upon graduation, offer his services for free — or should he require payment in order to fulfill his obligations to his family, his community, not to mention his enormous student loans? Yes, his abilities and knowledge are gifts from God, but his work is also worship, and must be maintained by his patients. Many of us in this community have lost jobs and businesses in recent years and months, and had other major financial setbacks, and are not able to offer anything near the value of what we receive from you –but I believe we are required to give as much as we can, when we can. God sovereignly supplies our need, but he often uses his children to deliver the supply. If we are a community, we must make our needs known to one another.
Regarding the person who printed your work under his own name —
The US Copyright laws gained “teeth” in 1989. The moment you put pen to paper, or keyboard to digital meadia, or any other tangible media, that work is copyrighted. In addition, if you choose to send copies of each work to the US Copyright Office, you are entitled to have your legal fees paid by the offending party. Each infringement is punishable by $150,000.00 plus a year in prison. If they alter the work in any way, that is another $150K, and another year. Pick up a home design book or magazine in Home Depot or Barnes & Noble, and you will see this information given in great detail to ward off any thief who might consider copying, altering, or claiming the work of the original designer or author. This law applies to all “intellectual property.” If the US Government considers each issue of Today’s Word this valuable, should you value it any less? If our God requires us to obey the laws of the land, we cannot enable thieves of this sort.
All of us in this community are blessed and grateful to receive of your talents, knowledge, wisdom and gifts every day. Many of us are embarassed at the small contributions we are able to offer back and would love to give more.
Thanks Donna, your encouragement is really appreciated