I am alive. Life is a gift which I have received from the God of Love and which he intends me to share. I am not fully alive if I keep the gift to myself and fail to share it with others. But life is also a response.
A baby is born. To live means responding to the new environment - to breathe, to feel, to react to people and objects. The whole of the baby's life will involve responding.
Have you ever heard or made the comment, "...I said `hello' to her down town and she looked through me as if I wasn't there!" And the new report that says, "...he was given mouth-mouth-resuscitation, but failed to respond..." The words "failed to respond" come through with a grim finality. We recognise the seriousness of responselessness in dying, but have thought that responselessness in living is just a bit annoying. Yet it is serious indeed.
Genesis 1.26 says that we are made "like God" and are to have dominion over the creation. In other words, we are to exercise both authority and responsibility in relation to the world we live in. In recent times the human person has been devalued, and speciesism has been put on a level with racism. But we are different. We are made "like God," and we have authority over and responsibility for the creation. The serious situation is that too often we have wanted authority but not responsibility.
But we need to note that being made like God is not just that he has given us some of his authority and responsibility. It also has to do with our ability to know and love him - to respond to him with positive and active faith. Faith in God is not something unnatural or optional. We have been made to know and love God - everyone has. And those who choose not to respond to God's presence, authority and love in this way are still finally responsible to him.
So we hear Jesus saying, "Be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you will all these other things" (Matthew 6.33).
Our response to God is not some added extra but the very centrepoint of our life.
In Jesus' parable of the vine (John 15) the key to fruitfulness is "remain united to me" - "you can do nothing without me." Your life is to be a response to my presence and power within you. So the good and positive in your life - your fruit - will be for my Father's glory.
Our responsiveness to God will be encouraged and expressed in our regular meeting together. Our need for mutual encouragement has never been greater than in these present times. Note Hebrews 10.25, "Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer."
"Whoever loves me will obey my teaching" (John 14.23a).
Serving God and doing his will are our response to his great mercy to us, Paul writes in Romans 12.1.
We have tended to separate the gift from the Giver. Adventurous living is a relationship in which there will continually be gift and response. It is not as if the gift is given and we go off to do our own thing. In receiving the gift we need to cultivate and deepen our relationship to the Giver.
Bible study, prayer, worship, fellowship and service - all are important in the growth of this vital response to the Creator.
There are no stereotypes for this adventurous life - God gives liberally and with variety! However, it is true to say that the extent of our response will be seen in the priorities we set, how we use our time, abilities and possessions.
How did this apply in daily practice? Here is a list of the compulsory contributions that the Israelites were called on to give:
When all this was done, faithful Jews could still only say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty" (Lk.17.10). It was after this point that voluntary (free-will) offering began, and the extent of this is given on two great historic occasions - at the time of the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness and of the Temple in Jerusalem (Ex.35.4-36.7; 1 Chron.29.1-19). In modern terms the gifts for the Temple probably represented more than $1000 per person - and that was in addition to the tithes, sacrifices, first-fruits and so on!
The Israelites must have given about a third of their income, and according to the New Testament we are to give as God has prospered us, bountifully, sacrificially. So the Scriptures lay down a basic principle of proportional giving. Some may give a tenth, some less, some more - let the proportion be decided in the presence of God, in the light of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in His great self-giving. Having made a decision, let it be solemnly regarded and reviewed from time to time.
On his third missionary journey, Paul was promoting a special offering to help the needy Christians in Judaea. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, he challenges the Corinthian Christians to give generously. Give, he says, on the basis of the grace of God to you (8.8;9.11) - "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, he made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by means of his poverty," "God will always make you rich enough to be generous at all times". Give joyfully (8.2,3,7;9.7) - "[The Macedonian churches] have been severely tested by the troubles they went through; but their joy was so great that they were extremely generous in their giving, even though they were poor. I can assure you that they gave as much as they could. Of their own free will they begged us and pleaded for the privilege ofhaving a part of helping God's people in Judaea," "...You are so rich in all you have: in faith, speech, knowledge, in your eagerness to help and in your love for us. And so we want you to be generous also in this service of love," "Each of you should give, then, as he has decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly."
Life can only be the adventure the Creator intended when we know we can freely share and give because he is still the Giver!
Perhaps we could coin a phrase and call it "thanksliving"!
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