The Malachi Pour

Franklin once said: “if a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him”. This is true enough; though, at best, it is a splinter of the larger truth of generosity. The Lord says: “no one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord”. The truth of generosity is simply this: if you choose to give something away, it can never be taken from you. If you give your wealth, how can it be taken? If you make a gift of your freedom, can you ever be made a slave? If you give love, mercy, forgiveness, can those things ever be snatched from your hands? If you give your faithfulness, your loyalty, your chastity to the bride of your youth, can it be stolen?
Has the atonement, the completed work, then ceased to compel our hearts, minds and souls to give? Has the sacrifice and the “keeping of the feast” constrained us, at God’s holy table, to close our rails, to lid the cup, once poured out in love, for us?

I say, emphatically, no! For The Cup is a flowing stream from everlasting to everlasting. The Cup to the suffering, the broken, the afflicted, the sick, the proud, and all manner of men, is the old covenant fulfilled and made new perpetual. The Atonement, singular, definite for all time, empowers and empours for all time. It is no mere abolition of law; it is consummation and perfection, willfully poured out and pouring out still- yea gushing, flooding out in tides, and beckoning us to join the swells, purifying and washing so that we may give acceptable gifts of our own sacrifice unto The Lord.

“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”  Malachi 3: 10