Day 1 of 6 — Glow in the Dark. About 3 minutes.
And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
2 Corinthians 8:5
William Borden came out of Yale in 1909 as heir to a fortune his father had made in Colorado silver. He had already turned down the family business, and he turned down what came after it. He meant to go to the Hui Muslims of Gansu in north west China, and because he wanted to be useful when he arrived he went to Cairo first to learn Arabic. He never left Egypt. He caught spinal meningitis and died there on the ninth of April, 1913, at twenty five, and he is buried in Cairo. His will sent a quarter of a million dollars to the China Inland Mission and a hundred thousand more to Moody. The money went where the man had already gone.
Paul says the churches of Macedonia surprised him, and he is careful about what the surprise actually was. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. Not as we hoped. He had hoped for an offering. What he got was people.
Read the order he puts it in. First gave their own selves to the Lord. Then to the work. That has always been God’s order, and it is why Romans asks for bodies rather than belongings, a living sacrifice. A cheque can be written by a man whose heart is somewhere else entirely, and it will still clear. A life cannot be handed over at arm’s length.
Which is why the card is the second question and never the first. If you have never handed yourself over, every offering will feel like something being taken off you, because that is precisely what it is. Once you have, you find out that none of it was yours to start with. David prayed it plainly when Israel gave for the temple. Of thine own have we given thee. So before you work out a number this week, settle the older question. Does He have you? Answer that one and the number stops being frightening. Leave it open and no number will ever feel safe.
Growth principle: God has never been after your money. He is after you, and the giving follows the giver.
Take it with you: Before you decide on a number this week, settle the older question with God: does He have you?
Pause and pray: Lord, I have offered You things while holding on to myself. Take me first. Then take whatever You want of what You have let me hold, because none of it was ever mine. Amen.
Memory verse: For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
From Sunday’s message: A Faith That Promises (2 Corinthians 8) · Sunday, October 18, 2026
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