Almost every small town or village in Taiwan has its own temple where each household of the town will bring its offerings once or twice a year; it is when people celebrate together. With time passing by, the way of celebration changes a bit. It’s said that local temples would collect a certain amount of money (not donation) from each family so that people wouldn’t present their offerings to their gods, saving time for worshipers so to speak. But in a sense the type of offering doesn’t come from the free giving but more like “coercing donation.”

To build a temple for God David prepared all the materials necessary for construction including gold, silver, bronze and other precious stones. Besides, David gave away all his personal collection of gold and silver because of his dedication to God. “And now, because of m devotion to the Temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of god and silver to help in the construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected for his holy Temple” (1 Chronicles 29:3). David also encouraged all the leaders of Israel to give to the temple voluntarily. They all gave willingly and the people rejoiced over their free offering.

God doesn’t require us to give to him because everything comes from him and even the offering we are going to present is from him. Just as David spoke of “because of my devotion to the Temple of God”, our giving derived from the love we show to him. It is even more important for leaders to show their devotion to God, sharing or sacrificing their time and belongings to the kingdom of God freely. Not out of duty or coercion but out of devotion our giving will please God and the people around us as well.