what coins inside an offering bag mean

I will never sacrifice things that don’t cost me.

Last two weeks, we had a guest speaker at our church. He is a singer and a song writer, Bob Kilpatrick. He gave somewhat different color on that Sunday service, a good color. He shared a true story that his friend experienced few months back. And the story went like this.

His friend is a worship pastor and he always pray to God prior to leading a worship in Sunday service, asking God to reveal songs that he need to sing for the service. One time, he sensed that God directed him to lead two songs, songs that he hated, Jesus Loves Me and In The Garden. For once, he did not follow. The coming week, he prayed the same prayer and he got the same answer. He was still unwilling to sing that two songs. Until the third time, he gave up and led his congregation to sing these songs. On the day, when he annouced the song that they were going to sing, right after he said the title, one man stood up and shouted “This is my song!” and he danced along the song. The same thing happened, right after the pastor mentioned the second song title. He screamed “this song is for me, thank you God”. No doubt that everyone there surprised and confused. But at the end of the service, one elder came approaching the pastor amd shared a story. Apparently, that man had phobia of getting out of his room. He had been staying inside his bedroom for 34 years until 2 years ago when someone came to help him to overcome his phobia, a psychiatrist. For the past 2 years he and his psychiatrist were planning for an outing and they had decided to visit the church. Because he never got out hence never attend any church service, they chose 2 songs that they can practice together to sing at the churhc. So, for the past 2 years, they had been practicing 2 songs so that that man felt familiar with church, Jesus Loves Me and In The Garden. It was then, their outing day. When that worship pastor gave up and obeyed God and sang that 2 songs. Indeed, those songs were his. And how amazed that pastor must have felt after listening this explanation. It was as if God said, welcome home my son, let’s sing your songs.