love offerings

¹And looking around, he saw the wealthy putting their donations into the offertory. ²Then he also saw a certain widow, a pauper, putting in two small brass coins. ³And he said: “Truly, I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴For all these, out of their abundance, have added to the gifts for God. But she, out of what she needed, has put in all that she had to live on.”

¹⁹Do not choose to store up for yourselves treasures on earth: where rust and moth consume, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither rust nor moth consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there also is your heart.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

⁷each one giving, just as he has determined in his heart, neither out of sadness, nor out of obligation. For God loves a cheerful giver.

¹⁰Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house. And test me about this, says the Lord, as to whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out to you a blessing, all the way to abundance.

¹⁰The days of our years in them are seventy years. But in the powerful, they are eighty years, and more of these are with hardship and sorrow. For mildness has overwhelmed us, and we shall be corrected.

⁴¹And Jesus, sitting opposite the offertory box, considered the way in which the crowd cast coins into the offertory, and that many of the wealthy cast in a great deal. ⁴²But when one poor widow had arrived, she put in two small coins, which is a quarter. ⁴³And calling together his disciples, he said to them: “Amen I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all those who contributed to the offertory. ⁴⁴For they all gave from their abundance, yet truly, she gave from her scarcity, even all that she had, her entire living.”

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down and shaken together and overflowing, they will place upon your lap. Certainly, the same measure that you use to measure out, will be used to measure back to you again.”

³⁵I have revealed all things to you, because by laboring in this way, it is necessary to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

⁴Abel likewise offered from the firstborn of his flock, and from their fat. And the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his gifts. ⁵Yet in truth, he did not look with favor on Cain and his gifts. And Cain was vehemently angry, and his countenance fell. ⁶And the Lord said to him: “Why are you angry? And why is your face fallen? ⁷If you behave well, will you not receive? But if you behave badly, will not sin at once be present at the door? And so its desire will be within you, and you will be dominated by it.” ⁸And Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go outside.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and he put him to death.

¹³Everything is possible in him who has strengthened me.

²⁴And after she had weaned him, she brought him with her, along with three calves, and three measures of flour, and a small bottle of wine, and she led him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. But the boy was still a young child.

¹⁰For God is not unjust, such that he would forget your work and the love that you have shown in his name. For you have ministered, and you continue to minister, to the saints.