Deuteronomy 16:10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee:

What do you think of when you hear the word tribute? A debt? A toll? A fee? An honor? Here in the Old Testament we see one tribute tied to the festival of weeks. This is Pentecost. In New Testament terms it is the day the Lord showed His salvation power through the apostles.

Given that this is a free will offering of the works of my own hand, what have I done that can possibly pay tribute to the blessing of salvation? Worse yet, this passage puts the earnest on me to determine its worth. He does not lay out values as was appointed many of the other tributes paid.

What is your salvation worth? I think we all agree this is a debt we cannot pay. Thank God Christ paid the price. Yet what tribute do we pay Him for that blessing? We owe him our lives. All He says in return is; “Whatever you think its worth.” I shudder at the thought. I owe you everything Lord.

Then I think about Pentecost. Show the power of salvation. Demonstrate to those who do not know the free will offering/ Pay tribute in honoring what the Lord has done by sharing the testimony of your mouth.

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

I am troubled today with a dream I had last night. In the dream I was told to destroy all the evidence of evil that this leader preformed. While I knew that turning the information over to authorities was the right thing to do, I was still conflicted. I wasn’t loyal to this leader, I saw what he had done as criminal and wanted justice. It seemed like an easy call, yet no, it wasn’t.

I have been searching within myself as to why I was conflicted. I did not have enough information from the dream to say what my hesitation were. Perhaps I am jaded by the motivations of leaders and was not sure about the end results. Perhaps I didn’t trust the courts. Perhaps I didn’t trust the prosecutor. Perhaps I didn’t trust myself.

In the end I had seen that I didn’t take it to God. Why is it that when it comes to worldly things we look to our own strength and experience to make decisions? Is not God the God of all things? I tend to turn to God about personal issues that affect me and family directly. When it comes to complex issues why not use the same help?

I believe that God loves me and has my best interests at heart. Since that is true then my peace of mind should fall into that same category of faith. I am the one who did not seek Him. I am the one that needs to consider first choices. Finding the right thing to do isn’t always a matter of emotions. Sometimes it takes wisdom beyond my understanding.

2 Chronicles 19:3 Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.

Or perhaps I have not properly prepared my heart.