First fruits?

Keith Miller wrote a great book about this that is available at christianbook.com. I highly recommend that everyone read it. Keith came to my church once to discuss the topic of first fruits living and it will change the way you give and live.

By the way, first fruits is giving your very best to God, not your second best or your leftovers. When Cain gave the "fruit of the ground" to God while Abel gave his firstlings, he gave the fruit that fell off the trees and onto the ground, the overripe, wormy fruit that you find on the ground under fruit trees, not edible or apetizing in any way, and if you gave that fruit to a soup kitchen, they wouldn't take it because it's garbage, not food. Abel, though, gave the very best of his flock to God. God joyed in Abel's gift because he gave his very best, not the worst lambs, but the finest. God wouldn't accept Cain's offering because it was leftovers, and showed a lack of faith in God. When you don't give your best to God, it's because you don't believe God will provide for you, that you have to save the best for yourself or you won't have anything good. It also might show that you don'y believe God really exists and is personal, and you are just fulfilling a duty to the church or to society, and not to God at all.

I never thought of first fruits in that way, nor the Cain and Abel offerings. WOW! I hate to think of how much rotten fruit I have offered up to my Lord just today!