Terumah: A Sacrificial Offering

The Power of Offering: Reflecting on Terumah

In this episode of The Perfect Body Podcast, Shirah Chante explores the Torah portion Terumah, which centers on sacrificial offerings to God. Shirah delves into the instructions given to Moses for building the Ark of the Covenant and the significance of giving from the heart. Drawing from personal experiences, Shirah discusses how offerings can lead to unexpected blessings. She shares a heartfelt testimony about healing from past abuse following a sacrificial offering to God, encouraging listeners to consider their own acts of giving.

00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:39 Overview of the Torah Portion Terumah

02:30 The Significance of Offerings

04:27 Personal Reflections and Stories

05:47 Encouragement to Give and Conclusion

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Transcript

You have a perfect body.

Hi everyone. It's Shira Shantay, relationship artist, healing hearts through the arts and helping God's people with relationships here to bless you today with a Torah reading. It's the perfect body podcast, a Torah portion afterthought. We are studying the books of the Bible, the books of the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, a week later than the actual rabbinical Torah portion study.

And so this week we are studying Terumah, which means offering. Yes, we're gonna talk about a sacrificial offering. Tonight, a sacrificial offering to the Lord most high. So come on, I want to say, bring your popcorn, but it's not quite a movie, but it's, it's very exciting. It's more exciting than a movie will ever be the word of God. This portion this week, I would say is one of the harder. Torah portions to understand, because it's about building the Ark God giving Moses the instructions on how to create and build the Ark of the Covenant and all the tabernacle and all the utensils and the how everything should operate.

In the tent of meeting, and it's very explicit. It's very, I think maybe if I was an engineer , I might enjoy it more. . And as far as understanding it, I would probably have maybe a greater understanding. So I'm just gonna take some tidbits out from what. I can glean from the Terumah Torah portion, which means offering.

Have you ever given an offering to the Lord? It reminds me of my song, Israel became a state, Israel became a state, called Abraham the father of faith. There's a part that goes is Israel Sacrifice bulls for God to taste, holy cow, none went to waste, Israel became a state. It goes up high so Israel became a state, sacrifice bulls for God to taste, holy cow, none went to waste, Israel became a state.

Every time I say holy cow, and I, my grandmother We call her my dear. On her kitchen wall, she had a picture of a cow and it had this statement and it said it was a cow in the kitchen, an actual cow that goes moo. That cow, the one that makes milk. So we can have ice cream and yummies and butter and all that good stuff.

And sorry if you're vegan, you probably didn't like that, but, I was vegan for about two months and I was like, this diet is a little bit too much for me, but it was nice. It was nice for a time. It was nice for a time. And I think during the pandemic I stopped eating meat for a while because they were talking about contamination and all this stuff. And then, so I went vegetarian again, but I don't think I went totally vegan, I think maybe again, maybe for a month or two, but it's, to me, that's a very hard diet, but anyway, that's an aside. So my grandmother had on her wall, a picture of a cow. In the kitchen and it said, holy cow, are you eating again?

And so when I say holy cow, I put that in my song. It reminds me of my grandmother. So why songwriters put lyrics in songs? You never know until you talk to them. So anyway, so that's what an offering reminds me of. It's just, it's a sacrificial offering. It's something you give to God. Have you ever given anything to God?

Have you, has anyone ever given anything to God? We always want to get something from God. We want to get something from God, right? We always want to get something from God. God, give me this. God, do this for me. God, why this isn't happening? God, what's going on? God, I need you to do this. God.

Which is fine. He wants us to call on Him. He wants us to come to Him for all our needs. He shall supply all our needs.

So I just want to talk today about an offering, and I want to read the first part of this Torah portion, Terumah, where it talks about the offering. So let me go ahead. I'm going to start in Exodus chapter 25, verse one. The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution, that's an offering, a contribution, from every man whose heart moves him, from every man whose heart moves him.

His heart, this is a heart thing. You shall receive the contribution for me, for God. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them. Gold, silver, bronze, blue, and purple scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen, goat's hair, tanned ram skins, goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrance incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting for the And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle.

And if all is furniture, you shall make it. So God wants to build a sanctuary. That he can dwell in with his people because he loves his people. He wants to spend time with his people. He wants to spend time with us. He loves us. He's our father. He's our heavenly father. And so he designed a way for man, his children to co mingle to commune with him through the building.

of this tabernacle and he asked all the Israelites to bring an offering out of their own goodness, out of their heart to bring this offering. The Bible says something about being a cheerful giver. Don't be a grumpy giver. You want to give because you want to, not because someone is making you give or, it just doesn't have the same effect when you give it from your heart and you give it willingly.

And I'm not talking about being manipulated. To give some preachers or some pastors do try to manipulate you or make you feel guilty For not giving that's not God. This is the kind of heart God wants He wants you to have according to Exodus chapter 25 verse 2 From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive The contribution for me from every man whose heart moves him, whose heart moves him.

So your heart has to move you, your heart. You have to be moved by your own heart. Not someone manipulating your heart or your mind to do it. Not someone telling you to do it. Not someone saying you should do it. But from within your own love that you have in your heart for the Lord God Almighty, from that love, you give an offering to him.

You give your Lord an offering, gold and silver and ophir and ramskin and oil and all of satia wood and all of the different things he needs. to build a tabernacle so that he can dwell with his people. And when you give to the Lord, he will give it back to you. There's a proverb, I believe it's, it says, when you lend to the Lord, Oh, he will, Oh, when you lend to the Lord, he will give it back to you.

Like you, there's no way you can give to God and he not pay you back like way more. I'm going to see if I can find that verse because it's such, I haven't read it in a while, but I believe it's in a Proverbs. When you lend to the Lord, it's such a good verse. Proverbs. Yes. So Proverbs 19, 17.

Let me see if I can find it. Proverbs 19, 17 about lending to the Lord, because this is what's happening right now. The Israelites are lending to the Lord, their sustenance their wealth that they acquired. And they're giving it out of their own free will, out of their heart, as their heart moves them.

Proverbs 19, verse 17, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord. And he will repay him for his deed. Isn't that beautiful? Whoever lends to the poor, gives to the Lord. Wow. Whoever is generous to the poor, lends to the Lord. And he will repay him, his deed. Have you ever given to the poor and needy?

Children who don't have enough food? Who maybe live in third world countries? Maybe live in your own backyard? In your own country? Maybe. Wherever, have you ever given something to the poor and needy out of your own heart? God says, you're giving to me you're doing exactly what the children of Israel did.

They gave to the Lord most high, out of their own heart, what God asked of them. When you give to the poor, when you give to the needy, you're doing that same, very same thing. You're giving it for a different reason. Perhaps you're not building a tabernacle, but you're building that child up. You're giving them sustenance.

You're giving them some food to eat so that they don't die of hunger. So that they don't have those pictures where they have the big stomachs and they're welling up. It just, yeah. So you're giving, so I want to encourage you to be someone who lends to the Lord. Like the children of Israelite did, the Israelites did when they gave to the Lord to build a tabernacle.

Like this person in Proverbs here that God is talking about, if you give to the poor, I'll pay you back, God says, I will pay you back for giving to the poor. I surely will. And you know why? Because he can trust you with money because you'll probably give some more. If you have a heart to give, you'll probably give again and again.

And he'll continue to give it back to you. So that's a beautiful relationship, symbiosis that you have going there. So I wanted to share a testimony about once when I gave sacrificially and I'm not going to lie. I, it was at one of those big church. meetings where they had the fancy minister who were, who was very eloquent of speech, who could finagle money out of people.

It was a good message, it was that kind of atmosphere. But even I was not giving my seed, my sacrificial seed out of manipulation. I just felt stirred in my heart. I had extra money. I just had some money laid in my bank account and I really didn't know what to do with it because I really didn't, I didn't need anything at that time.

I was just living. I was a single young woman. This is before I had children and I just felt a stirring of the Lord and I decided to give a really big. Offering pretty much all every, almost everything I had, all my savings that I had, that little savings that I called a lot and I put it on the altar of God and I said, Lord, you use this.

Cause I, I didn't need to use it. And so what happened was God paid me back like he says he does like when you lend to the poor and I would hope that they did give that money to the poor, or at least some of it. And so you, the Lord will pay you back. And so what happened to me is something very miraculous, something miraculous, something very strong happened to me.

It wasn't a monetary repayment. And that's what I want to say that when God pays you back, when you give to the poor and God pays you back, it doesn't necessarily mean more money because you probably, you might have plenty of money. You may have millions of dollars. And so him giving you another million.

Yeah, that's cool. But what's even better than more money is something that money can't buy. Like a physical healing for your body. Something that doctors can't cure. Something that there's no hope for. Something like that. And that's similar to what happened to me. I had a very rough childhood and certain parts of my upbringing.

And I experienced some abuse at the hands of some evil men. And I had never shared this story with my parents ever, because I really didn't want to be a burden of a child. I wanted to make my parents life easy, easier. I didn't want to make it harder and have them have to worry and think about these things that were happening to me, so I just didn't say anything and plus there's a lot of shame that comes into play when a child has been abused, especially sexually, there's a lot of shame that goes along with that, because this is something that shouldn't be done. And I grew up in a Christian family. So I knew that this kind of sexual behavior was not appropriate. So that's not good. So anyway, I just buried all of this in my soul and was just living for many years. And finally I went to, I attended a seminary in Van Nuys, California called the King's Seminary. It was the King's College and Seminary at that time. It changed its name, but it was the King's College and Seminary. And I joined the school and there happened to be some courses that I took about being healed from abuse. It was one course called the healing of the abused and emotional healing.

And so I said, I'm going to take these classes because I've been abused and I need healing. And emotional healing, and these classes were so wonderful to me. It was. It's more money than I could have ever paid, the enlightenment and the freedom and the healing that I got in my soul from going through those courses with our professor and she was such a good professor.

She had a ministry helping women who had been abused as young girls. And so this was her specialty, she was very good at it, but she really helped me and God used her. I can remember being in my bed bawling and just all these tears falling down from all the healing that I was receiving. And the best thing was I was finally able to tell my mom and my dad what happened to me.

This is in my twenties. This is like my late twenties. I was finally able to open up to them about being abused and it was so freeing. And I say all this to say that this was after I gave that sacrificial offering to God. And I believe God honored that offering and that sacrifice. And he gave me, he paid me back with something I didn't even really know I needed.

I didn't know I was going to get that. And so he, what he gave me was something money could never buy, healing in all these areas of my life or my parents or my own self, my own soul, my own body. And so that's how it is when we give an offering, when we offer to God, a Terumah, that's the name of this Torah portion. We give to God, and whenever we give to God, He will pay us back in so many ways that we could never even imagine. So I want to encourage you to give your offering to God. today. Some of you can give it today.

Whatever he's putting on your heart, what's in your own heart to give. And Father God, I pray for those today who are listening, who are watching this podcast. You would open up their heart to give to you, and you would pour them out a blessing that they don't even have room enough to receive. That they never saw this blessing coming, and it was something that they just couldn't even fathom that they would ever get in their lifetime.

In the name of Jesus, Lord, I pray. Amen. Yes, Lord. Just like you surprised me, surprise them. So get ready, give your offering to the Lord and whatever area, whatever way he's telling you, whether it's to hungry children or homeless, whoever you want that he's putting in your heart to give to. And that's our show for today on the Perfect Body Podcast.

I want to encourage you to subscribe to this podcast, to and to share this message with others so the podcast can grow and fill many lives with the word of God. And I thank you very much for being here with me. Remember to love God, love you, and love people.