I am sitting here feeling a little stunned after a three day visit to Germany. Long ago I promised to take our son, Tom, to see the BMW, Porsche and Mercedes museums and this week it happened. If I’m honest I’m not that bothered about cars and have a “so long as it gets me from A to B” mentality which Tom finds unbelievable!

But I tried to go with an open mind and I have come away feeling inspired and amazed by all that we saw. The museums are architecturally breathtaking. They have all been built very recently and they are startlingly impressive. And then as you go inside everything has been done to impress. The displays are imaginative and interactive and you cannot help but be caught up in the excitement of the history of the motor car, and of the amazing technological developments that are taking place as the car adapts to an ecologically sensitive world.

The one firm conclusion that I drew was that there was a relentless commitment to the belief that only the very best would do. In fact the more I reflected on the vast buildings the more they felt like cathedrals, calculated to give a sense of wonder and inspiration.

Earlier this year I read through the Pentateuch. Those first five books of the Bible establish the basis of the covenant relationship between God and his people, and a great deal of space is devoted to laying out God’s laws for his people. In minute detail the people are told what is expected of them and the underlying theme is clear – only the best will do. God is a holy God and so everything that is given to him has to be the very best, and God’s displeasure with those who try to get away with less is swift and decisive.

This is a good challenge for us. We are not tied down to those ancient laws, but we are all called to bring God our very best. We are called to give our bodies to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This, Paul explains, is our spiritual act of worship and it flows out of deliberately rejecting the pattern of our world, and being transformed by the renewal of our minds. In this way we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12.1-3)

This challenges all that we do in our churches, and especially in days when everybody seems to be under enormous pressure. There is all the temptation in the world to do as little as we can get away with. To do just enough. We’re such busy people, surely God can’t expect more than that. I don’t believe that God is ever unreasonable but I do believe that he calls us to give him the best that we possibly can. In our worship, in our fellowship, in our bible study, in our prayer, in our evangelism, in our outreach we need to be able to bring our best to God. This calls for a lot of careful reflection together and is the sort of conversation that it would be good to have in our church members’ meetings.

Financially, these are challenging days for all of us – and as a Baptist family we are inevitably affected. The giving to Home Mission has been very encouraging this year, given the dire financial climate, but it is likely that we will see a significant deficit by the end of the year. The downturn in the dividends and in legacies has contributed to our difficulties. In this year, as in every year, we need to look hard at our personal financial commitment and ask ourselves whether we are really bringing to God our best.

Motor cars are a significant part of our lives, but they come and they go. They cannot possibly have any enduring significance. I’m grateful for my journey to Germany and to have seen those colossal cathedrals to the motor car but they have to stir in me the question - how dare we give to our loving eternal God anything that is less than the very best?