Archive for April, 2017

Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life. Proverbs 22:4

“Humility, like fame, rarely grows to full bloom overnight. Humble, generous giving of oneself to the work of God involves conscious choices and lots of practice. It requires building a solid bedrock of humility that can withstand the temptations of too much self-promotion…It is precisely a bedrock of humility that can keep our ego towers from tumbling when the heights we reach cause us to lose touch with our grounding…But reaching out and grasping humility in our faltering can be daunting. A humble yes in those moments has us reaching for help from God, loved ones, and anyone else who is nearby. True humility accepts help when it is offered and asks for help even when the world seems to believe we have it all together.”

Lisa M. Hendey in The Grace of Yes: Eight Virtues for Generous Living (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2014) 73.

Today I fly to Dallas to facilitate meetings at Dallas Theological Seminary with administrators of a peer group of seminaries to discuss findings from our annual advancement study that included 14 schools: Asbury, Ashland, Covenant, Dallas, Denver, Fuller, GCTS, Northeastern, Northern, Phoenix, Reformed, Sioux Falls, Western, and Westminster.

As Hendey notes, because “generous giving of oneself to the work of God involves conscious choices and lots of practice” we need each other on the journey. I love the humility and generosity that characterizes these men and women. They acknowledge that they don’t have it all figured out but freely share a wealth of wisdom with each other so that each school flourishes!

Father in heaven, as we generously give ourselves to your work, empowered by your Holy Spirit, we acknowledge our need for you and for each other. Help us make the right choices on the journey, lift us up when we stumble, and give us courage to ask for help and to aid others on the way. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus, for all we do belongs to our Risen Savior and is for His glory. Amen.

Taking precaution so that no one will discredit us in our administration of this generous gift; for we have regard for what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. 2 Corinthians 8:20-21

Below are eight key findings from “The Generosity Project” by ECFA.

1. Honesty is the most important ministry quality. Being honest and using gifts for stated purposes are the most desirable qualities in a ministry for givers of all ages.

2. Givers are influenced by financial accountability. Overall, 92% of ministry givers consider financial accountability as having a positive influence on their support. Ninety-three percent of all givers agree that it’s extremely important for ministries to uphold specific standards of financial integrity.

3. Millennials feel hopeful about giving. Most givers across generations feel hopeful after giving to a ministry for the first time. Millennials are significantly more likely to experience this emotion and a range of other positive emotions — invested, satisfied, generous and confident — after giving vs. older generations. In fact, Millennials are twice as likely to feel generous as Boomers (age 56–76).

4. Millennials give in traditional ways. While millennials are more likely to give online or on social media than older generations, they are as likely as or more likely to support ministries using traditional channels just like prior generations. Their top ways to give are through monthly support, occasional giving, matching gifts, at small events, and through being challenged.

5. Millennials give because of who they are. Millennial generations are more inclined to give because of who they are, while older generations are more inclined to give because of which ministry asked them to give.

6. Millennials are inquisitive. Ninety percent of all ministry givers research an organization on its website before giving. However, Millennials are significantly more likely to do this, to look an organization up on a third-party site, and to ask others.

7. Givers are generous because they are blessed. Overall, givers are twice as likely to say they give because they’ve been blessed as to say they give because their gift makes a difference.

8. Givers expect ministries to show the love of Jesus. Seventy-one percent of all givers are more likely to consider giving to a ministry if it shows the love of Jesus. Millennials are 10 times more likely to support a ministry that shows the love of Jesus than any other guiding trait of ministry service.

The report is based on an online survey conducted for ECFA by Campbell Rinker and A Work in Progress. It reflects data gathered from 16,800 givers to 17 non-church Christian ministries. Of these respondents, 22 percent were millennials; givers born before 1982 comprised the remaining 78 percent of participants.

Interestingly, half of these findings (#3-#6) help us understand our times and generational giving trends (cf. 1 Chronicles 12:32), while the other half of the findings (#1-#2 and #7-#8) stand out as timeless truths.

The timeless truths reflect the values and practices of the Apostle Paul with regard to the collection for the starving Christians in Jerusalem. Those who have been blessed materially should give generously to show the love of Jesus and it must be administered with accountability and honesty (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 and 2 Corinthians 8-9).

I encourage pastors and ministry administrators to read this helpful research, but don’t stop there. All Christ-centered churches and ministries should pursue ECFA accreditation. To be “accredited” means that pastors and ministry administrators demonstrate alignment with Seven Standards for Responsible Stewardship and voluntarily submit to annual review to ensure ongoing compliance.

In this light ECFA accreditation mirrors the efforts of Paul to champion accountability and honesty with love and generosity. Click to download the Executive Summary and make sure your church and the ministries you serve affix the ECFA seal on their efforts like Paul stamped a seal on his!

But now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things. Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. Romans 15:25-29

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. Acts 1:3-4

“The importance of this command comports with Luke’s approach elsewhere. Just as Jesus did not begin his public ministry before receiving the Spirit around age thirty (Luke 3:22-23; 4:1; Acts 10:38), the disciples were not to attempt their mission in their own strength; to do so, in fact, would be disobedience. Jesus praised Mary and made her a model of discipleship for waiting at Jesus’ feet instead of engaging in direct activity (in contrast to Martha, Luke 10:38-41); likewise, it is only after prayer and fasting that the Spirit sends out Barnabas and Saul for the work to which they were already called (Acts 13:2). The disciples could not generate the Spirit or spiritual experience; “waiting” for the promised entailed faithful dependence on God.”

Craig Keener in Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012) 676.

Waiting is not easy. Especially after the excitement of Easter.

Luke records this as one of the first commands of Jesus after the resurrection: “wait for the gift.” Keener rightly notes that failure to wait is disobedience. We don’t serve a deficient Savior who needs us to do things for Him. He instructs us to wait for the gift. What a generous Savior we serve who desires to empower our obedience! I am convinced we flop when we try to engage in mission on our own strength.

What’s this look like practically as we think about our own generous engagement in God’s mission? In plain terms, we must retrain ourselves to wait, to listen, and to trust. My wife, Jenni, is exploring that more deeply today as a matter of fact.

As a spiritual director, Jenni was invited to serve as a Hiller Fellow at the Hiller Lectureship at Sioux Falls Seminary with Ruth Haley Barton, so she is in South Dakota today. The theme of the event is based on a book by Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. If you want counsel as you wait for the gift, reading that book might be a good place to start.

Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again. Job 34:32

“If I put my own happiness before the well-being of the work entrusted to me; if, though I have this ministry and have received much mercy, I faint, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I am inconsiderate about the comfort of others, or their feelings, or even of their little weaknesses; if I am careless about their little hurts and miss opportunities to smooth their way; if I make the sweet running of household wheels more difficult to accomplish, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If there be any reserve in my giving to Him who so loved that He gave His dearest for me; if there be a secret “but” in my prayer, “anything but that, Lord,” then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I become entangled in any “inordinate affection”; if things or places or people hold me back from obedience to my Lord, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I want to be known as the doer of something that has proved the right thing, or as the one who suggested that it should be done, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I ask to be delivered from trial rather than for deliverance out of it, to the praise of His glory; if I forget that the way of the Cross leads to the Cross and not to a bank of flowers; if I regulate my life on these lines, or even unconsciously my thinking, so that I am surprised when the way is rough, and think it strange, though the word is, “Think it not strange,” “Count it all joy,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) in “If” (Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade, 1999).

Amy Carmichael served as a missionary at an orphanage for 55 years in India. During her time of service, a worker came to her about another colleague who apparently was “missing the way of love.” That led to a sleepless night and list of thoughts about how certain behaviors reveal that we miss the whole point of the generous love extended to us at Calvary.

Today’s post contains a few of Carmichael’s “if”-related thoughts. To read more, click the “If” link above to read the entire list. I have included ones that relate broadly to the theme of generosity. The best part about life in light of Calvary is that the love demonstrated to us on the cross changes everything, and we never stop learning the implications of it.

Father in heaven, so that our lives extend your generous grace, mercy, and love to the world in the days after Easter, teach us what we cannot see. Show us by your Holy Spirit what we do not know. Remove the reserve in our giving so that our sacrifice and service follow your self-less example and so that others will discover Calvary love. Make it so, we pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. Mark 16:2-6

“The God of the resurrection provides resurrection people with an abundance of all they need to live resurrection lives and to be agents of God’s resurrection mission in the world. We have no need for family hold-back for fear of scarcity. The resurrection of our Lord is the paradigm of the way God works. Resurrection means fullness and abundance of life — all of life…

We are invited to learn gratitude. I am convinced that resurrection gratitude is a key component to maturity in the spiritual life. Once we begin to develop an awareness of the resurrection generosity of God, once we begin to trust and test the reality of the Paschal Mystery, the more we will understand that God daily gives us a multitude of reasons to be grateful people.

Learning to be grateful is not optional. It is part of the process of becoming mature people of the resurrection. Gratitude is the gasoline that powers our journey with and to the Risen One. Gratitude, however, does not come easily or naturally…We all have to work at gratitude to the God of the resurrection…It is a habit of the heart that we need to cultivate.”

C. Franklin Brookhart in Living the Resurrection: Reflections After Easter (Denver: Morehouse, 2012) 24-25, 27-28.

This question struck me this Easter from Mark’s Gospel account: “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” Then I began thinking about it this way. Who can remove the rocks in our lives that hinder our resurrection journey? Only God can. Only when we realize this and live in light of it with a profound sense of resurrection gratitude will our lives press on to maturity and exhibit resurrection generosity.

Those that don’t live life in light of the resurrection are slaves to fear. They hold back what they have because scarcity dominates their thoughts and actions. Will this Easter, for you, mark a time to chart a new course? Is it time to press on to maturity and “trust and test” the implications of the resurrection? But how exactly do we cultivate this habit of resurrection gratitude in our hearts? Brookhart offers a helpful idea.

“I have found that using prayer beads has been enormously helpful in my becoming a more grateful person. I begin by going around the circle of beads, using each bead to name someone or something, large or small, for which I am grateful. I am grateful, for instance, for my wife, but also for the comfortable chair in which I sit…Part of my discipline includes reserving a special bead to prompt an intentional prayer of gratitude for the resurrection of Christ.”

Cultivate resurrection gratitude to live out resurrection generosity because Christ is risen and we have been raised with him! Happy Easter everyone.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:8-14

“Forgiveness of sins is what the gospel is all about. Forgiveness of sins is what Christ’s death upon the cross is all about. The purpose of Lent is to arouse. To arouse the sense of sin. To arouse a sense of guilt for sin. To arouse the humble contrition for the guilt of sin that makes forgiveness possible. To arouse the sense of gratitude for the forgiveness of sins. To arouse or to motivate the works of love and the work for justice that one does out of gratitude for the forgiveness of one’s sins.”

Edna Hong in “A Look Inside” in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Walden: Plough, 2003) 24.

Christ accomplished something for us on the cross we could not sort ourselves: forgiveness of sins. We have been rescued and redeemed from darkness and brought into the light. As the Apostle Paul puts it, now “the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth” which is the generous way of life God designed for each of us.

As Hong puts it, this season of Lent has had the purpose of arousing us, motivating us, waking us up from “sleeping” to taking hold of life following God’s plan for us. Will our lives be characterized by works of love and justice filled with gratitude? Take five minutes today to ask God what needs to change for you after Easter. How will you rise?

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

“Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, “Take up your Cross” — in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, “My yoke is easy and my burden light.” He means both. And one can just see why both are true.

Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes.

Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.

It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self — all your wishes and precautions — to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be “good.”

We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way — centered on money or pleasure or ambition — and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.

That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996) 197-198.

Let us each hand over our whole self to Christ. We must be crucified with Him. We will gain both difficulty and delight when we do. Failure to do this is not a safe choice, but rather the real problem of the Christian life. Those who take that path, which centers “on money or pleasure or ambition” will not exhibit generosity, but will have lives filled with fussings, frettings, and unfruitfulness. In observance of Good Friday, join me in making this choice today to be crucified with Christ. Hand over your whole self to Him!

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13:3-5

“For it is love that best describes what Jesus does when he fetches bowl and water, jug and towel. It is not simply the humility of the God who is on his knees, nor the lesson in service of the master who behaves like a slave, but the love of one who is generous, warm, impulsive and affectionate in his loving.

Jesus is not giving an object lesson in good relations. Nor is he acting out a sort of parable. He is doing it because he wants to do it. He is doing it because the tired, hot, sweaty feet in need of washing are the feet that belong to his friend, his close companions, his adopted family. It is an act of love, generous, embarrassing, natural love.

We must not imagine for a moment a solemn ecclesiastical ritual. This is a joyful act of self-giving…People will know that there is something of Christ in you if there is a warmth, a joy, a natural affection, an impulsive generosity breaking out in all your human relationships.”

Michael Perham in The Way of Christ-Likeness: Being Transformed by the Liturgies of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter (London: Canterbury Press, 2016) 63.

Today in Holy Week is known as Maundy Thursday, the day we recount this scene where Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. Perham rightly notes that this is not an empty or solemn ritual but something that is filled with so much love and generosity that it is embarrassing to the recipients.

Jesus not doing it because he has to do it. Jesus is fully aware of his power and position, and yet he takes the form of a servant and ministers to the most smelly, messy and dirty needs of those he loves. Do we? As I travel home today, I think about the many humble servants of God who ministered to me across the Philippines this week. Their generous love toward me was humbling, even embarrassing at times. They thought of everything. Let’s live likewise!

Father in heaven, fill us so full of your love and power so that we know where we stand with you and what we have in you, so that we will empty ourselves in generous kindness toward others, knowing that your abundant love with give us the strength to do this. Make it so, Lord Jesus. Amen.

And please restore my strength, Holy Spirit, as I have emptied myself in service and need a restful, refreshing, and safe journey home to Colorado.

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Matthew 26:14-16

“The Bible has many stories of envy and greed. Joseph’s brothers were envious of him because of their father’s favoritism and in greed sold him into slavery. King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard and allowed Queen Jezebel to plot Naboth’s death and seize his land. Judas driven by greed, betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Ananias and Sapphira harbored greed in their hearts, secretly withholding from God’s work part of the money they had received from a sale of land.

In every instance, envy and greed proved to be destructive… Joseph’s brothers lived in fear once their treachery was revealed; King Ahab died in battle and the dogs licked up his blood; Judas committed suicide; Ananias and Sapphira fell dead. The Bible warns, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). Envy and greed always — always — exact a terrible price. I have never met an envious or greedy person who was at peace.

Envy and greed aren’t identical, but they are closely related. When we envy someone, we easily become obsessed with getting what they have. Envy and greed often focus on money, but we can also be greedy for other things, such as beauty, status, possessions, fame, or power. The Bible sees greed as a form of idolatry, because the greedy person worships things instead of God. Greed and envy have their roots in selfishness, driving us into madly pursuing what we don’t have.”

Billy Graham in The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2006) 172.

Today marks my last full day in the Philippines. The meetings in Manila, Puerto Princesa (pictured above), Bacalod, and Davao have far exceeded my expectations. God has raised up Angelito “Anjji” Gabriel to lead CCTA and rallied many ministry administrators and financial professionals to join him in championing standards for the faithful administration of God’s work in churches and ministries across this beautiful country.

Why do this? A leading hindrance to generosity is financial corruption. Sadly, today in Holy Week marks the day Judas betrayed Jesus out of envy and greed. Money had become his greatest treasure. While he got what he wanted, thirty pieces of silver, that desire destroyed him. Sadly, it’s still destroying people today.

What about you? Are you at peace this Holy Week? Take time today to ask God if anything in your life has become more important than Him. Lay that at the foot of the cross and find peace.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26

“What right then have I or any other person to come here and change the name of these people from Muslim to Christian, unless I lead them to a life fuller of God than they have now? Clearly, clearly, my job here is not to go to the town plaza and make proselytes, it is to live wrapped in God, trembling to His thoughts, burning with His passion. And, my loved one, that is the best gift you can give to your own town.”

Frank C. Laubach in a letter dated 9 March 1930 entitled “Boundless joy broken loose” in Letters By A Modern Mystic: Excerpts from letters written at Dansalan, Lake Lano, Philippine Islands to His Father (New York: Student Volunteer Movement, 1937).

While I have been traveling abroad this week, my wife came across this book in electronic form and emailed the link to me. Wow! These are some amazing letters. This excerpt struck me as I am teaching in a Muslim area in the Philippines today: Davao, Mindanao.

Jesus wants us to be known for our love and not our preaching. The greatest gift we can give people is to show them a life “wrapped in God, trembling to His thoughts, burning with His passion.” God help me do this generously today. Help us all do it every day for Your glory!