Archive for April, 2017

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. Matthew 21:12-17

“For one brief moment, the house was no longer a den of robbers, it was a house of prayer. What a picture! The Temple was not tidy. There were overturned tables, and money scattered everywhere. The debris of a great reconstruction. But there were the blind and the lame; and the face that a moment before had flamed with indignation was soft with the radiance of a great pity. That is one of the greatest pictures in the Gospel according to Matthew. He casts out, but He takes in; He overturns, but He builds up.”

G. Campbell Morgan in The Gospel According to Matthew, Reprint Series(Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2017) 252.

The scene in today’s Scripture reading took place on Monday of Holy Week. Do you see the beauty of this “great reconstruction” as Morgan puts it? Jesus is making space for everyone and driving out those who are using God’s house for their own gain.

It relates to generosity because as God’s workers we must make space for everyone to come to God, and the broken feel at home when things are not tidy. Often in churches and ministries, making everything just right with money becomes the central focus instead. In so doing, we then do things just to make money to meet budget. No wonder there were money changers and merchants in the Temple. Away with all that. Jesus would cast it out and overturn it.

Make God’s house this week (and every week) a place that takes in and builds up. Does a great reconstruction need to happen at your church or ministry? I will use this as an illustration today in my remarks in this Philippines, in the town of Bacolod, as some of my comments are related to the faithful administration of God’s work.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” Matthew 21:1-5

“As He enters Jerusalem, Jesus is proclaimed as the Messia; but He enters humbly, riding on a donkey. Matthew specifies that Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem upon a colt fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus’ action was an open declaration that He is the righteous David Messiah, for the prophecy says, “your king is coming.”…

Our King came on a donkey humbly before the world and the world knew Him not…In today’s day and age when people are driving around in expensive cars, it’s amazing to think that Jesus ride on a donkey…Jesus wanted people to know that the wealth He offered was from above and not of this world. The world could not produce the inheritance that Jesus Christ has given us by dying on the cross. God himself chose to ride on a donkey! This is a powerful statement to us all.”

Gregg Joseph Kretschmer and Jason Christian Ravizza in The Waging War Within-A Devotional For Winning The Daily War (Bloomington: WestBow, 2011) 209.

It’s moving to read the Palm Sunday account of Jesus humbly entering the city while sitting in the Philippines, a land filled with palm trees. Yesterday my host, Angelito “Anjji” Gabriel, and I saw a girl walking on the road carrying a huge stack of palm branches. We determined that she was undoubtedly preparing to help many people welcome our King who came humbly into the city. Do we generously invite others to join us in welcoming Jesus as our King?

With Kretschmer and Ravizza, I concur that how Jesus entered sent a “powerful statement” to all people. It reminds me that wherever I go, how I enter sends a message. Do I enter humbly? Jesus was the King but He came humbly. Because we serve the King of Kings, we have confidence, for sure, but let’s ask God to help us exhibit humility in all things and at all times so that all people, even the poor, will feel welcome to partake of the riches of heaven that we have to offer!

Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore. Hebrews 13:13

“To follow Jesus is to be sent. Jesus’ command to every disciple is to “go” (Matt. 28:19). We may not all go overseas, but we are to be going. This means that if you are not going, you are not a disciple; and, church leader, if the people in our churches are not “going,” we are not doing our jobs. A church leader can have a large church with thousands of people attending, but if people are not going from it “outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:13), to pursue the mission and call of Christ, those leaders are delinquent in their duty.

Planting, investing, sending, and sacrificing are costly. It hurts. But the trajectory of discipleship is toward giving away not taking in…Jesus did not say come and grow, but come and die. And He showed us what that means by His own example.

When Jesus laid down His life on that hill in Jerusalem, He had nothing left. Soldiers gambled for His last remaining possessions on earth. Everything He owned had been either given away or taken from Him. But out of that death came our life. In giving everything away, He gained us. In Jesus’ resurrection from death, God brought unimaginable life to the world – to you and to me. Jesus was the first of many seeds planted into the ground to die.

Why would it surprise us that the power of God spreads throughout the earth in the same manner? Life for the world comes only through the death of the church. Not always our physical, bodily death (though it includes that sometimes), but death in the giving away of our resources. Death in the forfeiture of our personal dreams. Death in our faithful proclamation of the gospel in an increasingly hostile world. Death in sending our precious resources, our best leaders, our best friends…

It is not through our success that God saves the world, but through our sacrifice. He calls us first to an altar, not a platform. His way of bringing life to the world is not by giving us numerical growth and gain that enriches our lives and exalts our name. His way is by bringing resurrection out of death. We live by losing. We gain by giving away. What we achieve by building our personal platform will never be as great as what God achieves through what we give away in faith.”

J. D. Greear in Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016) 20-21.

My beverage for lunch yesterday was coconut milk, right out of the coconut, hence the new header photo of the beautiful trees of Palawan that are much different than the evergreens of Colorado.

Whether we travel the world or stay close to home, we must live “sent” lives, “going” and making disciples for Jesus “outside the camp” of the church and our comfort zone. Think about this with me over this next week.

I am seeing unimaginable fruit on my trip serving in the Philippines. Thanks for your prayers for me. I pray the same for you wherever God has you serving and sacrificing for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31

“What is not measurable may be valuable beyond measure. Not allowing it to define us in the way that the tangible does in some way demeans us, or demeans those who do intangible things. Implicitly, we say they are lesser. Money shouts very loudly: ‘Look at me, look at me, see what I am doing and see how special I am.’ Mammon draws our gaze away from things that are more worthy of our attention, but have not been given the badge of a comparable monetary value.

I am reminded of a story I heard from a community in Nairobi. A local pastor, Pastor Luke Jakoywa, wanted to begin a school but he did not have the teachers he needed, nor the money to pay them with. One day, he approached a few young people in the neighborhood who were looking for employment, asking them if they were willing to help. He asked them, since they were spending the day doing nothing for nothing, would they be willing to do something (useful) for nothing? There was still no money to pay them but they would add enormous value to the local community, and use their gifts and talents to help others.

This is how Pastor Luke recruited teachers for his school. He showed the young people how to see value, to approach value and to ‘value’ it, in service to others. Seven years on, the school and community centre, called Sheepcare, has more than five hundred children in both primary and secondary education. The teachers draw a meagre salary, just enough to keep going, but the value of what they do – and the value of the skills they have – goes far beyond any financial value that can be applied to it.”

Luke Jakoywa story as recounted by Justin Welby in Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2017 (London: Bloomsbury, 2017) 40-41. I finished Welby’s book on my flight over the Pacific this week. It’s a winner!

Today between a lunch and a dinner meeting we got to do some island hopping in the Palawan region of the Philippines. We rode a boat like the one pictured above to two different islands.

What’s “value” got to do with generosity? We put money and deploy ourselves toward what we value. For example, after spending time in meetings, we valued some time outside today, so that meant taking a boat ride. The question is: Do we affix value on things like the world does, or do we think differently from world, such as valuing that which God values?

As we draw near to Holy Week, think about what God values. He values people. He values people so much He sent His son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. Do we value people like God does?

Pastor Luke Jakoywa’s example is inspiring! He valued people so much that he went to them and courageously asked them to give themselves toward others with him. How we live our lives can inspire others to value that which God values and give themselves generously toward others.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17

“I really haven’t figured out how to help a person who is not generous become generous. But I have figured out how to help a person who is already generous get more clear and confident about how they want to express generosity. Then those generous lives tend to explode.

There are two qualities — two characteristics, let’s say — that I’ve seen consistently time after time after time of those people who take their lives to a very, very generous place. The first is they have a sense of gratitude, and the second is they have margin.

They have some margin in their lives of time or capacity of some kind. Margin has nothing to do with how many zeros you have in your bank account. It’s a sense that you get, and I think it’s a God-given sense that’s born out of a sense of gratitude.

You start answering the question, “Well, you know, I think I have enough.” That’s a really hard question to answer, how much is enough, right? Yes. So once you have a sense of gratitude, then you can move to this posture of, “I think I might have enough,” and all of a sudden you have margin and you can be generous.”

John Stanley, author of Connected for Good: A Gameplan for a Generous Life, in FamilyLife Today Radio Transcript entitled, “The Gift of Giving” on 12 December 2016.

As we draw closer to Holy Week, my heart is filled with gratitude for all Jesus has done for me and for the whole world. In dying on the cross for us, He made a way for all who receive Him to have life, abundant and eternal!

When we grasp what it took for Jesus to do this, we realize that God made margin for us and desires that we make margin for others! With Stanley, I agree that until we exhibit gratitude and margin, generosity will not flow richly.

As I teach in various locations throughout the Philippines this week, including a large group of ministry administrators and board members in Manila (pictured above from the CCT guest flat), I will empty myself generously because I am grateful that in Christ I have everything I need.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4.

The question isn’t really “How do we pass generosity to our children?” The question is “How do we pass the life-giving gospel of Jesus to our children?” Once they grasp the gospel, they can’t help but become givers.

Through Generosity Path, I am blessed to serve wealthy Christians from all over the world. These givers ask how to disciple their children in generosity. I asked my friend Niel here in Jakarta about this. He said:

“How to pass wealth and generosity is a subset of that larger spiritual problem. The core issue is universal and ubiquitous. Every Christian generation must find a fire that burns for the gospel, a fire that burns so bright that they cannot but pour their lives and fortunes into it.”

Cameron Doolittle in “Teaching Generosity to Children” on the Ministry Fundraising Network blog post dated 3 April 2017. I read this post the day before I left and thought it was worth sharing widely. As I travel to the Philippines via Japan, I am thinking about Generosity Path and asking God to bless their global efforts.

These thoughts resonated with me because over the past two weeks, my wife and I enjoyed time with our daughter and her boyfriend in California and then with our son in Florida. They growing up, and it’s rewarding to see the life-giving gospel of Jesus at work in their lives.

This post inspires me to encourage them and their peers in the next generation to focus on the life-giving gospel. It transforms all who receive it to give their “lives and fortunes” to God’s work for His glory! Generosity will be simply a by-product of their vibrant faith.

Father in Heaven, by your Holy Spirit, make the fire of the life-giving gospel of Jesus to burn brightly in our lives, in our children, and among their peers, as a light to our neighbors and the nations for the glory of Jesus. Amen.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8:3-4

“Heavenly Father, how good it is to know whom to thank for all I am and all I have. Before I knew my name, or yours, you took care of all my needs. You are so great. What you do for me you do for all the people on the earth, even those who don’t know your name or care about you in any way. For all of us you have made the wind to blow and carry the seed, the sea to move with tides pulled by the moon, the sun to shine to lighten the day and make plants grow, and the distant stars to flicker, as a constant reminder that you are so much bigger than my mind will ever imagine. Heavenly Father, how sweet your name. You are unlike the fathers of this world who are loving. Because you are Heavenly, you love perfectly. You are unlike the fathers of this world who desert and let down. You are Heavenly, forever faithful, always providing the daily necessities and pleasures of your people. I am your creature, Heavenly Father. I am your beloved child. Nothing I have done makes this so. You make it so. Thank you, Heavenly Father. Amen.”

Richard F. Bansemer in O Lord, Teach Me to Pray: A Catechetical Prayer Book for Personal Use (Delhi, NY: American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 2002) 37-38.

Special thanks to Wayne J. Knolhoff for sharing the source of this prayer with me. He shared it at a stewardship conference I attended in Tempe last month. I saved it for today as I am flying nearly half way around the world to Manila to serve CCTA, the partner organization to ECFA in the Philippines.

When I fly over the ocean and see the sun, moon, and stars run their courses across the sky, I sit in awe in reflecting on how awesome God is and how generous is His care for the peoples of the earth and for you and me! I don’t know what you are doing today, but I pray that the message of this prayer comforts you.

I pray it also serves as a “constant reminder” to put to work the gifts and goods God has entrusted to you — all you are and all you have — to make known the greatness of our God in all the earth. For further inspiration, read Psalm 8 in its entirety.

Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. Psalm 86:11

“My soul is preoccupied with this, and anxious for what is to come, fearing that it may be shackled with enfeebling care for the body and weighed down with material possessions; fearing that if the ravaging trumpet sounds from the opened heavens, it may not be able to rise on light wings into the breezes to meet the King. It longs to fly to heaven amidst thousands of honored saints, who will with easy effort raise their feet weightlessly through the void, unencumbered by bonds of earth, to the stars aloft. They will journey on fleecy clouds, passing among the stars to worship the heavenly King amid the upper air, to unite their glorious columns with the Christ they adore.

This is the cause of my fear and toil, that the last day may not overtake me asleep in the pitch darkness of barren activity, prolonging my wasted days in empty occupations. what shall I do if Christ in flashing revelation from his heavenly citadel appears before me while I nod over languishing prayers? What if I am blinded by the sudden rays of the Lord’s coming from the opened heavens and, stupefied by the shaft of light, I make for the grim refuge of the sightless darkness? This is why I have decided by my proposed course to forestall distaster, so that doubt in the truth or love of this life (with the pleasure of possessions and the toil of responsibilities) should not confront me with such a death. I am resolved to end my worldly cares while life remains, to entrust my possessions to God against the age to come, and to await harsh death with an untroubled heart.”

St. Paulinus of Nola (354-431) is ascribed with this statement about preparing for the end times. He was a bishop and a friend of Martin of Tours, Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine of Hippo. Special thanks to my friend, John Stanley for sharing an excerpt of it with me, so I researched and located the full thought for this post.

In today’s psalm, David the psalm writer, calls to God to teach him to rely on God’s faithfulness. He asks for an undivided heart so that he may fear God’s name. Paulinus, in similar fashion, announces that earthly preoccupations fill us with anxiety and lead us to weigh ourselves down with material things that leave us encumbered and troubled.

Though King David lived about 3,000 years ago and Paulinus more than 1,500 years ago, both with striking relevance help us see what happens when people rely on God to sort their every worldly care: they have an undivided, unencumbered, and untroubled heart that fears God and exhibits generosity through the entrusting of possessions to the faithfulness of God.

This represents the only way to live for all those who await the glorious return of Jesus Christ. It is true for every person, everywhere in the world. Speaking of the world, today I am back in Littleton, Colorado, and hosting Gary Williams, national director for CMA Australia, at my home office. I am thankful he invites me to proclaim truths like this one to the ministry professionals he serves Down Under!

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us — so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

“God promises blessing to His people because He wants them to be a blessing to the nations. Therefore we should pray for blessing on ourselves for the sake of the nations. This is not because God does not love us, or is just using us. It’s because He loves the nations and because He knows that our joy in all that God is for us increases when it expands into the lives of others. In other words, when we ask for God’s blessing on us for the sake of the nations we are also asking for our joy to be full.”

John Piper in “Let the Nations Be Glad” missions week message on 7 November 1993.

Over the last two days, I have had great meetings in Florida as part of the Pioneers Hong Kong board. Yesterday, Rick Yohn, one of my fellow board members, shared a devotional based on a message he heard years ago by John Piper. Rick challenged us to “ask for God’s blessing” for the sake of serving as conduits of blessing to the world. It was inspiring. After some digging this morning, I found the message.

Throughout the Scriptures, God makes it clear that His design for us as His people is to bless us so that can bless to the world. Psalm 67 celebrates this. If the world looks like a mess, our job is not to point fingers or complain. We are part of the solution. This Lord’s day, let’s ask God to bless us with material and spiritual blessings so that our joy is full which positions us to bless the entire world for His glory!

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

“The Bible is not just a tool. It is a ‘You’, not an ‘It’. To open it is to come into the presence of something living and transformative; something actively present. To abide with it is to recognize moreover, that it is what the contemporary French Catholic philosopher Jean-Luc Marion might call a ‘saturated phenomenon’, one that contains more than any one reader or any one epoch can simply and completely and definitively wring out of it. Its power to affect successive new situations and to encounter new people is apparently limitless. It is a text that keeps on giving.”

Ben Quash in Abiding: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent, Book 2013 (London: Bloomsbury, 2012) 55.

Quash and Marion remind us that God’s Word represents a beautiful example of God’s “limitless” generosity toward us. “It is a text that keeps on giving.”

This week at Warner University in Florida, Jenni spoke in chapel on Tuesday and I spoke on Thursday offering a total of seven practices for growing our love for God and neighbor.

One of Jenni’s points was to “Soak in Scripture” (she starts at the 11:35 mark of this video and goes for 20 minutes). Marion would add that we all should do this because it’s a “saturated phenomenon”. Do you have a regular routine for mining the depths of the living and limitless Word of God? Even without any money, a person can be generous who receives and shares the riches of the Word of God with others!

To hear part two of the message that I got to share, watch the video at this link and you will see my brother, Dr. David Hoag, president of Warner University introduce me at the 7:55 mark. In his words, it was “Hoagmania” week at Warner.

What a joy it was to teach from God’s Word together this week: “the text that keeps on giving.”