Archives by: Gary Hoag

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up His clothes by casting lots. Luke 23:34

“When we are personally injured our world does not suddenly become our injury. We have a larger view of our life and our place in God’s world. We see God; we see ourselves in his hands. And we see our injurer as more than that one who has imposed on us or hurt us. We recognize his humanity, his pitiful limitations (shared with us), and we also see him under God. This vision, and the grace that comes with it, enables the prayer: “Father forgive them, for they do not really understand what they are doing.” And in fact they don’t, as Jesus well knew when he prayed this prayer over his murderers.”

Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York: HarperCollins, 1998) 176.

The prevailing thinking in our world is to avenge those who wrong us. We want to hold them accountable. As followers of Jesus we get to do the opposite toward them. We show love and forgiveness because we share humanity with them.

God will be the righteous judge. So, we must not see ourselves as “good” and them “bad” for we need God’s grace equally. This relates to generosity because we live in a world where we are injured from all sides. Friend and foe wrong us.

What should we do? Let’s not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good by echoing the prayer of Jesus to all who share humanity with us and wrong us. “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

No only do we sow grace and mercy generously with this posture, we position ourselves to receive it richly from God. For the measure we extend to others will be extended to us (Matthew 7:2). Share grace and mercy geneorously in 2022.

The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. Proverbs 22:9

“God of abundance, help us live today trusting that there will be enough for tomorrow. Your sources have no end. Teach us to share our resources, believing that the more we give, the more you will provide for all. Amen.”

Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010) 64.

As the new year begins, let’s take the posture of learners of generosity. Let’s ask God to teach us to share. In so doing, may we discover unimaginable blessing.

Our world says that what we earned or possess is ours, and that we should only share with the deserving. In this prayer, Shane, Jonathan, and Enuma teach us a valuable lesson of the Christian life.

God’s sources have no end. So, when we share more, God supplies more for us and for all. But we must play our part this year and this day for God’s glory. Let’s do this in 2022.

Lord, teach us to share.

He was one of our number and shared in our ministry. Acts 1:17

“As long as goodness is successful, we can afford the luxury of regarding it as having no ethical significance; it is when success is achieved by evil means that the problem arises. In the face of such a situation, we find that it cannot be adequately dealt with, either by theoretical dogmatic arm-chair criticism, which means a refusal to face the facts or by opportunism, which means giving up the struggle and surrendering to success.

We will not and must not be either outraged critics or opportunists, but we must take our share of responsibility for the moulding of history in every situation and at every moment, whether we are the victors or the vanquished. One who will not allow any occurrence whatever to deprive him of his responsibility for the course of history—because he knows that it has been laid on him by God—will thereafter achieve a more fruitful relation to the events of history than that of barren criticism and equally barren opportunism.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Letters and Papers from Prison: The Enlarged Edition, edited by Eberhard Bethge (New York: SCM, 1971) 7.

We live in challenging times when much evil seems to prevail. Many have likened them to the days of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so it seems fitting to read his thoughts. He notes that many choose criticism or opportunism in response to crazy times. But to take our responsibility in the middle is to have a share in fruitful ministry.

During the days of the early church in Acts, the Roman emperors held a tight grip over society, and there were critics and opportunists on both sides. Despite the danger, God’s workers spread the truth about Jesus and lived it faithfully. In just two centuries they would become the majority population.

But how? Ordinary people had a share in the ministry. That’s how! They decided to live for Jesus and use all they had to advance His purposes, regardless of the cost. Bonhoeffer did it in his day. The question is, will we do it in ours. Don’t be a critic or an opportunist. Have a share in fruitful ministry.

A critic appears as a person hoarding what Jesus has supplied to them. An opportunist deploys a portion, perhaps their surplus to God’s work, but maintains their comfort and aims at personal gain. A person with a share in frutiful minisry holds nothing back from God. Where do you fit in this picture?

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:23

“There are two ways of enjoying the past as there are two ways of enjoying a foreign country. One man carries his Englishry abroad with him and brings it home unchanged. Wherever he goes he consorts with other English tourists. By a good hotel he means one that is like an English hotel. He complains of the bad tea where he might have had excellent coffee…

But there is another sort of travelling and another sort of reading. You can eat the local food and drink the local wines, you can share the foreign life, you can begin to see the foreign country as it looks, not to the tourist, but to its inhabitants. You can come home modified, thinking, and feeling as you did not think and feel before.”

C.S. Lewis in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, “De Audiendis Poetis” (late 1950s, first published in 1966) 2-3.

Happy new year from snowy Colorado.

My word for 2022 is “share” and I’m excited about it. It can function as a verb or as a noun. It’s the primary biblical term linked to giving in the New Testament, and it will be fun to explore its use by ancient and modern authors for growing in generosity.

I started the year by exploring its use by my favorite professor, C.S. Lewis. Here he urges people to set aside bias and expectations to appreciate differences. To do this, we “share the foreign life” and in so doing, come home modified as a result.

As I travel a lot and can relate to this, but we don’t have to travel to do it. We can “share” the experiences of others right where God has us in loving, compassionate, and generous ways. It costs time and energy, calls for patience and humility, and transforms us in the process.

So, as the pandemic persists, this may also come into view as drawing near to aid someone or “share” in their suffering. As 2022 begins, consider how you might share (the verb) with others daily from the share (the noun) of spiritual and material blessings you have received from God.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. Psalm 24:1-2

“It is a curious notion to assume that all of creation belongs to the God we worship, love, and serve. It certainly feels like I own my car. God is not the recipient of my mortgage payment. If God is the owner even of those who live upon the earth, is it asking too much for God to step in and help with homework every now and again?

I’ve been a pastor for many years, but I still struggle at times with truly acknowledging that God owns everything. Several years ago I had a conversation with Kermit, a young Navaho man living in Arizona, who helped me rethink and break apart my sophomoric understanding of ownership. He asked, if I did not create the land, how could I claim ownership upon it?

If I did not create the mountains, he told me, I cannot place my flag at its peak. If I am not the source of the stream, I cannot claim that it crosses a border. It is indeed true that creation belongs to God, and God alone can claim ownership because God alone is creator. Humans can shape, mold, and form, but “to create” is something only God can accomplish.”

Matt Rawle in Saving Grace: Hope-Filled Devotions Along the Way to Financial Well-Being (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020) 15.

Sophomoric means pretentious or juvenile. Anyone who thinks or acts as though he or she owns anything is pretentious or juvenile. But as Pastor Matt says, we do this all the time.

As the year draws to a close, let us decide to put away such childish thinking as Paul urges us.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 1 Corinthians 13:11

God alone creates and can claim ownership. He put us in the garden at the beginning not to own it but to steward it. Let’s make stewardship our aim in 2022. To assist you, check out my free devotional book, Steward.

Go through it with a friend or small group in January 2022. Lean into your identity and responsibility as a steward and put off sophomoric thinking.

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Deuteronomy 15:7-8

“What are we going to do now?” Our world had turned upside down the day before when my husband’s income, our carefully planned future, suddenly seemed perched on a terrifying precipice. In that moment, a memory instantly transported me from that breakfast room to the edge of a cliff on a West Virginia Mountain top.

An inexperienced climber, I had gone on a mountain-climbing instruction weekend with college friends. The panoramic view from the summit was breathtaking—ample reward for the long, challenging ascent. When it was time to descend the mountain, I learned we were going to rappel our way down, which literally involved stepping off a cliff.

I was outfitted with a harness and instructed how to use my hand as a brake to control my descent. Stepping backward off the sheer drop, with only the rope to prevent me from falling hundreds of feet to the ground below, was one of the most terrifying moments I have ever experienced.

And as I stepped off that cliff, I was dismayed to discover I wasn’t moving downward at all. I hung there suspended in space, and panic began to set in. Then I heard the gentle voice of my instructor above me saying. “You are gripping the rope too tightly, Jennifer. Loosen your hold a little and let the rope flow through your hands.”

I followed his instructions, and slowly descended until my thankful feet stood on solid ground. I recalled that experience on the mountain as I sat there with my husband… both of us feeling as though we were suspended in air with no safety tether. Our conversation ended with fervent prayers to discern God’s next plan for us.

God faithfully answered our prayers… as our financial situation began to recover, I found we had the tendency to hold tightly onto our earnings—the pain of the recent job loss was still very fresh in our memory. But God’s gentle voice reminded us to loosen our grip–to let the blessings God provides flow through us—just like the rappel rope on the mountain.”

Jennifer Wilder Morgan in Saving Grace: Hope-Filled Devotions Along the Way to Financial Well-Being (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020) 13-14.

This is a great little book. I commend it to anyone who desires to live openhandedly and generously. It’s also for those who want to help others grow spiritually linked to financial matters. It uses little stories like this one to send big messages.

The memory of difficult times in the past causes us to hold tight to what we have in the present. When Jennifer loosened her grip, she made it to solid ground. Likewise, when we loosen our grip on money, we find the solid path God desires for us.

Pause to ponder your generosity as 2021 ends. Are you holding tightly to God’s resources in fear? How might loosening your grip and choosing to let God’s blessings flow help you find the solid path your heart longs for?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Matthew 6:31-32

“This is difficult teaching! It strikes at the key values of our culture: impress others, amass as many goods as possible, and do not depend on anyone else. These values are so pervasive that we no longer recognize them easily as non-gospel. We do not bat an eye at the way they shape our imaginations; we do not recognize our surrender to those things instead of to God. We recognize that we are anxious but don’t perceive that these very values are creating much of our anxiety…

Jesus is calling us today to assess the idols made evident by our worrying. So now I read it differently. I hear Jesus saying, “Let the idols that are keeping you awake at night go. They are false idols that will consume you.” I also hear a call to reorientation, for God knows what I need, and if I pay attention, I might align my financial life to the needs that God knows, instead of needs that the world wants me to think it knows. And through that, I will find a salvation that I never thought possible: the freedom from the anxiety of my idol worship.”

Juan Huertas in Saving Grace: Hope-Filled Devotions Along the Way to Financial Well-Being (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020) 11-12.

In today’s Scripture, Jesus shines light on the fact that pagans don’t know any better than to worry about even the most basic things in life. This is difficult teaching, for sure.

Huertas reveals that this worrying reveals our idols. So, the words of Jesus come into view as a call to reorientation to align our lives to what Gods knows we need rather than what the world wants us to think.

This causes us practically speaking to experience freedom rather than anxiety. But we have to let go of those idols, those things the world tells us we need.  What idols do you hold onto? 

Others have noted that deliverance from this worldly entrapment comes from radical obedience and generous giving. As we enter the new year, what might reorientation look like for you?

What do you need to let go of?

“My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.” John 5:17

“Before we set our own goals and start working our own plans, we need to take time to consider how God is working around us. Eve with the best financial habits, money comes and money goes. Instead of measuring our worth through our investment portfolio, we need to remember our worth in Jesus Christ. When we plant ourselves in God, we will find ourselves blossoming. Whether it is lush green lawn in deep soil or bright blues of a beloved wildflower in rocky ground, our true wealth is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ through prayer, worship, community, and care of the other. When we align our lives to God, we invest in the joyful work of cooperating with all the rich wonders that God makes grow.”

Todd Salmi in Saving Grace: Hope-Filled Devotions Along the Way to Financial Well-Being (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020) 10.

Many of us return to work today. After a long weekend celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, it’s time to get back to work. So where should we apply ourselves? Careful, it’s a trick question.

The answer is that we must all plant ourselves in God regardless of our vocation.

Many people start the year crafting plans. Alternatively, I advise people to do the opposite. Fast, pray, and confess dependence on God to discern direction, to consider how God is working and engage with Him where you are with what you have.

One thing happens when we do this, when we plant ourselves in God. The result is blossoming.

Even as Jesus worked where He saw the Father working, we too can do likewise. It’s cooperating with God, and the best part is that we enjoy community with Him and others in the process.

So how might this idea shape your generosity in the new year? I will let you answer that alone with Him.

The LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. Numbers 18:20

“God’s gifts are many. His best gift is one. It is the gift of Himself. Above all gifts, God desires most to give Himself to His people. Our nature being what it is, we are the best fitted of all creatures to know and enjoy God. “For thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee” (from The Confessions of St. Augustine).

When God told Aaron, “Thought shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt though have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel” (Numbers 18:20). He in fact promised a portion infinitely above all the real estate in Palestine and all the earth thrown in. To possess God—this is the inheritance ultimate and supreme.”

A.W. Tozer in From Heaven: A 28-day Advent Devotional (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2016) 121-122.

Aaron and his descendents would become known as Levites. That word means attached to the house of God. Levites had no land on which to grow coffee or corn, or on which to graze sheep or cattle. God was their portion.

He was enough for them.

Many Daily Meditations readers can relate. You serve at a church or ministry and have no other means of income for the work or for your family beyond which God supplies. Let me remind you today that God is our portion.

He is enough for you.

But it is easy to get restless. For example, you have a funding goal that is not yet met and 4 days until year-end. What should you do? This is where you must say to yourself, “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him.”

He is enough for everyone.

Find repose or tranquility in knowing that God knows your needs and will supply in His timing. And if you are reading this and have the ability to give generously this year-end, please do give to God’s work as you are able?

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:16

“Quaker author Philip Gulley was asked the difference between a Quaker and an Episcopalian. He replied, “If a Quaker gets a new sweater, and there is not room in his wardrobe, he gives a sweater away. An Episcopalian buys a larger wardrobe.” While I’m not sure his generalization applies to all Episcopalians or Quakers, his point was made. Most of us are in pursuit of more.

In some countries, the day after Christmas is another holiday, Boxing Day. People take their excess food, gifts, money, possessions, box them up and give them to those in need.

Here, the day after Christmas is the day to buy more stuff, hopefully at better prices than before. Because the business of the American kingdom is… business. But the business of God’s kingdom is people, according to Jesus.

Nothing wrong with business. It provides a means for people to live, but people should be the priority. Jesus did not die so the stock market could go up. He died so people could be saved. I look around at all my stuff and ask “What do I really need? What is important to me?”

Michael B. Henderson of South Carolina in Bethlehem United Methodist Church email dated 25 December 2021. Shared with me by faithful Daily Meditations reader, Randy Bury. Worth sharing widely. So good.

What will you be known for?

With humor, Henderson alerts us with generalizations to the reputation of the Quakers and the Episcopalians.

But what about you and your family? What would people say you do with your surplus?

Today is Boxing Day in many parts of the world, where sharing happens with intentionality. Imagine if every Christian practiced it, the impact we could have together.

Sadly, my American culture will likely focus more on business than people today.

Perhaps as your attention turns from Christmas to the new year, sit in texts like Psalm 103 so as to reflect on God’s benefits to you, and consider how you have been resourced to bless others. And follow the instructions of the writing of Hebrews. Do good and share richly for such sacrifices please God.