Archives by: Gary Hoag

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

“Accept with gratitude the brothers God gives you to go with you on the way.
Your task is to serve and upbuild one another as members of one body.

To the extent that you are filled with His Spirit
and ready to die that others may live,
to that extent will you grow in unity
and reflect the face of Christ more and more clearly.

And to the extent that you are ready to die together that others may live
will your community bear fruit for the coming of the Kingdom.

Then put aside all ambition,
and no longer concentrate on yourself.
Be constantly converted to your brothers
and place yourself in God’s hands.

Give instead of demanding,
trust others instead of compelling their trust,
serve instead of being served,
bless instead of cursing.
And be sure that when you have done all things well
you will still be an unprofitable servant.

So be attentive to the others,
not in order to dominate or exploit them
but to work for their happiness discreetly and effectively
and to build them up in all the riches of faith and love.

And you, accept from your brother the help you need.”

H van der Looy in Rule for a New Brother, 3.

I am flying from Denver (USA) to Newark (USA) to Johannesburg (South Africa) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Lilongwe (Malawi) over the next two days. Thanks for your prayers for safe travel.

In Lilongwe, I will meet up with my brother, Chris Maphosa (GTP Regional Facilitator for EPSA) who travels there from Mutare (Zimbabwe). Both of us will travel for two days.

Chris is an answer to our prayers at GTP. We pray for God to raise up workers to work in underserved parts of the world. I have gotten to know Chris through the COVID season.

He attended many GTP trainings online and has become a dear friend and now our EPSA (English, Portuguese, and Spanish speaking Africa). I am grateful to God for our growing friendship.

From 7-21 December we will minister and have many meetings with influencers on the topic of “Strengthening Churches and Ministries for Sustainability in the capital cities of Malawi, Mozambique, and Eswatini.

We have dedicated the first three days to prayer and discernment, asking God for these three countries (Psalm 2:8) and for wisdom for this trip and for the way He wants us to go over the next year.

We give our lives as living sacrifices to meet the needs of people in some of the poorest countries of the world so that they might become rich in faith and love. Make it so, Lord Jesus.

If you want to support this three-country effort in prayer, reply and I will share our detailed schedule for prayer. If you want to help cover the costs of this trip, make a gift at GTP.org. Thank you.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for spiritual joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live.

Life in this world is full of pain. But pain, which is the contrary of pleasure, is not necessarily the contrary of happiness or of joy. Because spiritual joy flowers in the full expansion of freedom that reaches out without obstacle to its supreme object, fulfilling itself in the perfect activity of disinterested love for which it was created.

Pleasure, which is selfish, suffers from everything that deprives us of some good we want to savor for our own sakes. But unselfish joy suffers from nothing but selfishness. Pleasure is restrained and killed by pain and suffering. Spiritual joy ignores suffering or laughs at it or even exploits it to purify itself of its greatest obstacle, selfishness.”

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961) 259.

There’s a common Christmas song that touches our hearts: Joy to the World. This got me thinking about what brings joy. It’s not pleasure or purchases, though that’s what the marketers will tell you.

It’s found in Jesus. Read again the proclamation of the angel. The first part is not to fear. As Merton notes, life in this world is full of pain. It’s real and it is everywhere. But don’t fear it.

You see most people use what they have to run from pain to pleasure. It only leaves them empty. Instead, we must instead pursue joy. To do this we must do one thing: steer clear of selfishness.

Where am I going with this line of thinking? The good news was that a Savior was born for all people, who would save us from ourselves, because selfishness will destroy us and steal our joy.

Let’s do something else instead. Let’s use what we have to make Jesus know, as He offers joy to a world gripped with fear. And be aware of his killjoy tactic, namely, selfishness.

If the evil forces, like Wormwood in Screwtape Letters, can get you to be fearful on one hand or selfish on the other, you will get off track and not relay the message the angel’s proclaimed.

Alternatively, when we renounce our selfish desires we actually find what we have been looking for all along. It transcends pain and troubles and surpasses all pleasures. It’s joy!

Generosity is using all you are and all you have to grasp this and help others take hold of this joy. It’s what Christ modeled in coming to us in the first place.

Jenni and I observe Christmas today with Sammy, Emily, Sophie, and Peter, as I head to Africa tomorrow. I have one ultimate aim on this journey: to spread joy in some of the poorest places in the world.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:8-11

“In times of upheaval, a voice from heaven says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It doesn’t say, “Be still and know why.” In a distant day the gradual sacrament of understanding may be offered to us. Today what is offered to us in the body and blood of Christ who suffered, as George MacDonald once said, not that we might not suffer, but that our suffering might be like his.”

Ken Gire in The Weathering Grace of God: The Beauty God Brings from Life’s Upheavals (Vine Books, 2001).

Many are going through hard times. There are two things we must remind them to do (and this comes into view as the greatest gift we can give them).

Firstly, be still. Relax and reflect on what God has done in the past and rest assured He will be exalted in the future. So in the meantime, we have nothing to fear (in a world filled with fear).

Secondly, know that the God we serve is greater than any opponent. So, as I travel to Africa, I am asking God to be with me, be my fortress, and go before me to conquer any opposition.

What about you? Are you going through hard times? Sit quietly and yet confidently in this statement: “Be still and know that I am God.”

“What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Luke 18:41

“A possibility I would like to suggest is this: live with the questions the Lord asks. Take up a Bible and open to the Gospels. Look for the questions Jesus asks of us: Who do you say that I am? What do you want? Are you not worth more than many sparrows? Why do you not believe? Living with these one after the other — and there are many in the Gospels — can bring us to wholly other, much richer perspective on our lives, maybe to seeing our lives the way God sees them, show through with light, the joy, the fullness of the risen life of Christ.”

M. Basil Pennington in Living in the Question (Bloomsbury: Continuum, 1999).

Jesus used questions to help us find a richer perspective. We should do likewise in our interaction with people. Today I asked him to help me see.

What’s this got to do with generosity? I am learning that I can serve others well by encouraging them to live with the questions the Lord may be asking of them.

With the closing of the Zimbabwe borders, I asked Jesus to help me see. Like He closed the door to Asia and opened Macedonia for Paul and his companions, He changed my schedule the week of my departure.

Now I prepare for teaching in Malawi, Mozambique, and Eswatini over the next few weeks, I plan to use questions from Jesus in the Scriptures in new ways. Why?

Jesus asks questions of because He wants us to grow. If I want that for others, I need to resist giving answers, but urge people to sit in the ones He gives us.

God help me. God help us all. Perhaps peruse this list of the questions of Jesus that I located. Sit with one today at the feet of our Savior and find a richer perspective.

1. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? (Matthew 5:46)
2. If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? (Matthew 5:47)
3. Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:27)
4. Why do you worry about clothes? (Matthew 6:28)
5. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3)
6. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? (Matthew 7:16)
7. Why are you so afraid? (Matthew 8:26)
8. Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? (Matthew 9:4)
9. Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? (Matthew 9:5)
10. How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? (Matthew 9:15)
11. Do you believe that I am able to do this? (Matthew 9:28)
12. What did you go out into the desert to see? (Matthew 11:7)
13. To what can I compare this generation? (Matthew 11:16)
14. If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? (Matthew 12:11)
15. How can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? (Matthew 12:29)
16. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? (Matthew 12:34)
17. Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? (Matthew 12:48)
18. Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:31)
19. Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? (Matthew 15:3)
20. How many loaves do you have? (Matthew 15:34)
21. Do you still not understand? (Matthew 16:9)
22. Who do people say the Son of Man is? (Matthew 16:13)
23. Who do you say I am? (Matthew 16:15)
24. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)
25. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? (Matthew 17:17)
26. From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes–from their own sons or from others? (Matthew 17:25)
27. What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? (Matthew 18:12)
28. Why do you ask me about what is good? (Matthew 19:17)
29. What is it you want? (Matthew 20:21)
30. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? (Matthew 20:22)
31. What do you want me to do for you? (Matthew 20:32)
32. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men? (Matthew 21:25)
33. What do you think? (Matthew 21:28)
34. Have you never read in the Scriptures? (Matthew 21:42)
35. Why are you trying to trap me? (Matthew 22:18)
36. What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? (Matthew 22:42)
37. Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? (Matthew 23:17-19)
38. How will you escape being condemned to hell? (Matthew 23:33)
39. Why are you bothering this woman? (Matthew 26:10)
40. Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour? (Matthew 26:40)
41. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53)
42. But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way? (Matthew 26:54)
43. Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? (Matthew 26:55)
44. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)
45. Why are you thinking these things? (Mark 2:8)
46. Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? (Mark 4:21)
47. What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? (Mark 4:30)
48. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? (Mark 4:40)
49. What is your name? (Mark 5:9)
50. Who touched my clothes? (Mark 5:30)
51. Why all this commotion and wailing? (Mark 5:39)
52. Are you so dull? (Mark 7:18)
53. Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? (Mark 7:18)
54. Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. (Mark 8:12)
55. Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? (Mark 8:17-18)
56. When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? (Mark 8:19)
57. When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? (Mark 8:20)
58. Do you still not understand? (Mark 8:21)
59. [To the blind man] Do you see anything? (Mark 8:23)
60. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? (Mark 9:12)
61. What were you arguing about on the road? (Mark 9:33)
62. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? (Mark 9:50)
63. What did Moses command you? (Mark 10:3)
64. Why do you call me good? (Mark 10:18)
65. What do you want me to do for you? (Mark 10:51)
66. Why are you trying to trap me? (Mark 12:15)
67. Do you see all these great buildings? (Mark 13:2)
68. Are you asleep? (Mark 14:37)
69. Could you not keep watch for one hour? (Mark 14:37)
70. Why were you searching for me? (Luke 2:49)
71. Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house? (Luke 2:49)
72. Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? (Luke 5:22)
73. Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? (Luke 5:23)
74. Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46)
75. Where is your faith? (Luke 8:25)
76. What is your name? (Luke 8:30)
77. Who touched me? (Luke 8:45)
78. Will you be lifted up to the skies? (Luke 10:15)
79. What is written in the Law? How do you read it? (Luke 10:26)
80. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? (Luke 10:36)
81. Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? (Luke 11:40)
82. Who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? (Luke 12:14-15)
83. Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Luke 12:25)
84. Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? (Luke 12:57)
85. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? (Luke 14:31)
86. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? (Luke 14:34)
87. Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4)
88. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? (Luke 15:8)
89. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? (Luke 16:11)
90. Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? (Luke 17:17)
91. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? (Luke 18:7)
92. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)
93. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? (Luke 22:27)
94. Why are you sleeping? (Luke 22:46)
95. For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? (Luke 23:31)
96. What are you discussing together as you walk along? (Luke 24:17)
97. What things? (Luke 24:19)
98. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? (Luke 24:26)
99. Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? (Luke 24:38)
100. Do you have anything here to eat? (Luke 24:41)
101. What do you want? (John 1:38)
102. Why do you involve me? (John 2:4)
103. You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things? (John 3:10)
104. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? (John 3:12)
105. Will you give me a drink? (John 4:7)
106. Do you want to get well? (John 5:6)
107. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? (John 5:44)
108. If you do not believe Moses’ writings how will you believe me? (John 5:47)
109. Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? (John 6:5)
110. Does this offend you? (John 6:61)
111. What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! (John 6:62)
112. You do not want to leave too, do you? (John 6:67)
113. Have I not chosen you? (John 6:70)
114. Has not Moses given you the law? (John 7:19)
115. Why are you trying to kill me? (John7:19)
116. Why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? (John 7:23)
117. Where are they? Has no one condemned you? (John 8:10)
118. Why is my language not clear to you? (John 8:43)
119. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? (John 8:46)
120. If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? (John 8:46)
121. Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? (John 10:36)
122. Are there not twelve hours of daylight? (John 11:9)
123. Do you believe this? (John 11:26)
124. Where have you laid him? (John 11:33)
125. Do you understand what I have done for you? (John 13:12)
126. Don’t you know me, even after I have been among you such a long time? (John 14:9)
127. Who is it you want? (John 18:4,7)
128. Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? (John 18:11)
129. Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me? (John 18:34)
130. Why question me? (John 18:21)
131. If I spoke the truth, why did you strike me? (John 18:23)
132. Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? (John 20:15)
133. Friends, haven’t you any fish? (John 21:5)
134. Do you love me? (John 21:17)
135. What is that to you? (John 21:22)

And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

“Years ago, someone told me that humility is central to the spiritual life. That made sense to me: I was proud to think of myself as humble! But this person did not tell me that the path to humility, for some of us at least, goes through humiliation, where we are brought low, rendered powerless, stripped of pretenses and defenses, and left feeling fraudulent, empty, and useless — a humiliation that allows us to regrow our lives from the ground up.”

Parker J. Palmer in Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999) 70.

Today I find myself humbled and grateful for God’s grace. In short, things are going great, just not as I expected. Had some great calls which will result in gifts for GTP, just they won’t come on Giving Tuesday. And the Africa trip looks like it will happen, just not as anticipated, due to factors beyond my control. It’s all good, just really humbling.

So when I read this excerpt from Palmer last night about the link between humility and humiliation, it touched me. Then I thought about the fact that generosity only flows when we experence the same humbling to realize we are not the source of the gifts we share, but rather, the  system through which God gives gifts to the world.

It’s a freeing realization actually. Simultaneously, for Christian workers, we must not fret about what we don’t have but use what we have faithfully. This humbling regrows us as stewards whose strength flows not from our knowledge or planning but our dependence on the grace and generosity that is in Christ Jesus.

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on His head as He was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Matthew 26:6-13

“There is this wonderful quality about being together in community that takes place whenever each individual takes whatever gifts he or she has been given and offers them to the body for the glory of God. The only way to describe it is that something magical happens.

It is like precious oil being poured out on everyone. Somehow, mysteriously, abundance is created. The sum of the whole becomes much greater than the sum of the parts. It is sheer delight, for somehow, as the gifts are being given, they renew themselves, even as they are being poured out.

Whenever we freely give to one another the things an the gifts that God has freely given to us, real community forms, and somehow new life is created both within us and among us. So let us, this very day, give what is ours to give. Let us pour precious oil on the heads of those who come into our paths, knowing that by doing so it will bring life to our souls and deep joy to the heart of our God.”

Jim Branch in Reflection on “Together” in The Blue Book: A Devotional Guide for Every Season of Your Life (Scotts Valley: CreateSpace, 2016) 337

I want to challenge you to do three things today.

Firstly, move toward, not away from people society labels as “lepers.” Jesus went to the home of Simon the Leper in today’s text. The guy would have been labeled unclean, but that did not slow Jesus down. It must not slow us either.

I am scheduled to travel to South Africa and Zimbabwe this weekend. I am eager to go and serve workers from across Southern Africa despite the recent COVID outbreak. Sadly, the world has labeled all these people lepers.

Secondly, celebrate what happened when one woman poured out her oil. She made history. As long as the gospel is proclaimed, her story will be retold. Jesus saw her sacrifice and celebrated.

He’s still watching and celebrating when people give sacrificially. Magic still happens when people sacrifice what God has richly supplied to them. It creates abundance. He replenishes the supply.

Thirdly, “let us this very day give what is ours to give.” Happy Giving Tuesday. Today, I want to invite every reader to give to GTP to help us add staff to multiply faithful stewards around the world.

Here’s the link. Check out our Giving Tuesday campaign to add staff to respond to unanticipated demand for our programs around the world. Help us reach the goal by giving generously today.

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

“One day, when it seemed especially heavy, she noticed lying on the table near her a little tract called “Hannah’s Faith.” Attracted by the title, she picked it up and began to read it, little knowing, however, that it was to create a revolution in her whole experience. The story was of a poor woman who had been carried triumphantly through a life of unusual sorrow. She was giving the history of her life to a kind visitor on one occasion, and at the close the visitor said, feelingly, “O Hannah, I do not see how you could bear so much sorrow!” “I did not bear it,” was the quick reply; “the Lord bore it for me.”

“Yes,” said the visitor “that is the right way. You must take your troubles to the Lord.” “Yes,” replied Hannah, “but we must do more than that; we must leave them there. Most people,” she continued, “take their burdens to Him, but they bring them away with them again, and are just as worried and unhappy as ever. But I take mine, and I leave them with Him, and come away and forget them. And if the worry comes back, I take it to Him again; I do this over and over, until at last I just forget that I have any worries, and am at perfect rest.”

My friend was very much struck with this plan and resolved to try it. The circumstances of her life she could not alter, but she took them to the Lord, and handed them over into His management; and then she believed that He took it, and she left all the responsibility and the worry and anxiety with Him. As often as the anxieties returned she took them back; and the result was that, although the circumstances remained unchanged, her soul was kept in perfect peace in the midst of them. She felt that she had found out a blessed secret, and from that time she tried never again to carry her own burdens, nor to manage anything for herself…

You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you. Trust Him now for everything, and see if He does not do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever have asked or thought; not according to your power or capacity, but according to His own mighty power, that will work in you all the good pleasure of His most blessed will.

You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of it. Away with such unworthy doubtings! Take your stand on the power and trustworthiness of your God, and see how quickly all difficulties will vanish before a steadfast determination to believe. Trust in the dark, trust in the light, trust at night, and trust in the morning, and you will find that the faith, which may begin by a mighty effort, will end sooner or later by becoming the easy and natural habit of the soul.”

Hannah Whitall Smith in The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (Christian Witness Company) 15, 32.

Fears abound and markets tumble with the discovery of yet another COVID variant. Unrest dominates social conversations. No vaccination or booster shot can guarantee people what they are looking for: perfect peace and happiness.

So, today I invite you to download a classic, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. It’s free. Read it this Advent. It’s only 131 pages in PDF form. Sharing the link with others might be the most generous thing you can do during crazy times.

In this book, Smith suggests a simple yet revolutionary habit. It’s a not a new idea but urges the application of an old idea found in today’s Scripture. We must learn to pray and leave our cares with God to find peace and happiness.

It’s the perfect balm for the challenging times in the larger society and the stretching moments that ministry workers face. May the Spirit of God help each of us model this revolutionary habit so as to spread peace and happiness generously.

Today, my twofold prayer is for God to keep a door for ministry open and to supply the resources to add new staff. Following Smith’s counsel, I am praying and casting my cares on Christ. But, let me explain the situation.

For months, GTP has planned travel to Africa to serve God’s workers from Botswana, Burundi, Eswantini, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The same areas affected by the recent COVID variant outbreak!

Where it gets challenging is that I and two other members of the GTP staff are supposed to fly out in a week. Will we be able to travel there to serve? Today we are meeting, meditating on Acts 27:27-29, and assessing the situation.

What will we do? We will pray and give any worries to God. What do we not do? We won’t fear or treat people from these regions like lepers. This may be our greatest ministry moment to serve like Jesus and move toward those in need.

The other thing on my mind is Giving Tuesday. Will you join GTP in the work of strengthening God’s workers and building sustainable ministries worldwide? Click here to learn how God has supplied and to help meet the goal to add staff.

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Deuteronomy 15:7-8

“There are only two ways to live. We can live with either clenched fists or with open hands. You can’t have them both. Clenched fists are a refusal: a refusal to let go, a refusal to trust, a refusal to give up control. And unfortunately, in the spiritual life, clenched fists also keep you from being able to receive anything from God. Only empty hands can receive. Therefore, we must let go of whatever our hands are full of before we can ever expect to receive any of the fullness, or the life, that God wants to give us.”

Jim Branch in Reflection on “Letting Go” in The Blue Book: A Devotional Guide for Every Season of Your Life (Scotts Valley: CreateSpace, 2016) 185.

How are your hands?

Branch rightly notes that there are two ways to live but only one grasps life in all its fullness. See how this paradox unfolds: those who try to keep wealth in their hands only end up poor. Those who hold on to their plans for their lives never discover take hold of life as God desires for them.

How are your hands?

God cannot fill us to overflowing so that we can be generous if we have clenched fists. And we can’t grasp life that way either. So, look at your hands today. Take five minutes and do this. Consider the implications for your living, giving, serving, and loving.

How are your hands?

If you have grace and mercy, share it. If you have wealth, give it. If you have giftedness, use it. If you have love, lavish it. Only as we receive with open hands can we give. There is much fear in the world. It only lead us to clench our fists and miss out on what God has for us. Don’t let it happen to you.

Open your hands.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9

“There are many programs to prepare people for service in its different forms. But seldom do we look at these programs as a training toward a voluntary poverty. Instead we want to become better equipped and more skillful. We want to acquire the “tools of the trade.”

But real training for service asks for a hard and often painful process of self-emptying. The main problem of service is to be a way without being “in the way.” And, if there are any tools, techniques, and skills to be learned they are primarily to plow the field, to cut the weeds, and clip the branches, that is, to take away the obstacles for real growth and development.

Training for service is not a training to become rich but to become voluntarily poor; not to fulfill ourselves but to empty ourselves; not to conquer God but to surrender to His saving power. All this is very hard to accept in our contemporary world, which tells us about the importance of power and influence.

But it is important that in this world there remain a few voices crying out that if there is anything to boast of, we should boast of our weakness. Our fulfillment is in offering emptiness, our usefulness in becoming useless, our power in becoming powerless.”

Henri Nouwen in Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (New York: Image, 1986) 108.

This post really touched me as I prepare to teach and train Christian workers in Harare, Zimbabwe. I got word that the room capacity is filling up. People are eager for the “tools of the trade” and at GTP we plan to offer them “real training” as Nouwen put it.

But God only knows if the trip to Southern Africa will happen due to the recent COVID scare.

Regardless, I like to tell people that preparation for service is spiritual and strategic. Nouwen describes the spiritual side rightly in pointing people toward voluntary poverty. And don’t be intimidated by this expression. It refers to getting out of the way so God can work.

Only then can the strategic coaching equip God’s workers for good works.

This relates to generosity because if we want our service to be useful and powerful, we must aim at uselessness and powerlessness. Want practical coaching to aim at this? At GTP we say to practice the disciplines of fasting, confession, and prayer, whilst everyone around you focuses on pursuing their desires.

Voluntary poverty is the way of Jesus for being filled to enrich others.

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24

“I gaze lovingly at my dinner plate filled with gifts from the earth. I am touched, overwhelmed at the truth that everything I eat has in some way had to die so I could live. It is the way of the earth, and I do not completely understand it. Ponder over the truth for a while. It may bring tears to your eyes. And if it does, I encourage you to welcome them. They could be healing. I gaze more lovingly still. Gratitude overflows! I ask my heart a hard question: What is it in me that must die before I can truly give life to others?”

Macrina Wiederkehr in Seasons of Your Heart: Prayers and Reflections, Revised and Expanded (New York: HarperCollins, 1991) 129.

We ate a full plate of food yesterday for Thanksgiving. Perhaps you did too? So this is a perfect thought to ponder. Everything on that plate had to die so that you and I might eat it and have life.

May this thought fill you with gratitude and propel you to generosity. I pray it also inspires you to soak in this question: “What is it in me that must die before I can truly give life to others?”

Today is Black Friday in USA. It’s the day marketers offer us deals to get us to spend as much money as possible. Buy what you need, for sure, as you may get necessities at great prices.

In dying to consumerism and instead choosing generosity we set an example for others which just might help them grasp the life that is truly life, which is what they are looking for while shopping anyway.

If you are looking for a place to give to spread this kind of thinking worldwide, support the “give a gift that grows” effort. Click here to learn more.