Archives by: Gary Hoag

Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced. 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

“Recently (although the outward condition of my life has not changed for the better) it has pleased God to pour into my soul great tranquility — I may even say gaiety. I give thanks not without apprehension as one who keeps firmly in mind that salutary observation in The Imitation of Christ “remember in grace what you would be without grace.” Would that we had attained to everlasting constancy with no shadow of turning!”

C.S. Lewis in “Letter to Don Giovanni Calabria dated 13 January 1948” in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2005) 41.

When we pause to “remember” in grace what we would be without grace, we receive the gift of “great tranquility.” God has done wonders and miracles for us.

Notice we can experience this transformation of perspective even when, as Lewis notes, the conditions in our lives have not changed for the better. We are still in this crazy COVID crisis.

I must admit that in choosing the word “remember” as my word for 2021, I had no idea how it would relate to generosity. Now it seems to me, already, there are infinite possibilities.

As we remember the wonders God has done for us, His miracles and matchless grace, it fills us with great tranquility and joy. Part of our generosity is sharing this peace and joy with others.

But think for a moment why remembering in grace is vital. It roots our generosity in grace. Grace reminds us that everything good that you and I have came to us from God for our enjoyment and generous sharing.

As 2021 begins, take a moment, perhaps over a cup of coffee, and remember at least five things God did for you in 2020. The exercise of reflecting with gratitude causes us to look to the Lord and seek His face for 2021.

And it fills us with great tranquility which inspires us to make 2021 a year of even richer generosity. We’ve got this, because God’s got us.

Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ Nehemiah 1:8-9

“After the confession of sins and the effect it had regarding the breaking of the covenant, Nehemiah sketches the result of the sin. The result is that the sinners will be scattered among the nations…Here in Nehemiah the curse on the treason is balanced by two significant verbs, return and keep. Covenantal language is used. In the covenant, as also in ancient Near Eastern treaties, the curses were balanced by blessings. If one transgressed the stipulations, the curse would come into operation, but if one kept the stipulations, the blessing would be bestowed. It was an either/or choice.”

Charles Fensham in The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; 1983) 155.

My word for 2021 is remember. Here God’s servant uses the term to ask God to be faithful to His covenant and promises even when we are not. Of course, God never forgets “the word” though often we do. To call God “remember the word” is a cry out to God for help.

That’s how I feel led to start 2021. Let’s take the posture of fasting, confession, and prayer like Nehemiah, and ask God to come to our aid, to restore what is broken. I will do it for myself and my people in the USA. Wherever you are, invite others to join you. Echo this prayer for yourself and your people.

To grow in generosity, we must be in a position to receive blessings by grace. Individually, we soak in the word and ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, then we return and keep His commands. Collectively, we must follow standards and make sure our lives and ministries reflect a consistent witness to a watching world.

Father in heaven, forgive me and my people for our greed, idolatry, sinfulness, and selfishness in America. We have abandoned your ways and forgotten the Word. As we return to you and keep your commands, bless us individually and in community so we extend compassionate generosity in 2021 and beyond. Hear our prayer in your mercy in the name of Jesus. Amen!

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22

“We often expect from others more than we are willing to do ourselves. Why have we hitherto thought so intemperately about man and his frailty and temptability? We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in light of what they suffer. The only profitable relationship to others — and especially to our weaker brethren — is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them. God Himself did not despise humanity, but became man for men’s sake.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Witness to Jesus Christ, edited by John de Gruchy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991) 262.

My word for the year was compassion. That means you got to study it too. Thanks for journeying with me. As Bonhoeffer put it, “We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in light of what they suffer.” That’s the empathy part of compassion.

Then, we demonstrate “the will to hold fellowship with them.” That’s the love part, and perhaps the hardest. I find that we may not like people or even agree with them, but we get to choose to fellowship with them. This gives them a gift, and we always receive a greater blessing in return when we give it.

As the year draws to a close, consider how the relationships around you can be more profitable. It’s actually not by doing more but by loving well with empathy. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

Happy New Year! Give generously according to your ability to your church and a portfolio of ministries. Make a gift to GTP to help us expand our team and translate resources into many languages in 2021 for multiplying faithful stewards globally. And, stay tuned for the word for 2021. I will reveal it tomorrow.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20

“It is not enough for the Corinthian Christians to stop quarreling with each other. The apostle calls them to follow him in serving the Lord. As their brother in Christ he has given them the message of life and peace. Now he pleads with them to avoid their disputes and to unite in doing deeds of compassion in the name of the Redeemer, “for the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power.”

Larry Woodruff in Living Abundantly: Meditations on the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of the Apostle Paul, Other Letters, and The Revelation to John (Bloomington: WestBow, 2017) 128.

We are living in a time when people quarrel and have disputes about everything from the pandemic to politics. The Apostle Paul would say we we must abandon the talk and get on with the walk. Instead, we should be characterized as people doing deeds of compassion.

How do we stay on track? For some, it might mean to unplug from the news on television. For others, it might mean fast from social media. For all of us, it will take shape when we seek first the kingdom of God so that His power will be manifest in and through our lives.

Pause. Think about what needs to change in your life. As God to help you change in the new year so the disputes stop and the compassionate deeds start. I am learning to say “No” to things so that I can say “Yes” to better things. It’s a process. God help me. God help us all.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

“None knows the weight of another’s burden.”

George Herbert as recounted by Sir John Templeton in Discovering the Laws of Life (West Conshohocken: Templeton, 1994) 20.

This short and sweet quote sums up what I have learned about compassion this year. We cannot know really the weight of the burdens of others. But to get a taste we can offer to bear them.

I say to my staff that the most important question they can ask me or others is simply, “How are you?” Life is hard. Asking this question is the first step to helping bear the burdens of others.

What really encourages me about the generosity of givers GTP is that together we are sharing the burden of lifting up those who struggle and suffer. We are helping them shape their futures.

While I don’t know what it is like in Francophone Africa, I plan to visit in 2021. Help this campaign get over the finish line. Click to make a gift today. It’s at $440 toward the goal of $2,000.

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:17

“Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.”

Francis Schaeffer as recounted by Michael A. Milton in Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2007) 16.

The photo above which I snapped of the Nile River in Egypt links to the Christmas story. Remember Egypt is the place where Mary and Joseph took Jesus to avoid Herod who wanted to take His life.

When I was growing up, I recall vividly a series of videos by Francis Schaeffer. They shaped my thinking and my living. They were entitled, “How Should We Then Live?”. Perhaps you have seen them?

Schaeffer cared deeply that our minds were aligned with Christian truth and that mindset shaped our daily practices. Good thinking alone is not only insufficient, it is ugly, really ugly.

Are you this kind of ugly? I think I am too often. So, what should we do? How should we then live in a broken world if we embrace biblical orthodoxy? 

We must not stop at Christian thinking. We must combine it with generous compassion because it is how Christ treated us. He saw our need and ministered to it.

The GTP regional campaign for the Caribbean is lagging. That’s a poor region that needs our help. It is only at $147 toward the goal of $1,000.

Click here to make a gift to help the Caribbean today with 4 days to go to meet the match.

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things. Mark 6:34

“Christ literally walked in our shoes and entered into our affliction. Those who will not help others until they are destitute reveal that Christ’s love has not yet turned them into the sympathetic persons that the gospel should make them.”

Timothy Keller in Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just (New York: Penguin, 2012) 69-70.

As 2020 draws to a close, I realize I still have a lot to learn about my word for the year: compassion. One thing I have found is that Christ is the model for us.

He walked in our shoes, entered into our affliction, and loved us so much He did not leave us without direction. He gave us the teaching we needed to find the way to life.

As you think about your year-end giving, support the ones that help you become a sympathetic person. Give to those who help you identify with the hurting and who empower the needy with the teaching they need.

Support a portfolio of ministries that reflect the things Christ cares about. Start with your local church, include ministries in your region, and global organizations like GTP.

James, [Peter] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Galatians 2:9-10

“If you are a North American Christian, the reality of our society’s vast wealth presents you with an enormous responsibility, for throughout the Scriptures God’s people are commanded to show compassion to the poor. In fact, doing so is simply part of our job description as followers of Jesus Christ (Matthew 25:31–46). While the biblical call to care for the poor transcends time and place, passages such as 1 John 3:17 should weigh particularly heavy on the minds and hearts of North American Christians: ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?’

Of course, there is no “one-size-fits-all” recipe for how each Christian should respond to this biblical mandate. Some are called to pursue poverty alleviation as a career, while others are called to do so as volunteers. Some are called to engage in hands-on, relational ministry, while others are better suited to support frontline workers through financial donations, prayer, and other types of support. Each Christian has a unique set of gifts, callings, and responsibilities that influence the scope and manner in which to fulfill the biblical mandate to help the poor.”

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert in When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself (Chicago: Moody, 2014) 13-14.

Back on 24 August 2016, I wrote a blog entitled “Help That Never Hurts” on the CLA blog. It came to mind when I was reflecting on today’s Scripture this morning. In that blog I cited this quote by Corbett and Fikkert. My point in that piece was that the help that never hurts is remembering or showing compassion to the poor. With Corbett and Fikkert, I acknowledge that it looks different for each person as it links to our giftedness, resources, and situations.

People often ask me: how can I make sure to show love and compassion in my giving?

Here is a way to connect giving financially and showing compassion: make sure your giving builds disciples rather than creating ongoing dependencies. How can you tell the difference? Follow this rule: If I make this gift, will it just be a transaction that helps them to keep going another day or week. Or will it accomplish transformation, changing the person and empowering the organization to move to another level and to grow to bless others.

Many ministries focus on meeting needs and forget about building up people. On this note, Corbett and Fikkert say:

“Churches and ministries using a needs-based approach are often quick to provide food, clothes, shelter, and money to meet the perceived, immediate needs of low-income people…Pouring in outside resources is not sustainable only exacerbates the feelings of helplessness and inferiority that limits low-income people from begin better stewards of their God given talents and resources. When the church or ministry stops the flow of resources, it can leave behind individuals and communities that are more disempowered than before” (120).

Don’t leave people worse off than you found them. Give in a way that builds them up. Compassionate giving that transforms takes the form of a hand up rather than a just hand out. Or as the saying goes, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” As I reflect on the needs of this world in that light, giving that shows compassion is multiplying the ranks of fishing guides (or faithful stewards). That’s a description of what the work of GTP is all about. Please include us in your year-end giving. Make a gift here to multiply faithful stewards.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Luke 2:10

The early church didn’t say, “Look what the world is coming to!” They said, “Look what has come into the world.”

Carl F. H. Henry as recounted by Brian Fikkert & Kelly M. Kapic in Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty isn’t the American Dream (Chicago: Moody, 2019) 193.

Our pastor, James Hoxworth, opened the Christmas Eve service with this quote. He proceeded to remind us that Jesus came with three objectives.

Firstly, He came eating and drinking (Luke 7:34). He met ordinary people where they were at and enjoyed table fellowship with them. Don’t we all miss that during COVID.

Secondly, He came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). In so doing, He modeled the way of generous living, giving, serving, and loving for us.

Thirdly, He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). That includes everyone apart from Christ because our sins separate us from God.

So if you are saying because of COVID, “Look what the world is coming to!” Perhaps change your tune. Celebrate “Look what has come into the world” because in Him we have fellowship, life, and, salvation.

All praise be to our generous God! Look what has come into the world. Happy Christmas everyone!