Archives by: Gary Hoag

You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

“There is a picture that hangs up over my fireplace, it says “Simplify Christmas – Celebrate Christ.” Those words are what I choose to remember each year – this year even more so… This year, I want to enjoy and appreciate…the season and all it represents. That God so loved you and I that He gave His very best gift. He gave us Jesus! That is reason enough to celebrate.

This year God is leading me to do some things different. To give more. And to give more gifts from the heart… These days, it seems everywhere we turn there are needs. But God is faithful and He always makes the way for the needs to be met…if we are willing to be that vessel…I have learned this; the more I seek God, the closer I get to Him, the more I want to give to others.

That is what Jesus Christ is all about. God loves us so much He gave… We should love God and His people enough that when He tells us to bless others, we don’t question it, we simply obey. We obey with joy and excitement at what the gift will mean to the recipient. Simplify Christmas – celebrate Christ. Bring Him glory this month! And let all you do be done in love. For after all…He is love.”

Kim Potter in “Simplify Christmas” blog post on 21 December 2020 by A New Thing Ministries. Thanks to my friend, Pat Warbington, who forwarded this post to me.

Our Christmas took a turn. In a way everything is more complicated, but in a way it is also more simplified. Our son was diagnosed with COVID. Our plans for getting together were cancelled. It has led me to focus on Christ.

I can identify with the feeling of helplessness that many talk about linked to COVID. So, to all those who are well, let us pray for, give generously to, and aid those who suffer. And let us all give thanks for Jesus, who is with us and loves us.

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:38

“When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, he told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” And she answered, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” It was in this submission, this surrender and obedience, that Christ was conceived. And it is the laying down of power that is revealed in his birth.…

He was born in a stable, at the mercy of Herod and the stark elements of cold and dirt. This pattern of complete abandonment of human strength in total surrender to God’s will is of vital importance for us. It was in the surrender of herself to God that Mary became the mother of Christ.

It was in her acceptance of Gabriel’s message that the great decisive event of history took place. And in our own lives, in our efforts to do right, what is decisive is that we accept and live by and surrender ourselves to a strength which is not our own, to the piercing white light of God’s love.”

Philip Britts in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (Walden: Plough, 2001) 109. Special thanks to Daily Meditations reader, Bill Crowe, for sharing this with me.

Think about what Mary surrendered. She gave up her body, her reputation, her entire future in saying “Yes” to the angel, Gabriel. And consider the generosity unleashed as a result.

Though we may not be visited by an angel, what might God be asking us to surrender the Christmas so that generous blessing can flow from our humble obedience?

But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Galatians 4:4-5

“Big and glossy and loud and fast—that’s how this bent-up world turns. But God, when He comes—He shows up in this fetal ball. He who carved the edges of the cosmos curved Himself into a fetal ball in the dark, tethered Himself to the uterine wall of a virgin, and lets His cells divide, light splitting all white. He gave up the heavens that were not even large enough to contain Him and lets Himself be held in a hand. The mystery so large becomes the Baby so small, and infinite God becomes infant. The Giver becomes the Gift, this quiet offering.”

Ann Voskamp in The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas (Nashville: Tyndale, 2013) vii.

As we draw near to Christmas, let us ponder and adore our Savior. Let us learn from Him and how He arrived, how the Giver became the Gift. He was a quiet offering.

It’s the opposite of how things work in this crazy and noisy world. He came in humility and quietness. What if we came that way in our giving?

Here’s how it might appear. We’d stand back, watch, ask questions discern needs, and meet them quietly and richly. That’s what God did on that first silent night, holy night.

I think it would also be otherworldly. There is a glorious divinity linked to the nativity. What would it look like for our giving to proclaim glory to God in the highest?

Let’s give our first and best this Christmas, so that our generosity is both a quiet offering and touches people and needs in a manner that brings the most glory to God.

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Matthew 21:28-32

“Regardless of our station in life, God calls all of us as believers to give our best to the Master as compassionate, loving leaders. A brilliant and famous young medical doctor one day grappled with this important decision. During his rise to fame, an urgent call came for him to travel to a village in Korea for a critical operation. At first he refused.

“God, my schedule is booked solid for many weeks. How can I go?” But, like the man in the New Testament who said he wouldn’t go but did, this surgeon became he chief physician in a Korean missionary hospital. Some years later, during the visit of a friend, the surgeon asked, “Would you like to see an operation this afternoon?”

“Yes,” said his friend, “I would.” For most of that afternoon the visitor watched from a balcony overlooking the operating table around which the circle of Korean medical students watched intently. As the sun beat upon the tin roof overhead, the surgeon pressed on until five hours had passed and the procedure was complete.

As the surgeon retired from the room, his friend asked, “Is every day like this?” The surgeon only smiled as he wiped the perspiration from his forehead. “How much will you receive for this?” his friend asked. The doctor studied the poor Korean woman being wheeled away with only a copper coin in her hand, and then looked back at his friend with tears welling up in his eyes. “Well, sir, fir this one I get her gratitude and my Master’s smile. But that is worth more than all the profit this world can give.”

The Master calls us to be compassionate and giving, to realistically assess our natural and spiritual gifts and to begin investing them in something worth “more than all the profit this world can give.”

Ted W. Engstrom and Paul A. Cedar in Compassionate Leadership: Rediscovering Jesus’ Radical Leadership Style (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006) 26.

As I sit in self-quarantine and reflect on 2020 and my word for the year, compassion, my mind went to this biblical text. It matters not how I started but how I finish. The same is true for each of us. Regardless of how 2020 began, what matters is how we finish it.

For Jesus to say that “tax collectors and prostitutes” were “entering the kingdom of God ahead of” the disciples. This is not an expression of preferential treatment but a proclamation that “they got it. They grasped “the way of righteousness” and yet the disciples had not figured it out yet.

So, for all those of us who are a little slow to the uptake, join me in this prayer.

Father in heaven, in your mercy forgive us our sins. We confess that we said we would do many things and we have not followed through. Empower us by your Spirit to do the good work you want us to do for gratitude and your smile. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:24-25

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have—and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.”

Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet (Project Gutenburg, 2019) 23.

On the way home from Egypt I looked through the pictures on my phone. This awesome shot from Abu Simbel celebrates the greatness of the Egyptian kingdom. But it did not last.

The Christ of Christmas is King of an everlasting kingdom. His greatness exceeds Egypt.

As I sit in self-quarantine, I am catching up on emails and loved this article by a dear friend and GTP supporter, Jeff Haanen, “Why Give? Kahlil Gibran on Generosity.” Check it out. It drove me to go read Gibran on giving.

It also led me to meditate on today’s Scripture, two of my favorite verses in Proverbs. It reminds me to empty myself and the resources that I have in service to God trusting Him to refill my coffer.

It’s been a new experience as a CEO because I am now praying for God to fill the coffer for a team that is emptying itself in service around the world. Could you pray with me for God fill the GTP coffer? I will pray the same for you.

God, please supply our needs as we fearless give ourselves and possessions. May we not bury bones in fear but demonstrate our belief through generosity. Care for us by your Spirit we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

“Don’t have Jesus Christ on your lips and the world in your hearts.”

Ignatius of Antioch in A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, ed. Paul Thigpen (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2001) 71.

I have arrived safely home. The Christ-mass, the gathering to celebrate the birth of Christ, is fast approaching, but for most there will be no physical gathering.

For me, self-quarantine begins, which will be a time of reflection and thanksgiving for all I have been able to experience with dear brothers and sisters while serving in Egypt.

Join me. Take time to pause to welcome Jesus Christ this Christmas. We can only grow as givers when we become good receivers, and Christmas is about receiving the best gift in history.

Don’t focus on presents, parties, or people. Ponder with Mary about Christ. Sit with Him in the nativity. Soak in the wonder. Ask Him to fill you with His love and peace.

The world needs us to do this and drip His love and peace everywhere we go.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25

“Realize above all that you are in God’s presence . . . empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like a chick that tastes nothing and eats nothing except what its mother gives it.”

Romuald in A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, ed. Paul Thigpen (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2001) 121.

I am posting this from Frankfurt en route home to Denver. It’s been a fruitful trip. Reply if you’d like a copy of my GTP trip report.

Romuald gives helpful advice for all who want to live a generous life: “empty yourself and sit waiting content with the grace of God.”

Then he paints a vivid word picture “like a chick that tastes nothing and eats nothing except what its mother gives it.” Are we as dependent on God as a little chick?

I am weary and waiting on God to restore my strength on the long journey home and to resource me for generous giving and service.

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

“We must take to heart, brothers, from what stuff we were created, who we were and what kind of creatures we were when we entered the world, as if from a tomb and from utter darkness. Having prepared for us bountifully before we were born. He who fashioned us and created us brought us into His world. Since, then, we owe all this to Him, we ought to give Him thanks for everything. “

Clement of Rome in A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, ed. Paul Thigpen (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2001) 281.

God’s people in the Old Testament were to live openhanded, generous lives with their brothers and sisters because God had been so generous to them. But we often get off track and think like the world. We think we became who we are and got what we’ve got from our own doing, our own effort.

We came from dust and were born with sin. When we realize this rightly we don’t see others as deserving or undeserving of our giving. We realize that all we are and all we have is thanks to the bountiful provision of our gracious God. This is the vital starting point for rich generosity.

May we be as generous to others as God has been to us. It was a miraculously productive time of ministry in Egypt despite COVID. Praising God for His bountiful blessings. Join me in acknowledging this and choosing to live generously in response.

Praise the LORD. Blessed are those who fear the LORD, who find great delight in his commands. Psalm 112:1

“No one in all creation is rich but the one who fears God.”

Ephraem the Syrian in A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, ed. Paul Thigpen (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2001) 104.

To fear God is to acknowledge and take great delight in His commands. The ones who do this not only obey but experience and celebrate the blessings of obedience.

To fear God is to be rich and positioned to give materially and in many other ways. When we follow His design and enjoy and share his blessings He enriches us for greater generosity.

As we approach the end of our discernment retreat, we are rejoicing. It’s been a great time. We’ve emptied ourselves in the spirit of Isaiah 58:1-12 and He’s caused our light to shine.

I don’t where you find yourself today, but I am thankful that it is not the one in creation who stores for himself or herself that is rich but the one who fears God and does what He says.

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” Zechariah 8:4-5

“A saint was once asked, while playing happily with his companions, what he would do if an angel told him that in a quarter of an hour he would die and have to appear before the judgment seat of God. The saint promptly replied that he would continue playing because he was certain these games were pleasing to God.”

John Bosco in A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, ed. Paul Thigpen (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2001) 199.

When we are focused on doing good works with we can easily fail to block time for play. Any of us can be guilty of this, especially during a pandemic when with short notice, any of us could die.

After finishing a full schedule of ministry work in Egypt, we blocked time for retreat together. It’s been rich to read the Scriptures, to do some fun activities together to build our relationships, and to rest.

I don’t know about you but I tend to not block enough time for play. It looks different for everyone and as Bosco notes, it pleases God. We should almost certainly play in moderation so it does not eat our margin for generosity, but we must also consider what it means to play generously.

We wrap up our retreat tomorrow and fly back to Cairo on 16 December. I am pray for some God to continue to guide our conversations and for moments of play today.