Archives by: Gary Hoag

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

“Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, “Take up your Cross” — in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, “My yoke is easy and my burden light.” He means both. And one can just see why both are true.

Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes.

Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.

It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self — all your wishes and precautions — to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be “good.”

We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way — centered on money or pleasure or ambition — and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.

That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.”

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996) 197-198.

Let us each hand over our whole self to Christ. We must be crucified with Him. We will gain both difficulty and delight when we do. Failure to do this is not a safe choice, but rather the real problem of the Christian life. Those who take that path, which centers “on money or pleasure or ambition” will not exhibit generosity, but will have lives filled with fussings, frettings, and unfruitfulness. In observance of Good Friday, join me in making this choice today to be crucified with Christ. Hand over your whole self to Him!

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13:3-5

“For it is love that best describes what Jesus does when he fetches bowl and water, jug and towel. It is not simply the humility of the God who is on his knees, nor the lesson in service of the master who behaves like a slave, but the love of one who is generous, warm, impulsive and affectionate in his loving.

Jesus is not giving an object lesson in good relations. Nor is he acting out a sort of parable. He is doing it because he wants to do it. He is doing it because the tired, hot, sweaty feet in need of washing are the feet that belong to his friend, his close companions, his adopted family. It is an act of love, generous, embarrassing, natural love.

We must not imagine for a moment a solemn ecclesiastical ritual. This is a joyful act of self-giving…People will know that there is something of Christ in you if there is a warmth, a joy, a natural affection, an impulsive generosity breaking out in all your human relationships.”

Michael Perham in The Way of Christ-Likeness: Being Transformed by the Liturgies of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter (London: Canterbury Press, 2016) 63.

Today in Holy Week is known as Maundy Thursday, the day we recount this scene where Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. Perham rightly notes that this is not an empty or solemn ritual but something that is filled with so much love and generosity that it is embarrassing to the recipients.

Jesus not doing it because he has to do it. Jesus is fully aware of his power and position, and yet he takes the form of a servant and ministers to the most smelly, messy and dirty needs of those he loves. Do we? As I travel home today, I think about the many humble servants of God who ministered to me across the Philippines this week. Their generous love toward me was humbling, even embarrassing at times. They thought of everything. Let’s live likewise!

Father in heaven, fill us so full of your love and power so that we know where we stand with you and what we have in you, so that we will empty ourselves in generous kindness toward others, knowing that your abundant love with give us the strength to do this. Make it so, Lord Jesus. Amen.

And please restore my strength, Holy Spirit, as I have emptied myself in service and need a restful, refreshing, and safe journey home to Colorado.

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Matthew 26:14-16

“The Bible has many stories of envy and greed. Joseph’s brothers were envious of him because of their father’s favoritism and in greed sold him into slavery. King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard and allowed Queen Jezebel to plot Naboth’s death and seize his land. Judas driven by greed, betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Ananias and Sapphira harbored greed in their hearts, secretly withholding from God’s work part of the money they had received from a sale of land.

In every instance, envy and greed proved to be destructive… Joseph’s brothers lived in fear once their treachery was revealed; King Ahab died in battle and the dogs licked up his blood; Judas committed suicide; Ananias and Sapphira fell dead. The Bible warns, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). Envy and greed always — always — exact a terrible price. I have never met an envious or greedy person who was at peace.

Envy and greed aren’t identical, but they are closely related. When we envy someone, we easily become obsessed with getting what they have. Envy and greed often focus on money, but we can also be greedy for other things, such as beauty, status, possessions, fame, or power. The Bible sees greed as a form of idolatry, because the greedy person worships things instead of God. Greed and envy have their roots in selfishness, driving us into madly pursuing what we don’t have.”

Billy Graham in The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2006) 172.

Today marks my last full day in the Philippines. The meetings in Manila, Puerto Princesa (pictured above), Bacalod, and Davao have far exceeded my expectations. God has raised up Angelito “Anjji” Gabriel to lead CCTA and rallied many ministry administrators and financial professionals to join him in championing standards for the faithful administration of God’s work in churches and ministries across this beautiful country.

Why do this? A leading hindrance to generosity is financial corruption. Sadly, today in Holy Week marks the day Judas betrayed Jesus out of envy and greed. Money had become his greatest treasure. While he got what he wanted, thirty pieces of silver, that desire destroyed him. Sadly, it’s still destroying people today.

What about you? Are you at peace this Holy Week? Take time today to ask God if anything in your life has become more important than Him. Lay that at the foot of the cross and find peace.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26

“What right then have I or any other person to come here and change the name of these people from Muslim to Christian, unless I lead them to a life fuller of God than they have now? Clearly, clearly, my job here is not to go to the town plaza and make proselytes, it is to live wrapped in God, trembling to His thoughts, burning with His passion. And, my loved one, that is the best gift you can give to your own town.”

Frank C. Laubach in a letter dated 9 March 1930 entitled “Boundless joy broken loose” in Letters By A Modern Mystic: Excerpts from letters written at Dansalan, Lake Lano, Philippine Islands to His Father (New York: Student Volunteer Movement, 1937).

While I have been traveling abroad this week, my wife came across this book in electronic form and emailed the link to me. Wow! These are some amazing letters. This excerpt struck me as I am teaching in a Muslim area in the Philippines today: Davao, Mindanao.

Jesus wants us to be known for our love and not our preaching. The greatest gift we can give people is to show them a life “wrapped in God, trembling to His thoughts, burning with His passion.” God help me do this generously today. Help us all do it every day for Your glory!

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.