Archives by: Gary Hoag

Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again. Job 34:32

“If I put my own happiness before the well-being of the work entrusted to me; if, though I have this ministry and have received much mercy, I faint, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I am inconsiderate about the comfort of others, or their feelings, or even of their little weaknesses; if I am careless about their little hurts and miss opportunities to smooth their way; if I make the sweet running of household wheels more difficult to accomplish, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If there be any reserve in my giving to Him who so loved that He gave His dearest for me; if there be a secret “but” in my prayer, “anything but that, Lord,” then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I become entangled in any “inordinate affection”; if things or places or people hold me back from obedience to my Lord, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I want to be known as the doer of something that has proved the right thing, or as the one who suggested that it should be done, then I know nothing of Calvary love…

If I ask to be delivered from trial rather than for deliverance out of it, to the praise of His glory; if I forget that the way of the Cross leads to the Cross and not to a bank of flowers; if I regulate my life on these lines, or even unconsciously my thinking, so that I am surprised when the way is rough, and think it strange, though the word is, “Think it not strange,” “Count it all joy,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) in “If” (Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade, 1999).

Amy Carmichael served as a missionary at an orphanage for 55 years in India. During her time of service, a worker came to her about another colleague who apparently was “missing the way of love.” That led to a sleepless night and list of thoughts about how certain behaviors reveal that we miss the whole point of the generous love extended to us at Calvary.

Today’s post contains a few of Carmichael’s “if”-related thoughts. To read more, click the “If” link above to read the entire list. I have included ones that relate broadly to the theme of generosity. The best part about life in light of Calvary is that the love demonstrated to us on the cross changes everything, and we never stop learning the implications of it.

Father in heaven, so that our lives extend your generous grace, mercy, and love to the world in the days after Easter, teach us what we cannot see. Show us by your Holy Spirit what we do not know. Remove the reserve in our giving so that our sacrifice and service follow your self-less example and so that others will discover Calvary love. Make it so, we pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. Mark 16:2-6

“The God of the resurrection provides resurrection people with an abundance of all they need to live resurrection lives and to be agents of God’s resurrection mission in the world. We have no need for family hold-back for fear of scarcity. The resurrection of our Lord is the paradigm of the way God works. Resurrection means fullness and abundance of life — all of life…

We are invited to learn gratitude. I am convinced that resurrection gratitude is a key component to maturity in the spiritual life. Once we begin to develop an awareness of the resurrection generosity of God, once we begin to trust and test the reality of the Paschal Mystery, the more we will understand that God daily gives us a multitude of reasons to be grateful people.

Learning to be grateful is not optional. It is part of the process of becoming mature people of the resurrection. Gratitude is the gasoline that powers our journey with and to the Risen One. Gratitude, however, does not come easily or naturally…We all have to work at gratitude to the God of the resurrection…It is a habit of the heart that we need to cultivate.”

C. Franklin Brookhart in Living the Resurrection: Reflections After Easter (Denver: Morehouse, 2012) 24-25, 27-28.

This question struck me this Easter from Mark’s Gospel account: “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” Then I began thinking about it this way. Who can remove the rocks in our lives that hinder our resurrection journey? Only God can. Only when we realize this and live in light of it with a profound sense of resurrection gratitude will our lives press on to maturity and exhibit resurrection generosity.

Those that don’t live life in light of the resurrection are slaves to fear. They hold back what they have because scarcity dominates their thoughts and actions. Will this Easter, for you, mark a time to chart a new course? Is it time to press on to maturity and “trust and test” the implications of the resurrection? But how exactly do we cultivate this habit of resurrection gratitude in our hearts? Brookhart offers a helpful idea.

“I have found that using prayer beads has been enormously helpful in my becoming a more grateful person. I begin by going around the circle of beads, using each bead to name someone or something, large or small, for which I am grateful. I am grateful, for instance, for my wife, but also for the comfortable chair in which I sit…Part of my discipline includes reserving a special bead to prompt an intentional prayer of gratitude for the resurrection of Christ.”

Cultivate resurrection gratitude to live out resurrection generosity because Christ is risen and we have been raised with him! Happy Easter everyone.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:8-14

“Forgiveness of sins is what the gospel is all about. Forgiveness of sins is what Christ’s death upon the cross is all about. The purpose of Lent is to arouse. To arouse the sense of sin. To arouse a sense of guilt for sin. To arouse the humble contrition for the guilt of sin that makes forgiveness possible. To arouse the sense of gratitude for the forgiveness of sins. To arouse or to motivate the works of love and the work for justice that one does out of gratitude for the forgiveness of one’s sins.”

Edna Hong in “A Look Inside” in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Walden: Plough, 2003) 24.

Christ accomplished something for us on the cross we could not sort ourselves: forgiveness of sins. We have been rescued and redeemed from darkness and brought into the light. As the Apostle Paul puts it, now “the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth” which is the generous way of life God designed for each of us.

As Hong puts it, this season of Lent has had the purpose of arousing us, motivating us, waking us up from “sleeping” to taking hold of life following God’s plan for us. Will our lives be characterized by works of love and justice filled with gratitude? Take five minutes today to ask God what needs to change for you after Easter. How will you rise?

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.