Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Be generous with your witness for Christ this Easter. Peter and John ran to the empty tomb and saw with their own eyes that the body of Jesus was gone. Jesus met others along the way to Emmaus. When they returned to Jerusalem to tell everyone possible what happened on their trip…

Having experienced all of this first-hand, the disciples could have kept the miracle of the resurrection to themselves. Instead, they proclaimed the message of new life through Jesus Christ that would be spread to the corners of the earth to this day…

Let’s mark Easter weekend with acts of generosity… Do something nice for someone in Jesus’ name who needs a basic need met the week before or after Easter. Share your personal faith in Jesus with at least one person…

Is resurrection generosity expensive? You better believe it is. It cost Jesus everything to make it happen. In grateful response to His love for you, give extravagantly to the One who gave His all for you so that another pilgrim on this earth can experience the eternal reward on Resurrection morning.”

Jim Dunn, executive director of Church Multiplication and Discipleship for The Wesleyan Church, in “Resurrection Generosity” post on 10 April 2014

May the hope and joy of the resurrection propel us to run like the first disciples to proclaim the good news in word and deed to at least one person this Easter. Be ready and pray for God to open the door of opportunity.

“Out of love for us, Jesus freely walked the path of humiliation and self-abandonment for our salvation. As Saint Paul says, “He emptied himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).

As we contemplate Jesus in His passion and the sufferings of all humanity, we discover God’s answer to the mystery of evil, suffering and death. He gives us His Son, who dies humiliated, betrayed, abandoned and reviled. Yet God’s victory shines forth in what appears, in human terms, to be failure and defeat.

Jesus’ passion is the culmination of His revelation of the Father’s infinite love and His summons to faith in His Word. Christ takes upon himself the power of evil in order to set us free: “by His wounds we have been healed” (cf. 1 Pet 2:24)…

As we follow Jesus along the way of the cross, may we imitate His loving obedience to the will of the Father, especially in times of difficulty and humiliation, and open our hearts to his gifts of reconciliation, redemption and new life.”

Pope Francis in “Jesus died humiliated, but God’s victory shines” remarks on 16 April 2014. This is a summary of his comments translated into English.

What does it mean for you to follow Jesus on the way of the cross? For me, this has been a significant idea this week. My thoughts have centered on Galatians 2:20.

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.

Let us imitate Jesus’ obedience to the will of the Father, so that our lives reflect that we have received His gifts of reconciliation, redemption and new life. And may we generously share these gifts with others.

“The cross, God’s radical sacrifice in Christ, is the clearest and most compelling evidence that God has my best interest in mind. The logic is airtight. If God has already loved us enough to give us His very best, don’t you think He has the best in mind for our future?

Put in simple terms, if someone paid a million-dollar ransom to free you from a kidnapper, do you really believe you’d have to worry about who’s going to buy lunch the next day? My point is that God’s generosity in the cross reminds us that not only has He been good to us, but also that He is committed to being good to us in the future. That is why we can trust Him when those big lordship decisions come up. We can surrender ourselves to him because he is very, very good.”

Chip Ingram in God: As He Longs for You to See Him (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004) 68.

Today is a contemplative day, a solemn day, because we remember Jesus death on the cross. While you are thinking about the cross, consider Ingram’s point. If God loves us enough to cover the debt we could never repay through Jesus sacrifice for us, don’t you think He’s trustworthy to sort the small stuff of life too. He tells us He will if we seek Him first (Matthew 6:33).

Think of the things you worry about. Seriously, make a list either in your mind or on paper. I have a few things in mind. Now join me in letting go of those cares. The God who cared for us enough to go to the cross can handle them. Now that we are hands free, let us choose to hold onto Him instead.

Thank you God for your unmatched generosity to us in the cross.

Merciful Savior,
We have traveled this long, dusty Lenten journey.
Our feet are tired, dirty, aching, and calloused.
You have shown us Your love by becoming a humble servant.
Humble us when we try to travel without You.
As Christ has washed us, so let us wash one another.
Humble us when we believe some work is below us.
As Christ has washed us, so let us wash one another.
Humble us when we are too proud to accept help, or care, or love.
As Christ has washed us, so let us wash one another.
Humble us when we do not fully receive the gift of Your amazing and bountiful grace.
As Christ has washed us, so let us wash one another.
Amen.

Karen Turner in “Maundy Thursday Responsive Prayer” from the collection of Prayer Liturgies for the Easter Season.

“Maundy” is derived from the latin mandatum, meaning “commandment.” Maundy refers to the command Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper: to love one another.

I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35

Taking the form of a humble servant, He exhibited this great love by washing the feet of the disciples. What might this look like for us today? How might you go wash someone’s feet, or rather, humbly serve them to show God’s love today?

And remember, it’s a command, not a suggestion.

“Jesus praised her action as a beautiful thing done to Him and blessed it to be an event that should be remembered in His gospel history. Each of us also has our own alabaster jar of perfume…When she poured the perfume, in actuality, she poured out her heart to Jesus. When she poured the perfume on Him, she was pouring out her love to Jesus…This woman’s action for Jesus foreshadowed Jesus’ action for us…

This story of the woman’s love and devotion to Jesus points to Jesus himself. As the woman poured out her very expensive perfume made of pure nard on Jesus, Jesus was about to pour out his precious and sinless blood to wash away all our sins. As the woman made a lavish expression of love to Jesus, Jesus was about to make the most extravagant and lavish statement of love in the history of the world by giving his precious life for sinners like us…

Our Lord Jesus has done a beautiful thing for us. He gave his life as a ransom sacrifice for sinner like us though we don’t deserve it at all. He shed his precious blood without reservation in order to wash away all our sins once and for all. His love for us is indeed recklessly spendthrift, selfless, costly and extravagant. He spent everything for us. We are to love him and serve him likewise, like this woman.”

Henry Park, excerpt from Sermon entitled “Jesus was anointed at Bethany” delivered at Columbus University Bible Fellowship.

Holy Week Wednesday is often known as Spy Wednesday because this marks the day Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. It’s also the day Jesus chilled at the home of Simon the leper and was anointed by Mary.

Think about the contrast.

One will sell Jesus out for a handful of coins while the other lets go of that which is priceless in this life because in Jesus she found something of greater worth. While we can try to calculate the value of this perfume in modern terms, it would be best to label it with the moniker from the Mastercard commercials: Priceless.

Like the widow yesterday gave God all she had, this woman empties her jar on Jesus.

Where are you this Holy Week Wednesday?

Will you sell out Jesus for the paltry pennies this world has to offer?

Or will you empty your alabaster jar on Jesus?

My perfume is on my Master.

“On God’s scales, the woman’s gift outweighed the rest. Jesus said she had cast in more than they all did. That is more than saying she had given more than anyone else that day (v. 43). Jesus called His disciples over to Him and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on” (vv. 43-44)…

This widow’s gift amounted to more in the balances of heaven than all that had been put in by the whole crowd. Those two very tiny coins outweighed all the rest. The rich people gave out of their abundance. She gave out of her insufficiency. They gave out of surplus; she gave out of need. Literally, she gave “her whole livelihood.” It has the idea of “the means by which life is sustained.” The widow gave out of true devotion to God. God was the only one who saw her as she placed her tiny coins in the vessel.

It is not how much we give to God, but how much we hold on to for ourselves. Have we given Him our all?

There is more than money involved in this picture of Jesus and the woman in the temple. It is a principle of life. It is the very heart of stewardship based on grace. All I am is His. As a redeemed person God owns it all. There is nothing in my life that does not first belong to Him. “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God with your body” (2 Corinthians 6:20). Earlier Jesus told the Corinthians, “you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God” (3:23). You belong to God! If you are owned by Christ, that means your body, your mind, your time, your will, your talent and your material assets all belong to Christ. You belong to another and you own nothing. God owns it all.

The rich had given much, but it really cost them nothing for it was merely the “overflow” of their lavish accounts. The woman’s gift cost her everything, “her whole livelihood” (v. 44). This lesson of Christ is vitally significant for us. God measures our giving not by how much we give, but by how much we have left over after we give! Grace giving is sacrificial giving…

The giving that catches God’s eye is not necessarily great in amount but in percentage… Sacrificial giving has a kind of recklessness about it. It holds nothing back. It has learned to give as God gave to us. The greatest example is His Son (Phil. 2:5-8).

This attitude toward grace giving is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It bids us come and surrender to Christ and trust Him with every need, every care, and every provision in life. It is total absolute trust in Him. “God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19).”

Wil Pounds in “Mark 12:41-44 – The Widow’s Mite” in his Stewardship Principles Series (2008).

I really like how Pounds expressed this statement which is why it’s the title of the post: “The giving that catches God’s eye is not necessarily great in amount but in percentage.” Sacrificial giving both catches God’s attention and is celebrated because it reflects His love and grace to the world.

I offer this truth with a warning label: living this way will cause people to think you are crazy. Why? They think this act left the widow (or would leave them) empty. At the end of the day, I am learning that she had more than anyone else. She had the confidence that God would take care of her like He had for all those years leading up to this day.

Join me in living and giving this way. I believe when we do we also catch our Father’s attention too.

“During the various religious feasts in which thousands of Jews traveled to Jerusalem, authorities allowed money changers and animal sellers inside the outer court of the temple. People bought animals to sacrifice, and they had to exchange foreign money for money acceptable to religious leaders.

These temple-sanctioned businesspeople were inside a place of worship. When people profane sacred things by trying to profit financially from them, they become dull and callous to the ways of God’s Spirit. The problem only compounds when they become ministry leaders.

The money changers were making it hard for common people to worship God. The outer court of the temple was full of bleating sheep and money changers. Jerusalem visitors had to exchange their money for the currency accepted by the temple priests. Everyone was focused on money…”

Carey Kinsolving in “Why did Jesus Drive the Money Changers out of the Temple?” in Kids Talk About God blogpost.

The temple cleansing as recounted in Matthew 21:12-17 and parallel passages comes into view today because many think it happened on Passion Week Monday. What would people say about the church you attend or the ministry you serve? Would they say: “All they want is money from me?”

May the Lord of the Temple convict and cleanse each of our hearts of any greedy motives through the power of the Holy Spirit so that we do not rob people of resources and the opportunity to pray and make offerings to Him as an act of worship.

“Sometimes I get the impression that God wants me to give him something and sometimes I don’t give it because I don’t know for sure, and then I feel bad because I’ve missed my chance. Other times I know he wants something but I don’t give it because I’m too selfish. And other times, too few times, I hear him and I obey him and feel honored that a gift of mine would be used to carry Jesus to another place. And still other times I wonder if my little deeds today will make a difference in the long haul. Maybe you have those questions, too.

All of us have a donkey. You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the donkey, move Jesus and his story further down the road. Maybe you can sing or hug or program a computer or speak Swahili or write a check. Whichever, that’s your donkey. Whichever, your donkey belongs to him. It really does belong to him. Your gifts are his and the donkey was his. The original wording of the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples is proof: “If anyone asks you why you are taking the donkeys, you are to say, ‘Its Lord is in need.'”

Max Lucado in And the Angels were Silent (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987) 54.

I was talking with a ministry leader this past week who was praying for technical assistance with the ministry he’s served with for nearly five years. I urged him to put the word out that “the Lord has need of such skills.”

What’s your donkey? Remember, your stewardship is based on what you have, and faithful stewards put to work the gifts and goods that God has entrusted to them. And what’s your response when asked to put your donkey to work?

As you think about Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem today, don’t forget that an open-handed steward released that donkey when the Lord had need of it. Let’s go and do likewise.

“Have you ever stopped to think that Christ never gave anyone money [in the Gospels]? The riches of the world were his for the taking and his to give away, yet when the poor and hungry came to him, he didn’t give them money, and he rarely gave them food; he gave them love and service and the greatest gift of all–himself.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American Congregationalist clergyman in The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, ed. Martin H. Mansur (Louisville: WJKP, 2001) 122.

As we draw near to Passion Week, the cross, and the resurrection, let us reflect on the implications of this for our lives. Even as Christ gave love, service, and His life for us, what does that mean for each of us? Will we follow suit?

The proclamation of Paul in Galatians 2:20 ring in my ears: “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.” Let this be our collective response.

“God does not need our money. But you and I need the experience of giving it.”

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family as cited in 1001 Unforgettable Quotes about God, Faith, and the Bible by Ron Rhodes (Eugene: Harvest House, 2011) 98.

Many leaders have recounted that “God does not need our money.” I like how Dobson reminds us why Jesus would exhort us to give. It’s for our good.

So what do we gain through the experience of giving? What do we lose when we don’t? Think on these things as you consider your own giving.