Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. What would drive him to such sacrifice. First John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [payment] for our sins.” This is the gospel, my friend.”

James MacDonald in 10 Choices: A Proven Plan to Change Your Life Forever (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008) 44.

“Now, in seeking to benefit one’s neighbor, how difficult it is to do one’s duty! … Unless you give up all thought of self and, so to speak, get out of yourself, you will accomplish nothing here…But Scripture, to lead us by the hand to this, warns that whatever benefits we obtain from the Lord have been entrusted to us on this condition: that they be applied to the common good of the church. And therefore the lawful use of all benefits consists in a liberal and kindly sharing of them with others. No surer rule and no more valid exhortation to keep it could be devised than when we are taught that all the gifts we possess have been bestowed to us by God and entrusted to us on condition that they be distributed for our neighbor’s benefit [cf. 1 Peter 4:10].”

John Calvin (1509-1564) in Institutes Book III 3.7.5. ed. Donald K. McKim (Louisville: WJKP, 2001) 83.

“The Christian is given the high calling of using mammon without serving mammon. We are using mammon when we allow God to determine our economic decisions. We are serving mammon when we allow mammon to determine our economic decisions. We simply must decide who is going to make our decisions–God or mammon.

Do we buy a particular home on the basis of the call of God, or because of the availability of money? Do we buy a new car because we can afford it, or because God instructed us to buy a new car? If money determines what we do or do not do, then money is our boss. If God determines what we do or do not do, then God is our boss. My money mights say to me, “You have enough to buy that,” but my God might say to me, “I don’t want you to have it,” Now, who am I to obey?

Most of us allow money to dictate our decisions: what kind of house we live in, what vacation we will take, what job we will hold. Money decides. Suppose Carolynn [my wife] says to me, “Let’s do this or that,” and I complain, “But we don’t have enough money!” What has happened? Money decided. You see I did not say, “Well, honey, let’s pray together and see if God wants us to do it.” No money made the decision. Money is my master. I am serving money.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1985) 56.

“Let this, therefore, be our rule for generosity and beneficence: We are the stewards of everything God has conferred on us by which we are able to help our neighbor, and are required to render account of our stewardship. Moreover, the only right stewardship is that which is tested by the rule of love.”

John Calvin (1509-1564) in Institutes Book III 3.7.5. ed. Donald K. McKim (Louisville: WJKP, 2001) 83.

“In our time the struggle of mercy is not against rigid and inflexible morality, but against a different and more subtle hardening of heart, a general loss of trust and of love that is rooted in greed and belief in money. What irony that this faith in money, this trust in the laws of the market, this love of wealth and power, should have come to be identified with Christianity and freedom in so many minds, as if the freedom to make money were the freedom of the sons of God and as if money had demonically usurped the role in modern society which the Holy Spirit is supposed to have in the Church.”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in Love and Living (Orlando: Harcourt Books, 1979) 217-218.

God, you heap your love upon us,
like a month providing for her family’s needs,
embracing her child with tenderness.

Forgive us
when, like spoilt children,
we treat your generosity as a right,
or hug it possessively to ourselves.

Give us enough trust to live secure in your love
and to share it freely with others
in open-handed confidence
that your grace will never run out. Amen.

Jan Berry, Sheffield, 1990 in Bread of Tomorrow: Praying with the World’s Poor ed. by Janet Morley (London: SPCK, 1992) 173-174.

“There is great joy in such [Spirit-led] giving, for we are not merely fulfilling a basic responsibility but, in truth, are opening our hearts to the goodness of God. It is in such giving that we become generous people. It is in such giving that we become grateful people. It is in such giving that we become godly people.”

Mark Alan Powell in Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2006) 148.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:37-38

“Giving and forgiving are answered by the generosity of God. The most thought-provoking proposition is that God uses as the measure for the response to humans the measure they use in their relations with each other.”

Luke Timothy Johnson in The Gospel of Luke (Collegeville, MN: Sacra Pagina, 1991) 116.

O God, enlarge my heart that it may be big enough to receive the greatness of Your love.

Stretch my heart that it may take into it all those who with me around the world believe in Jesus Christ.

Stretch it that it may take into it all those who do not know Him, but who are my responsibility because I know Him.

And stretch it that it may take in all those who are not lovely in my eyes and whose hands I do not want to touch;

Through Jesus Christ, my Savior, Amen.

With All God’s People (World Council of Churches, 1989) in Bread of Tomorrow: Praying with the World’s Poor, ed. by Janet Morley (London: SPCK, 1992) 27.

Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Don’t you care, don’t you care
Are you gonna let them drown

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done

“Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord”
You know it’s all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear

But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in,
Oh, can’t you see it’s such a sin?

Cause He brings people to your door,
And you turn them away
As you smile and say,
“God bless you, be at peace”
And all heaven just weeps
Cause Jesus came to your door
You’ve left him out on the streets

Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay

God’s calling and you’re the one
But like Jonah you run
He’s told you to speak
But you keep holding it in,
Oh can’t you see it’s such a sin?

The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can’t fight
Cause it’s asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you’ve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can’t even get out of bed

Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done

Don’t close your eyes
Don’t pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with Me my love,
Come away, from this mess, come away with Me, my love.

Keith Green: Asleep in the Light. YouTube Music Video: