Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Lord, we have so much. Most of us have food, shelter, people who love us, jobs, nice clothes to wear, safety, and opportunities for growth and development. May we never take your good gifts for granted. Help us to use our position of relative luxury to meet the needs of those less fortunate. Amen.”

From Beat Poverty: We’ve Got What it Takes. A World Vision educational resource for young people in grades 9-12.

“The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth. The opposite of poverty is enough.”

Wess Stafford serves as CEO of Compassion International, and his quote is found on Compassion t-shirts. Cf. Real Moms…Real Jesus by Jill Savage, 180.

This Rick Stromoski comic appeared on 20 May 2011 in Minneapolis. It comes compliments of Jot Turner whose generosity and smile are exemplary. Thanks Jot! It gives me the idea to post comics occasionally on Sundays and makes me think: Am I really giving my best? Are you?

This past week, Howard Freeman, a personal friend from whom I have learned much about encouraging Christian generosity, chose to live below the line. What line? As most of the world lives in poverty, on about $1.50 per day, the “living below the line” challenge, invites people to attempt to walk in their shoes for five days.

From May 16 – 20, 2011, Howard joined a host of others and only ate and drank as much per day as he could purchase for $1.50. In doing so, He developed a better understanding of the challenges faced by people living in extreme poverty while raising funds for crucial anti-poverty initiatives. He inspired me to give and many others and raised the most money (and awareness) in the effort.

“I was moved by the GPP [Global Poverty Project] talk that Hugh Evans did in NYC in 2010. When ‘Live Below The Line’ came along, I perhaps saw it as a personal challenge to live by careful deprivation…and it also brought out the natural competitor in me about fundraising! My financial partners are really generous folks, and I look forward to building a conversation on extreme poverty with them and others who join our support team. Thanks, Hugh and GPP, for giving us all this time to reflect and to do.”

Way to rise to the challenge, Howard! Thanks for helping me “remember the poor” this week (Galatians 2:10). You’ve moved me to reflect on my own personal role in this.

Source: http://www.livebelowtheline.com/media-impact/hot-news-from-hq/

“It seems to me that one of the surest ways to know whether money and possessions own me or if I own them is to exercise authority over them and send them out to do my bidding. If I hold on to them, for whatever good reason, I can’t be quite as sure about their power over me. Materialism might still have a grip.”

Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. Luke 12:15

Linden Kirby has been taking the “30-Day Challenge” to not purchase any new stuff over a 30 day period and I have been following him, with interest, via RSS feed. This excerpt was from the May 18 post: “Got Stuff? Give it Away.” Follow this blog at: http://www.excel-ministries.com/blog 

“Each year Americans spend $2 billion on cosmetics, $5 billion on perfumes and colognes, $20 billion on ice cream, $40 billion on lawn care. And $40 billion is what we spend each year on Christmas. 

Do you know it would take just $20 billion to meet the food needs of the whole world? So when do we have enough? When do we have too much?”

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. Philippians 4:11-12

Chris McDaniel in Igniting a Life of Generosity (Winchester, VA: EFCA Press, 2011) 29.

If I see one more light that’s fading
Hear about one more broken dream
Pray for just one more faith that’s dying
It’s one too many

And if I see one more child walking
Just one more mile for water
If I wait one more minute longer
It’s one too many

When I think of what could be
If we let our hearts believe
That it takes just one
Just one could turn this all around

And if we’re living history
How will they think of you and me
If it takes just one, just one
What if, what if, what if I’m the one?

It takes one, takes one, one
It takes one, takes one, one
It takes one, takes one

If I hear one more widow crying
‘Cause there’s no one by her side
And if I see one more family breaking
It’s one too many

If there’s one thing that I’m sure of
If there’s one thing that I know
You could be one in a sea of faces
Or you could be one more chance for hope

When I think of what could be
If we let our hearts believe
That it takes just one
Just one could turn this all around

And if we’re living history
How will they think of you and me
If it takes just one, just one
What if, what if, what if I’m the one?

I see a nation without any walls
A beautiful haven for one and for all
I see a day when people are free
When shackles are broken and fall to the street

A voice, a cry, call out from on high
The first one of many, go lay down your life

When I think of what could be
If we let our hearts believe
That it takes just one
Just one could turn this all around

And if we’re living history
How will they think of you and me
If it takes just one, just one
What if, what if, what if I’m the one?

It takes one, takes one, one
(What if you’re the one)
It takes one, takes one, one
It takes one, takes one
(What if I’m the one)

It takes one, takes one, one
(What if you’re the one)
It takes one, takes one, one
It takes one, takes one

Brandon Heath, The One
Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsl75Sno9MA

OK, so this is clearly a jump from the Apostolic Fathers, where I’ve been reading lately, so here’s an explanation:

When I travel on a business trip, I always ask my son, who has filled my iPhone with amazing Christian music: “Which album should I listen to on this trip.” This was his CD for the week.

My reading reveals what took over the ancient world and caused Christianity to rapidly spread was simply ordinary people willing generously to live out the gospel. I think the same is true in the modern era, too. Are you the one?

“And the path to to death…is filled with persecutors of the good, haters of the truth, lovers of the lie, who do not know the reward of righteousness, nor cling to a fair judgment, who are alert not to do good but to do evil…For they love what is vain and pursue a reward, showing no mercy to the poor nor toiling for the oppressed nor knowing the one who made them…who turn their backs on the needy, oppress the afflicted and support the wealthy…Be delivered, children, from all such people.”

Didache, is an early Christian work, a.k.a. “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” It was viewed as canon by some Early Fathers and is included in the Apostolic Fathers, written in the late first or early second century. This excerpt is from section 5.

“Do not doubt whether to give, nor grumble while giving. For you should recognize the good paymaster of the reward. Do not shun a person in need, but share all things with your brother and do not say that anything is your own. For if you are partners in what is immortal, how much more in what is mortal?”

Didache, is an early Christian work a.k.a. “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” that was viewed as canon by some thus it is included in the Apostolic Fathers. (late first or early second century). This excerpt is from section 4.7-8.

“For by grace I believe that you are prepared to do the good deeds that are appropriate to God. Because I know the zeal you have for the truth. I have urged you just through these few words.”

Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, received the hospitality of Polycarp who was the young leader of the church in Smyrna and wrote him a letter prior to his martyrdom in Rome under Trajan (98-117). No doubt it inspired young Polycarp to live out this blessing, and follow Ignatius to his own martyrdom in 155. Cf. Eph. 2:10. This excerpt is from his letter To Polycarp, 7.3.4-7.