Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Jump at a chance to give!”

This quote, attributed to “Nancy” of West Bend, WI, was on the inside of the wrapper of our daughter’s Dove Chocolate yesterday. Another reason to argue that chocolate is good for you and a great Valentine’s Day gift!

This day on which we give to those we love was named after a Roman Christian leader named Valentine, who was martyred for his faith on February 14, 269. A man who even “jumped at the chance to give” the Gospel to the emperor.

Later, February 14 was declared a holy day in his honor on 14 February 496. It is said that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter whom he had befriended which read “from your Valentine” and the rest is history.

“Simplicity is the first cousin of contentment. It’s motto is: We brought nothing into this world, and we can certainly carry nothing out. It recognizes that we are pilgrims. It concentrates us on what we need, and measures this by what we use. It rejoices in the good things of creation, but hates waste and greed and clutter. It knows how easily the seed of the Word is smothered by the ‘cares and riches of this life.’ It wants to be free of distractions, in order to love and serve God and others.”

John Stott (1921-) English Christian leader and Anglican clergyman in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, 148. Cf. 1 Timothy 6:7 and Luke 8:14.

If I give all my possessions to feed the poor…but have not love, it profits me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

“Our gifts have to spring from a compassionate heart, one that is filled with love for God and other people. Over and above the material value of our gifts we need to keep in mind the importance of our interior disposition. The spirit of true charity is intimately interconnected with a joyful heart.”

Francisco Fernández Carvajal, from volume five of In Conversations with God, 425.

“Financial poverty where it is found around the world is easy to see. One cannot be untouched by the slums of Calcutta, the townships of South Africa and any number of places where the utter devastation of the human condition confronts us with overwhelming power.

What is not so evident is poverty in the developed world. I am not referring to financial poverty – although that can be easily found – but poverty of spirit and purpose. This is a poverty disguised by material success and all its trappings which is every bit as devastating to our hearts as material poverty is in the slums. In fact, our hearts can live in the slum of poverty of spirit while we reside in homes that have everything we could ever need.

Of course the greatest poverty of all is that of alienation with our creator. But even among those who know Him there is often great poverty of spirit. The very gifts that He gives in income and possessions often tempt us to put our trust in our abilities, success and net worth rather than in simple faith that places all of life in His hands and for His purposes.

Such poverty of spirit leads to a poverty of purpose where the focus of our lives becomes ourselves and our pleasure rather than Him and His divine purpose for our existence (Ephesians 2:10). We are too busy with our stuff and schedule to engage in meaningful ministry. We have so many options in life that it is easy to crowd out the most important priority – knowing Him and dedicating our lives to making Him known.

Lives lived primarily for ourselves with dependence on ourselves are empty lives, not the abundant life that Jesus came to give. We have defined that abundance as material abundance. He defined it is an abundance of Him and the purpose that He brings. I want to be wealthy – in the way that only Jesus can make me wealthy. It is a wealth of His presence, His purposes for my life where I can join him in a meaningful way with what He is up to in our world. It is a wealth of enjoying the length and depth of his love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and presence. It is a wealth of being able to live by simple faith, trusting Him for my daily bread and direction. It is the wealth of Christ in Me, the hope of glory.

This is true wealth and it lifts us from the slums of poverty of spirit. Oh, and some of the folks that I have met in the literal slums? Some of those believers are the happiest people I have ever met – not because of their circumstances but because while their physical body lives in a slum, their hearts are wealthy with the love, purpose, and life of Jesus. Who is poor? Them or us?”

Tim Addington, Senior VP Reach Global, Evangelical Free Church of America, Blog post on 6 February 2011:

http://leadingfromthesandbox.blogspot.com/2011/02/poverty-and-wealth.html

“The only investments I ever made which have paid constantly increasing dividends are those I have given to the Lord’s work.”

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. Matthew 6:19-20

James L. Kraft (1874-1953) founder of Kraft Foods as quoted by Charles Stanley in Success God’s Way: Achieving True Contentment and Purpose, 106.

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 back to you. Luke 6:38

“What is the “it” that will be given to us as we give? It may be love, time, material provision, friendship, ideas, opportunity. When we give–and not only money, but time, energy, effort, creativity, prayer–we receive. God gives us in return precisely what we need the most, and He gives it in overflowing supply. God desires for us to give, so that He might use what we give, multiply it, and return to us those things that will make us whole.”

Charles Stanley in Success God’s Way: Achieving True Contentment and Purpose (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000) 106.

“The art of stewardship is in the activity of distribution. Whatever we know of the gospel, whatever we enjoy of God’s grace, whatever ministry we have received, it is ours in trust for others, given to me for you.”

Douglas Webster of the Church Missionary Society, London, in “The Primary Stewardship” from The Expository Times 1960-61, 72:276.

“It is God’s will that we receive three things from him as gifts as we seek.

The first is that we seek willingly and diligently without sloth, as that may be with his grace, joyfully and happily, without unreasonable depression and useless sorrow.

The second is that we wait for him steadfastly, out of love for him, without grumbling and contending against him…

The third is that we have great trust in him, out of complete and true faith, for it is his will that we know that he will appear, suddenly and blessedly, to all his lovers.”

Julian of Norwich (c.1342-1416) English anchoress and author in Julian of Norwich (New York: Paulist Press, 1980) 196.

“Letting go of all that is one’s own, and of the things that are not God, is a sign that one prefers God.”

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), Swiss Theologian in he Glory of the Lord (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1991) 54.

“In many cases there are people who have known dire economic straits, yet their trust has enabled them to step outside their grim conditions and to find joy in life, so they run against the grain. The fact that they downscale, suggests that though they are burdened by economic problems, they are not overcome by them. They are more forgiving, more grateful and more likely to be unprejudiced, as well as twice as likely to be involved in outreach to neighbors, as persons at the lower end of the spiritual commitment scale. In other studies we have done, such as financial giving, we found that the poor give a larger proportion of their income to charity than the rich. Being surrounded by misery, they see opportunities to help on every side. The rich, especially now, have a tendency to cordon themselves off and therefore don’t see much of the grimness of life.”

George Gallup, Jr. in The Saints Among Us as quoted in an interview in America (October 26, 1996) 20.