Meditations

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. John 12:24-26

“Above all, it was Christ’s death on the cross that made Him the life of the world, gave Him the power to bless and to save. In the conformity to Christ’s death there is an end of self: we give up ourselves to live and die for others: we are full of the faith that our surrender of ourselves to bear the sin of others is accepted of the Father. Out of this death we rise, with the power to love and to bless.

And now, what is this conformity to the death of the cross that brings such blessings, and wherein does it consist? We see it in Jesus. The cross means entire self-abnegation. The cross means the death of self—the utter surrender of our own will and our life to be lost in the will of God, to let God’s will do with us what it pleases. This was what the cross meant to Jesus. It cost Him a terrible struggle before He could give Himself up to it.

When He was sore amazed and very heavy, and His soul exceeding sorrowful unto death, it was because His whole being shrank back from that cross and its curse. Three times he had to pray before He could fully say, “yet not my will, but Thine be done” (Matthew 26:36-56). But He did say it. And His giving Himself up to the cross is to say: Let me do anything, rather than that God’s will should not be done. I give up everything, only God’s will must be done.”

Andrew Murray (1828-1917) in Like Christ, excerpt from chapter 24 “Like Christ: Being Made Conformable To His Death.” 90-91. Click here to download a copy.

I am safely home from Central Asia. It was humbling to spend time with people who minister in “Voice of the Martyrs” type situations. GTP will plan program work in the days to come to help their churches and ministries flourish in hard places.

I love it when I read a familiar text and discover something new. I do not recall ever noticing that Jesus prayed three times. That’s there for us. Three is a number in Scripture linked to dying to self and surrendering to God.

Esther fasted for three days. Jonah was in the whale for three days. Of course, the death and resurrection of Jesus happened in three days. These are but a few examples. Consider the implications for us and for our generous living today.

Giving up everything is not easy. Grasping life only happens when we let go. Generosity flows from our sacrifice, not our surplus. We gain nothing unless we let go of everything.

That’s what it means to follow Jesus. God does not need our money. He wants our hearts – complete surrender. Does He have yours? If you are not sure, maybe go pray three times.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:8

“But the greatest triumph of all is to elevate this horror of the Same Old Thing into a philosophy so that nonsense in the intellect may reinforce corruption in the will. It is here that the general Evolutionary or Historical character of modern European thought (partly our work) comes in so useful. The Enemy loves platitudes. Of a proposed course of action He wants men, so far as I can see, to ask very simple questions; is it righteous? is it prudent? is it possible? Now if we can keep men asking “Is it in accordance with the general movement of our time? Is it progressive or reactionary? Is this the way that History is going?” they will neglect the relevant questions.

And the questions they do ask are, of course, unanswerable; for they do not know the future, and what the future will be depends very largely on just those choices which they now invoke the future to help them to make. As a result, while their minds are buzzing in this vacuum, we have the better chance to slip in and bend them to the action we have decided on. And great work has already been done. Once they knew that some changes were for the better, and others for the worse, and others again indifferent. We have largely removed this knowledge. For the descriptive adjective “unchanged” we have substituted the emotional adjective “stagnant”. We have trained them to think of the Future as a promised land which favored heroes attain — not as something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 51.

Are you (and the people you spend time with) asking the right questions? I continue to enjoy my fresh exploration of this classic work, in which Screwtape explains how to perform devious tactics in order to mentor the little devil, Wormwood.

In the words of Paul to the Colossians, such tactics are hollow and deceptive. Paul even pins the blame on the spiritual forces of this world – like Screwtape and Wormwood – lest you think such writings can be understood as just imaginary.

Money and generosity also come into view as people think about the future. The comment by Lewis that the devil’s tactics leave people stagnant and thinking of the future a promised land only favored heroes attain struck me. Let me explain.

I see honest, God-fearing people stagnate because as they think about the future, rather than putting to work what they have obediently through giving and sharing, they stockpile wealth. And they hold on to much fear along with it.

So like stagnant stewards they don’t do the things God desires for them to do. As a result, nonsense in the intellect reinforces corruption in the will. They embrace nonsense and do exactly the opposite of obedience. Let me give an example.

Jesus says explicitly not to store up treasures on earth but to store them in heaven. But most American Christians ignore Jesus. I know. I did it for years. I bought the devil’s schemes. He uses these questions to stagnate us.

“Is it righteous? is it prudent?” So we rationalize that they only right and prudent way is to ignore Jesus and store up money. If this stings, don’t take it personally. You will thank me in 20 million years if you change directions now.

Don’t be a stagnant steward. Remember, God cares about and sees your obedience (or disobedience) and can be trusted to care for you better than you could ever care for yourself. Keep trusting the Same Old God who never changes!

Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16

“The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under. Thus we make it fashionable to expose the dangers of enthusiasm at the very moment when they are all really becoming worldly and lukewarm; a century later, when we are really making them all Byronic and drunk with emotion, the fashionable outcry is directed against the dangers of the mere “understanding”. Cruel ages are put on their guard against Sentimentality, feckless and idle ones against Respectability, lecherous ones against Puritanism; and whenever all men are really hastening to be slaves or tyrants we make Liberalism the prime bogey.”

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 51.

Fashions are distractions. Social media is a great place to find them.

The evil one will do anything he can to lead us to the unwise use of our time, energy, and resources. When writing to the church in Ephesus, the financial capital of the ancient world, the Apostle Paul urged people to be very careful.

If you did not track with Lewis, read this post again.

And over the next week, I want you to do something for me. Every time you see what seems as craziness to you, pause and think of how the evil one might be trying to fool you into following the fashionable.

More than sentimentality, respectability, and Puritanism are at stake.

Those who get sucked into the fashionable become worldly and lukewarm. And our Lord Jesus Christ has already told us what He does with those who are worldly and lukewarm. He will spit you out.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16

I have spent four amazing days with people from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Karakalpakstan, Tatarstan, North Caucasus, Bashkortostan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Abkhazia. Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

Thanks for your prayers for safe travel home and for God’s help with the many opportunities in follow up.

Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. Ecclesiastes 5:10

“This demand is valuable in various ways. In the first place it diminishes pleasure while increasing desire. The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the law of diminishing returns. And continued novelty costs money, so that the desire for it spells avarice or unhappiness or both. And again, the more rapacious this desire, the sooner it must eat up all the innocent sources of pleasure and pass on to those the Enemy forbids. Thus by inflaming the horror of the Same Old Thing we have recently made the Arts, for example, less dangerous to us than perhaps, they have ever been, “low-brow” and “high-brow” artists alike being now daily drawn into fresh, and still fresh, excesses of lasciviousness, unreason, cruelty, and pride. Finally, the desire for novelty is indispensable if we are to produce Fashions or Vogues.”

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 51.

Don’t misread this. The evil forces, as demonstrated by the words of Screwtape to Wormwood, aim to stir the demand for pleasure and novelty in us so that we don’t enjoy anything.

When we succomb to their ways, in the words of the famous song, we get “no satisfaction” and the evil forces celebrate because it leads to avarice, unhappiness, and sometimes even lasciviousness.

What about you? Don’t let your story include avarice, unhappiness, or lasciviousness. Continued novelty will not only cost you money. It will stifle your joy and your generosity.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say — but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” — but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12

“Now just as we pick out and exaggerate the pleasure of eating to produce gluttony, so we pick out this natural pleasantness of change and twist it into a demand for absolute novelty. This demand is entirely our workmanship. If we neglect our duty, men will be not only contented but transported by the mixed novelty and familiarity of snowdrops this January, sunrise this morning, plum pudding this Christmas. Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeed hopscotch as regularly as autumn follows summer. Only by our incessant efforts is the demand for infinite, or unrhythmical, change kept up.”

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 50.

With these posts from Lewis, I am trying to shine light on the enemies tactics that eat our margin and hinder our generosity. In a phrase, he fosters “the demand for absolute novelty,”

He spreads the thinking that nothing we currently have is good enough. We need it to be bigger and better. Vacations are not elaborate or exotic enough. The clothing is not trendy enough.

You get the idea. It’s all part of his elaborate scheme. This leads all of us to spend resources we don’t have, to buy things we don’t need, and creates little space for generosity.

That’s why the rhythm of giving our first and best dismantles the “incessant efforts” of the evil one. Don’t let eating produce gluttony or increased demand to master you.

Plan your giving and avoid getting played. You’ve got this. God’s got you. And it’s going well in Central Asia. Keep praying for me, please.

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:16

“The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart — an endless source of heresies in religion, folly in counsel, infidelity in marriage, and inconstancy in friendship. The humans live in time, and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things; in other words, they must experience change. And since they need change, the Enemy (being a hedonist at heart) has made change pleasurable to them, just as He has made eating pleasurable. But since He does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end in itself, He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme. He gives them in His Church a spiritual year; they change from a fast to a feast, but it is the same feast as before.”

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 50.

Remember, God is “the Enemy” in the words of Screwtape to Wormwood. He desires that our lives have Rhythm. And notice where the Lenten discipline of fasting even comes into view.

God gives us these rhythms to enable us to center or remain focused in a world filled with change. The evil one knows this and does not want us to experience it.

So the reason we practice giving, prayer, and fasting in Lent is to make sure the constant change that happens in our lives does not cause us to get off track. They help us stay on track.

Someone asked me recently how I find rest when traveling, time to exercise when home, and manage to read, research, and write. The answer is, in a word, rhythm.

Join me. Discipline yourself in a world filled with chaos to nurture mere Christianity. The fast gives us more than food and the feast takes shape as a celebration of God’s gifts. Rhythm is a gift from God.

Someone else asked me if their could hear my sermon from this last Sunday. Find it here.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9

“The real trouble about the set your patient is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call “Christianity and”. You know — Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian coloring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.”

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (Samizdat University Press) 50. I decided to explore afresh a classic work whilst traveling. Such a great book. Better than a movie on an airplane.

Here Screwtape tells Wormwood that to urge the Christian to feel discontent with the gospel, he must dangle something in front of him to encourage him to add something to go along with it. In so doing, the little devil wins.

Lean into this with me because we tend to think that “Christianity and” represents a healthy faith. But does it? The person who advances “Christianity and” has started on the path of ineffectiveness.

To put it simply, we get distracted. Once distracted, we take a detour. Then we find ourselves so far off the path that we look like the world around us. I can say it because I have done it! We all have. It happens to all of us.

In a book I edited and compiled with Tim Macready, Purposeful Living: Financial Wisdom for All of Life, my friend Henry Kaestner wrote on the topic: What does it mean to be a Christian entrepreneur? (download the PDF of the book freely here)

Henry makes the point that if you see yourself as a Christian first, or in the words of Lewis, if your life is built on, “mere Christianity,” then your identity is fixed, you stay focused and you have impact.

But when you say, I am a “Christian and an entrepreneur” that word “and” appears again. And just like that, Screwtape and Wormwood have you struggling with your identity. Then they choke out your impact.

There’s nothing drab about Christianity. It’s the only thing worth living and dying for. Interestingly, last night I arrived at an undisclosed place in Central Asia where I am spending time this week with more than 500 people who risk their lives for their faith daily.

Don’t focus on generosity at this moment. Focus on Christ and how He gave up everything in heaven and then came to earth and gave His life so that you might taste it. That’s mere Christianity.

What drives me is not Christianity and generosity. It’s mere Christianity. As I have mined the writings of saints through the centuries daily for 15.75 years and counting, I have found a never-ending treasure trove of wisdom.

The best part is this. As I share what I find with others, I don’t end up depleted but rather enriched while enriching others. It’s the paradox of Christianity. It produces the fruit of generosity in and through us.

Now imagine how you might make mere Christianity known through your living, giving, serving, and loving. Right this minute, Screwtape and Wormwood don’t want you to imagine that.

Do it anyway. Christianity is not the same old thing. It’s the only thing worth living and dying for. And mere Christianity produces many fruits, one of which is generosity.

I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. Proverbs 24:30-34

“A heart in heaven will be a most excellent preservative against temptations to sin. It will keep the heart well employed. When we are idle, we tempt the devil to tempt us; as careless persons make thieves. A heart in heaven can reply to the tempter, as Nehemiah did: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come. It hath no leisure to be lustful or wanton, ambitious or worldly. If you were but busy in your lawful callings, you would not be so ready to hearken to temptations; much less if you were also busy above with God. Would a judge be persuaded to rise from the bench, when he is sitting upon a case of life and death, to go and play with children in the streets? No more will a Christian, when he is taking a survey of his eternal rest, give ear to the alluring charms of Satan. The children of that kingdom should never have time for trifles, especially when they are employed in the affairs of the kingdom; and this employment is one of the saints’ chief preservatives from temptations.”

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (Grand Rapids: CCEL), Excerpt from Ch. 11 “The importance of leading a Heavenly life upon Earth,” 125-126.

The word “scarcity” struck me in today’s Scripture. When someone appears as idle or careless, it sets them up to be overcome by poverty and scarcity.

Track with me. God wants us to experience abundance and generosity rather than poverty and scarcity. But if we work diligently and God provides a surplus, that can ruin us as much as idleness.

What’s the lesson today? A most excellent and chief preservative against temptations to sin is to keep busy at good things. We do well to avoid the extremes of idleness and overworking.

As children of the kingdom, let’s stay busy doing good things. God made us to work. When we work we bring Him glory. And as He supplies, let us put the surplus to work with rich generosity.

I’m on another trip to an undisclosed location. Speaking at a conference with 500+ workers from places where Christians experience significant persecution. Appreciate your prayers for a safe and fruitful week.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

“Consider that a heart set upon heaven will be one of the most unquestionable evidences of your sincerity, and a clear discovery of a true work of saving grace upon your souls. You are often asking, “How shall we know that we are truly sanctified?” Here you have a sign infallible from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself: “where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also.”

God is the saints’ treasure and happiness; heaven is the place where they must fully enjoy Him. A heart, therefore, set upon heaven, is a heart set upon God; and surely a heart set upon God, through Christ, is the truest evidence of saving grace. When learning will be no proof of grace; when knowledge, duties, gifts will fail; when arguments from thy tongue or hand may be confuted; yet then will this, from the bent of thy heart, prove thee sincere.

Take a poor Christian, of a weak understanding, a feeble memory, a stammering tongue; yet his heart is set on God, he hath chosen Him for his portion, his thoughts are on eternity, his desires are there; he cries out, “O that I were there!” He takes that day for a time of imprisonment, in which he hath not had one refreshing view of eternity. I had rather die in this man’s condition, than in the case of him who hath the most eminent gifts, and is most admired for his performances, while his heart is not thus taken up with God.”

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (Grand Rapids: CCEL), Excerpt from Ch. 11 “The importance of leading a Heavenly life upon Earth,” 123-124.

Is your heart set on heaven?

Baxter suggests that giving provides unquestionable evidence of our faith. Then he compares a poor ordinary bloke with a prominent one. The world lauds the latter and yet God sees and celebrates the former.

Which one are you?

As we enter the third week of Lent, make a list of possible changes might you make in your living, serving, and loving, to increase your giving. Take a step of action after mapping that list. See what happens.

Don’t let your life be found for lack of evidence.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2

“Afflictions are exceedingly useful to us, to keep us from mistaking our rest. A Christian’s motion toward heaven is voluntary, and not constrained. Those means, therefore, are most profitable, which help his understanding and will. The most dangerous mistake of our souls is, to take the creature for God, and earth for heaven. What warm, affectionate, eager thoughts have we of the world, till afflictions cool and moderate them! Afflictions speak convincingly, and will be heard when preachers cannot. Many a poor Christian is sometimes bending his thoughts to wealth, or flesh-pleasing, or applause, and so loses his relish of Christ and the joy above, till God breaks in upon his riches, or children, or conscience, or health, and breaks down his mountain which he thought so strong.”

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (Grand Rapids: CCEL), Excerpt from Ch. 10 “The saint’s rest is not to be expected on earth,” 114.

Take a moment and ask yourself these questions. Where you will be in 50 years? 50 million year? 500 million years? Notice the difference in your mind. Why do this?

Our riches, children, and conscience pivot on our answer. We shape not only our own eternal destiny but we influence our children. Think about how this relates to generosity.