Meditations

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:16

“Do you, therefore, and My other servants, carry yourselves with true patience, with grief for your sins, and with love of virtue for the glory and praise of My Name. If you act thus, I will satisfy for your sins, and for those of My other servants, inasmuch as the pains which you will endure will be sufficient, through the virtue of love, for satisfaction and reward, both in you and in others. In yourself you will receive the fruit of life, when the stains of your ignorance are effaced, and I shall not remember that you ever offended Me.

In others I will satisfy through the love and affection which you have to Me, and I will give to them according to the disposition with which they will receive My gifts. In particular, to those who dispose themselves, humbly and with reverence, to receive the doctrine of My servants, will I remit both guilt and penalty, since they will thus come to true knowledge and contrition for their sins. So that, by means of prayer, and their desire of serving Me, they receive the fruit of grace.”

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) in The Dialogue of Catherine of Siena, trans. by Algar Thorold (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1907) and ed. by Harry Plantinga (1994) 17.

Meet Grace St. Catherine. Collected her from the breeder in Montrose, Colorado, just yesterday. Just before picking her up, I read this section from St. Catherine’s classic work. Let me highlight four words from it.

Firstly, consider the ‘disposition’ with which you receive gifts from God. Do you consider blessings earned? Or do you with knowledge of your sins, humble yourself and give thanks for His mercy an anything He supplies?

Secondly, ponder His ‘gifts’ to you. One of those is doctrine. It’s a big word for right thinking in Jesus. Once you were lost; now you are found. God’s love was free to you and for everyone to be enjoyed and shared generously with others.

Thirdly, we get to ‘dispose’ ourselves with reverence. In plain terms, we receive gifts from God and we remit all we are and all we have in response to magnify Him on the earth. We become generous.

Fourthly, we receive ‘grace’ to serve by prayer. This fruit from God empowers us to do whatever task He sets before us with confidence and strength. He satisfies our every need and fills our every longing.

And today, we celebrate receiving “grace upon grace” from God. Grace from Him carries me through daily life. And this puppy, Grace St. Catherine, will aid us on our journey of living, giving, serving, and loving generously.

Grace will require us to walk a lot (which gives us exercise and space to pray). She will provide companionship. She will help provide food to eat (looking forward to hunting pheasant together) and so much more.

Father in heaven, we set our disposition to receive your gifts and dispose ourselves by your Spirit to remit them richly to others, ever mindful of your grace to us sinners. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

And thanks for Grace St. Catherine. Teach us through her like you did with Joy St. Clare.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3

“Is your mind stayed on God or is it starved? Starvation of the mind, caused by neglect, is one of the chief sources of exhaustion and weakness in a servant’s life. If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you. You must turn your thoughts and your eyes away from the face of idols and look to Him and be saved (see Isaiah 45:22).

Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. You should seek to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:5). This will be one of the greatest assets of your faith when a time of trial comes, because then your faith and the Spirit of God will work together.

When you have thoughts and ideas that are worthy of credit to God, learn to compare and associate them with all that happens in nature— the rising and the setting of the sun, the shining of the moon and the stars, and the changing of the seasons. You will begin to see that your thoughts are from God as well, and your mind will no longer be at the mercy of your impulsive thinking, but will always be used in service to God.

“We have sinned with our fathers…[and]…did not remember…” (Psalm 106:6-7). Then prod your memory and wake up immediately. Don’t say to yourself, “But God is not talking to me right now.” He ought to be. Remember whose you are and whom you serve. Encourage yourself to remember, and your affection for God will increase tenfold. Your mind will no longer be starved, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.”

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest reading entitled “Is Your Mind Stayed on God?” for 11 February.

For the next week or two, I have decided to revisit my word for the year: remember. I feel this is fitting for a season of thanksgiving, especially when I am praying for God’s provision for GTP to add staff.

Let me elaborate on what I think pastors and ministry workers around the world need to remember to be stayed and not starved. God is our faithful Provider. We find peace in that reality. And if we don’t we grow weary. It happens to me.

In real-time, two major groups have offered to fund half of the cost of two new GTP program staff. What a gift from God! And while we have a Giving Tuesday effort to get the remaining funds, I am reminding myself to trust God to supply.

Perhaps you can relate? You have so much work to do, and you have real needs, by you can lose the battle in your mind. So what should you do? Wake up and remember whose you are and whom you serve.

When you do this, Chambers adds, that you will be “quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.” So, to bring hope to others in this season of Thanksgiving, minister humbly and keep your mind stayed on God.

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 2 Timothy 1:14

“If the soul receives favours and caresses from our Lord, let it examine carefully whether it rates itself more highly in consequence; unless self-abasement increases with God’s expressions of love, they do not come from the Holy Spirit. Inevitably, when they are divine, the greater the favours, the less the soul esteems itself and the more keenly it remembers its sins. It becomes more oblivious of self-interest: the will and memory grow more fervent in seeking solely God’s honour with no thought of self. It also becomes unceasingly careful not to deviate deliberately from the will of God and feels a keener conviction that instead of meriting such favours, it deserves hell. When these results follow, no graces or gifts received during prayer need alarm the soul which should rather trust in the mercy of God, Who is faithful and will not allow the devil to deceive it; but it is always well to be on one’s guard.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) in Interior Castle 3.11 (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 109-110.

As I moved to 2 Timothy today, this Scripture stood out as important. Most people guard financial deposits and we need to guard the spiritual deposit entrusted to us with the help of the Holy Spirit. Few people write about this.

Seriously, I scanned at least a dozen classic works and few said anything. Then I read this excerpt from Teresa. It was eye-opening. We need to always balance two things. The good deposit alongside our badness.

Think about it. When our sinfulness and self-interest take over, we will not only deviate from God’s will, we will advance our own. So, we must be on guard. This relates to generosity in two ways.

On the positive side, when we do the will of God with the resources we have, we will appear as gracious, generous, humble conduits of unfathomable blessing. That’s God’s design and desire.

On the negative side, when we rate ourselves more highly than we ought, such as by taking credit for our giving, we emerge instead as prideful and pathetic. To avoid this, we must guard the good deposit entrusted to us by grace.

Speaking of Grace…heading to Grand Junction, Colorado today to pick up Grace St. Catherine tomorrow. Can’t wait to bring this German Shorthair Pointer home to start puppy training.

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Titus 3:14

“You never learned the mystery of contentment unless it may be said of you that, just as you are the most contented man, so you are also the most unsatisfied man in the world. You will say, ‘How is that?’ A man who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world. He is contented if he has but a crust, but bread and water, that is, if God disposes of him, for the things of the world, to have but bread and water for his present condition, he can be satisfied with God’s disposal in that; yet if God should give unto him Kingdoms and Empires, all the world to rule, if he should give it him for his portion, he would not be satisfied with that. Here is the mystery of it: though his heart is so enlarged that the enjoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfy him for his portion; yet he has a heart quieted under God’s disposal, if he gives him but bread and water. To join these two together must needs be a great art and mystery.”

Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646) in The Rare Jewel Of Christian Contentment (Preach the Word) 23-24.

As we move through Paul’s letters we come to Titus. Two times in the third chapter of this letter, we see Paul urge Titus to make sure that God’s people learn to devote themselves to doing what is good. This is a learning process for all of us.

Burroughs writes at length about how we must learn contentment to be released to the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do. We must learn to have our heart quieted under God’s disposal.

In that place, we have learned to be content with what God supplies, such as simple bread and water. Simultaneously, we are not satisfied by anything that the world offers. So, what’s the lesson for us today to grow in generosity?

Make your resources and time at God’s disposal. See what happens. Also, as we enter a shopping season. The world will tell you, buy this, or get that. These messages will contain promises of satisfaction. Don’t listen to them.

Instead, buy what you need, and find contentment in God alone. Our hearts are always seeking contentment and they can only find it God. And, with contentment comes joy when we make ourselves and resources available at God’s disposal.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

“Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw His hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed. He is a sun ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side; the rain of His grace is always dropping; the river of His bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of his love is constantly overflowing. As the King can never die, so His grace can never fail. Daily we pluck His fruit, and daily His branches bend down to our hand with a fresh store of mercy.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon in Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (Grand Rapids: CCEL) reading for 16 May.

Our trek through Paul’s letters afresh brings us to 1 Timothy and one of my favorite texts, the command to the rich. It’s not a suggestion. It points the way to life. We are commanded not to idolize comfort or serve as containers but be conduits of blessing as never fails to fills us with a fresh store.

Today, Spurgeon gives us so many word pictures that illustrate this. Manna falling, grace dropping, rivers flowing, and even wells overflowing. Each one shouts of God’s abundance. So why do we hoard it? We fear we will end up empty. But we are commanded to give so that we learn by experience that He will re-supply.

If you are looking for a place to be generous this year, as the rich have gotten richer, and the poor are needing help and service more than ever. Give to GTP. Click here to see how your gift will keep on giving to help add staff to empower national workers around the world to grow local giving.

And do this with thankfulness in your heart for how abundantly God has blessed you. As He never fails to provide a fresh store, I pray you give more generously than ever and see what happens. To grasp life in the process is to discover by doing it that participating in dispensing His fruits is why we are on this round ball called earth.

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all His holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people. Philemon 4-7

“The wise man has said, indeed, that there is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence; and, assuredly, it will be better for us to stand aloof from doubtful company, than to turn preachers and reprovers, bidden or unbidden, wherever we go. But still let us remember that Christian love, in its highest exercise, will be the best guide as to what our social duties are, and the best prompter of that word in season which the wise man again has pronounced so emphatically good.

Let us love not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth, wisely, generously, with high aims, and from worthy motives, like the best and ripest Christians,—or, better still, let our love be modeled after the pattern of Christ’s own love who never rested from His great work, who taught and healed men as He went along the world’s highway, but laboured in travail night and day that He might save them.

And then our difficult task will grow easier; we shall not speak rashly for fear of being silent sinfully; and as our own graces grow, and our own character for sincerity is established, we shall find that men will bear from us, if we speak in charity and in faith, what we fancied in early days would bring down a storm of indignation on our heads.”

John Hampden Gurney (1802-1862) in his sermon “Words and Deeds” in Christian Almsdeeds and Faithful Stewardship (London: Rivingtons, 1862) 8.

In our walk through Paul’s letters, we come to Philemon. In this short letter, Paul remembers what refreshed and uplifted people, namely, the Christian love of Philemon. It encouraged and blessed everyone he touched.

The challenge Gurney faced in the mid-1800’s, as English society was booming, appears similar to the challenges of those whose cultures flourish today. Someone needs to stand up and exhort people to consider their social duties. But this can be unpopular. It makes people uncomfortable.

The best guide for us is love in action and the model to follow is not our fellow man or woman but Jesus Christ. If we go along the world’s highway as He did it will be hard, for sure, but the journey will become easier over time.

And at some point, because of God’s grace at work, people will shift from shunning us to embracing us. All the while we must move about with charity and faith and do everything in love.

That said, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer during this Covid season. What is the social duty of those who abound? Don’t give handouts that create dependencies but a hand up and build up disciples. And do this with grace and love.

Do this, and I am confident, like Philemon, your love will refresh and uplift all those you serve for God’s glory.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy, and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. That religion should be relegated to solitude in such an age is, then, paradoxical. But it is also dangerous for two reasons. In the first place, when the modern world says to us aloud, “You may be religious when you are alone,” it adds under its breath, “and I will see to it that you never are alone.”

To make Christianity a private affair while banishing all privacy is to relegate it to the rainbow’s end or the Greek calends. That is one of the enemy’s stratagems. In the second place, there is the danger that real Christians who know that Christianity is not a solitary affair may react against that error by simply transporting into our spiritual life that same collectivism which has already conquered our secular life. That is the enemy’s other stratagem. Like a good chess player, he is always trying to maneuver you into a position where you can save your castle only by losing your bishop.

In order to avoid the trap we must insist that though the private conception of Christianity is an error, it is a profoundly natural one and is clumsily attempting to guard a great truth. Behind it is the obvious feeling that our modern collectivism is an outrage upon human nature and that from this, as from all other evils, God will be our shield and buckler.”

C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory (New York: Harper Collins, 1980) 160-161.

Notice as we move to Philippians, that Paul’s prayer for his partners in the gospel was that their love and knowledge would abound so that they’d be filled with discernment and righteousness.

In plain terms, Paul wanted the Philippians to bless others out of the abundance that flowed from their deep relationship with Jesus Christ. But, as Lewis notes, the evil one does not want this to happen.

How do we save our proverbial bishop, using this brilliant word picture from chess?

It’s simple actually. We cultivate this relationship with discipline in silence and solitude, and we live it out in community, regardless of what others are doing, making God our shield and buckler. But why do this?

We find time for privacy with God not just to grow in knowledge and love. It opens the door for true friendship with others in community. To make a generous impact in the lives of others, make time for silence and solitude.

This will not be easy in this busy, noisy world. It will require intentionality. Then live out your faith with boldness and generosity in community. We need each other to save both our castle and our bishop.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

“In his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally a great aversion), having accustomed himself to do everything there for the love of God, and with prayer, upon all occasions, for His grace to do his work well, he had found everything easy, during the fifteen years that he had been employed there. That he was very well pleased with the post he was now in; but that he was as ready to quit that as the former, since he was always pleasing himself in every condition, by doing little things for the love of God.”

Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 5.

Our walk through Paul’s letters brings us to Ephesians. Here we realized we are saved by grace for a purpose: to do good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do. Let’s dig deeper into what those good works look like most of the time.

Brother Lawrence would say that it is doing little acts for the love of God. He found the grace to do this by stepping back from his work seven times to pray. This made it easier. It’s not that the work changed, but his perspective changed in the process.

To understand his setting, he worked in the kitchen in a monastery for 15 years. He didn’t really care for the work, but realized in the process, that it mattered and that it could bless others when done for the love of God.

How might your work make a generous contribution in the lives of those around you today by doing little things for the love of God?

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:15-17

“Contemplation is the highest expression of man’s in­tellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spirit­ual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source.”

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961) 1.

As we move on to the next letter of Paul, we dig into Colossians. In this letter, He urges us to pause, to contemplate, to soak in the peace and message of Christ. Why? So thankfulness and gratitude wells up within us and propel us to generous living and service. Take a few minutes today to do this. But how?

Merton would likely say to contemplate the goodness of God as the “invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source” of all that is good. Soak in wonder of the gospel and the unfailing love that Christ has for you. Revel in God’s faithful provision in your life and how you have been blessed to be a blessing.

Then, let the fruit of contemplation, gratitude, propel you to good works. Elsewhere the Apostle Paul describes them as the good words that God has prepared in advance for you to do. I am learning that God wants these good works to flow from a grateful heart. And, share what you are learning with someone today to grow together.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. Romans 12:3-6a

“If you have wealth, do not glory in it, nor in friends because they are powerful, but in God Who gives all things and Who desires above all to give Himself. Do not boast of personal stature or of physical beauty, qualities which are marred and destroyed by a little sickness. Do not take pride in your talent or ability, lest you displease God to Whom belongs all the natural gifts that you have. Do not think yourself better than others lest, perhaps, you be accounted worse before God Who knows what is in man. Do not take pride in your good deeds, for God’s judgments differ from those of men and what pleases them often displeases Him. If there is good in you, see more good in others, so that you may remain humble. It does no harm to esteem yourself less than anyone else, but it is very harmful to think yourself better than even one. The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.”

Thomas à Kempis in “Avoiding False Hope and Pride,” chapter 7 of The Imitation of Christ.

As we move to Romans, the next of Paul’s letters, we see that God generously supplies us with gifts by His grace alone. We must not be proud but glory in God, the giver of all good gifts.

And, as Thomas notes, we must not glory in wealth or those who are powerful. That happens a lot as charities approach the year-end giving season. Let me explain.

Too many ministries boast in their good deeds to try to convince people to give them money. Then they run to the powerful instead of the Powerful. The latter, of course is God, the Provider of all good gifts.

So, what’s this mean for us? It means that if we get to do good deeds as charities, don’t take any credit but give all glory to God. We must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

Instead, let’s simply celebrate everything we have to enjoy and share as gifts of grace. And, let us remain humble for this is the pathway to peace. Make it so, Lord Jesus, for each of us.