Meditations

Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds; for riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in, the lambs will be for your clothing, and the goats will bring the price of a field, and there will be enough goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household, and sustenance for your attendants. Proverbs 27:23-27

“This poem consists of an admonition to take good care of one’s flocks and herds… On the one hand, money and status are depreciating, not self-renewing resources. Money vanishes, sometimes flying away unexpectedly and capriciously like a bird.

On the other hand, animals are self-renewing and an increasing source of wealth. If given the grasses that the highlands of Palestine naturally provide, the he-goats provide clothing and money to purchase arable land, and the she-goats provide enough milk to feed the entire household, including the milkmaids.

The list of benefits does not aim to be exhaustive. Flocks are also important for food and for cultic sacrifice. Their skins were used for bottles and fabric, and their horns for vessels or as instruments.”

Bruce Waltke in The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15-31 (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005) 390.

God’s design for sustainability appears in today’s Scripture. God’s generosity which fuels human sharing also comes into view. The admonition is not to see wealth as an end but a tool for ongoing enjoyment and sharing.

Why not seek money or status, riches or a crown? It provides short-lived satisfaction. Instead, we put to work what God supplies in ways that contribute to flourishing for us and our community.

Notice that God’s provision blesses not just our household but those around us. What’s our role? We must steward with diligence what God has entrusted to us, or in this case, our herds and flocks.

Notice that some of what we have will be consumed, some will serve like working capital to produce more, and some will be shared. But it’s never, ever stored up on earth.

That’s not its purpose. Don’t allow it to be yours! Whatever you hold on to and think you own, owns you. Hear the Word of God. Riches are not forever. Quit holding on to them. Put them to work today!

To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:27-30

“The Bible is full of those serendipity truths – often the inverse of what our natural minds understand. For instance – salvation is free, but it comes with demands.

It is better to give than to receive. When a man strikes you on one cheek, turn the other to him. If you have two coats, give one away. If someone asks you to walk one mile, walk with him two.

Often so surprising – so inverted is this spiritual life. No more surprising than this ultimate truth for the believer – the need to live to be forgotten, so that Christ can be remembered!”

David Bruce in “Live to be Forgotten!” devotional shared at Billy Graham Evangelistic Association devotions on 23 March 2021. Special thanks to Gregg Capin for sharing this with me yesterday.

As I reflected on this text, I am reminded that John played his role. He did his part. He served for a season faithfully not to advance his reputation but to point people to Jesus. That’s really why we are here on this earth. Hopefully our generosity will reflect God’s generosity to us. But what does it really mean to live to be forgotten?

In his devotional, Bruce calls for humility and adds that “humility is not thinking less of self – it is not thinking of yourself at all.” So what if we added humility to our generosity? One outcome that is guaranteed. Like John pointed the world to Jesus, our lives will point people to God. May our humility and generosity cause us to be forgotten and Jesus to be remembered.

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:18

“Charity isn’t the responsibility or privilege of the wealthy alone, but all people, regardless of social or financial status, and it isn’t practiced among the wealthiest people I know nearly as strikingly as with those I’ve known who are living in a state of material poverty and insecurity. For twenty-six years, I’ve been attempting to outdo victims of war with generosity, and so far, I’ve failed.

Do you want to experience hospitality? Go to any refugee camp or hide site for IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the world and be invited into the shack or tent of a family displaced by war, reduced to a few threadbare clothes, and some simple sentimental possessions like a wedding picture. You enter and a rush of activity ensues: water is boiled to make sweet tea. A meal is prepared. The table is wiped; a pillow is placed at the small of your back as they say, “Recline here. You must be so tired.”

Material wealth may make generosity abundantly clear. But wealth is not required for generosity. One may be wealthy and generous but one may also be poor and generous. Wealth is a tool, and may as easily be employed falsely as altruistically…

Those of us who have done this work for many years will tell you this: we learned the most important lessons of our labor from the people we set out to help. No matter the level of sacrifice or generosity, we will never outdo displaced families when it comes to intention, loving community, and sacrifice. We, like them, are learning to love by loving.”

Steve Gumaer in “Learning Generosity in Syria” Plough blog post on 9 April 2021.

Special thanks to Daily Meditations reader, Bill Crowe, whom I have never met but often blesses me with quotes. He shared amazing blog post with me. It’s worth the read. Thanks mate!

Ponder the generosity of refugees. Every wonder how your generosity could be striking and abundant like theirs? Think about it? What causes us to label generous activity with those terms?

We choose those words when behavior is unexpected or countercultural. It appears as different from the norm. So, if we live in affluence, striking and abundant generosity focuses on dispensing rather than accumulating.

For those in poverty, like the refugee, the focus on sharing with others rather than worry about what they don’t have. This is only possible when we realize that we have something better than what the world seeks after.

Only when our trust is firmly in God do we become people who “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow.” Only then do we “love the foreigner…giving them food and clothing.”

Where do you fit in this picture? Are you rich or poor? Don’t let that impact your generosity as generosity is about more than money! What would it look like to learn to love by loving for you?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40

“A life of importance sees the import of giving your life away, to the hidden and the unpopular and the children and the forgotten and knowing this will be remembered by God.”

Ann Voskamp in The Way of Abundance: A 60-Day Journey into a Deeply Meaningful Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018) 209.

Special thanks to Daily Meditations reader, Rose Hagler, whom I have never met and who shared this post with me, because it contains our word for the year: “remember.”

God sees what most of the world misses. To him that which is important is care for the hidden, unpopular, the children, and the forgotten. The world does not give a rip about these folks.

Who are these groups where you live and serve? Take time today to think about this. This is another one of those posts where I urge you to get a cup of coffee and reflect.

Why do this? For Jesus, our care for the outcasts is our care for Him. Think about that because if you do nothing for them, it is as if you are doing nothing for Him.

Give your life away for these outcasts. It’s what He just did during Holy Week for you and me!

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Matthew 18:32-35

“Whoever tries to separate man’s forgiveness from God’s will no longer be able to count on God’s mercy. In so doing, he not merely forfeits this, like the servant in the parable. Rather, he shows that he never had a part in it. God’s mercy is not something cut and dried that is only received once. It is a persistent power that pervades all of life. If it does not become manifest as such a power, then it was never received at all.”

Herman Ridderbos in his Commentary on Matthew as recounted by Craig L. Blomberg in Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004) 74.

This quote is another winner unearthed by my pastor, James Hoxworth.

Mercy, grace, forgiveness, and generosity flow from the transformed Christ because of what God has done in our lives. To fail to illustrated these traits shows we never received them to begin with.

This is a weighty idea. Perhaps get a coffee and sit with this one? 

Don’t forget that for Jesus, our actions reveal what we truly believe. Faith without works is useless. If we are not dispensers of these divine gifts, it shows we never received them to begin with.

Father, may your persistent power be evident in the mercy, grace, forgiveness, and generosity that I receive and dispense, even to the most undeserving. Make it so by your Spirit I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:37-38

“One of the most certain facts about Jesus is that He associated with the wrong people, people others thought caused defilement, but Jesus did not fear becoming unclean through contact with the unholy. He thought holiness was stronger and more contagious than defilement and he accepted the woman’s actions as righteous and loving.”

Klyne Snodgrass in Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) 86.

Do you associate with anyone that might be labeled a shady character?

Yesterday my pastor looked at this text and quoted Snodgrass. Klyne is a brilliant scholar and friend. He alerts us to the fact that holiness is “stronger and more contagious than defilement.”

Think about that in light of the pandemic. COVID has gripped the world in fear.

We must fear neither disease nor defilement. Like Jesus, we should be associating with people that may even be labeled “wrong” because we are all broken and in need of a Savior.

How might you associate generously with the socially unclean?

For Jesus, it matters not how we start but how we finish. Like the woman, those who are forgiven much, love much. Let’s love people generously, especially those society labels “undeserving” or “unclean” people.

Remember, God’s love, grace, and forgiveness are for everyone.

So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21

“When a man by means of charity and an intention towards God offers himself up to God in all his works and in all his living, to His honour and praise, and seeks rest in God beyond all things, then he must, with humility and patience and forgetfulness of himself, still await new riches and new gifts, with certain confidence: and still he must be untroubled, whether God gives to him or does not give. Thus a man makes himself ready and pleasing, so that he may receive the interior life of yearning for God. When the vessel is prepared, one pours into it the precious liquor. There is no more precious vessel than the loving soul, nor is there a more cordial drink than the grace of God. Thus shall man offer up to God all his works and all his life with a single intention towards God, and he shall rest, beyond intention, and beyond himself, and beyond all things, in the high unity where, without any mean, God and the loving spirit are united.”

Jan Van Ruysbroek in The Spiritual Espousals, translated by Eric Colledge (London: Faber and Faber, 1952) 90-91.

I likely got your attention with the “precious liquor” title. But the reality is that we are intended to be vessels that contain the greatest of all spirits. Are you a vessel for honor?

Let me give a biblical example lest this remain just a lofty thought. Consider Esther. She was an orphan girl who had nothing, then everything as queen. She risked everything for God.

In so doing, she helped her people go from destruction to deliverance. She’s fresh on my mind as we reflected on her story yesterday in lesson two for JOE India and will do it again tomorrow with JOE Malaysia.

“Humility and patience and forgetfulness” were necessary for Esther to “await new riches and new gifts, with certain confidence” not knowing whether God would give what she hoped for or not.

The key was for her to fast with her community. To set aside her desires and urge everyone to join her. When we make ourselves ready for God, through us He can do the impossible.

So, God help us with self preparation, as “There is no more precious vessel than the loving soul, nor is there a more cordial drink than the grace of God.” Make us vessels who dispense divine generosity.

You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. Acts 10:37-38

“Out of the unity in which God dwells, He flows to His creatures, and flows back again into Himself: He flows to them in gifts and graces, and He requires the same in- and outflowing, both of His gifts and graces and of the human soul; and it is love which causes this flowing, God’s love for His creatures, and His demand of their love for Him.”

Eric Colledge in the introduction to The Spiritual Espousals by Jan Van Ruysbroek (London: Faber and Faber, 1952) 22.

Colledge illustrates for us how generosity flows in the form gifts and graces out of the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We saw this in Jesus. It’s God’s design and desire for each of us.

We receive through inflowing and we go about doing good like Jesus, that’s the outflowing part. So, all our generosity flows from that which we have received from God.

We are lavished with gifts and graces to enjoy and share. When Jesus lived this way, word spread.

The same is true for us. Generosity is contagious, and the abundant measure of flow is caused by the love of God. Because His love is boundless, His generosity knows no limits.

Today I am praying it continues to spread across India with our JOE (Journey of Empowerment) group that meets today. This is session two of five this month. There are about 40 trainers and influencers in all.

Come Holy Spirit, do a transforming work in their lives!

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:24-25a

Watch this music video and enjoy the lyrics.

Less Like Me – Song by Zach Williams

Oh, I have days I lose the fight
Try my best but just don’t get it right
Well I talk a talk that I don’t walk
And miss the moments right before my eyes
Somebody with a hurt that I could have helped
Somebody with a hand that I could have held
When I just can’t see past myself
Oh Lord help me be
A little more like mercy’ a little more like grace
A little more like kindness’ goodness, love, and faith
A little more like patience’s a little more like peace
A little more like Jesus, a little less like me
Yeah, there’s no denying I have changed
‘Cause I’ve been saved from who I used to be
But even at my best’ I must confess
I still need help to see the way You see
Somebody with a hurt that I could have helped
Somebody with a hand that I could have held
When I just can’t see past myself
Oh Lord, help me be
A little more like mercy, a little more like grace
A little more like kindness, goodness, love, and faith
A little more like patience, a little more like peace
A little more like Jesus, a little less like me
Oh, I want to feed the beggar on the street
Love to be your hands and feet
Freely give what I receive
Lord, help me be
I want a friendship first above all else
Love my neighbor as myself
In the moments no one sees
Lord, help me be
One, two, three
A little more like mercy, a little more like grace
A little more like kindness, goodness, love, and faith
A little more like patience, a little more like peace
A little more like Jesus, oh, a little less like me
A little more of living everything I preach
A little more like Jesus, a little less like me
Oh, a little less like me

Special thanks to my faithful friend and Daily Meditations reader, Randy Bury, who blessed me with this song yesterday. We correspond often, but have never met face to face. I pray we can someday.

I had never heard this song. I watched it like 10 times.

I don’t know about you, but the biggest obstacle to my generosity is me. I am so busy doing important things sometimes that I “miss the moments right before my eyes.”

With Zach I feel like “I still need help to see” the way God sees. I

By God’s grace I am becoming aware that I need to “see past myself.” God’s producing “a little more” of all these good things in me by His grace and mercy. I pray the same for you today.

Watch it one more time so it soaks in.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

“Richard of St. Victor has said, that the essence of all purification is self-simplification; the doing away of the unnecessary and unreal, the tangles and complications of consciousness: and we must remember that when these masters of the spiritual life speak of purity, they have in their minds no thin, abstract notion of a rule of conduct stripped of all colour and compounded chiefly of refusals, such as a more modern, more arid asceticism set up. Their purity is an affirmative state; something strong, clean, and crystalline, capable of a wholeness of adjustment to the wholeness of a God-inhabited world. The pure soul is like a lens from which all irrelevancies and excrescences, all the beams and motes of egotism and prejudice, have been removed; so that it may reflect a clear image of the one transcendent fact within which all others facts are held.”

Evelyn Underhill in Practical Mysticism (New York: Dutton, 1915) excerpt from Chapter Three.

Richard of St. Victor was a Medieval Scottish thinker (1110-1173) largely known through his profound writings on the spiritual life. Eveyln Underhill shares a similar strength but lived much later (1875-1941). When I explored what we must ‘remember’ in her classic work, I discovered this gem of a quote.

Let me try to break down the message that surfaces in today’s Scripture and quote with three thoughts.

Firstly, Jesus is our example of the pure life. It was rightly ordered. He was attuned to God, free of tangles and irrelevancies, and served as the lens for us to see and know God. To see Jesus was to see the Father. And the writer of Hebrews urges us to fix our eyes on Him as the Pioneer and Perfector of our faith.

Secondly, self-simplification is not about a strict rule linked to negatives and refusals but a focus on the positive or aspects of affirmative existence. Think of this person as someone who seeks God first and everything else falls into place. Purity in that light is about plodding with consistency on a path to maturity.

Thirdly, we are on this earth to serve as reflectors. Jesus was the perfect reflection of the Father. The one overarching or transcendent fact that we are here to reflect is the goodness or generosity of God. If we want to do that we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, set our desires and ego aside, and attune to God. He will take care of the rest.