Meditations

But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him. 2 Peter 3:13-14

“On the North American continent Christianity has become the religion of the prosperous middle and upper classes almost entirely, the very rich or the very poor rarely become practicing Christians. The touching picture of the poorly dressed, hungry saint, clutching his Bible under his arm and with the light of God shining in his face hobbling painfully toward the church, is chiefly imaginary. One of the biggest problems of even the most ardent Christian these days is to find a parking place for the shiny chariot that transports him effortlessly to the house of God where he hopes to prepare his soul for the world to come.

In the United States and Canada the middle class today possesses more earthly goods and lives in greater luxury than emperors and maharajas did a short century ago. And since the bulk of Christians comes from this class it is not difficult to see why the apocalyptic hope has all but disappeared from among us. It is hard to focus attention upon a better world to come when a more comfortable one than this can hardly be imagined. The best we can do is to look for heaven after we have revelled for a lifetime in the luxuries of a fabulously generous earth. As long as science can make us so cozy in this present world it is hard to work up much pleasurable anticipation of a new world order.”

A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) in Man — The Dwelling Place of God (The Alliance Witness) 85.

While Tozer’s assessment reflects conditions in the last century, I would suggest the apocalyptic hope has continued to diminish linked to the gravity of this sentence: “It is hard to focus attention upon a better world to come when a more comfortable one than this can hardly be imagined.” There are some today who live for another world. While I do not agree with their beliefs or methods, modern day terrorists live for the world to come. What drives their behavior, as horrible as it is, are deeply-rooted beliefs about a “better world to come” than this one. Movies like 12 Strong vividly illustrate that the terrorists believe this. I saw it on my recent trans-Pacific flight.

In my global travels, I see few “shiny chariots” in the majority world and fervency of faith that looks to the world that is to come. Most people cannot even imagine “a lifetime of luxuries” on earth. While I love coming home to my wife, grown son and daughter, and many friends, I feel like a fish out of water in America. I am not complaining. I am groaning in the Spirit with Peter who wrote today’s Scripture. I beckon you to join me in showing our Lord that we are “looking forward” by making “every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.” The easiest way to avoid getting too “cozy in this present world” is to store up treasures obediently in the next one.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Mark 10:42-44

“[Jesus] says that in His kingdom he that is greatest shall be the servant of all. The real test of the saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples’ feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men but count everything in the estimate of God. Paul delighted to spend himself out for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. We come in with our economical notions “Suppose God wants me to go there? What about the salary? What about the climate? How shall I be looked after? A man must consider these things.” All that is an indication that we are serving God with a reserve. The Apostle Paul had no reserve. Paul focuses Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint in his life, viz.: not one who proclaims the Gospel merely, but one who becomes broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for other lives.”

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) in My Utmost For His Highest (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 1963) reading for February 25. In case you have not noticed, I am spending my early mornings exploring many of the spiritual classics that can be read freely via PDF documents. If any of them interest you, I’d encourage you to read them on your own.

Chambers reminds us today that what counts in the “estimate of God” is sacrificial service. When compared to the “estimate of men” it makes absolutely no sense. Think about it. Worldly financial advice always starts with having a reserve. Jesus held nothing back, giving his life for us. Likewise, the Apostle Paul lived with no reserve.

Living generously is about aspiring to be a slave of all. It’s about living life with no reserve. It’s about washing the feet of fellow servants of Christ. As Chambers put it, “Paul delighted to spend himself out for God’s interests in other people.” To live this way requires trust that God will sustain us.

When I was training pastors in Florida years ago, the bishop of the group I was serving said something like this about people who live with a reserve: “Your trust is in your safety net! If you save up a reserve of money, your trust is in money. Money is your safety net. Only when my wife and I stored up everything in heaven did we realized Christ was enough to sustain us and our service to others in His name. He was a better safety net.”

That’s the paradox of generosity in the Christian faith. Most people miss it because it runs contrary to economical notions. Those notions, of course, align with the economy of this world thinking rather than God’s abundant economy. Father, teach us by your Holy Spirit to spend ourselves with no reserve as broken bread and poured out wine for others in the name of Jesus. Amen.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. Colossians 3:1-7

“When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought. True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man.”

Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471) in “Unbridled Affections” in The Imitation of Christ (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 8.

The desire for things on earth can destroy each of us and keep us from experiencing peace. Anyone who thinks he or she is immune from such passions is likely already bound under their control. So how can we resist vain attractions? For the Apostle Paul, there’s one, and only one, way. Seek the things above. We resist by setting our affections on Christ and all He desires for us while simultaneously putting to death our earthly desires.

Notice, the ultimate vice in Paul’s list of earthly passions is covetousness or greed which is idolatry. The desire for money and things, though good gifts from God, leads us to idolize those things. What’s the connection to generosity? We can neither find peace when we set our hope on things that cannot satisfy, nor can we ever be generous when we idolize the gifts we have been given instead of the Giver.

Once we find true peace, we want others to locate it. My advice (with Thomas): don’t reprove foolish souls who seek to accumulate money and possessions. They will resent you and despise you in their pride. Instead, show them by your life that resisting passions and vain attractions is the only pathway to peace, satisfaction, and generosity. If they ask, point the way, but I suggest pray for them and show them the way by example.

[Jesus] answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Luke 10:27

“The best way to love ourselves is to love others, yet we cannot love others unless we love ourselves since it is written, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But if we love ourselves in the wrong way, we become incapable of loving anybody else. And indeed when we love ourselves wrongly we hate ourselves; if we hate ourselves we cannot help hating others. Yet there is a sense in which we must hate others and leave them in order to find God. Jesus said: “If any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother…yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

As for this “finding” of God, we cannot even look for Him unless we have already found Him, and we can­ not find Him unless He has first found us. We cannot begin to seek Him without a special gift of His grace, yet if we wait for grace to move us, before beginning to seek Him, we will probably never begin. The only effective answer to the problem of salvation must therefore reach out to embrace both extremes of a contradiction at the same time. Hence that answer must be supernatural. That is why all the answers that are not supernatural are imperfect: for they only embrace one of the contradictory terms, and they can always be denied by the other.

Take the antithesis between love of self and love of another. As long as there is question of material things, the two loves are opposed. The more goods I keep for my own enjoyment, the less there are for others. My pleasures and comforts are, in a certain sense, taken from someone else. And when my pleasures and comforts are inordinate, they are not only taken from another, but they are stolen. I must learn to deprive myself of good things in order to give them to others who have a greater need of them than I. And so I must in a certain sense “hate” myself in order to love others.

Now there is a spiritual selfishness which even poisons the good act of giving to another. Spiritual goods are greater than the material, and it is possible for me to love selfishly in the very act of depriving myself of ma­terial things for the benefit of another. If my gift is in­tended to bind him to me, to put him under an obliga­tion, to exercise a kind of hidden moral tyranny over his soul, then in loving him I am really loving myself. And this is a greater and more insidious selfishness, since it traffics not in flesh and blood but in other persons’ souls…

Man is divided against himself and against God by his own selfishness, which divides him against his brother. This division cannot be healed by a love that places itself only on one side of the rift. Love must reach over to both sides and draw them together. We cannot love ourselves unless we love others, and we cannot love others unless we love ourselves. But a selfish love of ourselves makes us incapable of loving others.”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in No Man is an Island (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1955) xvii-xx. Click to read the PDF of this contemporary spiritual classic.

Letting go of material things frees us to love others. Jesus knows this. Mystics like Merton figured it out. Too many givers love themselves by holding back things or through their giving that seeks to control they traffic in souls rather than loving others. Embrace the tension of the two sides as the only path to generous living. Love God and love others by letting go of that which hinders love.

Merton says it best: “We cannot love ourselves unless we love others, and we cannot love others unless we love ourselves. But a selfish love of ourselves makes us incapable of loving others.” The way to love unselfishly is to hold on to Christ rather than material things. If that sounds too lofty, pray and think about it today. May the Holy Spirit guide you into this profound truth.

Also, enjoy the new header photo, which my son, Sammy, snapped at Beaver Brook yesterday just west of Denver. We did a 5.2 mile loop to the stream and were fortunate to catch and release 34 trout. Catching trout is like receiving gifts from God – glimpses of “God’s extravagance” as Sammy likes to say – and releasing them is our gift to the anglers after us. Book a day with Sammy if you want to learn fly fishing!

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

“We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of GOD, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. That we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavours, but that at last we should gain a habit, which will naturally produce its acts in us, without our care, and to our exceeding great delight.”

Brother Lawrence (1611-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God (London: Epworth Press) 7. Special thanks to my friend, Michael Kohls for reminding me of the this work yesterday. It’s one of those classics that you cannot read too many times.

Nicholas Herman was born in in Lorraine, France. He became known as Brother Lawrence when he joined a Carmelite Monastery in Paris, where he served as a cook and learned to make his daily routine an occasion for ceaseless prayer.

This excerpt reminds us that God measures the love and not the greatness of what we do. The little things aren’t so little after all! Also, God desires that we not grow weary in doing good, because over time the doing creates a habit, a way of living that reflects His love to the world.

Father in heaven, help us not grow weary of doing little things with love. By your Holy Spirit, transform us, help us “gain a habit” of doing good, so that people all over the world see your kindness through us daily. Make it so I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

People are slaves to whatever has mastered them. 2 Peter 2:19b

Today I want to alert you to a book that recently released by Roger Lam, Lost and Found: Money vs. Riches. It’s “a journey from slavery to mastery” that chronicles his own personal story. It’s a winner. Therein Roger writes (55): “If not viewed and handled correctly, money can easily become our counterfeit God.” He shares he had become a slave to this counterfeit God, and then, in hindsight, how God’s gracious led him to freedom and true riches. Roger and I got acquainted thanks to an introduction by Jeff Ryan in Hong Kong, and we became mates when Roger attended the International Accountability Summit in Melbourne in June 2017.

I share it widely as I think many will identify with elements of his story. Here’s my endorsement in the book.

“Pick it up! It’s a page-turner! With a unique blend of humor and humility, Lam reveals that money had wormed its way into the corners of his life leaving him stuck. Only when he followed the teachings of Jesus on the handling of finances, did he find himself on a pathway to freedom. In plain terms, Lam helps us see that we don’t figure out what Jesus is trying to teach us until we live it out. He wants us take hold of life! It’s a modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress for anyone in business, financial services or whom God has entrusted any measure of money. You won’t put it down.”

Here’s the book website, and here’s the online store where I got my copy. I commend it to everyone!

I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. Proverbs 4:11

As I stated yesterday, over the next few days I want to point you to some helpful resources that are free for download and use. Today’s piece, The Four H’s of Financial Wisdom, came to me recently from Michael Blue at the Ron Blue Institute. Here are highlights from it.

1. Heart – Behavior Follows Belief. Consider four areas. Stewardship: Do I believe that God owns it all? Contentment: Do I believe that what I have right now is enough? Faith: Do I believe that I demonstrate my faith through my finances? Wisdom: Do I believe that God’s wisdom is true and available?

2. Health – Today’s Reality. There are five simultaneous competing priorities for the use of money. God’s Word speaks to each: Live, Give, Owe (Debt), Owe (Taxes), Grow. Demonstrate financial maturity by giving up today’s desires for tomorrow’s benefit.

3. Habits – Five Biblical Principles. Assess your strengths and weaknesses for each area: Give generously. Spend less than you earn. Avoid the use of debt. Plan for financial margin. Set long-term goals.

4. Hope – Tomorrow’s Promise. Changing habits to increase margin is the only way to meet long-term goals and align our hearts and hope toward eternity. Without margin, it is difficult to respond to God’s calling on our lives and to meet the needs of those He has put in our lives.”

This two-page PDF provides sound counsel, helpful Bible references, and self-assessment measures to encourage stewards to take action in four areas in order to grow in their understanding and practice of stewardship. It’s a great resource for anyone to use as an individual or in group settings.

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11

While most Daily Meditations seek to inspire you, some aim at equipping you. Over the next few days, my posts will fall into that latter category. Here’s the introduction and a few comments from a resource that might aid your stewardship ministry.

“Many people are surprised that almost eight percent of the Bible is about money and possessions. Man’s economy has a chequered history with the end of the last decade seeing an almost collapse of the global financial system.

God’s economy however cannot fail and reviewing, studying and reflecting on God’s Word will provide you with insight, not just into the handling of money and possessions, but also the attitudes that influence what we spend.

We invite you to examine carefully the 2,350 passages, searching the Scriptures like the Bereans, to see whether these words are true (Acts 17:11). The best way to check our heart’s attitude regarding material possessions is to allow all the principles of God’s Word to penetrate our innermost being (Hebrews 4:12).

This book should be judged not in the light of prevailing opinion, but in the light of God’s Word. We trust you enjoy looking up and exploring for yourself what the Bible is saying to you and that it will inspire, empower and equip you on the subject of money and possessions.”

Mark Lloydbottom in Foundation Truth on Money and Possessions: Consider the Source. Read, Listen and Reflect on the Biblical Truth (Your Money Counts: UK, 2016). Click to download this PDF resource freely.

Lloydbottom is passionate about helping stewards understand biblical truth. I suggest it serves as a great resource to be used in at least three ways.

(1) Personal Study – If you have not taken time to explore how the Bible is our blueprint for living, giving, serving, and loving, download this free and go through the verses section by section.

(2) Church Small Group – My favorite small groups are the ones in which we simply read Scripture together and discuss the implications for the Christian life and possible applications. Use this PDF in that way.

(3) Academic Resource – This serves as a “stewardship concordance” of sorts. Any stewardship students would benefit from it when doing assignments about the various facets of holistic Christian stewardship.

Lloydbottom ends the introduction with this quote by A.W. Tozer: “Listen to no man who has not listened to God.” His advice, and it’s sound counsel, is to see what God thinks about stewardship rather than listen to the world’s messages. Do this to prepare to give an account for your own stewardship and for helping others as well.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Stewardship “asks us to do something far more difficult [than solely making financial gifts], and that is to share ourselves. To share our time, our abilities, our ministry, our relationships. Stewardship is really a call to be a holy people.”

Daniel Conway in What Do I Own and What Owns Me? A Spirituality of Stewardship (New London: Twenty-Third Publications, 2005) 18, as quoted by Betsy Schwarzentraub in Giving: Growing Joyful Stewardship in Your Congregation, volume 20 (Richmond: EMS, 2018) 35.

Every Tuesday morning for 18 years I’ve gone to Bible study at the Pinehurst Country Club. Each week about 10 men gather to “share ourselves” with each other. We read 1 to 3 chapters from God’s word each week. We’ve read through the Bible more than once in my time there.

What connection does this have to generosity? To be holy is simply to be “set apart for God” and related to stewardship, it means we set apart all we are and all we have for God’s purposes. Because God’s economy is abundant, we end up edified rather than empty when we share everything.

It takes time to grow into our identity as people of God. We learn from the Word and from each other over time. Becoming people of the light does not happen over night. The same is true with our journey of generosity. We don’t figure it out until we live it out in community.

God make us holy people, set apart for you and whose sharing shows your love to the world. Amen.

And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:5

“What we have learned about generosity through our experience with welcoming refugee families is this: generosity is at its heart a love for our neighbors, the ones next door and the ones around the world. Generosity begins with what we believe: believing in God’s abundant provision, believing in God’s call for us to care for each other and the earth, believing God is generous and that we are created in the image of God. Generosity is also about our behavior and practice: how we respond to God’s blessing, how we answer God’s call, and how we can share in generosity as God has shared with us.

Generosity is hospitality. It is welcoming the stranger with openness and deep compassion, as Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes these, welcomes me.” (Matt 18:5). In Christian theology, the steadfast link between love of God and love of neighbor appears over and over again. And so to welcome another in our midst, to extend the hand of hospitality, is not about entertaining a guest or making a friend; first and foremost it is an act of faith. And the practice of welcoming is a means by which we can be continually transformed into the people God created and calls us to be.”

Stacy Emerson in “There is something about generosity that compels us to respond to the needs of our neighbors” in Giving: Growing Joyful Stewardship in Your Congregation, volume 20 (Richmond: EMS, 2018) 32-33.

I returned safely home from Australia to enjoy a gorgeous evening with my wife (pictured above). International travel teaches you things. One of them is the value of “welcome” extended through Christian hospitality. It commonly takes the form of a cool drink, a hot meal, and/or a warm bed.

It becomes personal with a helping hand, a listening ear, and/or a receptive heart. Sometimes the aid spans a night. Other times it lasts for days when helping someone needs refuge from circumstances that have left them displaced. They are lost and with you they find a sense of home.

Most of the time “welcome” comes into view as humbly setting aside personal plans to aid others in faith knowing God will supply whatever is needed. I see this vividly in the generous hospitality of my wife, Jenni! It’s why I think there’s no place of “welcome” on the planet like our town home!

What about you? If you want your behavior and practice to reflect your Christian faith, ask God to show you what it might look like to “welcome” those around you. Prepare for inconvenience, get ready for sacrifice, and you may just discover your place in this world is helping others find theirs.