Meditations

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:4-7

“To desire more than we possess is a timeless human struggle. Whether a desire to possess someone else’s good looks, a house in the best neighborhood…humans swing with the pendulum from desire to contentment. We know this about ourselves. And yet, here we find ourselves in the twenty-first century with the same old longings and leanings. At our fingertips are myriad methods for practicing gratitude, mindfulness, and apps that coach us to embrace the moment. Whether modern or ancient, we humans lose our focus…

Our proclivity to become anxious and wander from a centered place is at the heart of Jeremiah’s words: “Plant gardens and eat what they produce…Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” When we are focused on the gifts of the present moment directly before us, everything changes. Hidden homes become gathering places for kingdom-style banquets. The ordinary becomes a miracle. And life becomes life in the fullness of God.”

Elizabeth Mangham Lott in “Gifts of the Present” in Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, vol. 19 (Richmond: ESC, 2017) 9.

We all wrestle with desire and contentment. Notice the solution. Enjoy each day as a gift from God in community. Plant gardens, eat produce. Live, give, serve, and love people where God plants you. When we get off track and wander from a centered place of gratitude, we get into trouble. Is it time to pause, make a list of God’s gifts, and give thanks as a basis for living a more generous life? 

Sometimes when we get too off track as a group, we need to make drastic collective changes. In church history, this appears as a call for reformation. Today I am preaching at the 6:10 am service at Sarang Church, then have an important CCFK meeting, then Kurios International is hosting a Reformation Forum as 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

My brother and I are two of the five forum speakers. As Martin Luther was a university professor, my brother, Dr. David Hoag, President of Warner University, will share five ways universities shape life in the church and society. My talk relates to the Reformation and money. Reply if you’d like a copy of my remarks in PDF form. And please pray for us, as it will be a full day. Thank you.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48b

“We are God’s economic delivery system for serving the least and the lost. As the living, breathing body of Christ, we are the only hands, feet, and wallet God has to accomplish God’s work within the world…We are the only bank account that God has. God needs our feet, our hands, our money, and our trust…I suggest we start living like it, generously and openhandedly releasing “our” resources into God’s purposes for the world Christ loves.”

Mike Slaughter in “God’s Economic Delivery System” in Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, vol. 19 (Richmond: ESC, 2017) 7.

To enhance my teaching, I often host panel discussions with local experts. One of my panelists this week, was Dr. Ho Chan Hwang, executive director of the CCFK, the partner organization to ECFA in Korea.

Right after our class discussion on life in God’s economy yesterday, which highlighted the role of Christians as the hands and feet of Christ, Dr. Hwang exclaimed that we must be faithful to fulfill our responsibilities by reminding the students: “Whose money is it anyway?”

As everything belongs to God, with Slaughter we must ask ourselves if we live like we believe we are God’s economic delivery system. With the great needs in the world among the lost in the least, do we actually live in such a way that we demonstrate that God can trust us to manage His wallet?

Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. Matthew 5:48b (The Message)

“There is more to generosity than money. As a virtue and a practice, generosity has to do with the way we use our skills and the manner in which share ideas, practice hospitality, offer encouragement, make connections, and use our time to address the needs of others. Generosity is reflected in the quality of our relationships and the way we engage with people via acts of caring and compassion. As a lifestyle, generosity is measured by our giving and volunteering as well as the manner in which we nurture relationships and live out our neighborliness.”

William Enright in “A Theological Foundation for Generous Giving” in Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, vol. 19 (Richmond: ESC, 2017) 4.

When Enright described holistic generosity lived out as “neighborliness”, it seemed like the perfect way to describe Christian generosity as a lifestyle. In everything we do, because of all we have in Christ, we get to extend love to our neighbor. This occurs in our speaking as well as our serving. It’s our God-created identity!

Today in my class we will walk through church history highlighting quotes from saints through the centuries, and then I have invited a panel of givers to attend. Each will share excerpts of their journey of generosity and what they are learning. The aim of this is to inspire students to chart a similar course in their own lives.

When we learn about the neighborliness, hospitality, caring, compassion, giving, and volunteering of fellow Christians, it stirs a desire within each of us to live likewise. I pray today for my students, and everyone reading this, that God will stir you to live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:6-7

“Summer is the perfect time to spark a young person’s interest in volunteering. But where do you begin…A dozen ideas: These activities are easily adaptable for various ages. Young kids will love participating with you. Older kids can take the lead and volunteer on their own or with peers or siblings.

1. Visit a nursing home: As a family, go on a game night and help with bingo…
2. Organize a rummage sale or set up a lemonade stand: Let the kids choose a charity to receive the proceeds…
3. Donate gently used books or toys: Giving up some of their own things can start a meaningful conversation about what it would be like to not have any toys or books of their own…
4. Support a local food pantry: Collect nonperishable food items to donate…
5. Clean up the world around you: Gather together trash bags, gloves and hand sanitizer, and pick up litter in your neighborhood or in a park…
6. Look out for your neighbors: Mow or rake the lawn for an elderly neighbor; bake cookies for a busy family; or take soup to someone who isn’t feeling well.
7. Serve a meal at a homeless shelter: Check with a local shelter ahead of time. They may need help with food prep, serving, cleanup—or all three.
8. Draw pictures or write thank-you notes: Deliver them to teachers, firefighters, police officers, faith leaders—anyone whose job is service to others…
9. Make blessing bags for the homeless: Pack up nonperishable items in resealable plastic bags. Include items like socks, bottled water, lip balm, granola bars, and gift cards for grocery stores or restaurants.
10. Make gift giving an act of charity: Instead of buying a gift for someone…bring food to a local pantry in honor of the person…
11. Say “thank you” to service people overseas: Put together care packages for military personnel…
12. Sign up for the fundraising walk, run, or bicycle ride: Find an event that supports a cause that’s meaningful to your children.”

Molly Culbertson in “Summer and Service” in Thrivent Magazine: Helping Members Connect Faith & Finances for Good, June 2017: 17-19.

Today in my class at Torch Trinity in Seoul, South Korea (pictured above), we are looking at stewardship and generosity in the early church in the New Testament. We will explore various household code sections of the apostle Paul’s letters that include specific instructions for God’s people on how to live and what to teach the next generation. These sections echo the instructions for families in the Deuteronomic Law.

I like to share lists like this one with my students because many of them often have small children. When kids are on summer break from school (which happens at different times around the world), as parents we get to teach them that breaks are not just for having fun with family or friends, but they are also great times for serving others. This is vital to their development as disciples of Jesus Christ.

A great way to help our kids avoid adopting the ways of the world is to encourage them to serve in practical ways. When we do, we help them shift from conformity to the culture to conformity to the image of Christ who modeled humble service for us. Serve together as more is caught than taught. We must just be sure our lives match the messages we are sending them otherwise they will not embrace service as a lifestyle.

So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? Luke 16:11

“Don’t let financial differences derail your relationship. Here’s how to get on the path of open, honest communication about money, and stay on it…

Tip 1: Talk about how your past shaped your views on money…

Tip 2: Use praise and prayer. Choose a regular time each week to discuss your finances, and make it a time when you’re relaxed and unlikely to be interrupted…

Tip 3: Keep the lines of communication open…When both people participate it makes each person feel more confident…

Tip 4: Decide what needs joint discussion. Large purchases can be a major cause of conflict, but it doesn’t have to be that way…

Tip 5: Set both individual and joint goals…One useful exercise is the have each spouse write down ideas separately, then trade papers and discuss the lists…

Creating a spirit of teamwork about money improves marriages overall.”

Amy Merrick in “Money & Marriage” in Thrivent Magazine: Helping Members Connect Faith & Finances for Good, June 2017: 12-16.

Today I am working through what the Gospels say about stewardship and generosity with my students. I often give practical tips like this list so that each of my married students has a tool for talking to their husband or wife about what they are learning. As money is the #1 cause of marital strife, tools like this can help couples both avoid conflict and aim at faithful stewardship.

Is it time to have a coffee with your spouse and work through these five tips? It’s important because if we can’t handle money faithfully, we show we can’t be trusted with true riches. Create a spirit of teamwork with your spouse. Open the lines of communication. Set goals for storing up treasures in heaven. And get ready to steward true riches!

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25

“That feel-good boost you get from volunteering? It’s one of many benefits linked to living generously. What do you get from giving back. Researchers have associated volunteering with a number of positive outcomes, including:

• More social connections
• Longer lifespan and a better quality of life
• Higher self-esteem
• Adoption of healthy lifestyles
• More physical activity with higher brain function
• Lower blood pressure
• Less loneliness and depression
• Fewer instances of stress, pain and hospitalization

After two years of volunteering, female volunteers walked an averaged 1,500 more steps per day than women who didn’t volunteer…The more people volunteer the happier they are compared to those who never volunteer, the odds of being very happy rose:

• 7% among those who volunteer monthly
• 12% among those who volunteer every 2-4 weeks
• 16% among those who volunteer weekly

Impact on Youth: In a study assigned to a group of high schoolers to volunteer once a week at an after-school program for children, after 10 weeks, the volunteers had a lower average body mass index (BMI) and lower cholesterol levels than non-volunteers.

No matter your age, you can benefit from donating your time to a worthy cause…Volunteers who get involved to help others benefit more than those do who do so to benefit themselves.”

Margaret Poe in “The Generosity Effect” in Thrivent Magazine: Helping Members Connect Faith & Finances for Good, June 2017: 10-11.

Today I am walking my students through the Old Testament to explore God’s design for stewardship and generosity. Today’s Scripture ranks among the texts I will highlight from the wisdom literature because research like Poe’s proves that it’s true. Following God’s design to serve and refresh others generously actually contributes a host of benefits back to us. My favorite one for our fitbit-focused modern society: volunteers got 1,500 more steps in per day than those who did not volunteer!

Are you actively serving others on a regular basis? Seriously, look at your calendar, take inventory of your spiritual gifts, and put them to work in service to God and others. Start by serving in your local church, in your community and region, and around the world. If you are not sure what your gifts are, email me and I’ll share a PDF of a basic spiritual gifts inventory that I give my students. Serve generously. It’s good for you, and it’s God’s design for your life!

Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:30-31

“As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise; for this is loving your neighbour as yourselves. What we should expect, in reason, to be done to us, either in justice or charity, by others, if they were in our condition and we in theirs, that, as the matter stands, we must do to them. We must put our souls into their souls’ stead, and then pity and succour them, as we should desire and justly expect to be ourselves pitied and succoured.”

Matthew Henry in Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible, comments on Luke 6:27-36.

I preached a sermon on Luke 6:27-36 at two services for Sarang New Harvest Ministry today and will preach it at three more churches next weekend. The message was entitled: “Three Characteristics of Christians that Change the World.”

My three points come straight from the text: (1) Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. (2) Give to everyone who begs from you; lend expecting nothing in return. (3) Be merciful to someone who is ungrateful and wicked.

The big idea that surfaces in the text is profound: Jesus tells us that the secret to changing the world is to give it what it needs and what we’d like to receive instead of what we deserve.

Our world desperately needs love that is generously rooted in grace and mercy. Love is the gift of God available to everyone. Grace is favor that is undeserved. Mercy is not getting the judgment that we deserve.

To pity in succour people is to have compassion and extend aid to them. There’s no better example of such loving generosity as the Good Samaritan. He lived within his means and had margin to pity and succour the hurting person.

Imagine if you were that hurting person? How would you want others to treat you? That’s the point from Jesus entirely! Generously care for others as you want them to care for you. And reply if you want a PDF of my sermon manuscript.

And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Acts 10:30-31

“A bishop shall not have any Sunday without almsgiving. And the poor and orphans shall he know as doth a father, and shall gather them together at the great festival of the Lord, vowing and distributing much alms and giving unto each whereof he had need. And at the feast of Pentecost he shall refresh all the people, because that on that day the Holy Ghost came down upon the church…The bishop shall gather all the widows and orphans and shall rejoice with them, with prayers and hymns, and shall give unto each according to his needs, for it is a day of blessing…This word have we spoken concerning the poor; God hath established the bishop because of the feasts, that he may refresh them at the feasts. For thus is God merciful and would not that any of mankind should suffer, for His lovingkindness is busied day and night that He may benefit mankind. Wherefore, O bishop, give relief unto the poor and needy and visit them and set them free.”

Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373) in The Canons of Athanasius of Alexandria: the Arabic and Coptic versions, ed. and trans. by Wilhelm Riedel and W.E. Crum (London: Williams and Norgate, 1904) 27-28.

Why read from the The Canons of Athanasius of Alexandria upon arrival in Korea (beside the fact that he’s the last of the four doctors of the Eastern Church for me to explore before turning my attention tomorrow back to contemporary voices)?

The canons outlined the expected practices for overseers God’s work to ensure obedience to Christ. It’s the stuff they were supposed to do! In similar fashion, it’s the kind of material I will teach my students this next week at Torch Trinity Graduate University.

Notice the focus of giving.

The overseers must tirelessly make sure that all that those in need — from orphans to widows — are ministered too, even as our merciful God “is busied day and night that He may benefit mankind.” Again, though I have just arrived in Seoul to equip students who will oversee God’s work in Asia, I will instruct them on live and lead likewise.

If you are reading this and oversee ministry, take note.

Your role at feast times in the church calendar is to refresh the entire flock, and you do that with your preaching and teaching. But what are you to do in ordinary time, Sunday after Sunday, with the funds of the church? Show your faith by serving the poor and needy among you!

Don’t do it because Athanasius says so or because I say so. Do it because Jesus instructed us to give alms (cf. Matthew 6:1-4) and God is watching our giving as today’s Scripture reminds us.

“Give relief unto the poor and needy and visit them and set them free.”

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Jeremiah 31:3

“Nothing in human life is naturally secure or smooth or self-sustaining or permanent. Our fortunes run in a cyclical pattern that brings changes one after another, frequently within the space of a single day and sometimes even in an hour, and one may rather count on the shifting winds, or the wake of a sea-faring ship, or the illusory dreams of night with their brief respite, or the lines that children at play trace in the sand, than on human prosperity. The wise are those who because of their distrust of the present save for themselves in the world to come and because of the uncertain and fickle nature of human success embrace the kindness that does not fail.”

Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) in an excerpt of “Oration 14” in Select Orations, trans. by Martha Vinson (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003) 52-53.

I can totally relate to this notion from Gregory, one of the four doctors of the Eastern Church: “Nothing in human life is naturally secure or smooth or self-sustaining or permanent.” Earlier in the oration he talked about how the rich fool stored up “wealth upon wealth” in response to the uncertainties of life, and so he argued that we should in trust in something altogether more reliable.

Jenni and I are learning that the unfailing kindness that Jeremiah reminded God’s people about in the Old Testament times is way more dependable than any resources we can stockpile for ourselves. So what about you? Are you wise? For about 16 years in our marriage we were foolish. We stored up treasures for ourselves. The last 9 years have been an altogether different adventure.

We’ve found that trusting in “kindness that does not fail” is the only way to live. Life still has its uncertainties, but our treasures are secure in the world to come and we see God faithfully provide our daily bread time after time. Sometimes He provides through our work, and other times through miraculous provision. Sometimes we get to bless others, and other times they bless us. He sustains us!

Today I fly to Seoul, South Korea, to teach my “Biblical Stewardship and Christian Generosity” class at Torch Trinity Graduate University. I don’t return until 5 July 2017 so if you could pray for the stamina for me and for the Spirit to work in the lives of my students, I would appreciate it. Please also pray for God to watch over my family back in the States too. Thanks.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. John 15:9-10

“If men are in a state in which they find it hard to be weaned from their own ways and choose rather to serve the pleasures of the flesh than serve the Lord, and refuse to accept the Gospel life, there is no common ground between me and them. In the midst of this disobedient and gainsaying people I have been taught to hear the words, “Save thy own soul.” Do not then let us consent to perish together which such sinners…But we ought to testify to them day and night, alike in public and in private. Let us not consent to be drawn away with them in their wickedness. Let us above all pray that we may do them good, and rescue them from the snare of the evil one. If we cannot do this, let us at all events do our best to save our own souls from everlasting damnation.”

Basil the Great (330-379) in Letter CCXVII “To Amphilochius, on the Canons” excerpt from LXXXIV of in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Henry Wace and Philip Schaff, Volume 8 (Oxford: James Parker, 1895) 259.

In my recent walk through the early church fathers, I have decided to explore the four doctors of the Western Church and the four doctors of the Eastern Church as I prepare to head east to teach in South Korea for a couple weeks. After finishing the doctors, I will shift my attention back to contemporary writers.

In this excerpt, Basil the Great has commented on a series of sins and how they should be addressed in the church. Near the end of his letter, he spells out what he believes is going on. The people have not been weaned from the ways of the flesh to serve the Lord and accept the Gospel life. I found this expression quite profound.

To wean us from something is to stop it and shift to something else. In biblical terms, we must “remain” or “abide” in the love of Christ.

As we seek to grow in generosity we must realize that it’s not about doing more or giving more, it’s about weaning ourselves off the world’s way of thinking and living, which pursues the desires of the flesh, and choosing to obey Gospel instructions, regardless of how crazy they might sound. Jesus’ instructions linked to money are explicit, but not harmful.

That means they are clear and life-changing, but not for our demise. At every turn when Jesus calls us to let go of material possessions. He does this not for our destruction, but so we can take hold of Him. If you have grasped this truth, testify to others day and night, but whatever you do, don’t be swayed to rationalize disobedience as acceptable behavior. It’s not the Gospel life!

I feel the Lord reminded me this morning through Basil’s words that regardless of what everyone else is doing, we must obey, testify to the truth day and night, and do good to others.