Meditations

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44

“A Christian should always have a big heart and show respect for ask those who act as enemies, not because they are brothers, but because brothers they must become; one must show fraternal love towards him who is already a brother, and towards the one who acts as an enemy is that he may become a brother.”

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John 4, 10, 7.

Today’s post requires a measure of maturity to swallow. If you imagine an enemy in your mind, Jesus desires that person to become to you a brother. Ponder that.

When you and I were enemies to Christ, He made us brothers by His great love. We get to do the same for others. This reading resonated with me as I woke up in Poland today.

Poland is a place where thousands of Ukrainian refugees have fled from the ravages of war. My prayer for each one is the same: Be not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.

But how do we love our enemies? Of course, it’s easier said than done. But a great first step to getting there is imagining, with God’s help, our enemy becoming a brother.

It’s been a fast but fruitful visit to Eastern Europe. I fly home this morning and get home this afternoon with the time change. Appreciate your prayers for safe travel.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12

“Charity makes us understanding, ready to forgive, fit to live alongside everyone, so that those who think and act differently from us in social, political, and even in religious matters will also have a claim on our respect and charity… Love and courtesy of this kind should not, of course, make us indifferent to truth and goodness. Love, in fact, impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all men the truth that saves. But we must distinguish between the error – which must always be rejected – and the one who is in error, for he never loses his dignity as a person even though he flounders amid false or inadequate religious ideas. A disciple of Christ will never treat anyone badly. Error he will call error, but he will correct the person in error with kindliness. Otherwise he will not be able to help him, to sanctify him.”

Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975) in Friends of God: Homilies by Josemaría Escrivá (Sinag-Tala Publishers, 1977) 9.

In my reading of In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3, by Francis Fernandez, on my travels, I came across this quote. I loved it. It reminded me of the people I have been with: gentle and kind people.

What a gift to interact with gentle and kind people like Milan and Hana Hluchý. They exhibit charity, grace-filled love. Of course, this makes me think of my wife too. And today Escrivá explains the implications of this posture for our ministry.

Those who exhibit this gentleness and kindliness are able to help people and even sanctify them. Because they call error for what it is while not treating anyone badly, they have a unique position to minister and restore.

The lesson for us today linked to generosity is clear: as disciples of Christ, when we choose the path of gentleness and kindness, it makes us “understanding, ready to forgive, and fit to live alongside everyone.”

Thanks for your prayers for Gabriel Hakilín and me navigating 4 countries in 4 days. We slept in Vranov, Czech Republic, and fly from Vienna, Austria to Warsaw, Poland, this morning.

We will connect with the newest GTP staff member there, Olena Hetman. Pray for her as she begins her service this month as GTP Financial Controller and Regional Trainer for Europe.

Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. Proverbs 30:7-9

“I’m a panicky person about money myself (which is a most shameful confession and a thing dead against Our Lord’s words) and poverty frightens me more than anything else except large spiders and the tops of cliffs: one is sometimes even tempted to say that if God wanted us to live like the lilies of the field He might have given us an organism more like theirs! But of course, He is right. And when you meet anyone who does live like the lilies, one sees that He is… One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.”

C.S. Lewis in a letter to Mary Shelburne.

Are you a panicky person? You know that God will look after you like He does the lilies but even the thought of poverty sends you to fright.

Last weekend, I walked through a field with my dog. I was convinced I would see a rattlesnake. I don’t know why. It just seemed like ideal conditions for one.

I found myself feeling freaked out. I was not enjoying myself. I was so focused on my feet that was not really paying attention to the way I was going.

I was panicky, at least in that moment. Two things dispelled my fear. One, I got back on the safe path. And two, I focused my mind on what was true.

If you feel panicky about finances, get back on God’s path. To help you, register here for a free GTP on demand course based on my book, Faith and Finances.

If you don’t have time for the course, focus on Scriptures linked to the faithfulness of God to deliver those who trust in Him.

Life will still be filled with spiders, cliffs, and snakes. But those things don’t control people who have learned to depend on the faithfulness of God.

Today Gabriel and I travel from Sliač, Slovakia to Vranov, Czech Republic and will spend the evening with Milan and Hana Hluchý. Milan is like a Barnabas to me. Pray for a mutually encouraging overnight visit in their home.

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ Luke 12:20

“In the things of this world, no one lives for himself; the craftsman, the soldier, the farmer, the merchant, all without exception contribute to the common good and to the good of their neighbor. This happens even more fully in the spiritual life, which is the true life. He who lives only for himself and despises his neighbor is useless, is not a man, and does not belong to our lineage.”

John Chyrsostom (347-407) in Homilies on Matthew’s Gospel 77:6.

At GTP say, “Everything is connected to everything else.” It hold true here. The work of the craftsman, the soldier, the farmer, and the merchant are linked.

Their contributions matter and are all connected to each other. Consider these examples at play just from the past holiday weekend in the USA.

I needed the merchant to purchase wares for living. I enjoyed peace thanks to the soldier. I benefited from the work of the craftsman. And I ate the fruit of the farmer.

With this interconnected view, notice why Jesus labels the bloke a “fool” who stores up his harvest for himself instead of enjoying and sharing it.

Resources hoarded are useless and those who hold on to them are also useless for the kingdom. Got resources. Put them to work, Make them useful.

Give to your local church, support ministries in your region or nation, and include GTP in your global giving. To make a gift, click here.

And thanks for your prayers for me. I am safely with my co-worker, Gabriel Hakulín, in Sliač, Slovakia. If I am like Paul, he is a Timothy to me.

This morning and afternoon we meet with the task force drafting standards and aiming to form a peer accountability group (PAG like ECFA) in USA for Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Then tonight we attend the “Leaders Dinner” with about 150-200 influential Christians of Slovakia and invited guests from around the world. It’s a privilege to be invited to attend again this year.

GTP is working with many in attendance tonight to strengthen stewards and set up a PAG to shape the future of church and ministry administration and governance in both Czech Republic and Slovakia.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Revelation 3:15-18

“The best for God: a worship replete with generosity – generosity in the elements that are used as well as in the giving of our time, and here it should be no more than the time required, without hurrying or shortening ceremonies… Lukewarmness, a feeble cold-hearted faith, would mean that we were not treating holy things in a holy way. We would be losing sight of the glory, honor, and majesty that correspond to the blessed Trinity… Our Lord should also be able to say of the dedication of our lives to Him, and of the generosity we can show in hundreds of ways (in time and in goods): he has acted well towards me, he has shown his love in deeds.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 321-322.

Fernandez contrasts a worship replete with generosity to “lukewarmness, a feeble cold-hearted faith” that has forgotten its purpose. I needed to hear this today.

The part that stung me was when he said, “without hurrying or shortening ceremonies.” Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, I am guilty of that.

I enjoyed a restful weekend at home with my wife and then needed to pivot to Eastern Europe for strategic meetings and to take supplies to a new GTP staff member.

When you read this I will be somewhere between Frankfurt and Austria with meetings in four countries in four days. We are not hurrying but not wasting time either.

I am thankful my old computer is working in the wake of my computer challenges last week. It derailed me not to post meditations for three days and have that rhythm with the Lord. I feel back on track but want to ask about you.

Are you giving God your best? Is your worship replete with generosity? Or are you lukewarm today? Only you can answer these questions. I pray the post helps you reset.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

“Lord, receive even now this sweet and fragrant sacrifice. For you, Lord, the best of my life, of my work, of my talents, of my possessions… even of those I might have had. For you, my God, everything you have given me in life, totally, unconditionally… Teach me to deny you nothing, to offer you always the best I have.

We ask God that we may know how to give you the best we have in all situations and circumstances. Let us pray that there may be many sacrifices like those of Abel, the generous offerings of men and women who give themselves to God from their youth, and of hearts that at any age give what is asked of them… Receive, Lord, this loving, cheerful sacrifice.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 320.

Over the past few days, we have looked at the sacrifice of Abel. We have learned that it foreshadows the sacrifice of Christ, that He gave His best, and that we do well to follow his example.

Today’s post inspires us to offer ourselves as cheerful, living sacrifices, ready to give what is asked of us, totally and unconditionally, in service to God. This includes our time, energy, and resources.

Labor Day is behind us know. But I actually don’t like this time of year for one reason: almost everyone in America focuses on football. College football dominates Saturdays and NFL is on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays.

I confess that in my early years, football dominated my focus. I pray this year it will be different for someone reading this. Make the study of the Word of God and preparation for service to Him your focus instead.

Put football (or whatever else seeks to win your focus) below Christ, your marriage, your family, and your service to Him. Offer Him your time and energy, which includes loving your neighbor as yourself. Then maybe take in a game or two.

On this, the day after Labor Day, let’s reorder our labor so that we love God, love our families, and serve our neighbor and others as our highest priority as cheerful, living sacrifices.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. Hebrews 11:4

“How pitiful are those who seem to have time for everything except for God… Pitiful too are those who have money enough for so many things but are so parsimonious when it comes to expenditures on God or on other people. Giving always dignifies the heart of the giver and ennobles it. Meanness becomes ingrained and leads to an envious soul, like that of Cain: he could not hear the generosity of Abel.

We should offer the Lord the sacrifice of Abel. Let it be a sacrifice of young, unblemished flesh, the best of the flock; of a healthy and holy flesh; a sacrifice of hearts that have one love alone – you, my God. Let it be a sacrifice of minds that have been shaped through deep study and will surrender to your wisdom; of childlike spud while will think only of pleasing you.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 319-320.

The Scripture tells us: Abel still speaks. And sadly, Cain missed the message. Most people do. They appear as Fernandez vividly depicts them, as pitiful and parsimonious.

To be pitiful is to deploy yourself and your resources to good things but not the best things. Many do that on holiday weekends. It leads us to think how we might we honor God on holy-days.

And to be parsimonious has two parts. It reflects stinginess but that stingy thinking flows from an unwilling heart. A heart that does not demonstrate an eagerness to share.

Abel still speaks. Today he says, on this Labor Day in USA, to give yourself to a different kind of work: deep study and surrender. If you do, it takes shape as the most holy kind of work.

I call it the most holy kind of work because it shifts our heart from unwilling to eager and it takes our hands from closed to open. May God help us listen to and give like Abel.

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24

“It is pleasing to think that the first testimony of faith in God was given by the son of Adam and Eve by means of sacrifice. So it is easy to understand why the fathers of the church saw in Abel a type or figure of Christ: he was a shepherd, he offered a sacrifice pleasing to God, he shed his blood and was a martyr for the faith…

We should be generous and love everything related to the worship of God. Everything we do for him will always be little and insufficient compared to what God’s infinite goodness and excellence deserve. We Christians must be very careful to avoid stingy calculation and lack of consideration in this field. The Holy Spirit warns us: you shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 320-321.

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone in America. And thanks for your patience as I use an old computer and get my postings back on track for 5:00am delivery in Denver tomorrow.

From today’s Scripture and reading, we see why the church fathers pictured Abel as a type of Christ. He was a humble shepherd that brought an acceptable gift that represented sacrifice.

Of course, Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant offers a better word, that His sacrifice was acceptable to atone for the sins of all humankind. But it followed the pattern of Abel.

Then Fernandez charges us not to choose the alternative to sacrifice. Many choose this. He calls it stingy calculation and a lack of consideration.

Let’s dig into that word consideration. Consider all God has done for us. Consider His matchless care and love for us. Consider the sacrifice He made for us.

When we do this, we move beyond the stingy calculation of Cain and we mirror the acceptable sacrifice of Abel. Consider all this. I pray this inspires all reading it to sacrifice.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:2b-7

“We have to offer the best we have to God. Wet ave to present the offering of Abel, not that of Cain. We re to give God the best of our time, our goods, our life. We cannot give him the worst, what is surplus to our requirements, what makes no real demand on us or what’s left over or what we don’t need. The whole of our life is for God, and that includes the best years of it. Everything we have is for God but when we want to make an offering let us use the most precious things, just as we would do in making a gift to a fellow creature we hold in great esteem.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 319.

My computer stopped working on my Panama trip. Now that I home, I have sent it out for repairs and managed to get my old computer work, so I am back online.

Though I don’t have the capacity to change the header photo (we get to look at the Panama Canal for a few more days), I can do daily posts again.

Thanks for your prayers and for the many who inquired of my wellbeing. I’m fine by my computer will not be working for a 5-10 days. But this unit will suffice.

Today’s reading comes to us from a class 7-volume set of by Fernandez. He looks at the offering of Abel in contrast to Cain and makes a powerful point.

God finds it acceptable when we give him our best. The best implies sacrifice that makes real demand on us or represents that which is most precious to us. It is not our surplus or our leftovers.

I recently listened to a sermon on generosity where the speaker talked about learning to give his surplus. Sadly, giving our surplus is giving a gift of Cain.

Giving a sacrifice (in contrast to surplus), is giving the first and best parts. This is the offering of Abel. God looks on this with favor because he can see the difference.

After a post like this, each of us might benefit from asking ourselves this question, especially if we want him to look in favor at our giving. Am I giving my best to God? 

I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. 2 Corinthians 8:13-15

“Paul clearly says that the purpose of the offering is to promote equality. At present, the Corinthians enjoy relative abundance, at least of material wealth. It is clear from 1 Corinthians 1:26 that the church in Corinth did not include the aristocracy of that city, Still, in comparison with those in Jerusalem, they lived in abundance. It is the contrast between the need in Jerusalem and the abundance in Corinth that must be overcome by the offering. The Corinthians are to give because those in Jerusalem are in need. Thus, as is in the case of the original commonality of goods in Acts 2 and 4, what controls the giving is the need of the poor. In this context, and to strengthen his argument, Paul cites the miracle of the redistribution of manna.”

Justo L. González in Faith & Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and Use of Money (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2002) 85-85.

Whenever I teach on generosity, I love to talk about manna.

There’s more than enough to fund the work of ministry worldwide but not everyone has enough because money is sitting in bank accounts rather than being put into play.

Ironically, those who don’t share their manna (provision from God) miss out on blessing.

In encouraging sharing, the Apostle Paul references the manna scene: the ones who gathered much did not have to much and the ones who had to little did not have to little.

It’s ironic but we learn things like sharing in kindergarten. Then, as we age, we forget.

The older we get the more we become more foolish and worldly. We store up treasures on earth thinking we know better than Jesus. It’s the American thing to do.

While our meetings are going fantastic in Panama, I don’t want you to miss this message.

The reason for sharing is that God cares about everyone. And he wants those who have been blessed to serve as conduits of blessing to others, not containers.

Which are you? Picture the Panama Canal. Unless gathers and drains water, it cannot allow ships to pass. The same is true for us.

Unless we gather and drain, we don’t use God’s resources according to His design.

Think of all you have as manna. It will spoil if hoarded, so enjoy and share it. It’s no good stored up, and you certainly don’t want to meet Jesus having held on to it.

What will you do with the manna you possess?