Meditations

“Too often we regard God’s power as an added ingredient that turbocharges our own efforts. The early church didn’t think that way. They thought of God’s power as a miraculous intervention without which they were dead in the water. Not even gospel words were expected to work in an automatic way.

The Apostle Paul defined authentic ministry among the Thessalonians like this: “Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). The coming of the gospel provoked an encounter, a clash between the claims of Thessalonian culture and the claims of an eternal kingdom. It turned the Thessalonians from their self-invented idols to serve the living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9). The idea that God might enhance their power was the furthest thing from the minds of these believers.

How can we press more deeply into the power of God today? The answer will always be simple. All we can do is go back to our Lord and His grace: “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). Does that answer seem too easy, even a letdown? Then try it. It is never easy. I means deliberately rejecting every source of strength but the grace of Christ alone.

Such rejection is counterintuitive to self-assured, get-it-done, pragmatic Christians like us. Our cleverness always seems to promise more impact. But that cleverness, in fact, is a liability brilliantly disguised as an asset. The real battle being fought in our times is so profound it can be won only by the grace that is in Christ Jesus alone.”

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. in The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014) 105-106.

Today, the practice of many reveals the belief that the power for ministry is money and as Ortlund puts it, our “cleverness” which leads us to think we can produce the impact. He rightly added that such cleverness “is a liability brilliantly disguised as an asset.”

What does this have to do with generosity? Everything. God will generously strengthen us by the grace that is in Christ Jesus if we ask Him. Humble obedience and dependence is the posture we must take, and as Ortlund rightly says, “it is never easy!” It is however, the choice every believer must make.

I wrote a book along these lines last year with Scott Rodin and Wes Willmer. It’s called The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes. To encourage your spiritual journey, I’d be happy to share the ebook with you freely. Simply reply to this email to receive your personal copy.

“The way forward on economic growth seems clear to me. We are called to do authentically productive work. This will normally lead to economic growth, because productive work creates value, and it therefore increases the total amount of value in the economy. So we should welcome growth. But we have to be careful not to make growth an end in itself; our motivation is to make the world a better place, not get rich. And we have to teach people how to use their wealth as stewards of God to benefit their neighbors, not squander it or let it go to waste.”

Greg Forster in Joy For The World: How Christianity Lost It’s Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014) 237.

Forster provides leadership for the Oikonomia Network at Trinity International University. With this statement, he’s helping us grasp life in God’s economy. God made us to work (it was part of his design for us before the fall of man) and our productivity is not to get rich but to serve as conduits of blessing for our neighbors.

What is your motivation for productive work?

“How generous, forgiving, and tender is this patient Spirit of God.

He is good operatively. All His works are good in the most eminent degree: He suggests good thoughts, prompts good actions, reveals good truths, applies good promises, assists in good attainments, and leads to good results. There is no spiritual good in all the world of which He is not the Author and Sustainer, and heaven itself will owe the perfect character of its redeemed inhabitants to His work.

He is good officially; whether as Comforter, Instructor, Guide, Sanctifier, Quickener, or Intercessor, He fulfils His office well, and each work is fraught with the highest good to the church of God. They who yield to His influences become good, they who obey His impulses do good, they who live under His power receive good. Let us then act towards so good a person according to the dictates of gratitude.

Let us revere His person, and adore Him as God over all, blessed for ever; let us own His power, and our need of Him by waiting upon Him in all our holy enterprises; let us hourly seek His aid, and never grieve Him; and let us speak to his praise whenever occasion occurs. The church will never prosper until more reverently it believes in the Holy Ghost. He is so good and kind, that it is sad indeed that he should be grieved by slights and negligences.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) in Morning and Evening Devotions reading for the morning of February 16.

The Spirit of God is not impractical, uninterested, and disconnected. Quite the opposite! In Spurgeon’s words, the Spirit of God is good both operatively and officially!

As we combine prayer with our handling of money and ask the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, don’t surprised if the Spirit operatively prompts you to specific thoughts and actions. Or if the Spirit sweetly (and officially) reminds you of God’s precious truths and promises so that your heart turns toward mercy instead of judgment, grace rather than harshness, and generosity rather than greed.

God, transform us into people whose lives reflect Your goodness, who unceasingly seek Your aid, and who rely on and believe in the power of Your Holy Spirit to show the world Your love. Do this I pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Amen.

“Bring the ministry of prayer to bear directly upon money matters. Money is a spiritual issue, and prayer is our chief weapon in the life of the Spirit. Let us learn to pray for each other for the binding of greed and covetousness and the releasing of liberality and generosity. In prayer, through the imagination, let us see the power of money broken.

Let us picture the spiritual powers behind money brought under the lordship of Christ. Let us visualize money being channeled into needy lives, providing necessary food and medical supplies. Let us imagine Christians in business controlling, investing, and channeling money in new, creative, life-enhancing ways…

Let us pray for each other. We need wisdom to be faithful with our resources. It is a great service to lay hands on one another and pray for an increase in the gifts of wisdom and giving. Pray over how to budget money. Pray for freedom from money’s power. Pray for money to be provided to those who need it.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (New York: Harper Collins, 1985) 59-60.

As we approach the biggest spending and giving season of the calendar year in the United States, let’s cover our money matters with prayer. Do this individually or as a couple if you are married, and also collectively with any small group you are a part of. All of us need the Spirit to convict us of sin and produce fruit of generosity in our lives (cf. Galatians 5:16-26)!

“If we do not treasure earthly goods we must be prepared to be treated as more or less crazy. This is also true if we escape the delusions of respectability and so are not governable by the opinions of those around us, even though we respect them in love…The one who takes on the character of the Prince of Life will not be exempted from the usual problems of life, and in addition will have the problems that come from “not fitting in” and being incapable of conforming to the world order, new or old…Accordingly, when we speak of freedom from dependency on reputation and material wealth, we are not suggesting an easy triumphalism.

Indeed, there will be times when we have no friends or wealth to be free from dependence upon. And that, of course, is precisely the point. In such a case we will be undisturbed. Life is hard in this world, and also for disciples of Jesus. In his “Commencement Address,” as we should perhaps call John 14–16, Jesus tells his distressed friends plainly, “In the world (kosmou) you will have trouble.” This is not denied but transcended when he adds, “Cheer up! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” the psalmist discovered long ago, “but the Lord delivers from them all” (Psalm 34:19).”

Dallas Willard in Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York: Harper Collins, 1998) 213-214.

In Divine Conspiracy, Willard expounds on the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter six of this classic, “Investing in the Heavens: Escaping the Deceptions of Reputation and Wealth,” he concludes with the comments recounted above. They contain priceless encouragement for us.

Basically he explains that obedience to Christ will lead many to think we are crazy and will lead us to no longer fit in. Additionally, he reminds us that though life in this world is hard and will be filled with troubles, we can be of good cheer because we are aligned with the One who has overcome the world.

More than a decade ago in Long Beach, California, I visited with Dallas Willard at a conference reception for about 30 minutes. In our discussion I asked for advice on teaching on stewardship and generosity in seminaries. He replied, “That’s probably one of the most important topics to teach because our world is filled with lies about it.”

He continued, “On my drive this morning from Los Angeles, I noticed billboards proclaimed lies about what to value, where to find security, and how to find happiness. You need to help students understand that Jesus wants them to grasp life in Him while also teaching them how to rightly relate to and use material things.” Then he pointed me to chapters like this one. Thanks Dallas!

“As every good thing, every grace, flows from the generosity of our Creator and Redeemer, may He be constantly blessed and praised for it all, and may it please Him each day to open more widely the fountain of His graciousness in order thus to increase and carry forward what He has begun in your minds and hearts.

I have no doubt that God’s generosity and love will indeed bring this about. The supreme generosity of God is so supremely eager to spread it’s own riches…if only we for ours have a humility and desire capacious enough to receive His graces and if only He can see us using well the gifts we have received, and asking eagerly and lovingly for His grace.”

Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) in a personal letter to Students of the Society of Jesus in Coimbra dated 7 May 1547 from Rome from Personal Writings, ed. Joseph Munition (London: Penguin, 1996).

Last night I said to my wife after a great Cattails neighborhood social, “Who is your favorite saint from church history?” She didn’t even flinch. “Ignatius of Loyola! He taught me the daily examen, and to attune to God’s presence in my life and in the lives of others.” So I did some searching in his private writings and found these words on generosity to students.

This quote resonated with me because of a conversation I had just yesterday with a leader I am mentoring. I said something like this: “Until we learn to receive graciously, we will never give generously.” Ignatius would concur, and He would likely add that it’s God’s love that helps us grasp and live this way. Make it so, Lord Jesus.

“It might seem obvious that generously giving money away involves a loss—of the money itself, of course, and of the goods, experiences, or savings that the money might have provided the giver had it not been given away…Being generous would appear to exact a net cost to the giving person. Generosity should seem to balance out to a relative deficit…Not so. Not at all. The reality of generosity is instead actually paradoxical.

Generosity does not usually work in simple, zero-sum, win-lose ways. Rather than generosity producing net losses, in general, the more generously people give of themselves, the more of many goods they receive in turn. Sometimes they receive more of the same kind of thing that they gave—money, time, attention, and so forth. But, more often and importantly, generous people tend to receive back goods that are often more valuable than those they gave: happiness, health, a sense of purpose in life, and personal growth.”

Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson in The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose (Oxford: OUP, 2014) 1.

As I have been teaching on generosity lately, I have felt moved to remind people that when we give generously in obedience to the teachings of Jesus, we don’t end up empty, we end up enriched. Sure enough, when I revisited this book by Smith and Davidson this morning, I found that they not only support this notion, they demonstrate it’s validity through extensive research.

Why help instead of hoard? Why share instead of storing up treasures on earth? It’s the paradoxical pathway that Jesus has marked out for us, and it will not leave us empty, but rather, enriched.

“Rest in the deep assurance of My unfailing love. Let your body, mind, and spirit relax in My presence. Release into My care anything that is troubling you so that you can focus your full attention on Me. Be awed by the vast dimensions of My love for you: wider, longer, higher, and deeper than anything you know. Rejoice that this marvelous love is yours forever.

The best response to this glorious gift is a life steeped in thankfulness. Every time you thank Me, you acknowledge that I am your Lord and Provider. The is the proper stance for a child of God: receiving with thanksgiving. Bring Me the sacrifice of gratitude and watch to see how much I will bless you (1 Peter 5:7; Ephesians 3:16-19; Psalm 107:21-22)

Sarah Young in Jesus Calling reading for November 28 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013).

Jenni and I are profoundly grateful for God’s gift of a getaway to Mott, North Dakota, for the hunting hospitality of John Roswech, the cooking of the Pheasant Café (we ate five meals there) and the privilege of watching Joy, our German Shorthair Pointer, do what God made her to do: hunt pheasant. We are “receiving with thanksgiving” the blessing of this unforgettable time together as we return home to our regular rhythms of life. Thank you God.

“Don’t for a minute think you are remembering the Lord when you have practically forgotten the poor. It’s not the ritual that creates the righteousness, but the righteousness that verifies the ritual.”

J.D. Walt in “What if We Tailgated before Church?” blog post on 5 November 2015 at the Seedbed.com Daily Text.

What binds me so closely to guys like Randy Discher or Josh Roswech is that these guys remember the Lord and the poor. I love that when Peter, James, and John resolved to take the gospel to the Jews and Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, both agreed that no matter what, they’d remember the poor. It’s what God’s people do!

James, Peter and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Galatians 2:9-10

VBS is happening in Guatemala for over 2,000 poor children right now thanks to the work of Potter’s House in Guatemala. Pray about deploying a portion of God’s resources to this great program. I will admit, I especially love this work because Jenni helped launch it and provides ongoing counsel and assistant to it!

“If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his “gratitude,” you will probably be disappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.) But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.”

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in Mere Christianity, excerpt from chapter nine on “Charity”. I chose to read from this classic today because of the simple brilliance of it. Also, it reminds me of my brothers. up here in Mott, North Dakota, who do good to others: John Roswech and Shawn MacFarland.

Yesterday was a great day! We shot pheasant and enjoyed sweet fellowship! One of my favorite parts was watching the dogs work. God made them to find birds, which got me thinking. What did He make, or perhaps now that we are in Christ, what did God “remake” us to do? One word: love.

Lewis calls it the “law of charity” and it is precisely what God remade us to do! A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35