Richard Foster: First

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33

“The central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of His kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in its proper order. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Jesus’ insight at this point. Everything hinges upon maintaining the “first” thing as first. Nothing must come before the kingdom of God, including the desire for a simple life-style.

Simplicity itself becomes idolatry when it takes precedence over seeking the kingdom. In a particularly penetrating comment on this passage of Scripture, Søren Kierkegaard considers what sort of effort could be made to pursue the kingdom of God. Should a person get a suitable job in order to exert a virtuous influence? His answer: no, we must first seek God’s kingdom. Then should we give away all our money to feed the poor? Again the answer: no, we must first seek God’s kingdom.

Well, then perhaps we are to go out and preach this truth to the world that people are to seek first God’s kingdom? Once again the answer is a resounding: no, we are first to seek the kingdom of God. Kierkegaard concludes, “Then in a certain sense it is nothing I shall do. Yes, certainly, in a certain sense it is nothing, become nothing before God, learn to keep silent; in this silence is the beginning, which is, first to seek God’s Kingdom.”

Focus upon the kingdom produces the inward reality, and without the inward reality we will degenerate into legalistic trivia. Nothing else can be central. The desire to get out of the rat race cannot be central, the redistribution of the world’s wealth cannot be central, the concern for ecology cannot be central. Seeking first God’s kingdom and the righteousness, both personal and social, of that kingdom is the only thing that can be central in the spiritual discipline of simplicity.

The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all. Worthy as all other concerns may be, the moment they become the focus of our efforts they become idolatry. To center on them will inevitably draw us into declaring that our particular activity is Christian simplicity. And, in fact, when the kingdom of God is genuinely placed first, ecological concerns, the poor, the equitable distribution of wealth, and many other things will be given their proper attention.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 86-87.

Jenni and I were just talking at dinner last night about the toxic thinking that has infiltrated the church, namely the “family first” mindset. When we put family or anything ahead of God’s kingdom, it’s a recipe for disaster.

The best way to ruin children is to put them first. In so doing, parents (wrongly!) teach them the world revolves around them. It does not. Putting anything ahead of God is, as Foster rightly notes, idolatry.

And it’s also the pathway for missing everything God desires for us. Why? “The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all.” I hope this post gets you thinking. Am I seeking the kingdom first?

Each of us must answer this for ourselves. And one clue to see if the kingdom is first. Do you give God your first and best or do you allot Him a portion and make your priorities supreme?

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land — a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. Deuteronomy 8:7–9

“Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us. Without simplicity we will either capitulate to the “mammon” spirit of this present evil age, or we will fall into an un-Christian legalistic asceticism. Both lead to idolatry. Both are spiritually lethal.

Descriptions of the abundant material provision God gives His people abound in Scripture. “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…a land…in which you will lack nothing” (Deut. 8:7–9). Warnings about the danger of provisions that are not kept in proper perspective also abound. “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth’” (Deut. 8:17).

The spiritual discipline of simplicity provides the needed perspective. Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep and can be freely shared with others. Once we recognize that the Bible denounces the materialist and the ascetic with equal vigor, we are prepared to turn our attention to the framing of a Christian understanding of simplicity.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 84-85.

Today is my anniversary. Jenni and I celebrate 33 years. In Scripture the number links to the length of the earthly life of Jesus and divine promises and completeness. I thank God for a wife that is a divine gift from God who completes me.

Part of what I appreciate about Jenni is her ordered attachments. She’s attached to God as the highest priority of her life so it’s not hard to abandon materialism and asceticism. She enjoys and shares life and love like Jesus.

And I am thankful God has put us in Colorado the last 26 years. It’s a good land with mountains and streams and it has provided a place for us to thrive. Today I am thankful to be in a good land with a great wife willing to pursue simplicity.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:32-34

“He exhorted the rich young ruler not just to have an inner attitude of detachment from his possessions, but literally to get rid of his possessions if he wanted the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:16–22). He says, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

He counseled people who came seeking God, “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail…” (Luke 12:33). He told the parable of the rich farmer whose life centered in hoarding—we would call him prudent; Jesus called him a fool (Luke 12:16–21). He states that if we really want the kingdom of God we must, like a merchant in search of fine pearls, be willing to sell everything we have to get it (Matt. 13:45-46).

He calls all who would follow Him to a joyful life of carefree unconcern for possessions: “Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again” (Luke 6:30). Jesus speaks to the question of economics more than any other single social issue. If, in a comparatively simple society, our Lord lays such strong emphasis upon the spiritual dangers of wealth, how much more should we who live in a highly affluent culture take seriously the economic question.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 83.

Jesus gives explicit instructions on wealth because He knows things we only discover in obedience. For example, whatever we think we own, owns us. Whatever we hold on to becomes the object of our trust. That’s why, like Elsa, He says, “Let it go! Let it go!”

He also knows that fear keeps us from obeying. Fear of not having enough money to live, give, serve, and love generously. So we hoard and we never have enough. Others have posited a target number.

They reason that I will earn a certain number and then serve God. The irony is that their focus is that number to sustain them. Again, such people ignore Jesus acting as if they know better.

I think Luke put the parable of the mina at the end of the earthly ministry of Jesus because it brings all His teachings together. If we see ourselves as servants with a mina, everything makes sense. A mina was three months income.

A mina was all a steward needed to be fruitful. When the mina produced more, they returned the gain to the Master. The faithful stewards “Let it go! Let it go!” They did not bury it but put it to work. And they always had enough under the Master’s care.

God forgive us from seeing gain as belonging to us. Holy Spirit convict us to let go of wealth so our hands are free to cling to you. And Jesus, thanks for pointing the way to carefree unconcern for possessions because of your great love. Amen.

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:9-10

“Constantly the Bible deals decisively with the inner spirit of slavery that an idolatrous attachment to wealth brings. “If riches increase, set not your heart on them,” counsels the psalmist (Ps. 62:10). The tenth commandment is against covetousness, the inner lust to have, which leads to stealing and oppression. The wise sage understood that “He who trusts in his riches will wither” (Prov. 11:28).

Jesus declared war on the materialism of His day. (And I would suggest that he declares war on the materialism of our day as well.) The Aramaic term for wealth is “mammon” and Jesus condemns it as a rival God: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or He will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13).

He speaks frequently and unambiguously to economic issues. He says, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” and “Woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:20, 24). He graphically depicts the difficulty of the wealthy entering the kingdom of God to be like a camel walking through the eye of a needle. With God, of course, all things are possible, but Jesus clearly understood the difficulty.

He saw the grip that wealth can have on a person. He knew that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” which is precisely why he commanded His followers: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matt. 6:19-21). He is not saying that the heart should or should not be where the treasure is. He is stating the plain fact that wherever you find the treasure, you will find the heart.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 82-83.

Riches retained by people cause a host of troubles and lead to disaster.

So why do we succumb to temptation? The world tells us we need money to live. What we need is God. But instead, we believe the lie, and it sends us down a bad path.

From there, we rationalize disobedience, ignore Jesus, store up treasure on earth, and pursue wealth though He frequently and unambiguously calls to live differently.

Today’s Scripture from Paul’s first letter to Timothy explains what happens.

Those who are eager for money and want to get rich literally fall into a trap that leads to ruin and destruction.

Generosity comes into view as not only the way to life but the way to avoid death.

For example, pass wealth to your kids and ruin them. Store it up in heaven and choose the way of the poor and teach them experientially to trust God

They see God is faithful so they choose the way to life. Do it for yourself. Do it for your children and grandchildren.

They will thank you in 20 years and in 20 million years.

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The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. Leviticus 25:23

“Before attempting to forge a Christian view of simplicity it is necessary to destroy the prevailing notion that the Bible is ambiguous about economic issues. Often it is felt that our response to wealth is an individual matter. The Bible’s teaching in this area is said to be strictly a matter of private interpretation. We try to believe that Jesus did not address himself to practical economic questions.

No serious reading of Scripture can substantiate such a view. The biblical injunctions against the exploitation of the poor and the accumulation of wealth are clear and straightforward. The Bible challenges nearly every economic value of contemporary society. For example, the Old Testament takes exception to the popular notion of an absolute right to private property. The earth belongs to God, says Scripture, and therefore cannot be held perpetually (Lev. 25:23).

The Old Testament legislation of the year of Jubilee stipulated that all land was to revert back to its original owner. In fact, the Bible declares that wealth itself belongs to God, and one purpose of the year of Jubilee was to provide a regular redistribution of wealth. Such a radical view of economics flies in the face of nearly all contemporary belief and practice. Had Israel faithfully observed the Jubilee it would have dealt a death blow to the perennial problem
of the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 81-82.

As I dig into Foster’s exploration of the biblical teaching on economic matters I want to declare Jubilee. In plain terms that means, reset. Let us reset our thinking to matching biblical ideas.

What from what Foster proclaimed today convicted you. What needs to reset in your thinking? God’s Word contains explicit teaching for us. The wealth of the earth belongs to Him.

And He has instructions for us. Will we follow them? He is not trying to rob us but help us with His words. He cares about everyone. We tend to only care about ourselves. The instructions are for our collective good and His glory.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. Matthew 24:12

“We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy… The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality. It is time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick. Until we see how unbalanced our culture has become at this point, we will not be able to deal with the mammon spirit within ourselves nor will we desire Christian simplicity. This psychosis permeates even our mythology. The modern hero is the poor boy who purposefully becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor. … Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 79-80.

Jesus warned us that the prevailing way of thinking in society would become sick, wicked, and psychotic. Today, bad is elevated as good, and good is outdated and irrelevant.

This profound point caught me off guard: “The modern hero is the poor boy who purposefully becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor.” Recently, my study of monks and saints who made a difference for God through the centuries often had “the rich boy [or girl] who voluntarily becomes poor” in the narrative.

Today’s post inspires me to call readers to abandon prevailing patterns and consider how radical obedience, unconditional surrender, and countercultural living might rekindle our love for God.

That’s ultimately what’s at stake here. Sick, wicked, and psychotic people cannot grasp or impart the generosity and love of God to others. And my big concern here is with the next generation.

I was up in the mountains this weekend with my family and noticed many dying trees. This one, however, was full of life, it had much new growth. It came to mind when writing this post. See the new growth on this tree, the long new shoots like fingers. Most trees did not have this. It made me think that most trees might be in the sick category.

If we aim for healthy living we will produce new growth, our health will be evident to all, and like the saints through the centuries, our otherworldly, godly living will impact society in unfathomable ways.

This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated. Ecclesiastes 7:29

“Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear. The preacher of Ecclesiastes observes that “God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising.” … The Christian discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle. Both the inward and the outward aspects of simplicity are essential. We deceive ourselves if we believe we can possess the inward reality without its having a profound effect on how we live. To attempt to arrange an outward life-style of simplicity without the inward reality leads to deadly legalism. …

Experiencing the inward reality liberates us outwardly. Speech becomes truthful and honest. The lust for status and position is gone because we no longer need status and position. We cease from showy extravagance not on the grounds of being unable to afford it, but on the grounds of principle. Our goods become available to others. We join the experience that Richard E. Byrd, after months alone in the barren Arctic, recorded in his journal, “I am learning…that a man
can live profoundly without masses of things.”

Contemporary culture lacks both the inward reality and the outward lifestyle of simplicity. We must live in the modern world, and we are affected by its fractured and fragmented state. We are trapped in a maze of competing attachments. One moment we make decisions on the basis of sound reason and the next moment out of fear of what others will think of us. We have no unity or focus around which our lives are oriented.”

Richard Foster (b. 1942) in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 79-80.

Reflect on the wisdom of Solomon: “God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.”

Inwardly, everything in life flows from our relationship with God. Our identity is fixed. Our security is sure. Our needs our met in Him. But we buy all the world’s messages and life becomes complicated, chaotic, and messy.

Now, reflect on the words of Richard E. Byrd, after months alone in the barren Arctic, recorded in his journal, “I am learning…that a man can live profoundly without masses of things.”

Things have become too important to us. “We are trapped in a maze of competing attachments.”

Generosity happens only when you locate inward and outward simplicity. How does today’s reading convict you? Lean into this with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

You’ve got this. God’s got you.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” Mark 10:51

“The Gospels show that Jesus quickly established intimacy with the people He met. Whether talking with a woman at a well, a religious leader in a garden, or a fisherman by a lake, He cut instantly to the heart of the matter, and after a few brief lines of conversation these people revealed to Jesus their innermost secrets. People of His day tended to keep rabbis and “holy men” at a respectful distance, but Jesus drew out something else, a hunger so deep that people crowded around Him just
to touch His clothes.”

Philip Yancey (b. 1949) in The Jesus I Never Knew: Revealing What 2,000 Years of History Have Covered Up (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 89.

I did not realize that in turning my attention to Colorado authors while stateside this month how much I would come face to face with the generosity of Jesus. I thank God, Richard Foster, and Philip Yancey for this.

Today I see Jesus “quickly established intimacy” and “cut instantly to the heart of the matter” in His interactions with people. What can we learn from this? Many things.

It seems that related to generosity, Jesus always had the person right in front of Him and their needs and well-being His highest priority. He reveals this with statements like, “What do you want me to do for you?”

He came to serve. He did it with love. And as I look closely, He did it with multiple people a day that we might describe as interruptions. They did not have a proverbial appointment with Him. They called out for help.

They pressed through a crowd to find them. It teaches me to be accessible to people and attentive to their needs, and it drives me to be intentional in conversations and to move toward and not away from people. God help me. God help us.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

“This quality of restraint in Jesus — one could almost call it a divine shyness — took me by surprise. I realized, as I absorbed the story of Jesus in the Gospels, that I had expected from Him the same qualities I had met in the fundamentalist church of my childhood. There, I often felt the victim of emotional pressures. Doctrine was dished out in a “Believe and don’t ask questions!” style. Wielding the power of miracle, mystery, and authority, the church left no place for doubt. I also learned manipulative techniques for “soul-winning,” some of which involved misrepresenting myself to the person I was talking to. Yet now I am unable to find any of these qualities in the life of Jesus.”

Philip Yancey (b. 1949) in The Jesus I Never Knew: Revealing What 2,000 Years of History Have Covered Up (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 80.

Amazing how our church traditions shape our view of Jesus. This relates to generosity because if we present Him as full of grace and truth, people can experience the generosity of God incarnate.

If we present Him as full of truth without the grace, we get the harsh heritage Yancey spoke about. If we present Him as full of grace without the truth, we undermine who He is and what He came to accomplish.

Neither of those option appear generous. But if people get the whole picture, they get divine shyness. A God who wants to know them and love them and yet will not force them to take hold of the life that is truly life.

Father in heaven, help us present Jesus as full of grace and truth so people can see and decide to follow. We will do our part to represent you as full of grace and truth. By your Spirit open their eyes to see. Amen.