Paul Scott Wilson: Endless thanksgiving

“God’s providence and daily sustenance are worthy of endless thanksgiving. However, at Thanksgiving, we may be painfully aware that millions of people do not share the bounty of material wealth or social benefits that many in our congregations enjoy. People who live in poverty are children, struggling parents, young people unable to find work, veterans, the elderly, members of our own families and circles of friends…

Is it appropriate to give thanks for the abundance we enjoy when others lack the basic necessities of life? From this perspective, Thanksgiving could seem oddly self-centered, in effect we thank God that we have too much while others have not enough…From a theological perspective, Thanksgiving appropriately is not just thanking God for what we have, it is about God’s generous provision and sustenance for all…”

Paul Scott Wilson, ed. Abingdon Theological Companion to the Lectionary: Preaching Year A (Nashville: Abingdon, 2013) 311.

I am giving thanks this morning for a great day of pheasant hunting yesterday in KS. While I was fortunate to bag one bird, for only the second time ever, Sammy got the limit of four. Wilson would likely say, that’s great, but let’s look beyond such bounty to the bigger picture of “God’s generous provision and sustenance for all.”

This thanksgiving week let us consider what “we” are thankful for, but let’s not stop there. Let’s also think about thanksgiving theologically, that is is to say, let’s consider all God has done for everyone in Jesus, and all God does for everyone, everywhere, every single day. When we do, we too will begin to get a glimpse of “endless thanksgiving.”

“In 2 Corinthians 8-9 the Apostle [Paul] epitomizes the Christian doctrine of giving. It may thus be summarized: It is a “grace,” that is, a disposition created by the Spirit (8:7), in contrast with the law, which imposed giving as a divine requirement, Christian giving is voluntary, and a test of sincerity and love (8:8-12; 9:1-2, 5, 7). The privilege is universal, belonging, according to ability, to rich and poor (8:1-3, 12-15. Compare 1 Cor. 16:1-2). Giving is to be proportioned to income (8:12-14)…and the rewards of Christian giving are joy (8:2); increased ability to give in proportion to that which has already been given (9:7-11); increased thankfulness to God (9:12); and God and the gospel [are] glorified (9:13-14).”

Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921) in The Scofield Study Bible: ESV (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) 1537.

What a joy that this “grace” created by the Spirit also represents a “privilege” that is “universal” from God. It is voluntary and simultaneously serves as a test of sincerity and love that comes with rewards. What a summary! If any aspect of this list strikes a chord with you, sit with it today. Take time to ponder what growth in that area might look like or how God’s Word may be instructing your heart.

Sammy and I (with about ten other men) are hunting pheasant in St. Francis, Kansas, with our dog, Joy St. Clare this weekend. It’s our annual hunting trip, and this year we will remember and celebrate “Captain Koeniger” who taught us to hunt! He passed away unexpectedly in August. Picture a lot of walking in cut corn fields and CRP about 20 yards apart with “margin” to think, so I plan to spend the day pondering a few of these phrases and hopefully shooting a few pheasant.

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

“Giving generously is a priority in my life. My mind quickly goes to money. However, Jesus reminds me that poverty exists in many forms, not just monetary. Those I meet in my daily encounters often are experiencing other kinds of poverty – the need for love, kindness, and patience…When we give, we gain. Miserliness leads to emptiness but generosity leads to fullness – a strange paradox. Join me this week in pursuing a lavish lifestyle of giving.”

Bob Snyder, MD, in “A Lavish Lifestyle” blog post dated 19 November 2015.

As we move into the holiday season, which can be hard for a lot of people for a host of reasons — broken relationships, lost loved ones, or other forms of pain and suffering — let’s follow the good doctor’s prescription to pursue a lavish lifestyle of giving!

Father in Heaven, give us eyes to see people in need of love, kindness, patience, and money. Do this today, this week, and this season. Move us to be generous by faith, all the while trusting you to refresh us. Make it so by your Holy Spirit I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“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.