J.D. Walt: What’s your heart condition?

But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 1 John 3:17-18

“Helping someone in need is not about giving someone some spare change. It’s not an obligatory act. The holy love of God is about compassion, which is a Holy Spirit inspired disposition of the heart that leads to action.

The big issue isn’t whether we are helping people in need; it’s whether our heart is truly open to those we are helping. I’ve helped people in need many times in order to make myself feel better, but I can’t say my heart was truly open to them…

Love means doing something for another from the deep wellsprings of Christ in us. It’s not just actions nor is it mere truth. Love is a holy compulsion to help others, everywhere, all the time, no matter what. . . so help us God. John isn’t trying to shake us up. He’s shaking us down. He’s not accusing us but awakening us.”

J.D. Walt in “People Need Help, Not Pity” blog post on 1 May 2015 at Seedbed’s Daily Text.

Bam! J.D. nailed it. How often do we help from a closed heart? We have the “world’s goods” in one side and a “brother in need” on the other. At that moment, John is trying to wake us to the reality that we are positioned to be generous conduits because of God’s love. When we don’t, we reveal our heart condition.

What’s your heart condition?

“It may be few, comparatively, of the children of God are called to serve the Lord in the way of establishing Orphan-Houses, etc; but all of them may, yea, are called upon to trust in God, to rely on Him, in their various positions and circumstances, and apply the word of God, faith, and prayer to their family circumstances, their earthly occupation, their afflictions and necessities of every kind, both temporally and spiritually; just as we, by God’s help, in some little measure seek to apply the word of God, faith, and prayer…But make a trial of it, if you have never done so before and you will see how happy a life it is.”

George Müller in Answers to Prayer (Chicago: Moody Press, 2008) 97.

This morning I read George Müller. He is one of my favorite inspirational characters. Here he invites the reader to “make a trial” of a way of life that simply seeks to “apply the word of God, faith, and prayer” to all of life. With moral decay and widespread strife all around us, how do we avoid avoid being overcome by all this? How do we renounce impiety, which is lukewarm faith? How do we show the world the way to life? Müller would say, “make a trial of it!” Put your trust in the grace of God.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14

“Here are three simple but essential tasks…

Task #1 – Teach your members and visitors ways to practice better financial stewardship of their God-given resources.

Task #2 – Develop strategic ways to encourage giving, especially through mission.

Task #3 – Teach spiritual and biblical values that help members give as an act of worship and witness.”

Clayton Smith in Propel: Good Stewardship, Greater Generosity (Nashville: Abingdon, 2013) 31. He shared these comments at the Ecumenical Stewardship Center “Stewardship Fusion” conference on 28 April 2015.

Preaching on stewardship and teaching about generosity linked to our worship and witness is central to developing a culture of generosity in local church settings. Amen!

“The Bible is the book of generosity because it is about a generous God seeking to form a generous people.”

John H. Thomas in “The Book of Generosity: Giving and Formation” workshop at the Ecumenical Stewardship Center “Stewardship Fusion” conference in Kansas City on 28 April 2015.

Thomas shared that to encourage generosity we often try to pull external triggers to get people to respond. This might produce random gifts. Meanwhile God works from the inside out.

When His Spirit is at work in our lives we become generous … the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control … Galatians 5:22-23

Yesterday I was blessed by speakers like Thomas. Today it’s my turn to teach. Speak through me to bless your people, Father, by your Holy Spirit, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen!

“Generosity is like love in this way. People often say that we increase the love we have by giving it away. When we love other people more, we often find that the love we feel and enjoy only grows more…It is the same with generosity.”

Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson in The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) 8.

Growing in generosity is learning to receive, enjoy, and share God’s material and spiritual blessings. Everyone can participate regardless of the level of resources. Wherever you are at today with regard to generosity, resolve today to stretch yourself to a deeper level of sacrifice and see what happens.

“Christian trinitarianism encourages a distinctive understanding of divine generosity as embodying a deep responsiveness and receptivity. As Rowan Williams says, Christian faith has a “picture of the divine life involving receiving as well as giving, depending as well as controlling.” The incarnation of God in Jesus Christ shows us that “what we understand by ‘God’ can’t just be power and initiative; it also includes receiving and reflecting back in love and gratitude.”

This intratrinitarian dimension of God’s generosity likewise shapes the contours of our own generosity…Unlike missional paradigms in which Christians are always the ones sent, always the ones called to give witness to the truth, Christian understandings of generosity within God’s own life call us to expectations of receiving and depending on others. Joyful receptivity and responsiveness…is one way we acknowledge and mirror divine generosity.”

Amy Plantinga Pauw in Do We Worship the Same God? ed. Miroslav Volf (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012) 43.

Many Americans fail to grow in Christian generosity because we struggle with knowing how to joyfully receive and respond! Our culture forms us to think independently and function from a self-centered framework rather than live mutually interdependent and others-centered lives. Think about it. Most so-called Christians follow the cultural norms of stockpiling for themselves and doing whatever it takes to avoid having to depend on or care for others.

What should we do? We must encourage each other daily to live Christianly and not be tainted by the deceitfulness of sin (cf. Hebrews 3:13). Pauw rightly notes (echoing the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams) that when we look at our Triune God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–we find that giving and receiving characterize God’s life, and so giving and receiving should also reflect ours. As we do, our lives mirror “divine” generosity.

When the early church lived this way, humble obedience became the primary missional paradigm that won the pagan, polytheistic world despite persecution and poverty (cf. Acts 2:44-47). The early church exhibited joyful receptivity and responsiveness. Father, form us into such a people by your Holy Spirit, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“We need to hear Jesus’ admonition, “do not worry,” and choose the right master: not ourselves, but God. Choosing to make God our Master and the center of our life increases our Life. Full and splendid Life is the consequence when we allow ourselves to trust in God, be dependent upon God, be mastered by God’s generosity and care. This is a kind Master, indeed. Why choose mammon with its incessant worries, when we can choose God who arrays us in all divine splendor.

Most of us don’t consciously choose ourselves as our master; we are much more subtle about it. We couch our mammon choice in thinking we are making ourselves and those around us better. The measure is our worrying. Obsessive worry about things, future plans, success, money, security, looks, etc., is a clue that we have chosen ourselves as master. It is a clue that we need to change the master we serve and choose instead the most compassionate, most generous, and most dependable Master: God…

Telling humans not to worry about tomorrow is like telling them not to be the center of their own lives. And that is exactly the point of the gospel [Matthew 6:24-34]. The two masters are God or ourselves. Yes, we ourselves are the mammon. If we choose ourselves, we worry. If we choose God, we will feed on God’s generosity, be clothed in God’s gift of Life, and be made rich in faith. This choice is sufficient not only for a day, but for a whole lifetime…”

Joyce Ann Zimmerman, Kathleen Harmon, and Christopher W. Conlon in Living Liturgy Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis for Sundays and Solemnities: Year A – 2014 (Collegeville: OSB, 2013) 68-69.

Meditate on this gospel passage today and ask yourself this question: What master am I serving?

“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:24-34

“Too often the fundraising staff are sequestered away from the main program staff and left to do the work that no one else wants to do. In our experience with hundreds of faith-based not-for-profits, few would list the development department among their ministries. Program staff and CEOs tend to see development work as funding ministry but not as ministry itself…

Our goal is to help you confront this attitude and build a development program that is steeped in prayer, is Spirit-led, and results in the spiritual growth of your giving partners as well as your staff.”

John R. Frank and R. Scott Rodin in Development 101: Building a Comprehensive Development Program on Biblical Values (Colbert: Kingdom Life and Steward, 2015) 3.

If you are looking for a book to help you with the practical aspects of the ministry of connecting God’s people to God’s work, then this new release is for you!

“Personal exposure to needs is often a prerequisite for a lifestyle of deep, sacrificial generosity on behalf of others. Commitments of money, time, and personal energy can develop when the prospering truly see the suffering of the poor and weak. The exposure can then lead to believers truly growing as…people who not only help the poor but know them in real relationships.”

Amy Sherman in Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good (Downers Grove: IVP, 2010) 74.

Edgar and Gladys Güitz, our friends from Potter’s House, were staying with us over the past week and returned to Guatemala. They have helped our family not only see the destitute but to get to know them as Treasures. Take a few minutes to see what they do in this video. It will bless you. If you want information on taking a group there, let us know. The “personal exposure” (as Sherman puts it) has been life-changing for our family and friends.

“Let temporal things serve your use, but the eternal be the object of your desire.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) as recounted in In Light of Eternity: Perspectives on Heaven (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 1999) 146.

We must love God and people and use temporal things. The world tempts us to get this backwards. The Apostle Paul suggests how to avoid being tricked.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18