Don’t you love it when the Lord comes for an unexpected visit and uses His creation to open your eyes and heart to a revelation. It is such an act of grace when He so easily, in all His wisdom and creativity, decides to show us personally how much He knows us and loves us. I find myself at my kitchen sink rhythmically washing all my little ones plastic dishes and cups from the past day. What a “normal” and common time for a mother. This specific day I enjoy being able to look out my front kitchen window and just open my heart to a deep dialogue with Him...really, just a prompting from Him for me to recognize His Greatness and Goodness. Thank you Lord for putting in me an understanding of You...a presence much bigger and much more exciting than what my dishwashing life has to offer.
I look out and scan the street of homes, trees, yards and my mind hungers for some bigger story, a romance that beats this, at times, monotonous job as a mommy. My eyes find their way to my geraniums in my front flower bed, right outside, under my nose. I see how cold they have been by there droopy stems and the shriveled once brightly colored blossoms. I almost gasp in pain--only a gardener understands this :). My poor geraniums. You see, It’s uncommon in Phoenix for it to freeze for more than a night or two in a row, but we had just had quite a few nights in a row which has caused damage to my usually hearty breed of flowers.
Oops, I haven’t covered them...I have lost sight of them in the busyness of life. Hmmmm....what am I going to do to get them healthy again?
I began brainstorming of all the different ways I was going to pour some energy and time into restoring these flowers that I had planted and been tending for months. For sure, some miracle grow...pruning off the dead parts...pray for warmer days...cover them if it freezes again. I get excited about taking part in and watching dead things come back to health and beauty.
It was right then, as if the Lord was right beside me, wanting to give me a revelation--to open my eyes. Not a big religious revelation or a grandiose religious experience, but as an everyday mentor, a teacher...teaching His disciple, His apprentice, His child, me.
There are people in your life, yourself included that have experienced quite a winter, just like those flowers. You know who I am referring to. How are you going to intentionally restore them? I want you to put intentional effort into restoring life, warm life and love into their being just as you would these flowers.
I immediately loved what I heard, but it only took a few seconds for me to start worrying about whether I could get it right. How would I know what to do exactly and how much?
I WILL show you how to restore life. You will listen and I will show you.
Oh I felt so relieved and excited...first because I love hearing from my God, but also because my boring little morning became a bit more of an exciting romance. He loves me and wants to lead me. He is a good Shepherd and I am never alone. He is with me and wants to speak to me beautiful parallels of His creation. Those geraniums are a picture of my disciples...of whom I am responsible to pump His love and life into in the coming months.
Do you know anyone around you that you love dearly that you have seen or are in the midst of a cold winter season? Hard hearts, frozen? Shriveled up and not wanting to be open or vulnerable, self protective? Deadness, hard time breathing in and enjoying the warmth of the new life He gives us? Who are your geraniums?
1.10.2011
1.03.2011
Leftovers or First Fruits
We just got done with a 5 week membership series at Kineo, in which we spent 3 of those weeks unpacking the Gospel and the last week on how to live in light of the Gospel. Now before I write any further, I need to tell you that this journey of diving in to the fullness of the Gospel is relatively new to me. About a year ago I was challenged by some pastor friends as to what the Gospel is and what are implications of me believing the Gospel to be true in my life.
Whoa! I was stumped when they asked me those questions. I mean, I knew the Gospel and I knew the verses to back up my response, but I quickly learned that I had only looked to the Gospel as a means of my salvation and then understood the rest of Scriptures as the supplemental reading after my salvation. How could I have been so far off? Are you kidding me? The Gospel of Jesus as only the entry unto salvation and not the means of my maturity and the assurance of my future hope? How shallow of an understanding did I have? I am so thankful for men who are willing to challenge me and desire to move me from milk to steak and potatoes!
That’s right. The simple Gospel is the meat and potatoes of the Christian life. The milk is the surface understanding of the Gospel, then the deeper you dive into the Gospel the more premium the meat becomes. In fact, all the choice meat you can find in the Scriptures all speaks of the Gospel and the implications of it in our lives. You will never go deeper than the Gospel. There isn’t anything meatier in Scripture that the Gospel. Peter clarifies for us that the Gospel (God’s great mercy) “has caused us to be born again” (already happened for those who are saved), then we are born again “to a living hope” (currently happening for those who are saved), “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” (going to happen for all the elect) and God is the One who is holding this promise so that me in my foolishness will never squander it (1 Peter 1:3-5).
This Gospel that I chalked up as something that I thought I had down was much deeper and much wider and much greater than I can imagine. What I had done without even knowing it, was that I was (in my own understanding) minimizing the cross of Jesus. Now I can never truly minimize what Jesus did, but in my mind, it was not that big of a deal for me to take the time and sit and reflect hour after hour, day after day, month after month of what Christ has done for me! A sinner! A fake! A fearful coward! Jeff, the guy who can’t consistently read his Bible!
This is ludicrous! Did Jesus know how much of a risk it was to die for me? Yes He did! And in fact, within this Gospel, He chose me when I was dead and hopeless to be in Him so that I could live; and not just live in our small view, but live in fullness of life and one day to reign with Him forever to be in His presence! Wow!! I mean come on....is this the kind of good news that sounds like we should just look to it for salvation and then move on to deeper things? The answer is an emphatic, NO! So with the understanding of the Gospel being everything I need (past/salvation, present/maturity and future/hope of glory), I resolved to never move past this good news.
Now that I have let you in on my little secret as to this Gospel journey being new to me, I want to move on to write about how I think the Gospel changes us in light of the reality of the world we live in. This short year that God has wrecked me with His Gospel, He has continued to remove blind spots in my life and has brought deep conviction as to how I live my life and the things that I have always so easily overlooked. I don’t have time to unpack all the blind spots that have been lifted (and there are so many more to be removed still), so I want to just share with you one that has been recently lifted and one that is going to implemented as a corporate pursuit here at Kineo. So that proper credit can be taken, I want to share with you the 3 books that I read this Christmas break that God has used to remove these blind spots: Radical by David Platt; Radical Disciple by John Stott and Generous Justice by Tim Keller (what Keller book doesn’t wreck you).
Let me share with you some statistics that I have come across on this the World Food Programme website (http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats):
*925 million people do not have enough to eat - that’s more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union; (Source: FAO news release, 14 September 2010)
*Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two thirds of the world’s hungry people; (Source: FAO news release, 2010)
*Women make up a little over half of the world's population, but they account for over 60 percent of the world’s hungry; (Source: Strengthening efforts to eradicate hunger..., ECOSOC, 2007)
*26,000 children per day (this stat was added from the book Radical by Platt) & 10.9 million children per year (under five) die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths; (Source: The State of the World's Children, UNICEF, 2007)
*One out of four children - roughly 146 million - in developing countries are underweight; (Source: The State of the World's Children, UNICEF, 2007)
*It is estimated that 684,000 child deaths worldwide could be prevented by increasing access to vitamin A and zinc; (Source: WFP Annual Report 2007)
*Undernutrition contributes to 53 percent of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries; (Source: Under five deaths by cause, UNICEF, 2006)
*In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has orphaned nearly 12 million children aged under 18 years; (Source: 2008 UNAIDS Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic).
*Assistance for orphans and vulnerable children is estimated at US$0.31 per day; (Source: Cost of Nutritional Support for HIV/AIDS Projects, WFP, July 2008)
These stats tell a story of brothers and sisters in the world that we share who are dying and suffering and I live day after day turning a blind eye to it because I feel that there is not much I can do to help them. I have forsaken the gospel by turning aside and living my life as if this isn’t really happening in the same world I am living in. This deeply troubles me that I have neglected such a huge problem in our world. Millions are dying in poverty and I am sitting here enjoying my affluence (even though my wife and 1 and 4 kids are living off of very little money compared to American standards) with little to no worries about these souls who God created.
Just .31 cents a day could provide care for orphans and other vulnerable children. That’s under $10 a month. That’s almost 1 coffee drink at Sbux. Are you kidding me? How could the Gospel not have compelled me in the past to do something about this. Why did it take a book and these grave statistics to open my eyes? The answer to that I am not sure of, but what I do know is that I can no longer be the same as I was before this Christmas break.
All that new info left me with a huge pit in my stomach, tears filled eyes and I fell on the ground and repented for turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to my brothers and sisters all over the world who are created in God’s image. We are the same people. They are no less than I . I am no more than they. My wealth and affluence is due largely in part because of where I was born and the time in history that I now live in. Had I been born in another time in history in a different part of the world, there is a good chance that I would be among the number who is hungry and dying from preventable diseases. All the skill and will power that I think I possess would do nothing for me had I been born in a lower Indian caste system 500 years ago. The Gospel has just revealed to me that all of the affluence and wealth that I have been given was given to me so that I can help those who are in need (the orphan, widow, foreigner and homeless person).
The money I have been given by God was given to me so that I would be the hands and feet of Christ by giving it up for the redemption of the orphan, widow, foreigner and homeless person. Is this not what Jesus did? Did He not give up all that He had (and He had infinitely more than I can ever imagine)? Was there anything that I had to offer Jesus for my salvation? Nothing! I had nothing and still have nothing to offer Him and yet He has set His face towards me for the redemption and my body and soul. Jesus modeled to us what it looks like to live in light of the Gospel.
Don’t miss this. I think I know where your mind is headed. Mine went to the same place. “Okay, I need this much for rent, this much food, entertainment, dry cleaners, doctors visits, cable tv, internet, you know all the essentials.” Then I look at what I have leftover and say, “Okay Lord, how much do you want me to give of this?” before I go buy a new couch that I have been saving up for or the new Playstation 3 that makes the Wii look like child’s play! Then I give of the money that I feel God has asked of me (most of the time it’s the legalistic 10%) and I walk away feeling really good about what I had just done and feel justified until I come across more overwhelming problems in our world, then I remind myself that I am a generous person and God is pleased with me. That conversation I just had is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it bad to give 10%. I think giving 10% is a good place to start, but that is Old Testament standards (not mention OT Hebrews gave 10% of many different things and they gave well over 30% if you added up all that they were asked to give from God).
Jesus says in Mark 8:34 that if you want to follow Him, you must deny yourself, pick up the item that is going to daily kill you and then start walking after Him. This is a radical statement that Jesus says and I believe it has everything to do with how we spend our time and money. The second problem is that everything is God’s anyways and I have no right to claim what is His as mine to do whatever I wish.
The blind spot that is removed in my life is that I realized that I have always covered my bills and living costs first, then I offer God what’s leftover. Well who decided the standard of living that I feel that I have to live by? Did God give me all this money so I could increase my lifestyle according to the raises that I got? After all, He wouldn’t have given me that raise had He not wanted me to upgrade the standard of living for my family. And that vacation that my family needs was provided by God because He cares for me, right? Right and wrong. God does care for you and He does find joy in us being able to have our needs met and our families being able to go on fun vacations. Those are not bad, unless God brings conviction upon you personally.
What is bad is if I continue to raise my standard of living and always give leftovers instead of the first fruits of what He has given me. That would mean I must ask the Lord to set my standard of living. Whoa! Now that is dangerous talk. What if Jesus tells me the same thing He told the rich young ruler, “Sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor then come follow me.” Jesus wouldn’t say that to me, would He? I mean come on man, it’s not my fault that I was born in America and I am so used to the comfort that has been provided for me all my life. I couldn’t do what Jesus would possibly ask of me if He indeed set my standard of living! That’s asking too much of me. This isn’t possibly what Jesus would want for me.
This kind of talking ourselves out of what God truly wants from us as we follow Jesus is us not fully believing the Gospel in it’s present and future hope. Everything that God has, He has given to us in Jesus. When we die on this earth, we will inherit all that the Father has and we will reign with Him for eternity. Jesus says in Luke 18:29-30: "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life." (see also Matt. 19:28-29) Knowing this and believing what Jesus says, there should be no limit to our giving, especially to help relieve the devastating effects of poverty for God’s people and for His glory.
Please notice what I am not saying. I am not saying that God is calling us all to stop making money or that money is evil. In fact, I pray that more and more Christians who get the Gospel become wealthy. What I am saying is that when the increase comes, don;t think that the increase is for you to become more comfortable. A raise or a big break isn’t given to you so you can buy more of a house, more of a car, a better vacation, nicer clothes or the like. The increase comes so you can be a greater blessing to others before the increase came. Everything you truly need will be given to you in the age to come. Don’t think so small as to believe that the you can actually attain the best life you ever imagined here on earth. Our best life is going to be when Jesus returns and we receive our new glorified bodies. Until then, the increase is the Lord.
The disparity that we see in affluent nations all over the world was the very thing that the OT prophets were speaking against and calling out the rich and screaming, be just! American wealth was never intended to build for selfish gain (extravagant houses, cars, etc...) even if one has the money for it and it is seems prudent. God tells Abraham in Genesis 12 that He is going to make him great and bless him “so that” he will be blessing to the nations. The increase and the blessing was meant for Abraham (or Israel) to horde. The increase was for the blessing and provision of the orphan, widow, foreigner and homeless person. Also consider the gleaning law in Leviticus19:9-10; 23:22, the law of release in Deuteronomy 15:1-4, the purpose of the public storehouse in Deuteronomy 14:29, and the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25:8-55. God is a just God and His ways would never fit into capitalism, socialism or feudalism.
There must be a change in modern day Christianity in the way we view what we have been blessed with. There must be an extreme change. If not, we would be in rebellion of the Gospel. The call to follow Jesus comes with the call to feed the poor, provide for the orphans and widows, sacrifice for those who are in want, and clothe the naked. We can never meet these needs with leftovers and scraps. We must learn how to give the first fruits of what’s been given to us and trust God that He will take care of us if heaven forbid, we give above and beyond 10%. To whom much has been given, much is expected. All over scripture it is a clear call to us that this is God’s agenda. And if it’s God’s agenda, then it’s His kids’ agenda too! Take some time to read through these passages that are only a few out of hundreds that can be found in Scripture: Micah 6:8; Zech. 7:10-11; Psalm 146:7-9; Deut. 10:17-18; Proverbs 31:8; Isaiah 58:6-7; Deut. 15:1-10; Luke 14:12-13; Matt. 11:4-5; Matt. 6:1-4; Acts 2:42-47; Acts 20:35; Acts 4:34-35; Ja 2:15-17.
Romans 12:1 says that we should offer ourselves as the living sacrifice. God wants us to give ourselves for His sake and others’ good. This means all of who we are and all of what we have. We are to live as we really are. Citizens of heaven. We are called to live in such a way that it is evident to all on this earth that we have a heavenly inheritance that we are living for and we are about offering redemption by all means because of the offer our King has commanded us to offer all people. We are to live as if you are royalty here on earth. Hold lightly to the things you attain while you are traveling, for you are headed home to the Kingdom, the Castle, where all that the King has is yours and nothing you accumulate on your journey is allowed through the new city’s gates.
Oh my, what might it look like if we believers truly lived in light of the Gospel and we were able to give up great comforts here for the glory of God and the salvation and redemption of many. Much of Christianity today revolves around your joy being rooted in someone and something other than the mirroring of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t exist to give you success and glory and fame and power. No, you exist to give God glory at all times and places. And the reason people are miserable in life is because they think their joy is so deeply rooted in their level of comfort and success. Our joy comes out of our lives mirroring Jesus, period! That’s the source of happiness. Everything else is vanity. It’s a chasing after the wind. It’s trying to find the needle in the hay stack and then find out there was no needle in the first place. You’re looking for something that cannot be found, and that is joy, meaning, purpose, value, dignity, significance apart from God. May the God of all comfort work in our lives so that we who bare the name of Jesus can life true Gospel-centered lives. May we be a people who offer the first fruits of what we've been given, then we can live off of the leftovers.
Whoa! I was stumped when they asked me those questions. I mean, I knew the Gospel and I knew the verses to back up my response, but I quickly learned that I had only looked to the Gospel as a means of my salvation and then understood the rest of Scriptures as the supplemental reading after my salvation. How could I have been so far off? Are you kidding me? The Gospel of Jesus as only the entry unto salvation and not the means of my maturity and the assurance of my future hope? How shallow of an understanding did I have? I am so thankful for men who are willing to challenge me and desire to move me from milk to steak and potatoes!
That’s right. The simple Gospel is the meat and potatoes of the Christian life. The milk is the surface understanding of the Gospel, then the deeper you dive into the Gospel the more premium the meat becomes. In fact, all the choice meat you can find in the Scriptures all speaks of the Gospel and the implications of it in our lives. You will never go deeper than the Gospel. There isn’t anything meatier in Scripture that the Gospel. Peter clarifies for us that the Gospel (God’s great mercy) “has caused us to be born again” (already happened for those who are saved), then we are born again “to a living hope” (currently happening for those who are saved), “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” (going to happen for all the elect) and God is the One who is holding this promise so that me in my foolishness will never squander it (1 Peter 1:3-5).
This Gospel that I chalked up as something that I thought I had down was much deeper and much wider and much greater than I can imagine. What I had done without even knowing it, was that I was (in my own understanding) minimizing the cross of Jesus. Now I can never truly minimize what Jesus did, but in my mind, it was not that big of a deal for me to take the time and sit and reflect hour after hour, day after day, month after month of what Christ has done for me! A sinner! A fake! A fearful coward! Jeff, the guy who can’t consistently read his Bible!
This is ludicrous! Did Jesus know how much of a risk it was to die for me? Yes He did! And in fact, within this Gospel, He chose me when I was dead and hopeless to be in Him so that I could live; and not just live in our small view, but live in fullness of life and one day to reign with Him forever to be in His presence! Wow!! I mean come on....is this the kind of good news that sounds like we should just look to it for salvation and then move on to deeper things? The answer is an emphatic, NO! So with the understanding of the Gospel being everything I need (past/salvation, present/maturity and future/hope of glory), I resolved to never move past this good news.
Now that I have let you in on my little secret as to this Gospel journey being new to me, I want to move on to write about how I think the Gospel changes us in light of the reality of the world we live in. This short year that God has wrecked me with His Gospel, He has continued to remove blind spots in my life and has brought deep conviction as to how I live my life and the things that I have always so easily overlooked. I don’t have time to unpack all the blind spots that have been lifted (and there are so many more to be removed still), so I want to just share with you one that has been recently lifted and one that is going to implemented as a corporate pursuit here at Kineo. So that proper credit can be taken, I want to share with you the 3 books that I read this Christmas break that God has used to remove these blind spots: Radical by David Platt; Radical Disciple by John Stott and Generous Justice by Tim Keller (what Keller book doesn’t wreck you).
Let me share with you some statistics that I have come across on this the World Food Programme website (http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats):
*925 million people do not have enough to eat - that’s more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union; (Source: FAO news release, 14 September 2010)
*Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two thirds of the world’s hungry people; (Source: FAO news release, 2010)
*Women make up a little over half of the world's population, but they account for over 60 percent of the world’s hungry; (Source: Strengthening efforts to eradicate hunger..., ECOSOC, 2007)
*26,000 children per day (this stat was added from the book Radical by Platt) & 10.9 million children per year (under five) die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths; (Source: The State of the World's Children, UNICEF, 2007)
*One out of four children - roughly 146 million - in developing countries are underweight; (Source: The State of the World's Children, UNICEF, 2007)
*It is estimated that 684,000 child deaths worldwide could be prevented by increasing access to vitamin A and zinc; (Source: WFP Annual Report 2007)
*Undernutrition contributes to 53 percent of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries; (Source: Under five deaths by cause, UNICEF, 2006)
*In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has orphaned nearly 12 million children aged under 18 years; (Source: 2008 UNAIDS Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic).
*Assistance for orphans and vulnerable children is estimated at US$0.31 per day; (Source: Cost of Nutritional Support for HIV/AIDS Projects, WFP, July 2008)
These stats tell a story of brothers and sisters in the world that we share who are dying and suffering and I live day after day turning a blind eye to it because I feel that there is not much I can do to help them. I have forsaken the gospel by turning aside and living my life as if this isn’t really happening in the same world I am living in. This deeply troubles me that I have neglected such a huge problem in our world. Millions are dying in poverty and I am sitting here enjoying my affluence (even though my wife and 1 and 4 kids are living off of very little money compared to American standards) with little to no worries about these souls who God created.
Just .31 cents a day could provide care for orphans and other vulnerable children. That’s under $10 a month. That’s almost 1 coffee drink at Sbux. Are you kidding me? How could the Gospel not have compelled me in the past to do something about this. Why did it take a book and these grave statistics to open my eyes? The answer to that I am not sure of, but what I do know is that I can no longer be the same as I was before this Christmas break.
All that new info left me with a huge pit in my stomach, tears filled eyes and I fell on the ground and repented for turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to my brothers and sisters all over the world who are created in God’s image. We are the same people. They are no less than I . I am no more than they. My wealth and affluence is due largely in part because of where I was born and the time in history that I now live in. Had I been born in another time in history in a different part of the world, there is a good chance that I would be among the number who is hungry and dying from preventable diseases. All the skill and will power that I think I possess would do nothing for me had I been born in a lower Indian caste system 500 years ago. The Gospel has just revealed to me that all of the affluence and wealth that I have been given was given to me so that I can help those who are in need (the orphan, widow, foreigner and homeless person).
The money I have been given by God was given to me so that I would be the hands and feet of Christ by giving it up for the redemption of the orphan, widow, foreigner and homeless person. Is this not what Jesus did? Did He not give up all that He had (and He had infinitely more than I can ever imagine)? Was there anything that I had to offer Jesus for my salvation? Nothing! I had nothing and still have nothing to offer Him and yet He has set His face towards me for the redemption and my body and soul. Jesus modeled to us what it looks like to live in light of the Gospel.
Don’t miss this. I think I know where your mind is headed. Mine went to the same place. “Okay, I need this much for rent, this much food, entertainment, dry cleaners, doctors visits, cable tv, internet, you know all the essentials.” Then I look at what I have leftover and say, “Okay Lord, how much do you want me to give of this?” before I go buy a new couch that I have been saving up for or the new Playstation 3 that makes the Wii look like child’s play! Then I give of the money that I feel God has asked of me (most of the time it’s the legalistic 10%) and I walk away feeling really good about what I had just done and feel justified until I come across more overwhelming problems in our world, then I remind myself that I am a generous person and God is pleased with me. That conversation I just had is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it bad to give 10%. I think giving 10% is a good place to start, but that is Old Testament standards (not mention OT Hebrews gave 10% of many different things and they gave well over 30% if you added up all that they were asked to give from God).
Jesus says in Mark 8:34 that if you want to follow Him, you must deny yourself, pick up the item that is going to daily kill you and then start walking after Him. This is a radical statement that Jesus says and I believe it has everything to do with how we spend our time and money. The second problem is that everything is God’s anyways and I have no right to claim what is His as mine to do whatever I wish.
The blind spot that is removed in my life is that I realized that I have always covered my bills and living costs first, then I offer God what’s leftover. Well who decided the standard of living that I feel that I have to live by? Did God give me all this money so I could increase my lifestyle according to the raises that I got? After all, He wouldn’t have given me that raise had He not wanted me to upgrade the standard of living for my family. And that vacation that my family needs was provided by God because He cares for me, right? Right and wrong. God does care for you and He does find joy in us being able to have our needs met and our families being able to go on fun vacations. Those are not bad, unless God brings conviction upon you personally.
What is bad is if I continue to raise my standard of living and always give leftovers instead of the first fruits of what He has given me. That would mean I must ask the Lord to set my standard of living. Whoa! Now that is dangerous talk. What if Jesus tells me the same thing He told the rich young ruler, “Sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor then come follow me.” Jesus wouldn’t say that to me, would He? I mean come on man, it’s not my fault that I was born in America and I am so used to the comfort that has been provided for me all my life. I couldn’t do what Jesus would possibly ask of me if He indeed set my standard of living! That’s asking too much of me. This isn’t possibly what Jesus would want for me.
This kind of talking ourselves out of what God truly wants from us as we follow Jesus is us not fully believing the Gospel in it’s present and future hope. Everything that God has, He has given to us in Jesus. When we die on this earth, we will inherit all that the Father has and we will reign with Him for eternity. Jesus says in Luke 18:29-30: "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life." (see also Matt. 19:28-29) Knowing this and believing what Jesus says, there should be no limit to our giving, especially to help relieve the devastating effects of poverty for God’s people and for His glory.
Please notice what I am not saying. I am not saying that God is calling us all to stop making money or that money is evil. In fact, I pray that more and more Christians who get the Gospel become wealthy. What I am saying is that when the increase comes, don;t think that the increase is for you to become more comfortable. A raise or a big break isn’t given to you so you can buy more of a house, more of a car, a better vacation, nicer clothes or the like. The increase comes so you can be a greater blessing to others before the increase came. Everything you truly need will be given to you in the age to come. Don’t think so small as to believe that the you can actually attain the best life you ever imagined here on earth. Our best life is going to be when Jesus returns and we receive our new glorified bodies. Until then, the increase is the Lord.
The disparity that we see in affluent nations all over the world was the very thing that the OT prophets were speaking against and calling out the rich and screaming, be just! American wealth was never intended to build for selfish gain (extravagant houses, cars, etc...) even if one has the money for it and it is seems prudent. God tells Abraham in Genesis 12 that He is going to make him great and bless him “so that” he will be blessing to the nations. The increase and the blessing was meant for Abraham (or Israel) to horde. The increase was for the blessing and provision of the orphan, widow, foreigner and homeless person. Also consider the gleaning law in Leviticus19:9-10; 23:22, the law of release in Deuteronomy 15:1-4, the purpose of the public storehouse in Deuteronomy 14:29, and the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25:8-55. God is a just God and His ways would never fit into capitalism, socialism or feudalism.
There must be a change in modern day Christianity in the way we view what we have been blessed with. There must be an extreme change. If not, we would be in rebellion of the Gospel. The call to follow Jesus comes with the call to feed the poor, provide for the orphans and widows, sacrifice for those who are in want, and clothe the naked. We can never meet these needs with leftovers and scraps. We must learn how to give the first fruits of what’s been given to us and trust God that He will take care of us if heaven forbid, we give above and beyond 10%. To whom much has been given, much is expected. All over scripture it is a clear call to us that this is God’s agenda. And if it’s God’s agenda, then it’s His kids’ agenda too! Take some time to read through these passages that are only a few out of hundreds that can be found in Scripture: Micah 6:8; Zech. 7:10-11; Psalm 146:7-9; Deut. 10:17-18; Proverbs 31:8; Isaiah 58:6-7; Deut. 15:1-10; Luke 14:12-13; Matt. 11:4-5; Matt. 6:1-4; Acts 2:42-47; Acts 20:35; Acts 4:34-35; Ja 2:15-17.
Romans 12:1 says that we should offer ourselves as the living sacrifice. God wants us to give ourselves for His sake and others’ good. This means all of who we are and all of what we have. We are to live as we really are. Citizens of heaven. We are called to live in such a way that it is evident to all on this earth that we have a heavenly inheritance that we are living for and we are about offering redemption by all means because of the offer our King has commanded us to offer all people. We are to live as if you are royalty here on earth. Hold lightly to the things you attain while you are traveling, for you are headed home to the Kingdom, the Castle, where all that the King has is yours and nothing you accumulate on your journey is allowed through the new city’s gates.
Oh my, what might it look like if we believers truly lived in light of the Gospel and we were able to give up great comforts here for the glory of God and the salvation and redemption of many. Much of Christianity today revolves around your joy being rooted in someone and something other than the mirroring of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t exist to give you success and glory and fame and power. No, you exist to give God glory at all times and places. And the reason people are miserable in life is because they think their joy is so deeply rooted in their level of comfort and success. Our joy comes out of our lives mirroring Jesus, period! That’s the source of happiness. Everything else is vanity. It’s a chasing after the wind. It’s trying to find the needle in the hay stack and then find out there was no needle in the first place. You’re looking for something that cannot be found, and that is joy, meaning, purpose, value, dignity, significance apart from God. May the God of all comfort work in our lives so that we who bare the name of Jesus can life true Gospel-centered lives. May we be a people who offer the first fruits of what we've been given, then we can live off of the leftovers.
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