Could You Give God a Dollar?

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Deuteronomy 6:11-12
… when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
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A businessman was speaking at a lunch telling how at a low point in his life, before he became a Christian, he only had one dollar to his name. In desperation he cried out to God and gave his last dollar in the offering. After that his business turned around and now he was a wealthy man. He was challenging the men to trust God, to give all they had to God so He could bless them too. “All the blessings in my life, “he said, ” are because I gave my last dollar to God.” A cynic in the back of the crowd yelled, “I dare you to do it again.”

Could you give your last dollar to God? Probably. After all, one dollar isn’t going to make much difference. It won’t pay off the credit card debts. It won’t pay the mortgage. If it is all you had for food it wouldn’t even keep you alive much longer. While it sounds dramatic, in reality it doesn’t take much generosity or courage to give your last dollar away, especially when you are already at a point of desperation.

The Lord warns us here that when we are enjoying abundant blessings from Him, when we “eat and are satisfied”, it is easy to forget the source of our provisions – it is easy to “forget the Lord”. When you are “fat and happy” don’t forget to turn to Him just as you do when you are hurting.
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Psalm 103:2
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—

Fight the Night Away

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Ephesians 4:26, 27
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
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Early in my marriage I was told this passage means my wife and I should never go to bed angry with each other. Doing so would allow the anger to “ferment” into bitterness (and give the devil a foothold in our lives). We sure didn’t want to do that so we stayed up many nights fussing and squabbling till we were both exhausted and couldn’t even remember what we were so mad about – but we were still mad and the sun had gone down (and sometimes was ready to come up again).

Eventually I decided that couldn’t possibly be what that passage was saying – mainly because staying up till we resolved the problem was turning out to be stupid advice. We usually didn’t come to any resolution, it got worse as the night dragged on and now we were going to be tired and cranky the next day also.  I didn’t know what that passage meant but I knew it couldn’t mean “fight the night away”.

I am embarrassed to say we were thirty years into our marriage before I realized the simple truth this passage was conveying. I can’t stop the sun from going down and I discovered I couldn’t always resolve the differences with my wife before it did go down but I could do one thing – I could forgive, forget it and move on before the sun went down.

After all, forgiveness, like love, is a decision, not a feeling. I could decide to forgive, drop the matter and move on. I didn’t have to find the magical, mysterious solution to our disagreement. I didn’t have to help my wife realize how right I was and how far off base she was.  I didn’t have to restore any “warm fuzzy” feelings. I just had to decide I was not going to carry this anger with me into the night. If need be, we could return to the issue the next day, after some sleep and perhaps with a fresh perspective and insight. As a wise eight year old girl put it when she was asked the secret to happiness, “Sometimes you just need to take a nap and get over it.”

So don’t let the sun go down while you are still fuming. Forgive, take a nap and get over it. Tomorrow will be a new day.
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James 1:19, 20 (NIV)
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

 

I AM so special

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1 Corinthians 1:27-30
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, …
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Wow! I need to regularly be reminded of this.

1. I am in Christ because of God. Not because of me.

2. His choosing me doesn’t indicate I am special. In fact, it indicates the opposite since he chooses the foolish, the weak, the lowly, the despised. So I fit at least one, if not all, of those categories.

3. His choosing me isn’t really even about me, but it is to shame the wise, the strong, etc. It is like a super baseball star who agrees to play using a broom handle instead of a bat and a dish rag for a glove just to show off that he can beat the guys who think they are hot with all their great equipment.  You and I are the broom handles and dish rags God is using just to show how awesome He is.

God is saying to the world, that values wisdom, strength and honor, “Watch what I can do with this nobody – this nothing, this often disobedient, dull to hear, goof up. I will accomplish great things through even him.”

So ultimately His choosing of me was not because I am so great or so special (despite what modern theology may tell you) but because He is so great and so special. He chooses us to bring glory to HIS name.

To a proud person that might be insulting but it actually brings relief to me. My bringing glory to God is not about me doing it all right, never messing up, never making a mistake (as wonderful as that would be) but it is about Him. The responsibility to bring honor to His name in my life rests squarely on HIS big shoulders. I am encouraged by that.
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Psalm 115:1 (NIV)
Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

 

Banking on the Bible

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I am in Berlin, Germany today spending time with a couple who are missionaries with Commission To Every Nation (www.CTEN.org). Why missionaries in Germany? After all, this is the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation and there are churches in every town. Germany is also the birthplace of liberal theology and, believe it or not, some of the people they are reaching are seminary students who do not believe the Bible.

Does that sound astounding that you would go to seminary and not believe the Bible? Weirder still is that some seminaries teach that you cannot fully trust the Bible. After all, it has stories about fish eating people, guys rising into the clouds, a person turns into salt, blind people seeing and deaf people hearing – nice little tales but not really meant to be believed.

Satan’s first attack has always been against God’s Word – “Did God really say …?”. That is why cults always have their own versions of the Bible (i.e. JW, Mormons, Biblical Universalists) or their own supplemental material that you have to read to “really understand” the Bible.

If we cannot fully trust God’s Word then we have nothing to stand on, our entire understanding of God is just conjecture. We can know there is a God because of the complexity of nature and the order we see in the universe but is He friendly and involved or angry and distant. The only way we can know Him is that He has chosen to tell us about Himself. Take away the Bible and your guess is as good as mine, which is only as good as anyone else’s. Without the Bible as our authority, throwing young women as sacrifices into volcanoes to please this unknown God is as legitimate as loving your neighbor as yourself.

What a treasure of infinite worth we have in the Bible. A God we can only know if He chooses to reveal Himself to us has, in its pages, pulled back a curtain to allow us to peek into eternity and catch a glimpse of Him. We can know what pleases Him and what displeases Him only because He reveals it to us. We can know how to find peace with Him  only because He reveals it to us. Most importantly, we can know what path leads to eternal life and what path leads to death because He has revealed it to us. Take away the Bible and we are all just guessing and when it comes to something as crucial as our eternal destiny, I do not want to be just guessing.

Everybody is betting on something.  Muslims are betting that Allah will have mercy.  Hindus are betting on their good works. Atheists are betting there is no God.  I’ll put my hope in what the Bible says.  It has been proven over and over again to be dependable.
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2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV)
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

5/26/2011

Are your prayers not answered?

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Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. [12] I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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Paul says contentment is something he learned. It is not our natural tendency to be content. We always want more, bigger, better, the new and improved – thinking that will bring us contentment. I could be happy if I ….. had a nicer car, was married, lived in a different place, had different parents, had a better job, on and on it goes. The eye of man is never satisfied (Proverbs 27:20).

Paul says what he learned is a secret but he then gives a clue to the secret. If he can be content in all circumstances obviously contentment does not come from outside us, the circumstances that surround us. He then reveals the source of his contentment – learning to draw his strength from the Lord.

His ability to be content does not come from his own strength, from positive confessions or from a positive mental attitude rather his strength, ability to remain content even in hunger and want, is a gift from the Lord. The Lord could have given him food but chose instead to give him strength to be content without food. The Lord could have provided all he needed but chose instead to give Paul strength to learn contentment even in need. Apparently God saw greater value in learning contentment than in having a full belly, accumulating character rather than accumulating stuff.

If you are going through a time when it seems God has turned a deaf ear to your prayers – you seem to always come up short, in need, perhaps a little hungry – God has not abandoned you. Rather He is doing a greater work, giving you what He considers a more precious gift, building character and virtue in you.

Embrace Him. Draw from His strength. Learn the secret He shared with Paul and is now letting you in on also. Every great man or woman of God has gone through exactly what you are going though – “the dark night of the soul”. It is part of the potter’s process to conform you to His image.
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1 Timothy 6:5-8 (NIV)
… men of corrupt mind think … that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Tears or laughter for the lost?

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Based on Philippians 3:18 I said in an earlier post that our attitude toward those who are perishing should be one of tears. But what of David who asked God to “break the teeth of the wicked” or even the Lord who “laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.” (Psalm 37:13) Contradiction? Am I to cry over the lost or rejoice that they will get what is coming to them. If God laughs at the wicked, it looks like He is pretty happy to know they will get “burned” one of these days

Yet, we know God takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11). But it says He laughs at the wicked knowing their day will come. Is God schizophrenic? Is this a contradiction in the Bible?

No, it is easily understood when we realize that the Old Testament often provides physical pictures for us to illustrate spiritual truths. A physical lamb illustrated Jesus, the spiritual lamb of God. The bronze serpent lifted up that brought healing to those who looked on it speaks of Jesus becoming sin for us on the cross to provide healing for all who will look to Him (Numbers 21:8). The OT is filled with physical illustrations of spiritual truths.

In the NT our battle is not against flesh and blood. Your enemy is not that nasty boss or your atheist neighbors. Our battle, our enemy, is against spiritual forces. It is still proper for us to pray, “break the teeth of the wicked” when we understand we are talking about the spiritual forces of wickedness, not the human vessels they use to accomplish their wickedness. Yes, God laughs at Satan’s attempts to thwart His will for God knows Satan’s “day is coming”.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, neither should we. But we can rejoice that the teeth of the roaring lion, Satan, have been broken and that Satan will one day be cast into the pit to never again tempt mankind into rebellion against God.
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Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

SIT UP STRAIGHT, PLEASE!

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WEEKEND THOUGHTS: A little departure from the normal comments on Scripture:

Jana and I recently flew on Swiss Air and, while the crew were very friendly, their in-flight magazine was not so warm.  The final article in the magazine was entitled, in all capital letters, bold text and complete with exclamation point, “SIT UP STRAIGHT, PLEASE!”

The title and the emphatic all caps and exclamation point piqued my attention. As I glanced at the first paragraph, I couldn’t believe it.  The article was scolding passengers like little children.  What a difference between Swiss culture and US culture!  Let me share some actual quotes and see if it is just me or if you agree this is a little weird.

“When the crew welcomes you aboard, make a point of greeting them back: they are, after all, your bosses for the next couple of hours.”

“Sit down carefully and switch off your mobile phone.  Only a total slave to their existence needs to chat away with friends till the very last moment.”

“Sit up straight! Aircraft seats are just not built for lounging in.”
NOTE: Yes, the exclamation point is in the original text.

“Listen attentively to the crew’s safety presentation without yawning like some mileage billionaire. Buckle up before being asked to.”

“Stay in the same mode until you’ve reached cruising altitude.  You may now doze if you wish. Or read. Or working a little is OK.  But, remember where you are.”

The last sentence of the article, again complete with exclamation point, “Have a good flight!”

Achtung! Yes, sir! I will have a good flight as ordered.  Are you sure I can get permission to do a little work now sir, if I am careful to remember where I am and if I sit up straight the entire time? I only hope my flying on your airline today did not in some way inconvenience you.  If it did, please beat me with my cell phone.

Wow!  Can you imagine how such an article would be received in the US?  Am I just nuts or is this over the top?

Never confuse anger for anointing

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Philippians 3:18, 19
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, …

Many years ago I went to a meeting for pastors sponsored by a successful evangelist who was coming to our town. As a young pastor I was impressed by his fiery presentation. Afterwards I commented to an older pastor who was mentoring me that this preacher had a powerful “anointing”. His response was gentle and kind but straightforward, “Never confuse anger with anointing.”

Just a few years later this evangelist had an encounter with God that changed his life and resulted in him confessing some hidden sins, “While preaching from the pulpit I would be battling lust and anger.” His ministry also changed. There was still power but now there was also compassion.

We see that same attitude in Paul when he speaks of those whose “destiny is destruction”. He has no anxious expectation for justice or vengeance on the wicked. Like Jesus, he did speak mercilessly against the self-righteous but for the wicked there were only tears. It causes me to examine my attitude toward those who “live as enemies of the cross”. I may not be filled with anger but apathy is no better. Neither produce tears.

Lord, give me your heart (and eyes of tears) for those going away from You.
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But what of David who asked God to “break the teeth of the wicked” or even the Lord who “laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.” (Psalm 37:13) Contradiction? Did Paul not have a proper attitude or did God change from OT to NT? I’ll save that for the next post.

Conduct yourself

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Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Philippians 1:27
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What a great passage to commit to memory and use as a motto for life. Whatever happens … good, bad or otherwise … whether I understand it or am totally clueless … whether it is fair or unjust … whether I like it or not … whatever happens as I pass through life may I conduct myself in a worthy manner.

May my actions, attitude, behavior, thought life, that which I look at, that which I think about, those I associate with, everything I do, may my conduct be worthy of the gospel … worthy of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Worthy of Christ means no room for retaliation, no resentment, no bitterness, no criticism, no murmuring but instead kindness in exchange for hatred, blessing in response to attacks, humility in the face of arrogance, not returning evil for evil.

What a great passage to post near the door so every time we exit we are reminded, “As I go today, no matter what happens, I want to conduct myself worthy of the message I bear; the good news of Jesus Christ.”
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FOR MORE: www.rickmalm.com

I am awesome!

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Philippians 1:15-18
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so out of love, … 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, … 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
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I used to wonder how you could “preach Christ out of selfish ambition”, “out of envy and rivalry”, with “false motives”. Going into ministry is not usually thought of as a road to fame and fortune. But the longer I’ve been at this pastoring thing the more I’ve seen a subtle temptation.

When you have been blessed, like I have, to pastor wonderful and gracious people they frequently encourage you, tell you how much God has used you to help them and generously express their love and appreciation. It is tempting to begin to look for those strokes, live for them and long for them. Suddenly you are ministering to meet a need in you instead of allowing God to meet the needs of others through you – selfish ambition and soon envy and rivalry. Slowly you can even begin to believe you are as wonderful as people say you are.

The Holy Spirit, through Paul, was glad the gospel was being preached even if the motives were impure so I will be too BUT, I certainly don’t want to be one of those doing it with wrong motives. I want to be sharing Christ “out of love” for God and others. I am often, very often, reminded of a little story, can’t vouch for how true it is, that has helped me in this area.

When Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States, a close friend came to him with these words, “Woody, now that you have been elected President, you are going to have lots of people around you telling you what a great man you are. Just remember, you and I know better.”

While I am grateful for sweet folks who will share how God has used me to bless them and I am always greatly encouraged when I hear such a report, if something inside starts believing “I am awesome!” I remind myself, “God and I (and my wife) know better.”.

Stay humble. Stay sweet. Stay useable.
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2 Corinthians 2:17
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.