REVOLUTIONARIES

Last month one of Christian music’s trailblazers, Larry Norman, lost his long battle with heart disease and went on to be with the Lord at the age of 60. His life and ministry are worth examining, because there is much to learn from Larry Norman.

Larry Norman is known as being the father of contemporary Christian music. A true revolutionary in every sense of the word, Norman gave a voice to the young Christians of the late 1960’s and 70’s using modern music to convey the message of Christ. His methods were frowned upon by the religious traditionalists of his day, and he was attacked on every side. Yet he forged ahead, and two of his albums of the 70’s – Only Visiting This Planet, and In Another Land – would become classics of Christian rock music, considered by many to be two of the best Christian albums of all time.

While Larry Norman pioneered the trend toward using modern music as a medium for Christian expression and evangelism, he was later extremely critical of the direction Christian music eventually turned. He had no intention of creating an industry of Madison-Avenue glitz complete with its own awards ceremonies and self-promotion. He threw ice water of Biblical reality on the entire industry with his criticisms regarding the merchandising of the gospel. So cutting were his remarks toward the whole Christian music industry that he was essentially black-balled from the American Christian music scene, and the very industry he helped create no longer supported him.

But Larry Norman was not a stranger to controversy or criticism. In fact, it seemed to follow him. He was vocal about many different social and political issues, and status quo Christianity was certainly not safe from his stinging rebukes. In short, Larry Norman was not afraid to call it like he saw it. He did not shrink back from the backlash of calling the Body of Christ to a higher standard, and it did indeed often get him into trouble. But that’s the way Larry Norman lived his life. Even up to one of his last concerts in Indianapolis in 2005, he called for action to accompany our faith and for a Christian experience beyond the “plastic fantastic” of Sunday morning “Churchianity.”

Larry Norman was not too unlike many patriarchs of the faith in scripture.

The prophet Elijah comes to mind, a manly man of the wilderness who breathed his hot breath of wrath upon the corruption of his day. And most of his Old Testament contemporaries – fellow prophets who declared the Word of the Lord to a crooked generation – were killed for their proclamations.

And there was John the Baptist, who called for repentance and who raised the banner of righteousness, calling all who heard him to a higher standard. His criticism toward the sin of his day got him beheaded.

And, of course, there was Jesus Himself, the most revolutionary and controversial figure in history, who was absolutely merciless toward the hypocrisy of the religious elite of His day. Did Jesus’ call to repentance and righteousness get him into trouble? You know the answer. It got him arrested, flogged, and ultimately crucified.

After Jesus there was Stephen, who did not shrink back from proclaiming the gospel and exposing the sin of his generation. Stephen was murdered by stoning in the middle of his first and only sermon. Again, it was the religious elite who saw to Stephen's execution.

Paul, a revolutionary of epic proportions, was decapitated. Peter was crucified upside down. And all but one of the apostles lost their lives in a variety of ways, including stoning, beatings with clubs, being sawn in two, speared to death, skinned alive, and even boiled in oil. Most of the time these sentences were carried out by the religious people of the day.

It will be no different with you and me. Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matt. 10:34). He said that devotion to Him would turn people against His followers and often divide even family members (Matt. 10:35-36). And the Apostle Paul wrote that all who truly wish to live Godly could expect to be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).

I have experienced that myself. While persecution in this country is child’s play compared to what goes in other nations, I have nevertheless experienced being taken to task for my Biblical worldview. I was called a “Pharisee” by the pastor of a “seeker friendly” church when I asked him why he never talked about holiness and repentance. I have been shot down by people who think I’m crazy for believing in Jesus as the only way to reconciliation with God. I have been publicly accosted for my stand against sexually deviant behavior. Even church-going folk challenge me on my standards of righteousness, implying that I’m legalistic for declaring that there even is a standard. I have had relationships with family members completely implode because of my efforts to bring a Biblical perspective on difficult family matters. I was even once vilified because of my Biblical standards of parenting, and that was on an occasion when I never even engaged the accuser in conversation on parenting.


The point is this: If you stand for something, someone is going to try and knock you down. Just count on it. And that is especially true when what you are standing for is Christ and His standards. I am astonished at the number of church people who don’t want to hear about Biblical standards of conduct, but that’s no different than what went on in Biblical times. It was the religious folk who killed the prophets because they raised a standard. It was the religious who murdered Jesus, who slaughtered the early Christians, and who even executed other more modern revolutionaries like William Tyndale, whose crime was translating the scriptures into English so that the common folk in England could read the Bible for themselves. And other agents of social change, such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr - also murdered for their stands - had to face terrible opposition by religious folk who violently protected their right to own slaves and to harbor bigotry. Indeed, it seems that the hottest persecution of righteous causes has been perpetrated by those within the Church whom Satan has inspired.

Mark this: If you desire to live godly, you will stand out from the crowd, and some people will hate you for it, especially if you have the courage to speak out once in a while. But that’s how we know we are making a difference. People who never catch any flak for their faith would do well to consider that maybe it’s because they have assimilated so well into pop culture that no one can tell the difference. The world has no reason to oppose us if we are just like them. I’m certainly not promoting going out of your way to be offensive. All we do must be done in love and gentleness. But if they persecuted the gentle Shepherd, they will certainly persecute the sheep (see John 15:20).

Sadly, that persecution will often come from within the church, just like it always has. The history of the prophets, the early Church, and the life and ministry of the late great Larry Norman reminds us of that fact.


Larry, thanks for what you taught us, the example you set, and the uncompromised standard you stood for even when it meant persecution.

Rest in peace, Larry. You're home now.

Pressing Toward the Mark

I think the Apostle Peter is a remarkable character of Biblical history. I like Peter because I so closely identify with him. Perhaps you do, too.


Peter was always a well-intentioned disciple of Jesus, but he was head-strong and cocky, and his mouth often got him into trouble. One minute he is being commended by Jesus for recognizing Christ's divinity, and the next he is being reprimanded for trying to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross.

I identify with Peter because while he was well-intentioned, he often did and said stupid things, and his character was a long way from perfect. Peter gives me hope, because even after going so far as to deny the Savior, Peter did not give up on himself, but got back up, dusted himself off, and proceeded in his life of faith. And he went on to become one of the most important apostles of the early Church, penning two of the most concise and eloquent epistles, First and Second Peter, two of my personal favorite books of the Bible.

Here's the thing that strikes me about Peter. He wasn't perfect, but he didn't settle for groveling in self-pity or defeat. He struggled against his own sin, and he overcame in the end. The Apostle Paul, too, also considered himself a fellow struggler, and even wrote toward the end of his life that he did not consider himself to have attained the goal of his high calling in Christ, and he daily pressed on toward the mark. Imagine that! The great apostle Paul, a man who was once taken up in the spirit to heaven and shown revelations that he was not even allowed to talk about, still struggled in the flesh! (I imagine, though, that Paul's struggles were a far sight different than most of ours....whattaya think?)

Are you a fellow struggler? I am. I struggle with sin and temptation every day, and that used to bother me. I was discouraged by the fact that I had to fight against myself so often, until I heard a liberating message by Dr. David Jeremiah, whose message on fighting the good fight of faith set me free from self-condemnation. He admitted that he struggled, too, and that he worried about people who said they were Christians but who did not seem to struggle against sin. If a person is not struggling against sin, that means that they have accepted it and given in to it, and have accepted their current state as permanent.

Here's Luke struggling with
bad-attitude temptations.
What a warrior! :-)

I don't know about you, but I do not accept my current state as permanent. I want to go on toward maturity in Christ and experience the fullness of a life fine-tuned to the frequency of His Spirit. And so, therefore, I embrace the struggle. I may come to my personal place of maturity bloodied and muddied and bearing the battle scars of repeated failures and straining toward overcoming my sinful nature, but by golly, I'm going to get there. I'm not going to rationalize spiritual lethargy and feel content in allowing my sinful nature to dominate my behavior. If I have to get into heaven missing a hand, so to speak, then that's what I'll do.

Are you struggling today against your worldly nature? Good! You're in good company! Like Dr. Jermiah, I would worry about you if you weren't struggling. The fact is, when we signed up for this life of faith, we signed up for battle! We didn't sign up for a cushy, Lay-Z-Boy experience. We will have to fight against an unseen spiritual world that hates us and wants to trip us up, and we will have to battle against our own inborn sinful desires....that is, if we want the character of Christ. Sure, you can choose not to fight and continue in a life of self-centerdness and sin, but I'm not convinced that a church-going person that continues living the way he/she did before a supposed conversion ever really experienced salvation in the first place, because a true conversion will change what one loves and changes a person's priorities.

I know many of my readers will identify with this: A truly regenerate person will have different priorities in their child-rearing, in their entertainment choices, in their dress code, and nearly every other aspect of life, and sometimes those standards are difficult to live by in this post-modern world when nearly everyone else seems to be going in the opposite direction. It's a struggle sometimes to hold your kids to such a loftier standard than their peers, and sometimes its difficult to hold ourselves to loftier standards than our own peers. But we continue to press on because it is our desire to honor Christ, and not the world.

So if you sometimes get weary of the struggle, just know that God loves Simon Peters. He loves those who continue to press on against tremendous opposition and personal failures. He sees your efforts, and will reward you accordingly. The fact that you are struggling in the first place identifies you as a follower of Christ, because if you were not in the family, you would see no reason to struggle against your sin or see a need to strain toward a higher standard of character. Not that the higher standard is what saves you, because that was covered by your faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. But a continued attitude of repentance and a tenacious inner fire to strain toward Christ-likeness is evidence that you have the genuine faith which the book of James refers to (see James 2:14-26).

In closing, I find this passage from the Apostle Paul both a source of encouragement in that even Paul struggled, and a source of inspiration that Paul was always wanting to get better even though he was considered the greatest apostle.

"I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Jesus Christ, is calling me." -Philippians 3:12-14

So struggle on, fellow strugglers!

Throwing Off Every Weight

Have you ever had the chance to examine an Indy car? One thing that becomes immediately obvious is that there are no amenities on a race car. No cup holders, no air conditioners, no stereo systems, no glove box, and no GPS systems. Those cars are stripped down to only what is required for optimum speed. And, boy, do they ever go fast!

Now, apply that principle of aerodynamics to our spiritual lives. The book of Hebrews addresses it.

“…Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” -Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have weights; things that may not be wrong in and of themselves, but things which impede our progress, that slow us down, which put drag on our spiritual lives and prevent us from advancing in our life of faith.

This is something we have been addressing in our home recently. Three of us, in fact, have become quite enamored with blogging. And you know what? One can literally spend hours doing it if not careful. Hannah, in fact, LOVES blogging, and it seems that people love reading her blog. But she was getting to the point that she was spending an unreasonable amount of time doing it, so I had to lay down a rule that she could only blog three days out of the week, and even then there would be a time limit.

Luke’s weight is not so much blogging, although he does maintain his own little blog. His is more sports related, and he would literally spend all day in front of the TV playing Madden if I let him. I have had to restrict his use of video games, because those things can become little gods and choke out our dearest affection, which should be our seeking after God.

My weight is a literal weight. In other words, weight training has been a problem of mine in the past. There’s nothing wrong with staying in shape, but before I came to Christ I spent as many as 12 hours per week in the gym, and my entire day revolved around my eating and exercise schedule. I LOVED exercising, and still do. But it had become an idol to me. So I felt compelled several years ago to lay it down entirely. I gave up weight training for six months, which in my case was enough time for the addiction to break. Only later was I able to take it up again with moderation being the rule of the day. Today, I don’t exercise in a gym at all. It takes too much time. I have instead accumulated a number of exercise pieces in my basement, and while not as sophisticated as commercial gym equipment, I am nevertheless able to stay in reasonably good shape with not a lot of investment of time.

In our age of technological wonders and entertainment galore, there are a multitude of weights clamoring for our attention. Some are not wrong in themselves if kept in moderation. But therein lies the problem. Some can be quite addicting, and even when not over-indulged, there are still so many little things vying for our time that often our schedules are crammed with little things that choke out our affection for our Savior.

TV, movies, internet, e-mail, blogging, knitting, exercise, parties, church activities, and on and on it goes. Most troubling is the trend of many modern churches toward multiple services throughout the week. There’s youth group, choir practice, men’s meetings, women’s meetings, Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, Wednesday night service, prayer night, etc. And, of course, if you are really “committed,” you should be at every meeting. So just where are we supposed to fit in family time anyway? Where are we supposed to fit in our own private Bible study, prayer, and community outreach and acts of service? We Christians can get to the point where we don’t see the forest for the trees. God doesn’t care about meetings as much as He cares about true relationship with His people, and you can’t develop a meaningful relationship with God without significant private time with Him.

Allow me to make a strong statement. Most modern day American Christians are spiritual wimps, and compared to our brethren overseas in Third World countries, I would have to include myself in that analysis. The fact is, most of us are starving to death spiritually because we gorge ourselves on empty calories.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “overweight but underfed?” It refers to people who subsist off of calorie-rich, nutrient-depleted junk food, which results in people who get more calories than their bodies can handle, but who have nutrient deficiency diseases like osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, cancer, etc. It’s a syndrome caused by eating only fun food-stuff, but not feeding one's self what will truly nourish.

That’s what happens spiritually as well. Our days are smothered in activity, and much of what we do seems spiritual (i.e. going to multiple church meetings), but we rarely take the time to be alone with God and hear from Him. We don’t get up early enough to have a quiet hour alone with our Savior just poring over His Word and going to Him in worship and prayer like Jesus modeled for us. I believe that we who are serious about spiritual growth and walking in God’s best must make some difficult decisions and prune the “good” in favor of the “best.” It’s time to downsize in order to grow. That, after all, is what a farmer of a vineyard does. He will prune away the excesses of the vine in order to allow for further growth of the fruit in the long run. Spiritual growth is no different. We must prune away that which is weighing us down and preventing fruitfulness.

I have to close by bragging on my wife a little. I have been proud of Donna, especially recently, because she is tenacious about her time with God. There are things she has had to sacrifice in order to achieve this, and our house is not as tidy as we both would like. But I am seeing a new passion, a new surge of growth, and a new level of faith in Donna’s life, and it inspires me.

For me, private time with God became a daily habit many years ago, but recently my time with God is not so much ritual as it is relationship. There has been a new sense of closeness to God since having closed myself in my closet – literally – to commune with God in the quiet and undistracted surroundings. And there’s nothing quite like being closer to Him. He is worth pursuing. As Hebrews 11:6 says, He is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him, and as Jeremiah 29:12 says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” And that kind of seeking takes time and effort.

The High Road

In 1976, a struggling screen writer hit it big with his script of "Rocky." Sylvester Stallone created a character partly from a real person and partly from fiction that has been loved by moviegoers for more than 30 years. The story of Rocky parallels our spiritual lives in some compelling ways.

As the story opens, Rocky Balboa, a 30-year-old small time boxer who couldn’t be called a has-been because he was more like a never-was, is trading punches in a dank, smoky club in downtown Philadelphia. Energized by an illegal head butt, Rocky flies into a rage and pounds his opponent into submission. A few minutes later in the locker room while recovering with a cigarette, he collects his measly earnings and goes home to his ramshackle apartment.

Meanwhile, the elite boxing champion of the world, Apollo Creed, having run out of opponents who can even challenge his level of expertise in the ring, is looking for a way to enliven his career. He and his team decide to celebrate Independence Day by having a boxing extravaganza in Philadelphia, the city where Democracy began. Exploring the list of possible candidates for the fight, they are not looking for fighting experience necessarily, because no one has ever come close to beating this particular champ anyway. They are looking for something that will create a buzz, a worthy headline. They finally decide upon an unknown, Rocky Balboa, because he is a native of Philadelphia and goes by the fighting name of The Italian Stallion. Perfect.

Upon receiving the invitation, Rocky declines at first, but after being persuaded, his life takes on new meaning. All the sudden he has something significant to shoot for. He doesn’t believe he can beat the champ, but no one has ever gone an entire 15 rounds with Apollo Creed, so he sets his sights for going the distance.

This goal revitalizes Rocky. He gets a trainer and begins grueling daily workouts. Gone are the cigarettes and beer – instantly. Enter, instead, 4:00 am runs at the docks after having downed a half dozen raw eggs. Instead of staying in just good enough shape to beat a few bums once in a while down at the club, now his training takes on a new tenacity that allows him to endure the pain when his muscles and lungs scream for relief. In a few months he is a chiseled boxing machine, and accomplishes what nearly everyone thought was impossible – he went the distance with the champ.

In my years of weight training, I have noticed that there are two kinds of people who frequent gyms: Those who WANT to get fit, and those who actually are GETTING fit.

The first group would like to get fit as long as they can go to the gym and socialize and half-heartedly move a few weights around and not really change anything about their lives otherwise. In other words, their “yes” for physical fitness really isn’t strong enough to overcome a bigger “yes,” which is the “yes” that calls for chips and sodas and hot dogs and burgers and milk shakes and endless sedentary hours in front of the computer and TV. Those things are really more important than their desire for fitness. These poor souls buy expensive memberships at health clubs but rarely do they show any progress for their time and money.

The second group is all-out committed to whatever it takes to reach their goals. If that means giving up fast food, no problem. If it means five to ten hours a week in the gym, they find the time. If it means enduring gut-busting workouts that leave them spent for the balance of the day, bring it on. If it means scheduling their eating every three hours, and eating stuff they may have hated as a kid, well, they suck it up and do it. If it means not being able to socialize when they are at the gym because they can hardly breathe, let alone carry on a conversation, it’s all in a day’s work. And these committed ones show the fruits of their labor. They make sacrifices in several areas of their lives so that they can enjoy the outcome of hard, lean, healthy, strong bodies.

So how does all this talk of physical training apply to the spiritual life? Don’t you see a parallel here? There are those who sign up for this life of faith, but all they really want is fire insurance. They never really fall in love with the things of God. They never really develop a burning “yes” inside to the things of God enough to let go of the self-life that holds them back from enjoying the benefits of a truly Godly life. They compromise. They indulge their base appetites and rationalize their decisions. They dabble in prayer and flirt around with Bible reading - if indeed they pray and read the Bible at all, and they attend Sunday service to ease their consciences. But they have other “loves” – other things that they have set their hearts upon more than God. They want salvation as long as it is not uncomfortable and doesn’t cost them anything. They want their fire insurance and their indulgences too. In short, they are at best double-minded, and at worst, they are idolaters and false converts.

Like the first group I talked about who buy gym memberships just to play around on the exercise machines, these poor souls have never had a glimpse of the high road of true righteousness and spirit-led living, and the incredible benefits that that kind of life might yield. They wear the label of Christian and are able to talk a good talk at church, but if examined, their lives would be indistinguishable from their godless counterparts. And then they wonder why their marriage is so empty, why their children have so many problems, why they can’t get a handle on their finances, why they are depressed and on anxiety medication, and why life lacks passion and purpose.

Too many Christians I know have never experienced the “joy that surpasses all understanding” that Christians are supposed to have, but instead feel a vague sense of boredom, emptiness, and frustration with their spiritual lives. Why?

Could it be that there are levels of blessing and intimacy with God reserved only for the most deeply committed, those willing to set aside anything and everything that may compete with God for their affections? Perhaps somewhere underneath the buzz of lives saturated with surfing the net, watching TV, going to the movies, blogging, dining out, exercising endlessly, and working more than we should, there is a quiet place where God desires to meet us. Perhaps there is a standard of obedience to God’s precepts that is far and away higher than the status quo where only the bravest souls are willing to go, because that is a place of self-sacrifice. But paradoxically, that is the very place of the richest blessings. If you read Psalm 15, you may get a sense of what I’m talking about. It is to these who are committed on this level whom God chooses to confide in and make Himself known to. Like Rocky who was willing to replace comfort and familiarity for excruciating training because he set his sights higher than what he had previously known or accomplished, and who was willing to take a merciless beating so that he could be found standing when the final bell rang out, there is a level of joy, peace, and accomplishment that only the high road of serious spiritual training and perseverance through trial and error can yield.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. -1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.” Think about it.
___________________________

(Side note: That phrase, disqualified for the prize, in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 9, is translated “cast away” in the King James, and is the word adokimos in the original Greek, which literally means unapproved, rejected, worthless. The Apostle Paul, who penned these words, was apparently not a Calvinist who believed in unconditional eternal security. He wrote that even he could be rejected if he did not stay the course. Interesting, huh?)

What is Faith?

What is “faith?” Is it simply a religious affiliation? Is it adherence to a set of dogmas? It might seem that this is all faith means in our present spiritual environment.

The classic definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Literally, faith is a belief in something that is not perceived by the five senses.

Perhaps one of the best contrasting examples of faith is found in Numbers 14 where the faith of two important Old Testament figures, Joshua and Caleb, stands out in stark contrast to the faith of their Jewish counterparts.

Recall that Joshua and Caleb were one of 12 spies sent into Canaan to investigate the condition of the land and its inhabitants. Recall also that God had already promised this land to the Israelites. Yet when the land was thoroughly explored, the powerful war-like people found there intimidated the other ten spies. They brought a bad report back to the camp, saying that the huge people living in the land would swallow them up, and that they would not be able to take the land.

The ten spies are an accurate representation of how a lot of Westernized Christians live their lives. The spies were basing their judgment solely on what they could perceive with their senses. They were in good spirits as long as things looked like they were going their way. But as soon as obstacles stood in their way, all hope vanished. They had not too long before witnessed some of the most spectacular displays of God’s power as He led them out of Egypt. Yet their trust in Him evaporated as soon as they learned they would have to fight for what was promised to them.

Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, said “We are well able to take the land.” What made their perspective so radically different from the other ten spies? Faith! They did not believe that what they saw with their eyes was final and unchangeable. They did believe, on the other hand, in a God Who could split the Red Sea and rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians without a single Israelite being lost. They believed that if God could deliver them from the hands of Pharaoh, He would likewise deliver the Canaanites into their hands. They believed what has become an adage in modern times: Us plus God equals a majority.

The parallels to our lives as Christians in this account are too numerous to elaborate on fully. However, two things deserve special attention.

Firstly, almost every aspect of our lives as Christians requires this kind of faith in the unseen. From believing in a God that we cannot see or feel, to believing in the integrity of His Word enough to obey it, nearly everything we do as Christians requires a blind faith. And it is this kind of faith that gives us hope in God’s promises even when circumstances seem to suggest that those promises somehow don’t apply anymore.

Secondly, Joshua and Caleb show us that sometimes we must fight for what has been promised to us. God never said He would hand out all His goodies on a silver platter. He required the Israelites to invade Canaan and fight against the inhabitants. He never told them that the Promised Land would be given to them without resistance. But like the many modern day Christians, the Israelites wanted the land without a fight.

In keeping with my recent theme of God’s promises of abundance, we see this aspect of having to fight for what is ours in scripture. There are indeed countless promises of health, protection, and financial abundance in God’s Word, but many of those have conditions attached to them. In order to experience these promises, we have to be meditate on God’s Word both day and night (Psalm 1:2), be tenaciously obedient to God’s Word (Deuteronomy 28, among others), speak words that are consistent with what we are believing for (Proverbs 18:20-21, Romans 4:17b), strive for excellence in all we do (Ecclesiastes 10:10), and as we have discussed in detail, we must be generous givers. But of course, the doing must be accompanied by believing.

Believing isn’t trying these principles for a while and hoping it will work out. Granted, I believe God grants some degree of leniency as we learn to walk by faith, but ultimately He wants to be trusted, even and especially in the midst of negative circumstances. Faith perseveres even during the germination period when one is waiting for the harvest of what one has previously planted to come in.

Agriculture provides a perfect analogy. A farmer plants his seed not knowing how it grows. But he trusts that in time it will sprout and eventually produce an abundant harvest. He doesn’t plant his seed and then go out and look at his field the next morning and say, “This stuff doesn’t work! Nothing is happening!” No, he knows there is a germination period. There is a season for planting, a season for cultivation, and a season for harvesting.

Similarly, when we begin planting our financial seeds, we don’t see the results of that sowing right away. Ecclesiastes says that when we cast our bread upon the water, it will come back to us after many days. That’s why you want to get in the habit of being generous all the time so that every month can be a season of harvest. In agriculture, a farmer can reap a harvest only during one month out of the year. But in the life of a Believer, you can eventually reap all the time if you have been in a habit of constant sowing.

If you need something outside of the Word of God to bolster your faith in this process, the concept of sowing and reaping is a universal principle that God has set in place that works for anyone who applies it, just like the law of gravity. The book, The Automatic Millionaire, for example, is written by David Bach, an author who apparently has no Christian convictions, at least none that are obvious. Yet he states in no uncertain terms that one of the ingredients in the recipe for becoming financially secure is the concept of tithing. Of course, he does not insist that the tithe must be given to a church, but he suggests that when a person is in the habit of setting aside a portion of his income (he suggests 10% as a starting place - imagine that!) for purposes of benevolence, money is somehow attracted to him as a result.

The great universal paradox concerning money is that it is attracted to those who are generous, and it is strangely hard to come by for those who are tight-fisted. To be sure, there probably are rich people out there who are not generous, but often those kinds of people live in fear of losing everything and are often not happy people. In contrast, Proverbs 10:22 says that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He adds no sorrow to it. That means if you accumulate money God’s way by being benevolent, you don’t have to lose sleep over it or sacrifice relationships or work endless hours. Money is attracted to you when you are generous. That’s how God made the universe to function.

The late Elvis Presley, probably the most famous entertainer of all time, was well-known for his extravagant generosity. While Elvis was raised in church and had a love for gospel music and a sensitivity to spiritual things, the principles of the Bible certainly did not guide his life, at least not in the area of morality. Like most entertainers, Elvis was constantly bombarded with opportunities to be immoral, and he was an eager participant. Even so, his generosity has become legendary. Giving away Cadillacs and houses was a way of life for him. He thoroughly enjoyed it. So extravagant and common were his gifts that his father, Vernon, feared that Elvis would bankrupt himself. But even during the latter years of his life when his performances were less than his best, money kept rolling in nevertheless. At the time of his death in 1977, Elvis’ estate was worth $4.3 BILLION dollars! There is not a single entertainer alive today who is worth even close to that much. Even one of the richest entertainers of today, Paul McCartney, whose career now spans four decades, is worth a fraction of what Elvis was worth, and Elvis’ career was half as long. So even while Elvis may not have been a model of Christian morality, the law of sowing and reaping still worked for him because it is a universal law.

If you are not yet at a place where you have experienced this extraordinary truth, you must first believe that God’s Word is the supreme truth and has the supernatural ability to supersede every natural truth. So I would suggest beginning your journey by filling your mind with the promises of God in order to develop that faith, because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

And then, of course, follow up that faith with action, because true faith is one that responds with corresponding action (James 2:17).

Godliness with Contentment

After my last few posts, I had intended to go in a totally different direction with this and subsequent posts. However, something tells me we are not quite done hashing out this issue on the Biblical principles of abundance. Perhaps some of you may be wishing that I would go in a different direction, but as Laurie and Sherry said, it’s my blog and I can do what I want. So there. :-)

Now, to the issue at hand.

If you are a critical thinker, and I hope you are, because that’s what this blog is devoted to, you might be asking some important questions about focusing on God’s desire for His children to be abundantly blessed. “Shouldn’t we be content with what we have?” “Don’t the scriptures teach that godliness with contentment is great gain?” “Didn’t the apostle Paul write that some who want to get rich fall into sin and pierce themselves with many sorrows?” Yes, yes, and yes.

Let’s begin with the latter question.

Paul, in writing to the young pastor Timothy, was addressing the issue of greed. Some false teachers of that time were using the preaching of the gospel to siphon contributions from gullible people, just like some televangelists we’ve heard of. And so they were preaching simply as a way to make money, and no other reason. So the issue at hand was greed and dishonest gain.

Regarding being content, yes, the Bible does teach that to be content is a sign of godliness, and that in itself is valuable. But what does contentment look like? Perhaps I should answer that question by explaining what it is not.

Just before my wedding date, the little wood shop I worked in as a finish man folded. I walked down the aisle unemployed, and spent the next several weeks in that same condition. Now, I could have pseudo-spiritualized my situation by saying, “Well, godliness with contentment is great gain, so I guess I need to learn how to be content being unemployed.” I think you would agree that that would be nonsense. But that’s what many Christians do all the time.

A lot of people have a very hard time just making it from paycheck to paycheck. They rationalize their situation by saying to themselves, “I guess it must be God’s will for me to be poor all my life, so I should learn to be content with that.” Well, that SOUNDS spiritual and all, but that is simply misguided religious gobbly-gook. That’s NOT what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches that we should be content in whatever stage of life we find ourselves on our way to the next stage of growth. If you have a big family crammed into a tiny house, for example, you should indeed find a way to be content, being thankful that you at least have a roof over your head. But it wouldn’t be a sin to want something bigger and work toward that end. Growth and progress is, in fact, what God has in mind for you.

Let’s take the issue of spiritual growth as an example. Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if I said to myself, “I must be destined to struggle with this sin all my life, so I guess I’ll just have to learn how to be content being a chronic liar (or thief, or adulterer, or whatever your specific area of greatest temptation is). That’s foolish, isn’t it? God wants us to move past the elementary stages of spiritual infancy to adulthood. Spiritual growth and progress is an elementary Biblical concept. But it's not just growth in the area of godly character that God has in mind, but in EVERY area of life.

You might find it interesting that the Hebrew greeting, Shalom, means blessing in every area of life. So when a Jew greeted a person by saying, “Shalom”, he was saying, “May you be blessed in your health, in your income, in your children, spiritually, and may you ever be increasing.” The word bless means, “the beneficial enduement of the power of God to produce well-being in every area of a person’s life.” Consequently, “bless” contains four provisions: health, prosperity, well-being for your family, and salvation for your soul.

So while God does want us to be content in our present circumstances, contentment doesn’t mean accepting anything and calling that spiritual. If your kids were on drugs, how spiritual would it be for you to say, “’Well, I’ll just not address this situation because I know God wants me to be content.” No, you want it changed NOW! Yes, you can find a degree of peace in knowing that God is in control and you trust His sovereignty, but that doesn’t stop you from bombarding the gates of heaven with your prayers night and day!! Contentment is simply an issue of trust knowing that God is in control and that He is mightier than any circumstance. It does not mean sitting back and accepting any negative situation that life hands you without some sort of action. That’s not spiritual. That’s stupid. But countless Christians have been duped into believing that it IS spiritual.

Let me give you an example of true contentment from scripture.

When David was living out in the wilderness being pursued by the murderous King Saul, twice David had opportunities to kill Saul and thus end his existence as a fugitive. God even seemed to orchestrate the unique situations where David could have easily killed Saul. But David wouldn’t do it. Why? Because he was content knowing that the throne had already been promised to him by an edict of God, and he knew that he didn’t have to take matters into his own hands to bring it about. He knew God was in control, and he didn’t want King Saul’s blood on his hands. Was he content being a fugitive? Absolutely not! Just read the many agonized prayers of David in the Psalms, and you’ll see how badly he wanted his situation to change. He placed his trust in God for his protection and provision, but he had no intention of staying a fugitive. He did take reasonable action, such as attempting to talk some sense into King Saul. So he didn’t sit back and just accept whatever fate might befall him. He petitioned God, and he petitioned his pursuer. He DID do something, but his doing was within the guidelines of his godly convictions. He combined faith with appropriate action, and was also able to find a place of peace in his present situation while he prayed for a better one.

Again, if you are not living in enough abundance to have all your needs met and some left over to be a source of blessing to others, then it is not a sin for you to want more, to ask for and more, to work toward more, and to anticipate more. However, if you’re primary heart’s desire is to heap up monetary goods for your own materialistic pleasure and you have no compassion on the poor or desire to see people saved, then yes, THAT is sinful. That’s called greed, and that is explicitly condemned in scripture as one of the most heinous sins there is. But it’s not a sin for you to want more simply as a means of blessing to your family and to other people.

If your income is barely meeting your needs, it is not a sin to ask for a better paying job. If you only have enough money to eat beans twice a day, it’s not a sin for you to ask God for more. And even if your own needs are met, but you cannot help the people you know who are in need, it’s not a sin to ask God for more in order to be His hands and feet of blessing. But religious tradition would suggest that barely-getting-by is somehow holy. See what I mean? Religious thought can get twisted in the perversion of the human mind – a mind that actually takes pride in its pseudo-humility. “Look how humbly I live. I must be a real Christian.” That’s reeks of self-satisfaction just as much as the rich man who thinks that his Porsche makes him something special. Pride stinks in whatever form it takes, even if it is disguised in religious trappings - perhaps especially so.

The bottom line is that God is a good Father whose desire to bless His children is stronger than your and my desire to bless our own children. “If your son asks for a piece of bread, will you give him a stone,” asked Jesus. His point was that it’s not wrong to ask your Father for something so long as your reason for asking is pure. And if we, being parents who are tainted with sin, know how to give good things to our kids, how much more will God do at least as much for His devoted ones who ask?!

I believe God wants us to enlarge our thinking, and enlarge our capacity to receive from Him. I pray all the time now, “Father, please enlarge my capacity to understand You and to receive from You.” And you know what? He is doing it. My previous mentality of lack is being replaced by an abundance mentality. My God is supplying all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! (Philippians 4:19) But you have to believe that in order to receive it, because faith is the substance of the unseen (Hebrews 11:1), and without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and those who vacillate in their faith can’t expect to receive anything from God (James 1:6-7). But lest I get ahead of myself, faith is the subject of my next post.

The Law of Reciprocity

A young missionary couple sat in my living room last year, sharing with my family and me the details of the gospel work they are doing in a village in Mexico. They felt commissioned by God in their teenage years to go to the mission field. Now only in their early twenties, they had given up the prospects of financial security and the comforts of living in a place like the United States for a 500-square-foot room with no bed and no running water – a room that they occasionally shared with scorpions and bats.

Yet, to them it is all worth it.

It is worth it to see young women like Luisa, formerly an adherent to paganism, turn from her former life to serve Christ amidst the prospect of being ostracized by her family and community. It is worth it to have families invite the young couple into their homes to teach them about the Bible even though their pagan priests warned them that reading the Bible will make them go insane.

What this couple has given up in the form of monetary comforts is more than made up for in the satisfaction of knowing they are living a life of eternal significance resulting in the saving of souls. And what they receive as their eternal reward will dwarf even the most lavish life they could have lived here on earth.

This missionary couple said something profound during their stay in our home. They said that a soldier always seeks to carry out the last command from his superior officer until a new command is given, and the last command that Jesus left His followers was to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Indeed, it was the late Christian singer/songwriter, Keith Green, who said that since all are called to go and preach the gospel, if you do not “go,” then you had better at least be supporting those who do. And Charles Spurgeon once said, “If you have no desire to see others saved, you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.”

In reading my last few posts, perhaps you are beginning to see your own role in financing the advancement of the gospel and in sharing your goods with those in need in ever increasing measure. That is just one of the many principles of financial growth done God’s way, but perhaps the most important one. It represents the Law of Reciprocity, or the Law of Sowing and Reaping. Life always returns to you in proportion to what you give. And in God’s economy, He says that the amount we give can never be greater or equal to what we get back. God always gives back MORE. (Re: Luke 6:38, Proverbs 3:9-10, Psalm 112……) But the catch is that you must have a heart that is filled with compassion enough to act, and that compassion should motivate giving in many forms. If you are giving only to get, with no real heart for the poor or lost, you are giving with wrong motives, and your results will be limited. But if one gives cheerfully with Kingdom purposes in mind, one can expect an abundant harvest from that seed.

If a person doesn’t have a heart for the poor and unsaved enough to turn loose of some of his/her money in order to bring the gospel to the lost and food to the hungry, one can be sure that one’s financial state will always be a precarious one, because even during times of abundance one’s estate will be vulnerable. Proverbs is plain: “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.” (28:27) And Jesus said that to whom much is given, much will be required, and to whom much more is given, much more will be required (Luke 12:48). What’s that you say? You haven’t been given much? I beg to differ.

Let’s put this in perspective.

If you’re annual income is $40,000 per year, you are among the top 200,000 richest people in the world, which is the top 3.17% globally, according to Global Rich List.com! For even more perspective, consider this:

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples here in the states OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village. (source: http://www.globalrichlist.com/ )

So what are you doing with YOUR money? What do you have planned for your next paycheck, your next tax check, your next raise? Are you willing to give up even one nicety for your life or sacrifice even one amenity for your luxurious church in order to feed some hungry mouths, to cloth some naked bodies, or to fund the work of a struggling gospel work abroad?

I’m still growing in the grace of giving myself, so I do not consider myself to have attained the goal of excelling in giving the way I want to. Donna and I would like to eventually get the point that we are giving away a majority of our income to the work of the gospel, and living on what is left over. But by God’s grace we have been able to make some pretty significant sacrifices already even while enjoying some abundance for our own use. I drive a ten-year old car with 300,000 miles on it, for example, and like the Israelites in the wilderness wearing shoes that didn’t wear out, God has kept my car going with very little repair expense. I also still do a lot of my shopping for clothes at discount stores. I could have afforded to buy a new car a long time ago, and I could wear Gucci shoes if I really wanted them. But to me it is more blessed to give than to hoard. And that’s why I believe I have enjoyed a level of success that I never thought I had the ability to attain on my own. God has blessed my family as we have been willing to use His money that He has let us use to further His kingdom, and He has let us have more of it the more we give away so that we can enjoy some blessings, too. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some of your heart’s desires. God wants that for you, and He will give them to you if you make His priorities YOUR priorities and begin to be a stream of His blessings flowing to other people. If money is not flowing from you to other people as it flows to you from God, you will become like a stagnant pond.

Proverbs 11:24 says that there is a man who gives yet gains even more, and another who withholds but comes to poverty. When you give, you are not only storing up for yourself treasures in heaven, but you are placing yourself in the position to be greatly blessed of God, because God is concerned about the care of the poor and the advancement of the gospel, and He wants you and me to be His hands and feet in carrying out His priorities. And when we do that, He will bless you even more because He knows He can trust you. He will indeed bless you in order in order to be a conduit of His blessing and also to allow you to enjoy some abundance too!

In closing today’s blog, I refer you to the book of 2 Corinthians, verses 6-11:

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously. ….God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace ABOUND toward you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will ABOUND in EVERY GOOD WORK. …. Now He Who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and INCREASE your store of seed and ENLARGE the harvest of your righteousness. YOU WILL BE MADE RICH IN EVERY WAY so that you can be GENEROUS ON EVERY OCCASION."

If that doesn’t light your fire, your wood is wet!

____________________

P.S. Even with these past few blogs I have posted, I don’t have space here to develop this teaching fully. I feel this teaching needs to be established with a protracted discussion on its theological foundation, and I have done just that on an audio teaching I have done called, The Principles of Abundance, which also includes my testimony of how God raised Donna and I up from absolute poverty to where we are today. I would be pleased to give it to whomever requests it.

Is Money the Root of all Evil?

My last two posts have been focused on God’s provisions for His people – spiritual AND monetary. I know that this brings up some questions regarding whether or not money is the root of all evil, as some have suggested. So let's proceed to topple a sacred cow!

First, let it be known that money in itself is not evil. Scripture says that the LOVE of money – being subservient to it and hoarding it and lusting for more of it – is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). But money in itself is not evil. In fact, money in the hands of a righteous and generous person can be and is a tremendous blessing. No poor person ever funded an orphanage, paid for any hospitals to be built, financed missionaries, or built any churches. These things require money, and lots of it.

You might find it interesting that the Bible has more to say about money than it does just about any other one subject. With money we show ourselves faithful or slothful. With money we show ourselves either wise stewards, or lazy and careless (see Matthew 25:14-30). With money we show ourselves generous at heart, or selfish hoarders. With and because of money much good is accomplished, or much evil is carried out. It all depends on whose hands it is in.

I believe that there has been much misunderstanding in the church regarding money for many generations, and this is very unfortunate. The reason I say that is because by believing that poverty is somehow a standard of piety in order to maintain humility and to develop character, the funding of the gospel is limited and people in need STAY in need. The scriptures say that money will destroy the FOOL. So if you know someone who got destroyed by having a lot of money, you now know what kind of person he or she was in the first place. In contrast, however, Proverbs 10:22 says "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He adds no sorrow to it." That means that money won't destroy a person of godly integrity and character.

Quite often poor people are focused on their own needs at the exclusion of the needs of others, and they are usually powerless to be a blessing even when they want to be. That's certainly how I was when didn't have two dimes to rub together. A person that is just trying to get through the week until the next paycheck will have a hard time being extravagant in their giving when a missionary visits their church and needs funding, or when they see someone else in need. Oh sure, they can still be a blessing by praying for people and being an encouragement, and those things are valuable. But they can’t finance anything. And did you ever notice that there are plenty of poor Christian people who are just as selfish and proud as any rich person ever was? Being poor does not always result in humility, and being rich doesn’t necessarily equal stinginess. I know lots of poor people who are sensitive and insecure and try to compensate by puffing themselves up, and they are NO FUN to be around. And yet some of the kindest and most generous people I know are also some of the most prosperous. It really goes both ways. Being poor doesn't create character in people anymore than having money does. It all depends on what is in the heart in the first place.

Now, to qualify my remarks, I realize that the Bible says in James 2:5 that God has called the poor in the world to be rich in faith, and that’s wonderful. I know that Christians in Third World countries are so much more advanced in their faith than most Americans, and it’s because they have nothing else to rely on besides God. While having that kind of faith for God to meet your daily needs is great, I wonder if it isn’t also valuable to God for someone to have faith great enough to believe for a level of abundance to have your own needs met and plenty left over to be a blessing to someone else. The answer is yes, because it is in the scriptures over and over.

Psalm 35:27 in the King James says that God delights in the prosperity of His servants. Well then, why aren’t all Christians prosperous? Are some called to have abundance while others are called to be poor? Well, yes, there IS a degree of sovereignty we have to consider. But I am not of the opinion that just because someone was born poor and currently lives poor means it is God’s will that they stay that way. God has made provisions in His Word to help people to understand HIS methods of financial increase, and all we have to do is know those principles enough to believe them, and then apply them.

In understanding these concepts, we have to first understand that God’s view of money – and therefore the view that He wants His children to have of money – is completely opposite of the humanistic worldview. The naturalistic, logical view regarding money is that if you give it away, you won’t have it anymore. Makes sense. But do you know how much God cares about making sense to the natural mind? Exactly zilch! How much sense does it make to turn the other cheek to someone who has just slapped you? How much sense does it make to bless someone who curses you? How much sense did it make when Jesus once healed a mute by spitting in the dirt and making a paste that He placed on the man’s tongue?! In fact, God actually gets a kick out of using “foolish things to confound the wise,” and I believe it jazzes God when someone who isn’t supposed to be much or do much in the eyes of the world ends up funding a multi-million dollar children’s hospital.

Hear me: GOD LIKES PROMOTING NOBODIES, so long as they are truly humble, righteous, and generous. Read the story of Gideon if you don’t believe me. He was a humble guy who even said to the angel that he must have the wrong man when the angel addressed him as a valiant warrior. He said he was the least person in the least family in the least tribe in Israel, and THAT’s precisely why God wanted Him for the job, because He knew it would mean that Gideon would glorify Jehovah in his victory and not himself. If you think you are a nobody, look up, because God might just be ready to promote you if YOU are ready to believe that He wants to, and if you follow some simple instructions.

If you are not as blessed as you want to be, listen to these words and remember them: YOU DON’T HAVE TO STAY THERE, AND GOD DOESN’T WANT YOU TO! God is in the business of PROGRESS and GROWTH, my friends. If you aren’t growing spiritually, and if you aren’t growing in knowledge and wisdom and ability, and if you aren’t growing socially, and if you aren’t growing financially, then something is wrong. It simply means that there is something you don't know yet, and that's easily remedied. Psalm 115:14 says that God will increase you more and more, both you and your children. He wants you to INCREASE! He likes it. It makes Him look good in the earth when His kids are increasing. Deuteronomy 8:18 says that it is God who gives His children the ability to produce wealth in order to establish His covenant. Abundance is GOD’S idea people, not the devils! Jesus said that He came so that we might have life MORE ABUNDANTLY, and that it is Satan that has decrease on his mind (see John 10:10). Jesus said that Satan came to steal from you, kill you and your family if he can, and destroy everything associated with your life.

Listen now….this may come as a shock….it is Satan who wants you to be impoverished, but God wants you blessed. If you don’t believe that’s true, then you need look no further than the condition of some of the nations of the world as living proof. Haiti, for example, has been fully given over to voodoo and witchcraft, and as a result of that pact with the devil, look where they are today. They are one of the poorest and filthiest countries on the planet. I know, I’ve been there. The villages reek of sewage and the people are horrifyingly destitute. By stark contrast, the United States of America was founded upon Christian principles and a faith in God as stated clearly in our Constitution, and look how God raised us up from a little fledging nation to the most prosperous and powerful empire in the history of the world.

As you might be able to tell, I am passionate about this issue, because I was once so much poorer than probably all of the people reading this post. I was a C-average student in high school, graduating in the lower third of my class. I dropped out of college and I didn't have any job skills that would land me an impressive income. And I didn't get where I am today by some clever business deal. By simply observing a few Biblical principles, God took me out of that impoverished condition by steadily growing me over the years, and now I have a desire to help people understand these same principles as well.

Stay tuned, because I plan on posting at least one more post on how one taps into God’s abundance.

Blessings to you until then.

The Blessings of Benevolence: A Study of Psalm 112

Do me a favor. If you have a Bible handy, grab it and read the entire chapter of Psalm 112. It’s short. If you like, copy and paste this post to a Word document and print it off and take it somewhere with your Bible where you can meditate on it. I think this is going to excite you. Please read that chapter before you read anymore of this post.

Are you done? Okay, let’s break this down verse by verse.

Verse 1 opens up the chapter by expressing praise to God. Why? Well, God deserves praise for many reasons, but the second half of verse one expresses the reason for the first half. God is to be praised because He blesses those who fear Him and take delight in His commands. That very first verse speaks volumes.

Who is blessed of the Lord? People who attend church regularly and sing hymns and homeschool their children and eat organic homemade food? Not necessarily. It is the person who FEARS God, who serves Him without compromise, who has a reverential respect for Him, lives in His service, and maintains a high degree of awe of Him. And that fear is not complete without having a reverence and love for His Word. The person who is blessed of God loves God’s Word, feeds on it night and day (re: Psalms 1:1), and delights in doing what it says.

People like that will walk in such wisdom and be blessed such that even their children will walk in the favor of God. Verse 2 says that his children will be “mighty in the land,” or have influence and honor. We all want good things for our children, and God’s promise is that if we delight ourselves in His Word and teach it to our children, He will bless our children as well.

Now, verse three is where traditionalists can get a little rankled. It says that “wealth and riches are in his house.” God promises monetary blessings on the person who delights in His Word and fears Him. “Well, Andy, surely that’s talking about spiritual blessings.” I believe that’s true, too. But the context of this passage is talking about monetary blessings. This is evident by the fact that it says in a later verse that the righteous man will use some of those monetary blessings to “scatter abroad his gifts to the poor.” That generosity is one ingredient of how he got rich in the first place. Hey, don’t get mad at me if this rocks your boat a little. I didn’t say it. God did! You’ll have to take it up with Him. :-)

The latter half of verse 3 says that his righteousness endures forever. In other words, this man’s good reputation will go before him always and will endure even when he is dead and gone.

For this generous, God-fearing, Word-loving man, even dark, troubled times will not overtake him. Verse 4 says that even in the darkness light arises for him. He will be sustained even when it looks like trouble might overtake him (see also Psalm 41:1-3), and even when others are failing and collapsing, this man will thrive! A bad economy won’t ruin him, and neither will famine or war or an outbreak of disease. God’s favor sustains and protects him.

Why? Because this man has an abundant increase of the favor of God because of his generosity (“graciousness”) and compassion and righteousness, according to the second half of verse 4. And verse 5 continues that thought. It says that good will come to him because he is generous and lends “freely” (i.e. without charging interest), and conducts all his affairs with justice. In other words, he never cheats anyone. Because he is honest and fair and generous and benevolent, God’s favor rests upon him and good continually comes back to him. He will never be shaken, says verse 6.

This man is also full of faith, because verse 7 says that he doesn’t fear bad news. He knows God will take care of him even in uncertain times. “His heart is confident, trusting in the Lord.” Even when people rise up against him, his heart is still assured and he still does not fear, because verse 8 says that in the end he will look with triumph on his foes.

Yes, even in uncertain times, he continues to distribute his gifts freely to the poor, and he is lifted high in honor (verse 9).

Those that oppose him – the wicked – will observe all this and be vexed to the point of gnashing their teeth. All they can do is slink away in defeat as their desires come to nothing (verse 10).

I hope what you get out of this is that God is not out to get you. He does not want you to have to learn your character lessons the hard way in the school of hard knocks. He wants your primary lessons to be learned through His Word! Of course, if you are not a diligent student of the Word, then one of the the only other tools God has at His disposal to teach you is the hardships of wrong choices. He wants His Word to be your guide, not your bad choices. Religious tradition has taught us that God will knock your teeth out once in a while in order to teach you character, and that you can never really be assured of His protection or His benevolence. Well, I think the writer of Psalm 112 would have something to say about that, wouldn’t you? Now, there ARE conditions to meet in order to reach a level of blessing described in this chapter, but the rewards for meeting those conditions are unmistakably clear.

I agree that we all experience hardship from time to time, and as Christians we are expected to endure persecution for our faith. So I know that difficulty is part of the Christian experience. But I don’t believe we are supposed to live like that continually. Just as the man in Psalm 112 was described as having experienced times of darkness, it also says that light arises for him even in the midst of that darkness.

So we don’t have to panic when things seem to go south on us. That old saying that things get darkest just before the dawn is true, but I think it’s ONLY true for those who persevere and don’t bail out on continuing to do good even during times of uncertainty. In fact, that is the very time to get aggressive about your giving.

In ’06 I experienced the worst year of business I ever had since joining my firm 13 years before. My wife, Donna, was expecting our third child and we were building a house 40 minutes away, doing much of the inside work ourselves. As you can imagine, I was very distracted. I didn’t have the kind of focus on my job that I once had, and I had even lost my focus on being in God’s Word and giving. We were continuing to give, but we weren’t maintaining our commitment to increase our giving, even though our income had increased. By March of that year my salary was reduced by $1,500 per month, and my business was completely flat. My boss was putting some very uncomfortable pressure on me, which only made my mental state worse.

So what did we do? Did we decide to reduce our giving? No way! We kept our level of giving exactly where it was even though my salary was reduced. And things still didn’t turn around right away. As you might imagine, I was on my face every day and had God’s Word open reading and claiming His promises.

By October things still looked bleak. So I had a talk with Donna and we decided to fight fire with fire. Since the enemy had apparently been given an opportunity with our finances, we decided to hit back. We decided to increase our giving by a significant amount, even though my previous salary had still not been restored and even though we had maintained the level of giving we were doing prior to the salary reduction. We were going out on faith.

By the end of October I experienced a sharp upturn in my business, and that momentum continued throughout the rest of the year and into the New Year. By March my previous salary was restored, and I went on to get FOUR more significant raises in '07.

Perhaps you could just chalk that up as the ebb and flow of business, but I think it’s significant that my only salary reduction in what was then a 13-year career came at a time when my focus on giving and being in God’s Word had waned. And on the very month that Donna and I decided to increase our giving even more, things broke loose. You can call that coincidence if you want, but I call it God keeping His promises.

And God is no respecter of persons. What he does for one, He will do for all who follow His principles.

I wish I had time and space to develop this teaching, but if you like, I would be happy to recommend some great resources to help you understand God’s covenant of blessing and the principles He has set in place for financial growth. Just let me know.

Be blessed.

Taking Your Spiritual Temperature

We have probably all been there at one time or another in our spiritual lives. Perhaps it is a nagging sense of disconnection with the Spirit of God, sort of like a one-sided conversation. Maybe it’s a stagnation in one’s spiritual development and/or one or more sin habits that won’t let go. Maybe it’s a frustrating boredom with Bible study and/or a sense of dryness in prayer. Perhaps there is no enthusiasm for spiritual things, and God seems to be a little part of your life, but not the passion of it.

Once in a while it’s a good idea to take your spiritual temperature; a spiritual health exam, if you will. The Apostle Paul wrote that we should examine and test ourselves to see if we are really in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Because of the breadth of this topic and the many areas we should consider, I hope to do another two or three part series. But the specific area which I have chosen to address may surprise you. Let’s begin by looking at another group of people who had fallen into a spiritual lethargy.

In centuries past, when the nation of Israel had drifted – again – from her devotion to God, a messenger was sent to the Israelites to speak the word of the Lord to them. This prophet of God was sent to help Israel take her own spiritual temperature, and she was shown to be ice cold – indifferent to God and His ways, and thoroughly corrupted. And yet the people were grumbling against God, complaining that He no longer answered their prayers or accepted their sacrifices. So, in speaking for God, this prophet declared to Israel, “Return to me, and I will return to you.”

So clueless were the Israelites about their state of spiritual deadness that the prophet’s accusations surprised them. “We didn’t even know we had gone astray,” was essentially their reply. Spiritual decay is like that. If often catches you unaware of how far from the shore you are drifting.

“How are we to return?” they inquired.

“Will a man rob God,” Jehovah demanded. “Yet you are robbing me.”

“How are we robbing You?” They truly had become so spiritually blind that they had no idea what God was talking about.

So….when the Israelites asked God how He wanted them to return to Him, what was the very first thing He brought up? Are you ready for this? He wanted them to honor Him with their money.

BAM! Right between the eyes. If you want to get someone’s attention, just bring up how they use – or misuse – their money. Money is a very personal matter, and in fact Jesus said where your treasure is, that’s where your heart – or your affection and devotion – will be. That’s why He also said that you can’t serve both God and money, because you are ultimately going to be devoted to one and despise the other.

The Israelites had been commanded to show their honor and thanksgiving to God by giving back to Him the first ten percent (“tithe”) of all their income, and they were commanded to also be willing to give special offerings from time to time for various purposes such as alms to the poor. Because money is such a sensitive and personal matter, God knew that if He could be Master over their pocketbooks, He would surely be Master over their hearts. That’s why one of the first things to be thrown to the curb when someone begins a slow and subtle – almost unnoticeable – drifting from their first love is the giving of tithes and offerings.

Okay…I’m already bracing myself for the backlash. I already know what some people might say. “Tithing was part of the Old Covenant, and we live in the age of grace. I can give what I decide is right for me to give.”

Well, I can see the basis for your argument, but unfortunately it can’t be substantiated with a careful study of scripture.

You see, tithing was introduced in scripture BEFORE the giving of the Law, which means it is a timeless principle. All the way back in Genesis 14, the patriarch Abraham clearly practiced the principle of tithing (see Genesis 14:20), which was about 2,500 years prior to the giving of the Law. Likewise, it could be argued that Cain and Abel gave tithes of their incomes in Genesis 4. So tithing could not have passed away with the Law since it was introduced in scripture before the Law. Besides, there are spiritual principles within the Law that are timeless and are to be honored even today. Do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery. These were commandments in the Law, yet we are bound to obey them today. Tithing is like that. It is a spiritual principle that we are bound to. It’s a spiritual principle because it is one of the most important acts of worship; honoring God with a portion of all that He has provided for us by His gracious hand. Yet a very small minority of church-going people worship God in this way - less than ten percent in many churches.

We should also consider that it has always been a principle in scripture – even before the law and even in the New Covenant – that God wants the first portion of everything as a kind of tithe. When He instructed the Israelites to cleanse the land of Canaan of its pagan inhabitants, He said that all of the spoils from the FIRST city taken (Jericho) belonged to Him, and they could have the spoils from every city after that. All the first born animals were to be consecrated to Him, and even in the New Testament the Jewish believers changed their special gatherings of worship from Saturday’s Sabbath – the last day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week. This was in recognition of the resurrection, which God chose to take place on the first day of the week.

The only thing about tithing that has changed under the New Covenant is WHERE we give our tithe, because under the Old Covenant the tithe was to be given for use in the Temple. But today we have no temple, so I believe we can use our tithe in whatever way is helpful and beneficial to the advancement of the gospel and/or to those in need. To be sure, I believe in giving to those who minister to us in our churches, and I believe it is important to support the churches that support us. But to be bound to giving ten percent to your church and then not have any left over to give to a neighbor who is in need is a violation of the heart of God Who cares more about people than He does any institution.

Getting back to the Israelites, it was the prophet Malachi who was sent to deliver God’s message. You’ll find the story in the book of Malachi, and pay special attention to chapter 3 where God addresses tithes and offerings. The thing that I think is so incredible about this chapter is it is the only place in the Bible where God says, “Try Me!” It’s the only place where God literally says to test Him, and see if tithing will not ultimately turn out to be a blessing. Here’s the benefits of tithing in a nutshell as listed in Malachi 3:9-12, and the contrasting curse for those who do not tithe.

· More blessings than you are ready for.
· Preservation of your livelihood.
· Recognized as being blessed by outsiders.
· A curse for those who neglect the tithe, which can take on many forms not indicated in this passage, not the least of which could be continued financial struggle.

You see, I believe God places such an extreme emphasis on tithing not only because it is one of the highest acts of worship, but also because it’s like a spiritual magnifying glass that reveals the conditions of our hearts. It has been my experience that most people who argue against tithing are those who take a very passive approach to their faith and who are generally unreceptive to the God’s standards in the first place. Others are just downright stingy. And in both cases these folks are usually broke or in some ongoing financial crisis. Still others are sincere folks but who lack the faith – like the Israelites in the wilderness – that God will keep His word. But let me tell you something: I can attest that after having put God to the test, my wife and I are living proof that God stands by His Word. Even when I was unemployed and we barely had enough money to put food on the table, we continued to tithe, and God honored that sacrifice. As God increased us financially, we continued to increase our giving well beyond the tithe, and God has continued to show Himself faithful by blessing us over and over and over again. I wish I had the space to list all the ways God has shown His faithfulness to us, but suffice it to say that I am convinced beyond all doubt that God blesses givers. There is also not space to list all the places in scripture where this is indicated, but for now I’ll leave you with three, and pick up where we left off in a few days.

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the FIRST FRUITS of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” -Proverbs 3:9-10

“A generous man will be blessed. He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” -Proverbs 11:25

“Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full – pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” -Luke 6:38

Well….is God’s Word true, or isn’t it? Can we take Him at face value? Can we live out our faith enough to trust God to bless us even when tithing and giving doesn’t make financial sense in the natural? I assure you, He IS faithful. God is not in the carrot-dangling business. He won’t let you crash and burn if you decide to take Him at His word.

Put Him to the test.

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P.S. I’m so excited about the results that God has brought into our lives by following His financial principles of generosity, that I’m eager to tell everyone! Expect another couple of entries on this subject.