So maybe you have been hearing and seeing of the news now 2 weeks after the earthquake in Haiti and you’ve thought “I should do something. I should send money. I should donate something.” Maybe you have spoken about it with someone close to you about the best way you could help. But then maybe life got busy again for you. Maybe your desire to think-through the best way to help has led you to do nothing because you’re just not sure if it will do any good. Afterall, you can’t give enough to make the pain all go away – so then why do anything at all?
Here’s why that is problematic – I know someone who can give $100 to help people in Haiti and I know 20 people who can give $5 to help people in Haiti. The one who has $100 really believes that their gift can help – so they give. The 20 people with $5 don’t think that their gift can make a dent in the huge number of need – so they don’t give. So rather than $200 going to help from 21 people giving, only $100 gets sent and 20 people buy a Venti Carmel Machiato at Starbucks that’s gone in 30mins.
I’ll be honest with you – I don’t know the best place for you to give. Perhaps some Christian organizations help in relief efforts and do so with a heart of Christ – some governmental or non-profit organizations have more resources to get to where the greatest needs are. I just wanted to highlight the fact that many of us have thought about doing something but then done nothing because the little we could do we thought wouldn’t help. Below are a few articles that might help ease your concerns and enlighten us to what is going on in light of people helping:
Why not take some time today and pray about what you can and should do to help – rather than almost giving, which is actually not giving. And take some time today to pray for the people who live in Haiti – many of them devoted to the Christ – who have lost loved ones, lost homes that they would turn their eyes to the One who seeks the lost. How wonderful it would be if Christians would be known as the most generous and compassionate people on earth.
James 1:27 – Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
For those of you who have encouragment on how to help, please leave a comment below.
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
The people of God are not to be like the people of this world. They are to be worlds apart – in their love, actions, thoughts, words, heart. Imagine looking at the same situation as another but yet having a totally different perspective than they do on the same circumstance. That’s how your whole life should be verses how it used to be and how the world still is.
Think about the difference of perspective between these two groups during the same event.
The people
Exodus 14:11-12 – They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
Moses
Exodus 14:13-14 – And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
A major difference between Moses & the people at this point is that Moses had come to see and know the LORD. I imagine the people of Israel were still being introduced to the very God was was currently leading them out of slavery. Moses had seen first hand how God had worked from the burning bush to the final plague. Though the people had probably become integrated in Egyptian society and life at this point, one thing we certainly know from Moses is that he maintained his identity as a descendant of Abraham.
When you take a long journey, you often forget an important item after you’ve left home already. Sometimes its your toothbrush, extra socks, or a particular bag. You probably forget to take this item with you because of the commotion often involved in leaving the house quickly. You thought your spouse or child was going to get the bag perhaps. Whatever the reason it is because you are thinking about leaving and arriving at your destination more than you are about making sure you have all of your things.
Moses we see was not like this. In all of the commotion of his own exodus from Egypt, appearing before Pharaoh, and gathering together all of the people of Israel, his mind is still fixed on the great promise of God towards Abraham. We see this in the fact that he did not forget a most important item:
Exodus 13:19 – Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”
May our minds be fixed on the world to come to the point that it marks us out as different from the world around us now. May today be a day where we practice the life of the age to come today.
We often hear Jesus speak about how the Jewish Sabbath got all mixed up in the mind of the nation of Israel by the time he arrived on the scene. He speaks of how the heart of a man was more important that the outward action that he might observe in his religious service.
In light of that during my morning reading today I took note of something I haven’t seen up until now. Matthew 25 is the great chapter on preparedness before the coming of the King and ends with the picture of the sheep and goats being separated in the end of the age based on the life of love, service, and kindness that they lived. Jesus tells us that the judgment in the end of the age will be based on how we cared about people.
And then I noticed this:
Matthew 26:1-2 When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
The very next thing that comes from the mouth of Jesus is the fact that he will be delivered up to be crucified. We often think of the last supper sermon as some of the most important words of our Lord because they were spoken on the night he was betrayed. You often tell your people what is most important right before the end of your time with them.
In light of that think about what Jesus has just said to his disciples in Matthew 25 and directly following that he tells them that he is going to die at the hands of the Romans! He must have felt that his words in Matthew 25 were important if he ends his time with them by saying he is doing to be crucified.
I was an interesting observation this morning I think which again stresses to me the importance of the record in Matthew 25. We spend much time in our churches and homes talking about “the most important thing” or “what one must do to be saved” – certainly these conversations must be had and continue, but I offer this morning that we should include this great section of Scripture in our conversation.
Matthew 25:31-40 1 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
So as the new year approaches, consider what our lives must be about in anticipation of the coming of the King & his judgment of the world.
He is known for His greatness & glory found in the unexpected.
This morning I have been pondering the Messianic Birth Narratives in Luke in preparation for tomorrow morning @ living faith. I’m trying to look at this section with new eyes, imaging what it must have been like for someone observing all of these events to go home and tell their family. Hard to believe I bet. Yet this is where we find God and where we find the beginning’s the Messiah’s life.
Not in the palace of Herod but in the stable.
Not born to the rich& famous but to the humble and faithful peasants.
Not announced to the religious leaders but to shepherds.
The way Jesus starts his life is certainly in line with the rest of the life he would live. This shows me that God is not found in the things and ways of this world but by stepping out of those things we can see Him & His workings. I’m trying hard not to quote the often used “His ways are not our ways” but it just seems so appropriate!
Isaiah 55:6-9 6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
He is found outside of our comfort zone. He is found outside of our routine. He is found outside of the workings of this age. He is found in the things of the age to come that spill over to this age – things like love for enemies, forgiveness, justice, sabbath, prayer, care for those in need, and the like.
He will not be found in the world (including Christmas shopping). So take time to seek after Him today.
As I have said before I realized early in my desire to take a weekly Sabbath that you have to work to not work, after a couple of weeks of out of town visitors, traveling, and stuff to do, I sit down again early this morning and enjoy time with the LORD (and my sweet 4month old). We’re taking a Sabbath today again finally back to the normal routine that our family really wants and needs.
As I sat down this morning after realizing I could and I reflected on the fact that Israel eventually did not keep the sabbath that was commanded them by their God.
As I have said from the beginning of my own sabbath journey, I am not advocating that Christians keep the sabbath as a command of the LORD and if they don’t they are far from God – this is something that I have begun to see the value and importance of in my own life for my own life. That being said, I understand what God commanded Israel as He did:
Exodus 20:8 ”Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Deuteronomy 5:15 – You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
This is something I have to remember to do – if not, my life, my schedule and the things of the world will pile up and overload me so that I end up doing work and being worked up when I need to rest.
Honestly, we need to have better control of our lives – doesn’t it seems that sometimes we go from one thing to the next and then to the next without thinking about what it is we’re doing? We react and respond to things that come at us without realizing that our responses and actions are often without thought. We make decisions by indecision.
I am understanding more and more that can’t be like this in general with Christianity and regarding my sabbath taking specifically. I have to remember throughout the week that I have been redeemed – I’m not living for this life, this job, this task, this errand, etc – I’m living free because of Christ in expectation of the coming Kingdom. And then today, I am going to celebrate this expectation of rest in the future by resting from the normal routine of Sunday-Friday.
So, more thoughts in my mind today to consider, and I’ll do so today because I’m going to work hard to rest today!
I think Bishop Wright makes a good point for us to consider in the age in which we live. For the advantages that the online community does give, we must not neglect the real community around us – the one of our churches as well as in our neighborhoods.
Kind of a humbling and insightful reminder to me of who we are, and how great GOD is.
“GOD rescues us (bad people), to reveal the glory of HIS grace and the expansive boundaries of HIS love…”
So many times in my life, I would try to earn GOD’s grace by works or believe that because of my Christian up-bringing that I was placed in an “automatically saved” group. It wasn’t until GOD showed me through my sin and iniquity of how bad I was, that I realized how HIS salvation rests on how great HIS love and grace is and not on how good we (think) we are.
“Why are some saved and not others? (those who aren’t saved can’t come to terms with the fact that they’re bad… ironically, they spend their lives searching any and everything of the world they feel will make them better). When you understand that we are all guilty, the amazing thing is not that GOD saves some and not others, the amazing thing is that GOD saves any.”
If GOD’s desire is to save all men (1 Timothy 2:3-4), and all men are bad (Romans 3:23 and Matthew 19:17), then “GOD saves bad people” isn’t all that enlightening of a statement to most Christians. However, taken a little further, and this belief can be easily argued to defend Universalism.
Christian Universalist believe that, GOD, in a “display of HIS infinite love, sent Jesus the Christ to die so that ALL of humankind not just can be saved but will be saved, regardless of faith and actions.” – sounds good huh.?. especially if you want to flow through life doing what you want and still be saved in the end.
http://www.christian-universalism.com/ – Here you can see E. Stetty proclaiming the gospel of, “no man left behind” (I think he stole that phrase; isn’t that the marine’s motto.?. or from an x-men cartoon or something)? Anyways, you see that Christian Universalist claim that ALL men are being saved by GOD through Christ, and this is the “good news”.
What are your thoughts on the video and what are some verses/scripture that refute this growing Christian Universalist belief.
Fantasy: an unreal, imagined or conjured up image fulfilling a psychological desire.
Mark 4:18 & 19 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
In going over the parable of the sower recently, one aspect of the seed sown on thorny ground intrigued me the most. It’s crazy that the desire for wealth and other things would be a topic needed to be directed towards Christians who are already finding their joy in someone as great as the LORD. However, it seems to even a self-proclaimed “Christian”, that the LORD simply isn’t enough for us. In our pursuit to find joy from the things of the world, our joy in the LORD and HIS salvation gets diminished, choking us away from a fruitful faith, and ultimately HIS coming Kingdom.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 - And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
I hate to give the devil credit for anything at all, but he really has had his way in presenting this fallen world as a tantalizing substitute for the joy of the LORD and HIS salvation through Jesus.
So what’s your fantasy? Fortunately our GOD is way greater than this satan and has equipped us with scripture to inform us of which treasure is worth striving after and which one will one day perish (and wouldn’t mind taking us with it).
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
I Timothy 6:6-19 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.
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