Discipleship

May

2022

The Christian and Money

Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Everyone uses money, and we use it for just about everything – food, clothing, a place to live, transportation, entertainment, communication, energy, you name it. Therefore, if the kingdom of God affects how you live, it should affect how you view and handle money. In fact, if you are a Christian and you view and handle money no differently from the world, the kingdom of God has not yet captured your heart. How you relate to money is a good barometer for how you relate to God.

We, thus, need to talk about money, for the Bible talks about it. A lot. So over the next several blogs, I want to talk about topics like greed and contentment, poverty and riches, debt and investment. In other words – money. Today will be a general intro.

Because many earthly items depend on money, we all know we need some amount of it. We need to eat and to live somewhere. We need clothing for our bodies and heat in the winter. We need some type of transportation and some medical care. All of these needs come through money. Thus, money, itself is not evil. In most instances, it is how God provides our needs. And our Father knows our needs (Mt 6:31-2).

The normal way God provides the money for our needs is through work. Honest work is a good thing. God has ordained it to be the means for our provision. He told Adam that man would eat bread by the sweat of his face. We work. We earn money. We eat. That is how God intends earth to operate for now.

Thus, money is not itself evil. People err when they judge others purely on the basis of their bank accounts. Poor people are not more spiritual just because they are poor, and rich people are not necessarily corrupt because they are rich. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Nehemiah, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea were all wealthy, but I dare say we will see them in the kingdom. And many who live in poverty reject Jesus and live for themselves. On the flip side, riches are not a sign of righteousness nor poverty a sign of unrighteousness. James says of the rich, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you . . . the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you.” (5:1,4). Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, the Rockefellers, the Kennedys, and more all have had great wealth but spiritual poverty. And many who are poor flock to Jesus because in their poverty they more clearly see their need. Sometimes riches have a way of blinding us to our weakness. So money itself doesn’t tell you anything about someone’s spiritual state or character. Money itself is merely a tool. However.

Money is still quite dangerous. The danger of money lies not so much in the money but in our hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Make no mistake. Scripture is abundantly plain that you and I must guard our hearts against money. For many people, money is their idol, their God. They live as if their purpose in life is to make money, as if God created them just so He could give them stuff. For these people (and there are many of them) money eats away their soul. They have traded their soul for earthly riches. It’s like Esau trading his birth right for a bowl of stew.

And Christians are not immune to the dangers of money. Money can steal your peace and joy. Money can come between you and God. Money can render your ministry ineffective. Money is ever calling you to look away from God and to the “good life” here. It calls you to compromise a God focus so that you can have that three-bedroom house on the lake.

The overwhelming emphasis of the Bible’s teaching on money is not on its moral neutrality but on its danger to the soul. If we run around convincing ourselves that it’s OK to love money because money is not sinful, we have already lost the battle. Here’s how Paul put it:

“. . . those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (I Tim 6:9-10)

Jesus put it this way: “You cannot serve God and money” (Matt 6:24).

So then. Put your eyes on Christ. Love Him. Work your job. Provide for your family. Be content in Christ with what you have. Don’t look for great riches. If they come, be grateful to God who gave them and be generous to the work of the kingdom and to those in need. But keep your heart free from money, for if you don’t, it will destroy your soul without your even being aware of it.

Mar

2022

Unequally Yoked

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (II Cor 6:14).

If we are going to talk about dating, then at some point, we have to talk about the concept of being unequally yoked. This is the idea that a Christian should marry a Christian.

But before we talk about that, let’s talk more broadly about saying “no” to a potential date. Perhaps you have had to do this and know what it is like. The reality is that I have never met a person who would date anybody. If you are single, you can think of people whom you would never date. When I was single, I remember girls saying “no” to me. And I remember girls interested in me whom I would never ask out. The fact of the matter is that everybody has criteria to determine whom he or she can and cannot date. If you are single, this is you and you know it. Maybe you haven’t thought deeply about what your criteria are and, thus, can’t list them out, but you know you wouldn’t date just anybody. I bet you could give me names of people right now whom you would never date. You might even be able to give me reasons, and the moment you give me reasons, you are giving me criteria by which you make distinctions between eligible and noneligible dates.

What I am describing is universal. I say this to point out the fact that the business of excluding potential partners is something you already do, and you have no problem with it. You have your criteria.

Now the Biblical position on being unequally yoked simply says that one of the criteria for a Christian needs to be that the other person is also a Christian. This is pretty basic. So let me tell a story.

When I was a teenager, I remember hearing a youth leader speak about dating, and he advised Christians not to date nonChristians. Inside me arose this visceral reaction. I wanted to shout, “No!” I felt that this leader’s advice was smack full of arrogance and that it communicated to most of the world, “I’m better than you.” I genuinely believed that everyone was equal and that equality in dating meant that I must be open to anybody.

Two things then happened to me. The first is that I proceeded to walk with God. I don’t mean I didn’t sin. I had plenty of that. But I immersed myself in the Scriptures. I prayed daily. I plugged into a church. And I did these things from the heart. I genuinely wanted to know God better.

The second thing that happened to me is that I began to pay closer attention to the lives of girls, and I noticed a big difference between Christian and nonChristian girls. It wasn’t that Christian girls were holy and nonChristian girls were sinners or that Christian girls were more fun to be around. It was that Christian girls genuinely desired Jesus and nonChristian girls did not. Here was the one thing in life that mattered most to me, and the Christian girls understood, but the nonChristian girls could not. It’s not just that they did not understand. They could not understand.

By the time I had graduated from college, I had completely changed on this issue. I knew Biblically, and I knew from life that as a Christian I could never marry a nonChristian. I knew it. And I understood that this new position was not the least bit arrogant. In fact, it required me to humble myself before God. I had to say, “I was wrong.” I had to listen not so much to America but to Scripture. I also realized that I already had seen many girls I could not date for reasons other than faith, and I did not consider myself arrogant for having those reasons. If I was willing to say “no” to a girl because she smoked, then I also should have been able to do so because she had no faith. Her lack of faith was a far deeper and more central issue than her smoking or her looks or even her personality, and I didn’t think myself arrogant for considering those things. Marrying a Christian simply became one of my criteria.

That’s my story, and I tell it to say that this is not a mere theory to me. It’s real life. I think it’s helpful to understand that before we look at the Scriptures.

So let’s now look at the Scriptures. Let’s begin with marriage itself. I’ve already written about marriage, so I’m just going to summarize. In marriage, “a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Gen 2:28). That is the definition of marriage Jesus gives. If the two are one, they need to be intimate on the most important and deepest issues, they need to be one in their finances, in their priorities, in their child rearing, and in their service to God. This is what marriage is. In addition, the purpose of marriage is to reflect Christ and the Church (Eph 5:22-32). This definition and purpose of marriage do not directly forbid a Christian from marrying an unbeliever, but they lay the foundation for understanding why.

Elsewhere, however, Scripture does directly forbid a believer from marrying an unbeliever. Here is Paul:

Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God . . . (II Cor 6:14-16)

Do not be unequally yoked. I imagine you have seen pictures of a yoke or have heard perhaps of a yoke of oxen. A yoke is a heavy wooden bar that connects two animals together, usually for the purpose of plowing or pulling a cart. The yoke takes the two animals and makes them one. It allows them to pull together as a team. The yoke also inextricably binds the two animals together. This is the picture Paul gives.

Paul says to Christians not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. The idea is that the Christian should not enter a relationship with an unbeliever in which the two are bound together as one. He then gives his reason for the command through a series of questions. What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Light with darkness? And so on.

Paul is not forbidding ordinary friendships because ordinary friendships do not require that the two be bound as one. Marriage, however, is a different type of relationship. If ever there was a relationship in which the two are bound as one, marriage is that relationship.

But the concept of being unequally yoked is not restricted to II Corinthians. In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelite men not to intermarry with the daughters of the peoples around them (Ex 34:16; Dt 7:3; Mal 2:11). In Judges the Israelites took wives from the other peoples around them and wound up serving the gods of those wives (Jg 3:6). In Ezra and Nehemiah the Israelites took wives from the nations around them and had to repent of it (Ez 10:2; Neh 13:23-7). Paul instructs believing widows that they are free to remarry, “only in the Lord” (I Cor 7:39). And, of course marriage portrays Christ and the Church. The Church is the Bride of Christ. The concept of an unbelieving Church is nonsensical.

Thus, when Paul commands believers not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, he is not communicating something new or strange. He is simply repeating the consistent Biblical message on this topic.

But why? Why should believers not marry unbelievers?

The main reason deals with your spiritual life. When God forbade Israel from intermarrying, He says that the reason is spiritual – lest “you take of their daughters for your sons and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.” (Ex 34:16). Significant time bound as one to an unbeliever will make it harder for you to walk intimately with Christ. NonChristians cannot understand a complete commitment to Jesus Christ. They cannot share with you the deepest, most important desires you have. They will never understand your faith.

But marriage involves more than just understanding. In marriage, a man and woman become one. They must then live life as one. When a believer is thus yoked to an unbeliever, the two cannot move forward together spiritually. The believer will want to give sacrificially from their finances to the work of the kingdom. The unbeliever will think that is the craziest idea he has ever heard. The believer will want to raise their kids in Christ. The unbeliever will most likely oppose that desire, but even if not, at best, the unbeliever can simply acquiesce. She can never help out. The believer will want to spend significant time with God’s people and serving God in ministry. The unbeliever will not care. The believer will want Christ to be the top priority in the family. The unbeliever will push back on that priority.

Imagine two oxen yoked together, and one wants to go right and the other left. Or one walks forward but drags the other. This is a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever when it comes to spiritual matters.

Occasionally you hear people bring up the idea of evangelistic dating. You know. “What if my dating her is the only witness she has? And if she does convert, we are then free to marry.”

You are playing with fire. She may convert. She may not. You may “fall in love” with her and all of a sudden you’re making all sorts of excuses as to why you can marry her. And she doesn’t need you to date her for you to be a witness to her. In fact, you’ll be a better witness to her if you don’t date her. Follow Scripture. Not what you want.

In unequally yoked relationships I have seen the unbeliever convert. It happens. But more often what happens is that the Christian flounders spiritually and, to use Biblical language, pursues the gods of the nations.

If you are a Christian, don’t marry a nonChristian. Which means, don’t even date one.

Finally, I need to say something to the Christian already married to a nonChristian. Paul addresses this situation as well. If you are a believer but your spouse is not, remain with your spouse (I Cor 7:12ff). You are married. You are one flesh for life. Love your spouse well. Pray for him or her. You have obvious limits to what you can do together spiritually, but the story isn’t over. God is in the business of redeeming the lost. Pray for that, and above all, walk with Christ yourself.

Dec

2021

The Christian and Work

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own bread. (II Thess 3:11-12)

I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees . . . Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (Eccl 2:4-6, 11)

Thank you, Father, for the work you give us. We are grateful for it. May we recognize it as good and you as the gracious giver of that good.

I have said that when you become a Christian, Christ affects everything. We have talked so far about matters usually considered to be spiritual – the Scriptures, prayer, commitment to a church, sharing your faith, fasting, dying to self, and more. I now want to shift our focus a bit and talk about matters that most people consider more profane – work, money, family, pleasure, and relationships.

But before I begin, I need to dispel a misunderstanding. I need to state clearly that the idea I just introduced – that some topics are spiritual and others profane – is largely a fiction. Everything you do is spiritual. Your attitude toward your job is spiritual. How you spend money is spiritual. Where you find your pleasure is spiritual. How you treat your family is spiritual. Life is spiritual. I do not mean that all of life is esoteric and floating in the clouds. I mean instead that in Christ, the spiritual comes to earth. Your relationship with Christ should touch every area of your life, right on down to how you do the dishes.

The spiritual realm should inform you on how to live on earth and empower you to live that way. What this means is that if we are going to talk about the Christian life, we need to talk about life. Today we will begin with one aspect of life – your work.

If I could describe the overall attitude the Bible displays toward work, I would say this: work is good, but work is not God. Let’s briefly look at both halves of that sentence.

Work is Good

God works. In Creation He worked six days making physical objects. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now and I am working” (Jn 5:17). God’s work never stops.

God calls us to work. In Genesis, God told the man and woman to subdue the earth and rule over it (1:28). That is a job. God then told Adam to work a garden (2:15). That is also a job. God gave both jobs to the human race before the Fall. Sometimes people think that work is a consequence of the Fall. That’s not true. The Fall turned work into toil, but it did not invent work. Work was part of the original created order that God said was “very good” (1:31).

The jobs God gave Adam involve a range of activities. Ruling involves authority, management, and stewardship. Subduing the earth involves using the physical resources of the earth for human good and God’s glory. Tending a garden involves manual labor. Thus, prior to the Fall, God not only commands work, but He commands different kinds of work, including the kind of work that we today might consider menial, physical labor. God considers ruling to be good and digging to be good.

In addition, God instituted a Sabbath at Creation, and a Sabbath makes no sense apart from the context of work. God gave an expectation that six days you shall work and one day you shall rest. He even went so far as to model it for us.

Proverbs frequently praises the man who works and criticizes the lazy man.

Paul worked to support himself as he went about preaching the gospel. He said that he who does not work should not eat, and that those in the Lord Jesus should do their work quietly and earn their own living (II Thes 3:10-12) and that if anyone does not provide for his own family, he has denied the faith (I Tim 5:8).

Scripture holds common work in high esteem. If God calls you to be a farmer, He has called you to a good thing. If He calls you to be a computer programmer or a lawyer or a mechanic or a plumber or a teacher or any other legitimate profession, He has called you to a good thing. Work is good. All work that doesn’t center on sin is good.

Such work has several purposes.

First, honest work reflects the God who works. God is not lazy. Thus, if we are to be like God, we are to work.

Second, work not only reflects God but allows us opportunity to bring glory to God through ordinary means. The trees and stars proclaim His glory just by growing and shining. They do their normal work and honor God by it. In the same way, medicine provides the doctor ordinary means for bringing glory to God, and teaching provides the teacher ordinary means for bringing glory to God. If you wait tables or bake cakes, you have an ordinary job through which you can bring glory to God. You don’t have to be a pastor or missionary to glorify God in your work. Landscaping, architecture, truck driving, painting, sewing, housekeeping, raising children and more are all opportunities to glorify God. Whatever you do, do it for Christ and not for you, and you will find great purpose in it. You may work for a company or the government or yourself, but in the end, you work for Christ. Do your work as if you are working for Him.

Third, honest work contributes to subduing the earth and ruling over it. Different types of jobs contribute in different ways. Ranchers provide food. Scientists and teachers help us understand the world we live in. Engineers and contractors design and build things. Medical personnel keep us healthy. All of these tasks and more help the human race use the earth for human good.

Fourth, work provides our basic needs. Food, water, shelter, clothing, and heat all come through work.

For all these reasons, a person filled with Christ should perform his or her work with excellence and integrity. Sloppy work, a lazy man, or a lack of integrity in your job give the world an excuse to castigate Christ. The Christian should never allow that to happen. But excellent work and a diligent man full of integrity give the world a portrait of what Christ looks like in the work place. It brings glory to God through ordinary means. Daniel did this. Joseph did this. And so should we.

Work is Not God

But work is not God. Work may be a good gift from God, but it is only a gift. Work is a tool in life, not the purpose of life. It is a means for glorifying God, not the end in itself. It is good but never ultimate.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes of the vanity of work (2:4-7, 11). I recall speaking to a man who developed products for IBM. He was doing cutting edge research and development for one of the leading technology companies in the world, and he said that he sometimes felt as if his job was a living portrait of Ecclesiastes. He would invest thousands of hours of his life developing a product, only to find that six months after they released it, it had become obsolete. He then would work on the next product, which would shortly become obsolete, and the next one, and the next one. The technology was constantly advancing, and he felt as if he never got anywhere. This cycle was his work. And that cycle is Ecclesiastes.

Arturo (not his real name) had just gotten a Phd in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas, the number one ranked university in the world in petroleum engineering. We were talking about his future, and I was pushing him to think bigger than work and said, “Arturo, I don’t think God made you just so you can find oil. I think He has something more important for you than that.”

I remember a missionary to Japan describing the work culture of Japan. Work was everything. Work was life. If you didn’t work 100 hours a week, you were not devoted enough. Work was how you got ahead. Work was how you proved your worth. Work did not serve you and your fellow humanity. You were its slave. Is it any wonder that Japanese culture is full of much meaninglessness, suicide and despair. If you have nothing beyond earth and your purpose lies in making cars, I feel sorry for you. I’m sure Japanese culture has many noble aspects to it, but the worship of work is not one of them.

Whatever you do for a living involves earth at some level, and earth will pass away. The financial records the accountant kept last year will be meaningless ten years from now. The hair that the stylist styles will need to be restyled in a few months, and every head the stylist works on will have no hair eighty years from now. The car that the mechanic repairs eventually ends up in the junk yard, and the body that the fitness coach trains winds up buried under dirt. Earth passes away. Everything that is on earth passes away. That includes your earthly work.

So if your job interferes with your time for God or your ability to serve His kingdom, you need to make some changes to your job. Your job is not your top priority. Christ is, and that fact is not negotiable.

Therefore, work your job diligently, with integrity and excellence, as if you are serving Christ, but never treat your job as your main purpose. A workaholic is just as dysfunctional as a bum but in the opposite direction. Making your work your main purpose is sin. It replaces God with running a company. No one who does that will be happy in the end, for running a company is not what you were ultimately made for.

People are different. Some will have a greater danger of being lazy than of being a workaholic, and others just the opposite. Whichever of those errors you are more inclined toward, the solution, at its most basic level, is much the same. Do your work for Christ and not for you. Christ will push the lazy person to have a heart for diligence and excellence, and He will remind the workaholic that work is subordinate to the Savior, and that we serve Him above any job we may have. Christ will give that person peace, a new perspective and remind him of his other responsibilities that he is neglecting – spouse, kids, parents, church, missions, God.

Oct

2021

Tell Them

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . (Matthew 28:19)

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. (I Peter 3:15-16)

Lord, you have put me on Earth to proclaim your name. Be gracious to me and grant me boldness and wisdom and clarity as I do so. And change the hearts of those I speak to, that they may know your beauty and the great love you have toward them.

When the Samaritan woman encountered Jesus, she ran home and told people to come see the man who told her everything she ever did. She had met Messiah and wanted people to know Him. What she did is what every Christian is to do. We are to share our faith.

The gospel is good news, and good news is something you tell. When your boyfriend asks you to marry him, you tell your family and friends. When the baby is born, you tell your family and friends. When you are accepted into medical school, you tell your family and friends. You share good news. In fact, you want to share it. And Jesus is good news. Therefore, sharing Jesus with people is a basic, normal, part of the Christian life. The desire to share Jesus should be as natural as the desire to share being healed from cancer. If you didn’t want to share it, we would think something was wrong with you.

Those who follow Jesus tell others about Him. If they don’t, they hurt their own relationship with God. People who keep Jesus to themselves handicap their spiritual growth. Jesus wasn’t meant to be kept to yourself.

Of course, sharing Jesus with people is risky in many situations. Not everyone considers following Jesus to be good news. Muslims, communists, secular Americans, and others all reject the gospel of Jesus for different reasons – but Christians know that Jesus has brought them salvation and peace. And even when sharing the faith poses no tangible risk, it can feel risky to many people. Not everyone is wired like the Samaritan woman. Some people are quiet. Some don’t want to offend. Some feel a lack of confidence to address people’s questions. Some feel unqualified because of their sin. Most Christians have some reason why they don’t share their faith.

In the end, however, these reasons are excuses, even when they are true. Quiet people still need to speak of Christ. People afraid to offend need to remember that sometimes the gospel is offensive. People concerned about addressing questions need to understand that they don’t have to have all the answers and that the best way to learn is to do. People who sin need to remember that in Christ, they are clean and forgiven and that guilt should not rack their lives.

Sharing your faith can look different for different people and in different situations. Some will continually start spiritual conversations with strangers on the street. Others will modestly share the hope of Christ in more restrained ways. But all must share the message. Sharing your faith will involve the following: prayer, your life, an unbeliever, a relationship, and a message. Let’s briefly look at each of these aspects.

Sharing your faith involves prayer. At the end of the day, you do not and cannot convert anyone. Conversion is God’s business. Thus, prayer acknowledges the centrality of God in the conversion process and invites Him to do His work. To evangelize without praying is a bit silly. It’s trying to do God’s work without God.

Sharing your faith involves your life. You must understand that your life is a message just as much as your words are. Your words lose credibility if your life does not match them. Do not just tell the gospel. Live it. Tell the truth. Treat people with the love of Christ. Do your job with excellence. Be sexually pure. Don’t get drunk. Let your mouth be clean. Your life speaks volumes. It’s part of your message.

Sharing your faith involves an unbeliever. Some Christians are so insulated from unbelievers that they don’t have any one to share their faith with. If that’s you, find some people who do not follow Jesus and get to know them.

Sharing your faith involves a relationship. Jesus actually built relationships with tax collectors and sinners. He ate in their homes. He got to know them and let them get to know Him. You need to care about unbelievers as people. To do so necessitates relationship. Relationships break down barriers and build trust. They also allow others to see your life. NonChristians need to see how you live and not just hear words from you. Of course, there are special cases in which you have little time to develop a relationship – a waitress in a restaurant, a person you meet on the bus, etc. – but even in these cases, it is important to be as personal as possible and to address the real issues of the person you are speaking with. It shows you respect them.

Sharing your faith involves a message. If you never proclaim the message with your mouth, you have a problem. “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rm 10:14) The message is the substance of what Jesus has done. Stay quiet, and nobody knows.

Part of sharing Jesus is simply letting people know that you are a Christian. Be open about who you are. In high-risk situations – North Korea, Afghanistan – you might let fewer people know, but you cannot completely hide your faith indefinitely. It has to come out. If you live the faith, people will then start asking you about it.

If you belong to Jesus, sharing your faith is not optional. Of course, sharing Jesus is not a work that saves you. We are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s the other way round. Salvation by grace makes us want to share Jesus, and the presence of the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so.

What I am saying is not new or wild. It is the thrust of ancient Scripture and the experience of more than 2000 years of Christian history.

Sep

2021

Serving

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Mk 10:45)

Lord, may I love you more. And may I serve you because I love you. Not to gain any reward, but because you are worthy.

People who walk with God give their lives to serve His kingdom. Service to Christ is a basic and normal part of the Christian life. God’s people work to advance the gospel.

Now I suppose I need to clear up a common misconception about working for the kingdom. It is this: working for the kingdom is not works righteousness.

Grace lies at the foundation of Christianity. Salvation is a gift. Holiness is a gift. Forgiveness, joy, and peace are gifts. And sometimes Christians emphasize these gifts in such a way that they simply consume them. They lounge in their forgiveness and salvation and are quick to fight any suggestion that they ought to serve the church or work for the kingdom. Grace then becomes an excuse to do nothing.

This notion of Christianity is light years from that of Jesus, who called people to give away their lives for His kingdom. Genuine faith serves God. It may be true that we are saved by grace, but it is also true that we are saved for good works in Christ.

Thus, the Christian who walks with God wants to serve the kingdom. It is not enough merely to attend church. God wants you actively involved in its ministry. God wants you to serve.

Christians who do not serve grow spiritually fat. They lie around in their grace without ever realizing that the grace they received frees them to serve, and that the strength to serve is itself grace. In other words, the Christians who never serve limit the grace they receive, for it is when you come face to face with bringing the gospel to difficult people or planting a church – when you face the struggles of ministry – that you begin to see how much more grace you need.

Christian faith grows through ministry. Ministry shows you your need for prayer, which means it shows you your need for God. When you cut yourself off from ministry, you cut back the grace of God. When you say, “I’m too busy to serve,” you forget that it is God whom you are too busy to serve – the One who has shown you such kindness. And you won’t serve Him.

People who do not serve the kingdom do not understand grace. Or the kingdom. They understand merely their own desires.

If serving is normal, how then should we serve?

Serve from the heart

Serving is not legalism. It is the natural overflow of a heart in love with Jesus. Therefore, the best step you can take toward healthy Christian service is to deepen your love for Jesus. Pursue Christ, not Christ’s work.

Serve sacrificially

Serving is just a different form of giving. Instead of giving money, you give time, skills, and energy. Give such resources generously.

The Christian who walks with God may have a job but still finds time to minister to refugees, to teach a Bible study, to organize a prayer gathering, to facilitate a neighborhood outreach, or to do any one of a thousand other ministries that advance the kingdom of God.

Serving the kingdom is so basic to a healthy Christian life that if you work a job that consistently leaves you no time for ministry, you might want to look for a new job or look at how you manage your time. Jesus’ disciples left their homes and careers to advance the kingdom. God may not ask that level of sacrifice from you, but He will require sacrifices of some sort. Be willing to make them. This is part of following Christ, for He was willing to sacrifice His life to serve.

Serve now

Many people put off giving to the future, and many put off serving to the future.

“When I get my promotion, then I will have more time and then I will serve . . . When I graduate . . . When my parents die . . . When I get a car . . . When . . . When . . . When . . .” Jesus rebuked the man who said “but first let me bury my father.”

Now. Serve now. You don’t have to serve in some big way. And yes, there is a time for rest and to take breaks, but such rest is for people who are already serving. If you’re not serving, start.

There are many related and more complicated issues we could cover here, but for now, this will suffice. For many, this is where you are. You need to see the connection between your relationship with Jesus and your service for Him. Don’t try to have the one without the other.

Aug

2021

Practical Issues of Giving

The previous blog on giving laid a foundation, and that foundation involves a right heart. Now let’s build on the foundation. Some principles for practical giving.

Give Everything

Sometimes when we talk about giving, people think only about money. This is a mistake. Some people are merely one-dimensional givers. They will write a check or tithe online, then wipe their hands and live the rest of their lives for themselves. They may consider themselves givers because they gave some money, but Biblical giving involves much more.

When your heart belongs to God, you give Him everything. Don’t give just money. Give your time to God’s kingdom. Give of your home, your car, and your skills to help the needy, to build the church, and to advance the gospel. Everything you have should be in God’s hands to use as He pleases.

Give Sacrificially

When Jesus was at the temple watching everyone put their gifts into the collection box. He claimed that the poor widow’s two coins were a greater gift than the gifts of all the others, “for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

God does not measure giving in dollars and cents. He measures giving by sacrifice. The greatest givers are not necessarily those who give the most money but those who give up the most in order to give. The charitable foundations of the rich make the headlines, and people applaud the millions of dollars they give, but the givers behind those foundations still live their plush lifestyles. In the end, they have given little.

Your giving should impact your lifestyle. I’m not saying that we must live in poverty in order to give properly, but I am saying that sacrificial giving is a sacrifice, and when you sacrifice, you go without things you would otherwise have.

The story of the poor widow addresses specifically the giving of money, but the principle Jesus mentions applies to other types of giving as well. Give sacrificially of your time and skills and resources. If you do, you will have to sacrifice not just material comforts but activities you might otherwise want to do or personal desires you might otherwise have. Maybe you cannot attend a concert you would like to attend because you are busy teaching some women the gospel. Maybe you have to sacrifice your desire to sleep in order to pray or you have to miss a meal in order to help someone. Giving sacrificially can involve all of these examples. But whatever it involves, it will change how you live.

Give Now

I have had many people tell me that they want to give to God’s work but can’t because they are not financially able. But one day when they have money – then they will give. They misunderstand giving. They think the main part of giving is the money.

People who put off giving until a time when they have enough money rarely give, for when they get more money, they still don’t have enough. I think again of the poor widow at the temple. If she had put off giving until a future time, she never would have given at all.

Giving is not for the future. It is for now. People who talk about how much they would give if they had the money are not typically givers. Givers are people who give regardless of what they have. And they rarely talk about it. They just do it. And they do it now.

Giving is Good for You

Giving is medicine for the heart. Jesus talked a lot about money and possessions because they are powerful forces. They will steal your heart if you are not careful. The most potent antidote to the love of money is to give it away. When we give, we let go. God wants us to hold on tightly to Jesus, not to our stuff. Giving is, thus, one of the most freeing disciplines a person can practice. It frees your heart from slavery to this world.

I remember talking to the dad of a person in our church. This dad was not a Christian and was angry that his son tithed to the church, and the dad challenged me about it. He said, “Why do you have to give to God? God doesn’t need your money.”

I replied, “You’re right. He doesn’t need my money, but I need to give for the sake of my soul. I give partly because it is good for me, not because I think God somehow needs my money.”

Jul

2021

Giving

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. (II Cor 9:15)

Father, you have given me all I have. Make me a man who gives to you all I have.

God gives. He so loved the world that He gave. He saves by grace, and grace is a gift. Eternal life is a gift. Your own breath is a gift. Food and home and friends are all gifts. Forgiveness is a gift. A new nature is a gift. The Holy Spirit, peace and joy are gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights. God is not merely a giver but a lavish giver. He gives exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

God is a lavish giver because He is a lavish lover. God gives because He loves, and He gives lavishly because He loves lavishly. Love gives. The more you love, the more you give. When a man and woman love each other, they give themselves to each other in marriage for life. No greater love is there than to give your life for your friend. God loves us so deeply that He has given His life for us. He now asks us to give our lives for Him.

If we do not love God, we will not give our lives for Him, but when we love Him, we give everything for Him.

The Christian life is a life of giving. Christ calls people to lay down their lives and follow Him. It’s expensive. You have to give Him everything. If you don’t want to give Him everything, don’t follow Him. If you want to give Him everything but find it hard . . . well . . . me too. Come join me and let’s walk this path together. It may be hard, but it’s full of joy and freedom.

Typically when we think of giving, we think of money and possessions, and, of course, giving certainly involves money and possessions, but Biblical giving is so much more. Biblical giving begins with the heart. To God writing a check without your heart in it, is a bit shallow. The heart is the foundation to giving, so let’s lay that foundation.

Here are some principles that are part of the foundation for the type of giving that God wants from us. No particular order.

Understand where everything comes from. Do you have a family? God gave it to you. Do you have a job? God gave it to you. Your bank account, your home, your education, your time, your ability to play the piano, your skill with numbers or words, your compassion? God gave them all to you. Is there any good thing you have that God did not give you?

The Christian must understand deep in the heart that everything he has came from God. We cannot give what we do not have, and we have because God first gave. We love because He first loved us, and we give because He first gave to us. Everything we give originated with God. A father gives his child spending money. The child takes some of that money and buys a gift for his father. The child thus gives to his father what his father had first given to him. Christian giving is like this.

The person who best gives sees that everything he has came from God.

Understand that everything we have is by grace. This principle relates to the one above but focuses on something different. The first principle states simply that God is the source of every good thing in our lives. This second principle focuses on merit. It’s not just that God is the source; it’s that we do not deserve any of the good things He has given. You have air to breathe and water to drink, but you did nothing to deserve such. In Christ, you have forgiveness and peace, but you did not deserve them. You have a thousand blessings at your right hand, and you have done nothing to earn them.

The Christian who sees his heart knows that he deserves nothing. And yet God has given us everything. This is grace. You have work by God’s grace. You have a family by God’s grace. You have a home by God’s grace. You have a clean heart, a renewed mind and a new nature by God’s grace.

Sometimes the rich and powerful receive gifts because they are rich and powerful, and people court their favor. But God does not need your favor. He gave to you when you were lowly and poor. You were nothing but He gave you life. You were naked but He clothed you. You were hopeless but He gave you hope.

Christians sometimes think that salvation is the only thing they have received by grace. This could not be further from the truth. Everything we have has come by grace. This fact should affect our giving because it should touch our heart. We should be grateful for what we have and not demanding that we receive more.

The Christian who best gives is the Christian who sees that he deserves none of God’s good gifts.

We need new hearts in order to give. I suppose you do not technically need a new heart to write a check or to volunteer to lead worship. Many who write checks have old hearts, and many who lead worship are merely performers. But Biblical giving goes beyond externals. If we are to give as God desires, we need new hearts, and these new hearts require God to make them new.

Ask God to give you His heart. The heart of Christ wants to give, and the heart of Christ comes only from Christ. You cannot make yourself give. You cannot clench your fists and will God’s heart. You cannot change yourself. Only God can do this. So go to Him. This is where giving is interconnected with everything else we have been discussing about walking with God. Get your heart into the Scriptures, into prayer, into a Christ-honoring church. Trust in the Cross and Resurrection, and lean on His Spirit. Look to Christ for your new life. When you do, and when He gives you a new heart, you’ll give – from the heart.

Giving is grace. This principle is different from the principle about grace above. That principle says that what you have received is grace. This one focuses on what you give.

When Paul encourages the Corinthians to give, he uses as an example the churches in Macedonia. He says, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.” Paul then describes the giving of those churches and concludes with “ . . . see that you excel in this act of grace also” (II Cor 8:1-7). To Paul, the giving that the Macedonian churches practiced was by the grace of God, and the giving that he encouraged the Corinthian churches to practice was also by the grace of God.

When we give, we give out of the grace of God. This principle flows naturally out of all the principles above. The money, time, talents, and resources we have are by grace. God gave them to us. The very heart to give is also grace. God gave it to us.

All aspects of Biblical giving are grace. God graciously gives us the resources, the ability, the heart, and the privilege to give. Thus, when we give, we should be grateful.

We must give ourselves before we give our things. Paul says of the Macedonian churches, “they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (II Cor 8:5). One of the biggest mistakes people make when they give is that they give only their things. This sort of giving usually arises out of either legalistic motives – “I did my duty” – or a desire to feel good about ourselves – “see what a kind person I am!”

In this type of giving, the self is still at the center. We may let go of some money, but we haven’t let go of ourselves. God wants so much more than your stuff. He wants you. He wants you to give Him yourself and not just some material goods. Of course, when you give God yourself, He gets your stuff as well. Giving God yourself is not a substitute for giving Him your resources. It is the motivation and power for doing it.

When it comes to giving, keep first things first. Giving your resources is not first. It flows out of a life given to God.

Healthy giving requires contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain. When we give ourselves to Christ, we have Christ, and if we have Christ, we have all we need. We are rich. In fact, we are richer than if we had merely a trillion dollars. The Christian who sees this is content with what he has. When we are content with what we have, we are freer to give.

If we are not content in Christ, we are not truly content. We will always want something more, and when we want more, we tend to hold on to what we have or we give grudgingly. Scripture says God loves a cheerful giver, and a cheerful giver is content. Contentment is essential to Biblical giving.

The principles above focus on our hearts. This is where giving begins.

Jul

2021

The Christian Life: A Summary So Far

Over the past months, I have been discussing how to live the Christian life. I want now to stop and summarize what we have seen so far. This is, thus, a review, a satellite picture of a portion of the Christian life. When you live the Christian life, what should it look like? What helps us live the life Christ calls us to live? So here goes.

The Christian life requires a Christian. This is basic. To live the Christian life, you must first have the life of Christ in you. Unconverted people cannot live converted lives. Christ must change you. You must be a new creature in order to live a new life.

The Christian life requires Christ. The Christian life is a life of “not I but Christ.” It is a life of being dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The Christian who relies on his own strength will not live the Christian life. But the Christian who looks to Jesus and leans on Jesus and trusts in Jesus will find in Jesus the power to live for Jesus. In the Cross and Resurrection, God has done the work to make us righteous. He has cleansed us from all sin, crucified our sinful nature, and given us new life through the Spirit. Believe these truths from the heart. Rest in them and let them lead your life.

The Christian life requires the Spirit. In Christ, God has come to dwell in you through His Spirit. It is His Spirit who convicts you of sin, judgment and righteousness. It is His Spirit who brings holiness. It is His Spirit who applies the power of Christ in your life. Let Him do so.

The Christian life requires perseverance. We live in a fallen world, and those who are in Christ still fall, but when we fall, we confess our sin, we trust in the Cross of Christ to make us whole, and we get back up. We don’t quit. Ever.

The Christian life requires desire. You cannot die to self unless you have a greater desire for Christ. The Christian life is not about forsaking our desires but about fulfilling a higher and deeper desire for Christ. You must have passion for Jesus if you are to live for Him successfully.

The Christian life requires a church. God made His people to be a body in which each member needs the others. You need a church, and the church needs you. People who choose to live outside a Christ-honoring church are not living the Christian life. In fact, they cannot live it until they choose to participate with the body of Christ. Christians should grow in their relationship with God, but God designed them to do this within the context of a Biblical community.

The Christian life requires the Scriptures. If you want a healthy soul, feed it healthy ideas. If you want to know God better, learn what He says. God’s words are in the Bible. Read it. Meditate on it. Listen to it. Take it to heart. Obey it. If you want to live the Christian life, the Bible is essential. It points you in the right direction. It centers your soul on Christ. Those who best live the Christian life spend significant time daily feeding their souls from the living word of God.

The Christian life requires prayer. If you want to live the Christian life, you need to know God, and if you want to know God, you and He need to talk . . . intimate talk . . . soul talk. Not just “grant me these three requests” talk. You need to pour out your heart to God, and this heart-to-heart communication needs to happen daily. Indeed, it needs to happen as you live life, so that you talk with God from the heart throughout the day. The more you pray – real prayers, not just scripts – the closer your relationship with God grows, and as you draw near to God, He changes you, and you will see Him work through you. A Christian life without real prayer is not a Christian life.

All of the above represent a summary of the past several months blogs about how to walk with Christ. I felt it necessary to stop and recap before we move on, for we have so much more to address, and it is good from time to time to stop and bundle things up. If you want more details, go back and read the blogs, but even they are incomplete. There is so much more to the Christian life than can be written.

Jun

2021

Food for the Soul

Man does not live by bread alone . . .

Feed me, O God. Feed me yourself, that I might know you more closely, love you more strongly, walk with you more constantly. I need to hear and to heed your words – not mine, not those of my friends or family or government or culture. I need to hear from you. How my soul thirsts for the living God and for a word from Him!

A growing boy needs to eat. When I was a child, I remember my mother saying, “Now eat your dinner. If you want to grow strong, you’ll have to eat.” And, of course, she was right. People who don’t eat, grow thin and weak. They are more prone to cold and sickness; they move more slowly and are often more irritable.

But when it comes to food, the message, “Eat” is incomplete, for growing boys need not just food but the right food. That’s why my mother would also say, “No dessert until you eat your vegetables,” for she knew that a healthy growing boy needed to fill his belly with healthy foods and not just any food. In fact, in America at least, we have all sorts of health problems not because people don’t eat but because they gorge themselves on cakes, chips, sodas, and fast food. If you eat too much junk, pretty soon your body becomes junk. You really are what you eat.

The soul is this way, too. Just as the body needs healthy food so, too, does the soul. But food for the soul is not beef or broccoli. Food for the soul consists in the thoughts you think, the ideas you read, the attitudes you see in movies or TV, the words you hear and speak – in short, the worldview you expose yourself to. And just as people often eat too many cookies and donuts, so, too, do people often feed their souls on too much junk food.

In the spiritual realm, healthy food is Biblical food, and junk food is everything else. Some of that junk food is spiritually neutral. It’s background noise – the cooking channel, a soccer team, your job. Everyone has such noise in their lives, and, like chocolate, it is not necessarily harmful in and of itself, but a diet consisting mostly of background noise will not move the soul toward God. Too many people cannot hear God through the noise. Other junk food is poison – sexual content in movies, celebrities who proudly mock Biblical teaching, peer pressure to think like your culture. These phenomena actively move the soul away from God. What you expose your mind and heart to affects how you think and live.

In the physical realm, the solution to too much junk food is simple. Eat more meat and vegetables and fewer pies and cakes. The same is true in the spiritual realm. The soul that feeds on the Bible grows strong, while the soul that neglects the Bible withers away. The soul with heavy exposure to the surrounding earthly culture and light exposure to God’s culture becomes thin, shallow, and distant from God. You really are what you eat.

This means that the Bible is essential for a vibrant spiritual life. The Bible is God’s message for the human race. It grounds people in ultimate matters and places their lives firmly on a solid rock, so that they can stand even when the waves of culture hit. Remove that rock, and people just bob in the sea, flowing back and forth wherever the waves take them.

The Bible points the soul to God. It shows us how God thinks, what He is like, and what He has done. It shows us why we are here and where we are going. It shows us our own hearts and what God wants those hearts to be. It shows us what a new life looks like and where the power comes from to live that life. The Bible is the meat and vegetables for a healthy spiritual life. It is where you go to renew your mind. It is what the soul must feed on. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Most souls, however, do not consume the Bible, and a majority of souls that identify as Christian do not consume the Bible. I don’t mean that none of them ever reads the Bible at all. I mean that most people in the church pay such scant attention to the Bible that they might as well not read it. The lack of Biblical content in the average “Christian” is staggering. Most people who identify as Christians spend minimal (if any) time each day feeding on the Bible but hours a day on social media, viewing movies, or listening to pop music. In other words, they feed on junk food. And their consumption shows. They have difficulty standing against the culture they feed on, and their walk with God is shallow. They feed their souls large amounts of donuts and cupcakes every day but rarely eat healthy.

They don’t know how God thinks because they don’t take the time to find out. They grow weak, fat and spoiled, and they hurt themselves and the church.

If you want to walk with God, you have to set time daily to get to know what He has said in Scripture . . . to meditate on it from the heart . . . to yield your soul to its authority. If you have access to the Bible and choose to ignore it, you cripple your soul.

But if you devote yourself to it, you have something substantial to build your life on, for it will point you to Christ. You are what you eat. Even in the soul.

May

2021

Needing the Church

I mentioned in the previous blog that the church is necessary to your spiritual life. When I talk like that, I occasionally get pushback from people who feel they can walk with Christ apart from His body.

Here are some reasons people give for separating from the body of Christ.

The church is dysfunctional.

Of course it is. And so are you. Some churches are more dysfunctional than others, and some churches you should get out of, but let’s not throw away the church with the dysfunction. Trying to follow God all by yourself is dysfunctional. If you, thus, abandon the church because it is dysfunctional, all you are doing is trading one form of dysfunction for another.

We live in a fallen world. Dysfunction is everywhere, and dysfunctional people in the church give you the opportunity to learn patience, to show grace, to practice hospitality and forgiveness, and to help you see how you look to God.

The church has hurt me

I’m sure it has. I do not question the pain. If I could offer an apology on behalf of the church that hurt you, I would gladly do so, but I am aware that an apology coming from me isn’t the same. I want you to know simply that I sympathize. I, too, have been hurt by the church.

Likely the pain you feel has come from the dysfunction we just discussed. I do not question the dysfunction.

But the church is your family, and families are full of dysfunction, and often they hurt us, but they are still family. What I want to ask you to do is to look beyond the details of your pain and to Christ. You should then see that the specifics of your case were not likely a result of people following Christ.

So follow Christ. But understand that if you do follow Him, He will point you back to His church. He always does. It is His Bride.

If the specifics are such that you cannot return to the same church, then find a different one. But find one that honors Christ and Scripture.

I don’t need the church in order to worship.

That’s a deceptive sentence. It’s like saying “I don’t need a family in order to live.” It is technically correct on one level but completely off base for life.

You see, technically, I have had worship experiences by myself, and technically God can show special grace to an Iranian Christian imprisoned for his faith. In neither case, however, is the person choosing to separate from God’s people. Why then, would someone choose to separate from God’s people and use this reason for doing so?

The fact of the matter is that in normal life you do need the church in order to worship, for corporate worship is commanded. God desires not just individual praise but corporate praise, and you cannot do that by yourself.

In addition, this objection assumes that the only purpose of the church is to help you worship. But the church helps your spiritual life in so many other ways as well. It helps you know God’s Word, it helps you pray, it provides a need for you, it shows you how to give, it helps you walk with integrity, and more.

Now you could say that all of these are part of worship, and I will not quarrel with you, but I would say that if they are, then you need the church in order to worship.

I don’t need the church to walk with God

That is like one of your hands saying, “I don’t need the eyes.” Or a foot saying, “I don’t need the ears.”

Do you really think that by yourself you can provide all the wisdom, faith, generosity, teaching, evangelism, leadership, service, and compassion that you need?

The notion that Christians can intentionally neglect meeting together fits America quite well, but it does not fit the Bible at all.

Discipleship

The Christian and Money

Unequally Yoked

The Christian and Work

Tell Them

Serving

Practical Issues of Giving

Giving

The Christian Life: A Summary So Far

Food for the Soul

Needing the Church

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