Remarks for Friday, January 30, 2009

It's Friday, but Sunday's Coming

This Sunday I am talking with my congregation about what God desires for us to do with the riches in which He blesses us. I happened to pull out a sermon tape that an old friend of mine named Rick Atchley preached ten or fifteen years ago. It was from a sermon series on grace. In that sermon, Rick happened to mention that the word grace appears more in Second Corinthians 8 and 9 then any other two chapter section in the Bible. Now this is the Greek word that he is talking about, so I pulled out my Concordance to the Greek Testament and I looked it up for myself. You know what? With regard to the New Testament, I think he is right.

In these two chapters Paul is talking about offering money. It is striking how the backdrop, the spiritual current, that is driving the giving that Paul is calling for here is the grace of God and its motivation to us. Even though we are in difficult economic times, for the past few months I cannot get out of my mind how much I and so many others are richly blessed. Since most American families earn more than 96% of the people in the world, how does God want us to use these riches? Guys like Jim Hackney and Andy Stanley have been asking questions like this. I want to ask them too.

What follows are some thoughts that I have been processing with respect to my own life. I think it describes in some ways the human experience.


Money and Balance

God blesses us with money. With that money we can purchase items that make us feel good. Believe it or not, there is a realm of balance where this is pleasing to God. For example, I would feel bad to live in a ramshackle shelter and experience a night like the other night. The temperature was in the 20s, and it was raining a cold rain. I would not feel good living in a house that would expose me to those elements. To spend money on shelter that keeps me warm and protected from the outside elements makes me feel good. And God does not call me to abandon that.

To buy clothes that keep me warm, makes me feel good. That is a perfectly appropriate use of my money.

I suffer from allergies. When I do not try to medicate this condition, I feel bad. My nose runs. I get sinus infections. I feel miserable. To use my money to purchase medicine, makes my allergies feel better and makes me feel good. That is perfectly within the will of God.

To use my money to provide shelter, clothing, and healthcare, are examples of appropriate use of money. And let's be honest, if I provide all these things for me and my family, they will contribute to our having good feelings.

The problem comes in from the extremes. There are poles on either side of this healthy balance. It is unhealthy, spiritually, to say my family should not have proper shelter and should suffer in the elements. It is unhealthy to say my family should not be clothed properly. It is unhealthy to say that I should not provide my family healthy food to eat. It is unhealthy to say I should not use my money to provide my family proper health care.

Even in the time of the New Testament, there were men and women known as ascetics. They lived near this pole. They thought it was God's will for them to use money in these ways, so they chose to suffer by denying themselves the basic needs of life. I think Paul was addressing people like this in Colossians 2: 16-23.

On the other hand, at the opposite pole, we find the people who say fulfilling the basic needs of life is not enough. They wish to use their money to purchase more. But understand, deep down, they are not seeking to buy more items, they are seeking to purchase more good feelings. For example: buying a new vase for the house. A vase is an inanimate object. I cannot emit signals of any kind. It cannot project emotions. Yet, one who purchases a vase is purchasing a symbol. That vase represents a currency that he or she thinks will supply good feelings. Granted, the process is intuitive. Yet, on a subconscious level, a person buys things to feel good.

Purchases become currency. People can mistakenly believe their riches, the income which is above the amount they need to live on, can be used to purchase the good feelings they perceive to be lacking in their lives.

This view is unhealthy. It can spiral into a vicious cycle downward. A person makes enough to have his needs met, yet he wants more. Therefore, he uses his extra income to purchase items he perceives will give him good feelings. Ultimately, he finds these items unfulfilling, so he buys more, and becomes like a drug addict that needs just one more fix to be satisfied. This desire for more becomes an addiction.

God does not bless people with more money than they need to live on so they can use it to pimp good feelings. God has a higher expectation. God desires to see people use their riches to bless others like he has blessed them.

God yearns for people to understand the deepest need they have cannot be met through income. It can only be met through the gracious provision of God through his son, Jesus Christ. There is no way we can ever return the favor, literally return the grace. Therefore, we seek to be sources of grace for others. The byproduct of this lifestyle is often feelings of contentment and pleasure, when we seek to honor God with a life of service and giving to others including the use of our income to bless others.

This is a healthy way of living higher lives. It's sort of like the movie PAY IT FORWARD. In that movie, a child developed a project in school that culminated in a cause: when someone does you a big favor, don't pay it back... Pay It Forward. That is exactly the way we look at God. There is no way we can pay God back. What we do is pay it forward to someone else.


The world has passed me by!

I talked with my old college roommate, and Argentina teammate, Tim Archer, this morning. He's now a biggie with Herald of Truth. He told me about all of our college friends who are on Facebook. He told me about how they swap information and stay in contact.

He told me about all of these underground blog communities that are going on. He also told me how people from various parts of the country or even the world, people who have never met, who have posted blogs, communicate with each other.

It is now official -- I am ignorant! Moreover, not only have I been blissfully unaware of these activities, I don't even own a cell phone. I feel like the Joe Paterno of preachers. I still don't want to own a cell phone. However, I will put to rest of that stuff to deep prayer.


Favorite book on CD of the week

I love listening to Books on Tapes or Books on CDs. Yesterday I drove to Dallas and back and had a chance to listen to part of the book The Know-It-All; One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. It is a written by A. J. Jacobs who has authored articles for several magazines and was a writer for Entertainment Magazine for several years. The gist of the book is about how Jacobs made a decision a few years ago to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, and the book is hilarious. Jacobs has a tremendous wit at and I found myself sometimes laughing out loud in the car. I would heartily recommend the book. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I would encourage you to not listen to the book in the company of others. The Encyclopedia Britannica is like the Bible-- it deals with all subjects regarding the human race. And just like you would best not hear portions of the Bible read aloud in the presence of others (see the Song of Solomon); likewise, there are subjects in the Encyclopedia Britannica that are best heard alone.