Year: 2013

Categories
Finances

Theology of Enough

Hmmmm…
The Theology of Enough probably isn’t a topic many of us want to discuss during the winter holiday season. Not because we do not agree with the principle of it, but because it is so hard to live out in our “give me more” society, especially from Black Friday through Christmas when we are encouraged to purchase so much stuff.

But here is one reason that it is important… when we live in debt, we are unable to serve God fully. We are now in the midst of the struggle of how to get out of debt. Where do we trim back? How can I be generous to others when I owe so much? And so the spiritual discipline of simplicity and the theology of enough can work together to change our mindset so that we do not fall into the marketing trap of our society and so that we can remain fully available to be used by God.

So what is the Theology of Enough? Here is a great, true-story illustration of it from Stanley Tam (I discovered this story in the book ‘Primal,’ by Mark Batterson)

Stanley Tam started the the United States Plastic Corporation, and early on Stanley made God the Senior Partner of his company. Stanley knew God was the reason for his blessings in life, and he wanted to honor God with the way he ran his company and used the earnings from his business. So Stanley legally transferred 51 percent of his business to God. Fifty-one percent of the company’s profits would be set aside and used for ministry purposes. Most of us would probably have been patting ourselves on the back at that point. Not Stanley.

After reading the parable about the merchant who found the pearl of great price and sold everything he had to obtain it, Stanley made an even bolder decision… he decided to to divest himself of all his shares. In January of 1955, every share of stock was transferred to his Senior Partner and Stanley became a salaried employee of the company he had started. From the day of that defining decision until his death in 2000, Stanley was able to manage the giving of earnings to ministry purposes… which amounted to more than a hundred million dollars. But let’s be clear – the real truth about this theology of enough wasn’t that Stanley had given God thousands of shares or millions of dollars… What he had really given God was his heart. And that’s what God really wants.

You can read Stanley’s testimony in his own words on the US Plastic website at: http://www.usplastic.com/content/aboutcorporation.aspx

A lot of the people who met Stanley envied the money his company made. But what we should really envy is his faith.

After meeting Stanley, Mark Batterson said: “Such childlike faith in such an aged body is a rare quality. He talked about good old-fashioned obedience as the key to success. He talked about giving things away as a means of sending them ahead to heaven. He talked about how God’s shovel is bigger than ours. But the most challenging
and inspiring discussion revolved around establishing an income ceiling.”
“Most people spend more money as they make more money. Their standard of living goes up in direct proportion to their income. They buy more cars, bigger televisions, and nicer things. Not Stanley. He hasn’t taken a raise in three decades. In his own words, “A man can eat only one meal at a time, wear only one suit of clothes at a time, drive only one car at a time. All this I have. Isn’t that enough?”

And that is our important question here at the highest point of consumerism of the year. How much is enough?

For some, the answer is – “One more dollar.” We want more and more, so we can spend more and more. “We have an insatiable appetite for more.” When will we take the blessings God has given us and say – “I have enough, it is now time for me to give all that I have above my level of enough away to God and His kingdom causes.”?

“Enough will never be enough unless you determine how much is enough.”

Batterson ends with these piercing questions:
“What would happen if every Christ follower had the courage to ask and answer that question with biblical integrity? What would happen if every Christ follower personalized that question and specified a dollar amount? What would happen if every Christ follower gave away everything above and beyond their predetermined income ceiling?”

What a challenging idea.
Determining how to be a good steward of what God has blessed me with.
Honestly, I can’t say that I have embraced the income ceiling idea yet… I guess I don’t feel I have “enough” yet.
But I am praying that God will keep convicting me in this area so that I know how to hold to a theology of enough and a belief in simplicity.

What about you?
How do you fight the materialism mentality in this consumer culture, especially at Christmas?
What do you think about Stanley and his choice of an income ceiling to be able to give more away for kingdom causes?

(Quotes from ‘Primal’ by Batterson)

Categories
Christian Living

Reshaping Yourself

A lot of us look in the mirror and don’t love what we see. And I’m not just talking about physical appearances. Though you are probably your biggest critic regarding the image that looks back at you from the mirror, you are also the only one who truly knows your heart. And for many of us, we still aren’t pleased with who we are internally. We want to be in the process of reshaping and remolding ourselves, but maybe we haven’t quite figured out how.

Here is the simple answer:

“What do you love? You will certainly become what you love.”

Seriously? How can this be the answer? It has to do with our hearts. What we allow our hearts to pursue continues to shape who we are. That works both for negative habits and traits as well as for godliness. For example,

“Do you love holiness? Then you will become holy. Do you love the Word of God? Then you will become like Christ, the living Word. Do you love the name of Jesus? Then your life will manifest His name before all men.”

I agree with these authors who have simply stated the truth – as you love and pursue God, you will become more godly and righteous.

Not only does God want this for you, but you also owe it to yourself and to your children. You were created to point people to God and as you do so you will find that you love fulfilling that purpose.

“You owe it to God to illustrate His name beautifully before your children. How far are you willing to go to paint that picture? …How committed are you to calling sin, sin?” How willing are you to move toward more holiness and Christlikeness? As you spend more time with Christ, you will see “more clearly than ever that you have no right to stay the same wherever you’re missing the Lord’s mark. You must walk normally like Christ and listen well to the Spirit so that you can complete the task at hand.”

We work out and run and sweat in the process of reshaping our bodies, but until we engage in reshaping our inner self, we will never be satisfied. Reshape yourself into the image of Jesus by falling more in love with Him.

(quotes are from Every Man’s Challenge by Arterburn and Stoeker)

Categories
Christian Living

A New Tradition for Christmas

I recently shared this with my church and thought it would be good to share here as well…

We will all soon be ready to exchange gifts with one another at Christmas. In past years that would mean that Paige and I would be frantically shopping to find gifts for our family members and friends. The funny thing is…none of them ever needed any new gifts. They already had more stuff than would fit in all their closets and shelves. Have you experienced the same thing with your family? So instead of continuing to scratch our heads over what to buy, we decided to take a different approach these past few years.

Not only did we want to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas, we also wanted the children in our family to better understand the gift of Jesus and how His love should change our lives. Therefore, each adult in the now family brings about fifty bucks to put into a “pool” of funds. We then have the children in the family look through a Missions Catalog, such as the Samaritan’s Purse “Help Others at Christmas” gift catalog, to choose how we will spend the money to bless others.

The children have a great time in picking out items to help other children and families around the world – last year they chose baby chickens, a hive of honeybees, a fishing boat, medicine for health needs, Bibles, and more! Instead of searching through a toy catalog to shop for themselves, the children end up searching for gifts to give to other people in real need. This leads to some great “teachable moments” as we discuss with them the needs of others and how missionaries can use the gifts to share Christ with the families they serve. After choosing all the gifts, we say a prayer asking God to use the gifts to bless the families and to draw the family members to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

When we finished our Christmas celebration using this new tradition these past years, we hadn’t just swapped gift cards with one another… we felt that we had helped each other better understand the real meaning of Christmas by celebrating what Christ did for us and how important it is that we share Him. During this Christmas season, I hope that you will continue to think of ways to help your family be “on mission” for God.

And if your family does something special to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, share that with the rest of us. I know I’d love to hear about it and be able to share it with my church family to give them more ideas for next year!

Categories
Christian Living

The Problem of Sophistication

When we read the Bible, we are reading the accounts of people some 2000 years ago that God decided were important life accounts for us to know of and learn from. So if my life account was written down to be looked at years from now, what would it look like?

I imagine it would read similar to the way an author described his life:
“…my early story would have to be recorded along these lines: ‘He did everything exactly as God commanded him half the time, every now and then, whenever it suited him, or sometimes when it was easy.'”

Too often I find that I am living to please myself rather than the One who I’ve called upon as Lord & Master. I need more obedience. I need more sanctification in my life and less sophistication…

“Sanctification is the process by which a man becomes normal in the context of the kingdom of God. The more sanctified you are, the more the fruit of the Spirit will grow freely, and the more normal you will seem to other Christians.”

“Sophistication, on the other hand, is the process by which a man becomes normal in the context of the world. The more sophisticated you are, the more normal you’ll look to [those without Christ]. You’ll fit right into their world. The fruits of sophistication include lust, faithlessness, selfishness, self-absorption, and the love of money.”

“The fruit of sophistication rots the fruit of the Spirit.”

And yet what I often find within myself is a desire to look more normal to the world. If the fruit of sophistication rots the fruit of the Spirit, then what do I need to do to build up more fruit of the Spirit and become more normal in relation to God’s kingdom?

“All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you.”

I think that is it – I just need to obey today.

I need to make a choice to listen to His will for my life today and take that first step of obedience. Then He will show me the next step to take. I don’t have to worry about how I will get my entire sinful life under control all at once. Instead, I need to just ask God what He would have me do first. What to do right now. Do it. And then repeat the process.

(quotes from ‘Every Man’s Challenge’ by Arterburn & Stoeker)

Categories
Worship

The Hard Work of Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving Day!
The one day of the year we are supposed to be thankful.
Then we can go back to being regular ole grumps!

Actually, this isn’t the only time of the year when we are to be thankful, but the thankfulness aspect of today was originally about being thankful for a good harvest. Having a good harvest meant lots of food on the table, so I guess that is why our holiday tradition for today is eating until the point of discomfort!

So the eating isn’t hard work, though having motivation to do much else with that full belly might be. The laughing at the table with family isn’t hard work. The watching of football games with each other isn’t hard work. So what is the hard work of Thanksgiving?

I believe it is keeping a right focus in today’s American society about WHO we should be thankful to.

It will be easy today to say…” I am thankful because such-and-such happened to ME because I was able to use MY abilities to….” And in doing so, we can focus our thanks on self – on I and Me. That is the American way. To go against that grain takes effort.

The hard work is to honestly ask and answer the question – who has ultimately given us these good things to be thankful for? Who has blessed us with family, with the good things that are on our table, with the innate abilities in us to even work and provide for our families?

God.
He alone.
He is the reason you have food on the table.
He is the provider of rain.
He is the provider of life.
He is the reason you are able to take each breath.

The hard work is refocusing today on Him – the author of good gifts. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift come from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

“Will we only give God the things that cost us nothing?” King David was freely offered what he would need to make a sacrifice to God, but David replied: “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not…sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

It won’t cost us much to be a part of the celebration today, but refocusing our attention on God is hard work. Stepping up as the spiritual leader of your family and asking them to pray with you to thank God might be foreign to you and your family. It is a foreign concept for many in America today. But God desires for you to exalt His Name, and today is the perfect day to do so.

The rest of Thanksgiving won’t cost you much. “But it costs plenty to pray with others. Prayer is hard work, and it takes courage, dedication, concentration, and steadfastness.” As we pray with others, we open up our lives to them – our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs. This is hard work that God desires of us today – to open ourselves up to others in prayer as we honor Him with thankful hearts.

Don’t let the day just be about turkey and dressing, full bellies, football, hunting, or shopping. It will be easy to stop there. Go further. Do the hard work. Refocus the day on the Giver of all good things so that your family members develop a deeper Thankfulness to the One worthy of all Thanksgiving.