Month: July 2015

According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it.
According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free.
God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.
–G. K. Chesterton

It is true that we have made a great mess of this perfect world that God set into motion, but thankfully in God’s perfect wisdom He had planned to send a perfect Savior to redeem the world that now groans in expectation for the return of its perfect King who will set everything right again.

Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross.
He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial.
He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting.
All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him.
Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion.
Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross.
Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him.

Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing?
–Thomas à Kempis

If we are only serving God because we are hoping for some reward to bless us (whether material stuff on earth, good health during life, or even heaven after our earthly death), then we have not chosen to serve God for the right reason.

A parent hopes that a child isn’t obeying only due to the hope of getting some toy or treat or other bribe. A parent hopes that a child will obey due to their love for their dad or mom. God the Father has the same desire for us… that we would choose to obey Him not for some reward He could give, but rather because we love Him so much because He first loved us so much… all the way to the cross.

God help me to desire to serve You for no other reason than because I love you so much.
Help me to know that Your Presence is the only reward that truly matters.

I am continually amazed at the timing of God, how He sets things in motion in my life at just the right time.
The quotes that I have chosen to use for this year were from books I read the last few years. I compiled 365 quotes, and then I put them in random order before the beginning of this 2015 year.

At the same time, our church family decided to join with other church families in our community to come together and pray for unity and community among the diversity of believers in Newton, MS. We have church members from about seven different churches coming together for prayer each month. The pastors of these churches felt that if we could learn to love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ by praying together, it would change our hearts and the hearts of our entire Christian community in Newton.

I think every person who has come to one or more of the prayer meetings has been surprised at how sweet the fellowship has been as we are learning not only to pray together, but learning to love one another. It is destroying prejudice in the hearts of those who attend.

And on this day when I will meet for community prayer with brothers and sisters in Christ, with some of who have a different skin color than me but who have the same passionate heart for God as me, God selected to have this quote on this day. In the midst of all that is causing division in our nation, God continues to amaze me in His timing. I thought that I was putting quotes in random order, but God knew the day that He wanted each quote to be placed, and He again has challenged me at just the right time with just the right quote. I hope that you are also able to see God’s amazing timing in your own life, as God reveals His truths to you one-at-a-time, just when you are ready for the next one.

Here is today’s quote in the midst of all the divisive issues between people of different skin colors. I don’t know what your prejudice is, but I know what remains very divisive here in the South. And so I think Philip Yancey does a good job of being transparent about his own need for reconciliation and redemption and community in a way that reveals where the hearts of many in our nation still remain today:

I grew up in Atlanta, across town from Martin Luther King, Jr., and I confess with some shame that while he was leading marches in places like Selma and Montgomery and Memphis, I was on the side of the white sheriffs with the nightsticks and German shepherds.
     I was quick to pounce on his moral flaws and slow to recognize my own blind sin. But because he stayed faithful, by offering his body as a target but never as a weapon, he broke through my moral calluses.
     The real goal, King used to say, was not to defeat the white man, but “to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority…. The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community.”
     And that is what Martin Luther King Jr. finally set into motion, even in racists like me.
–Philip Yancey

I pray that God will continue to set in motion in my heart, and in the heart of my church, a sense of the need of reconciliation, redemption, and the creation of a beautiful community of Christians who look different from one another, but who worship their One Savior with One Heart.

And if you live in Newton, MS… come join us tonight for our Community Prayer Meeting and let God continue to work on your heart as you join in prayer with brothers and sisters in Christ. We have One Father, and that makes us all One Family. We will be together forever, so let’s learn to love one another now, instead of waiting until we get to Heaven.

Here is a quote that goes along with my post from a few days ago which was titled
I Don’t Have Enough Time To Follow God:

     No one sets out to live a chaotic existence; it just sort of happens: one day you wake up and hate your life. . . . There seems no way out. . . . you really are trapped.
     …the busy life is, for the most part, an unreflective life – and that of course can never lead into the deeper life with Christ.
     …we need to give up control, turn our lives and our days back over to Him, and entrust our future and possibly our failure to Him, no matter the outcome.
–David Goetz

I hope you aren’t so busy that you have come to hate the chaotic schedule of your life that keeps you frantic and unable to meet with God. If you are at that point, then one of the reasons for the frustration is that you are not ever able to fulfill the reason you were created – to bring glory to God through an intimate relationship with Him and with others. When we are too busy, we don’t have time for relationships, and that keeps us from connecting with Him and with those that will bring a blessing into our lives. And if you do not learn to say “no” to some things (or to help those in your family say “no” to some things), then you will continue to feel trapped in this never-ending struggle. Give up trying to be a success in this world for its accolades and for the envy of others, it isn’t getting you anywhere. Instead give up control to Him, re-evaluate your schedule and life from God’s point of view, and begin to walk in a way that pleases Him. To do so will bring a new sense of peace and blessing in your life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an amazing young man.
His writings have become widely influential, especially his book The Cost of Discipleship. Let me briefly share with you some of the information about his life (you can read a more complete account here at Wikipedia) before providing you with my “daily quote” thought for the day.

Bonhoeffer was an outstanding student and theologian. He completed his studies, which included two doctorate degrees, by the age of 24. He then began a promising career in ministry, but it was dramatically altered by the Nazi regime’s rise to power.

He was a determined opponent of Hitler and the Nazis from the beginning. In April 1933, Bonhoeffer was one of the first to state that the church must resist Hitler’s persecution of Jews, declaring that the church must not simply “bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself.”

Due to persecution, Dietrich left Germany for the United States, but soon regretted his decision and returned to Germany writing: “I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people… Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.” He returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer to cross the Atlantic, and was soon imprisoned for his opposition to the leadership of Nazi Germany.

For a year and a half, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned at Tegel military prison, where he followed Paul’s example from prison, continuing in ministry among both his fellow prisoners and the prison guards. In fact, sympathetic guards helped smuggle his letters out of prison, which have now been published in a book titled Letters and Papers from Prison. After the 1.5 years at Tegel, he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp, and was executed by hanging in April 1945.

Bonhoeffer died at age 39.

This man had such strong convictions and deep theology for his young age, and many of the things he wrote are so very challenging, including this statement that I want to share today, which flies in the face of much of what we practice here in America:

Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.
     In the wilderness, God gave Israel the manna every day, and they had no need to worry about food and drink. Indeed, if they kept any of the manna over until the next day, it went bad. In the same way, the disciple must receive his portion from God every day. If he stores it up as a permanent possession, he spoils not only the gift, but himself as well, for he sets his heart on his accumulated wealth, and makes it a barrier between himself and God. Where our treasure is, there is our trust, our security, our consolation and our God.
     Hoarding is idolatry.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When I read the first and last sentences of this quote, they shock me, and my mind fights against them, because I have been taught that I should save up for a rainy day. And though there may be nothing wrong with having some savings to help carry us through to the end of life, I wonder how many of us (myself included) are going beyond simple savings into hoarding, collecting up more earthly goods than we could ever use in this life?

Honestly, my conservative American sensibilities are offended by his statement as it attacks some of the underpinnings of my own beliefs. But as I think about his statement and how it stacks us biblically, instead of Americanly, I believe that he is right on track. Our money and possessions have been given to us by God to be used for HIS kingdom – to expand His kingdom and continue to share the truths of the gospel with this lost and dying world. But instead of obeying Him by using my goods to advance His kingdom, I may be using my money and possessions to hoard for the possibility of my own use and my own security, hedging my bets that God cannot take care of me, so I better take care of myself. Therefore, I save up more money than I could possibly use in my lifetime and trust in my wealth more than in God, who has asked me to spend myself and the blessings He has given me on making Him known.
And that is why Bonhoeffer says that hoarding is idolatry – it is trusting in that which I have stored up (the gifts) more than in the Giver.

God, help me to continue to wrestle with this statement.
Help me to be willing to spend myself and all the gifts You have given to me on making You known to this world.
Help me to trust that when I spend all that I have on You, that You will take care of me.
Help me to have a bold faith like Dietrich Bonhoeffer (and the widow who offered You all that she had to live on).

What do you think about Bonhoeffer’s statement?
Is it difficult for you?
Does it offend you?
More importantly… Is it biblical?