Giving with gusto

But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. "But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Luke 11:41-42 NASB)

In the previous verses, we saw that Jesus had refused to obey the ceremonial ritual of hand washing before the meal. It was not a law of God but a rule of man, added to expand the law. The Pharisees, Jesus told them, were more concerned with washing their hands than with cleansing their hearts from wickedness. 

Matthew Henry wrote, "to keep ourselves free from scandalous enormities, and yet to live under the dominion of spiritual wickedness, is as great an affront to God as it would be for a servant to give the cup into his master's hand, clean wiped from all the dust on the outside, but within full of cobwebs and spiders." When I visualize his words, it is a startling reminder that God sees our hearts and all that is within them. Allowing Him to cleanse our hearts is much more important than cleansing our hands.

Instead of washing their hands, Jesus recommended that they give to the poor. This was a reference to Deuteronomy 26 (worth reviewing later) in which the first fruits were to be given as a tithe and shared with those who were less fortunate. Only then were they to enjoy the blessings of the land God had given them.

The Pharisee and his friends would have done better to cleanse themselves before the meal by charitable giving. Matthew Henry again wrote "What we have is not our own, unless God have his dues out of it; and it is by liberality to the poor that we clear up to ourselves our liberty to make use of our creature-comforts."

The Pharisees were exacting in calculating their tithe, going so far as to tithe the mint and dill in their gardens. Jesus said it is good to be careful about the tithe, but not at the expense of justice and the love of God. 

Do the most important things first, He was saying, but don't neglect the other. As Micah wrote, God requires justice and mercy as well as walking humbly with Him. Justice and mercy are an outgrowth of walking with our God. Tithing alone is simply a charitable deed, no matter how exacting our calculations. The blessing is gained when charitable giving is an outgrowth of a relationship with our Lord, an outgrowth of our love for God. 

The key word is relationship. God created man for fellowship with Him. Our reason for existence is a relationship with Him, yet we focus our lives on everything else. I'm as guilty as anyone else. It is much easier to write a donation check than to allow God to cleanse my heart of the sin that so easily besets us. My giving, however, only has meaning because of my relationship with God. Allowing Him to cleanse me is a vital part of walking with Him.

I learned something from a young girl with whom I met to pray several times. Before we started to pray, she would wash her hands as a symbol that she wanted to be clean before the Lord, both inside and out. I've found myself doing the same thing since then. As I wash my hands before intercession, I pray the same prayer David prayed. Create in me a clean heart, (not just clean hands) and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:2)

Today, let's ask God to cleanse us inside and out, making sure that our giving is an outpouring from a heart of love toward God rather than one more task on our checklist. Let's give with gusto, because we love.

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 NASB)

I Shook His Hand Once

There's a scene in the movie Lawrence of Arabia in which a reporter tries to get quotes from passersby about T.E. Lawrence. One man says, "He was a great man..." The reporter asks, "Did you know Major Lawrence?" The man replies, "I shook his hand once." He admired Lawrence and he shook his hand, but, he admitted, he never actually knew him.

There's a big difference between shaking hands and sharing hearts. 

Jesus described a scene where the same sort of interaction will happen. He was passing through from one city to another, teaching and preaching as He went, headed toward Jerusalem. Headed toward the cross.

His journey was deadly serious because His destination was deadly serious.

Someone in the crowd asked a serious question. "Are there just a few who are being saved?" 

Jesus, on His way to make the ultimate sacrifice in an effort to save everyone, gave a cryptic answer. 

"Strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." 

He described a terrible scene. The head of the house will close the door (metaphorically speaking of God the Father) and many people will knock on the door, desperate to get inside. "Open up," they will demand. The head of the house will say, "I do not know you."

The desperate people will justify themselves by saying, "We ate and drank in Your presence." 

Being in the same restaurant where someone ate and drank, even being at the same table where they ate and drank, is not the same as knowing them, being friends with them, being family. 

"You taught in our streets," they will insist. 

Being in the same town as the teacher is not the same as being a disciple of the teacher.

Just yesterday, I attended the I-22 signage ceremony. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves was there. Senator Roger Wicker was there. They both "taught in our streets." I spoke directly to neither man. I personally know neither man. The fact of our proximity while they spoke in no way indicates a personal relationship between us.

In that same way, attending a church where Jesus is proclaimed does not indicate a personal relationship with Him. Attending a Bible study and learning about what Jesus taught does not indicate a personal relationship with Him. The only thing that qualifies as a personal relationship is... a personal relationship. 

The only thing that qualifies us as disciples is that we follow the Master.

One day, time will end. The door of heaven will close and there will be some, Jesus said, who thought proximity would be an adequate substitute for relationship, for discipleship. It will not.  

The time to follow is now. The only One to follow is Jesus. 

"Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able... And they will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last." Luke 13:24, 29-30 nasb

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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: Removing the Callus, Refillable Nespresso capsules,  The New Normal, The Blessing Disguised as Coincidence, The Blessing of Protection, and Becoming a Writer: Cover Reveal.

The most read post of the past week: Removing the Callus.

Here's the link to The Clay Papers, available as an e-book for personal use or to send as a gift for only 99 cents. 

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photo courtesy of freeimages.com

#disciple #JesusChrist #followHim #relationship, #TheClayPapers

The benefit of faithful service

"And the Lord said, 'Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.'Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions." Luke 12: 42-44 NASB

After a week's break for a portion of the Alfred allegory (which will be continued at a later time), we return to Luke 12. 

Tomorrow, we'll look at Jesus' words for the servants who aren't faithful, but for today, let's focus on the benefits of faithfulness. Jesus promised blessings and authority for His diligent servants. 

In the Alfred stories, we saw the faithful servant rewarded when his master found him doing what he was supposed to do. These verses tell us that the servant who is found faithful will be put in charge of all the master's possessions. 

Faithfulness, then, is the key that unlocks greater responsibility in the Kingdom of God. 

With greater responsibility, we have a greater opportunity for doing good, but that's not the best part of "being in charge of the master's possessions".  To be in charge of someone's possessions requires that we know that person's will concerning their possessions. To know their will, we must know them. 

When we receive a divine appointment to greater responsibility, it brings us closer to our Lord.

The appointment to a position of authority, or responsibility, then, is an invitation to draw closer to our Lord by continuing to serve. 

For disciples, the longer we serve our Lord, the closer we draw to Him. 

It's the way it should be, but it's easy to become complacent in our relationship with Christ, as in earthly relationships, and allow our diligence to wane. We can easily become more focused on the work we're doing for God than our relationship with God. 

One of my favorite hymns says, "The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows." That's the experience of the faithful server.  

There's no mandatory retirement age in following Christ. The longer we serve God, the more faithful we serve, the greater the blessing. There's no age limit, no limit on years of service, so don't give up. Don't waver in faith or in following. 

Paul, after years of faithful service to His Lord, wrote these words. "Brethren,  I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14 NASB)

Keep pressing on. Keep drawing closer. 

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Our Father, forgive our faithlessness. Draw us closer to You and give us hearts of faithfulness and diligence. Help us to know You more and to press on. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#disciple, #wepresson # JesusChrist

Dealing with an unclean spirit, part 6: For and against

He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. (Luke 11:23 NASB)

For he who is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:40 NASB)

I gained an insight this morning into a question that has long plagued me. Why doesn't the church behave like the church? It shocks me when people tell me that they are content to be "members" without becoming "servants", planning to "make it into heaven" because their name is on a church roll. This misconception is heartbreaking to me because Jesus did not call us to membership, but to relationship. 

If I choose not to have a relationship with Christ in this world, why do I expect to have an eternal relationship with him in the next?

The verse from Mark 9 may be part of the confusion. There are more than enough jihadi's, eagerly opposing the cause of Christ. Most of us, however, do not actively oppose Christ. We could say, like in Mark 9:40, that we are "not against" Him. If we consider ourselves "not against" Him, we may mistakenly think that we are, therefore, for Him. 

Even a cursory examination of the passage, however, will reveal our misconceptions. The disciples had asked Jesus about someone who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus. "We tried to stop Him because he was not following us," they told Jesus. They didn't try to stop the man because of his lack of faith, but because he wasn't in their group. "He wasn't following us." (Not because he wasn't following Jesus.) 

The Master told them that the one who wasn't against Him was for Him, but this only applied to the person who was working in the name of Jesus, because of his faith in our Lord, but was not a part of the inner circle. It was a little like our denominational squabbles. It was foolish. With which group he ate his meals and traveled was not the important part of this man's service. Whether his faith was in Christ was what mattered. The man was clearly serving Jesus.

The passage in Luke reminds us of the verse in Mark 9, but there is a definite difference. "He who does not gather with me, scatters." This could have been a word about the church today. If we are not "gathering" the harvest, serving Christ, we are scattering the harvest. To put it simply, when we say we follow Christ but do nothing to help gather in the harvest of lost souls, do nothing to serve Him as He called us to serve, we are "scattering". 

This principle is why we see such an uproar against "those Christians" and why Christians are considered narrow-minded bigots by many today. If the world only sees us speaking and acting in judgment and condemnation, rather than as servants of Christ, it is no wonder that they are repelled. We become nothing more than "scatterers".

If, then, we are "scattering", we are not FOR Christ. Instead, we are AGAINST Christ, and that is a terrible place to be. I learned the words to a hymn as a child and they still resonate today. 

"I am satisfied with Jesus, but the question comes to me as I think of Calvary, 

'Is my Master satisfied with me?'" 

If we choose not to have a relationship with Christ in this world, we cannot expect to have a relationship with Him in the next. Let us consider our lives and our service today. Are we harvesting or scattering? Are we staking our eternal destiny on membership or relationship? Christ came that we might have life, and have it abundantly, and that life begins with relationship to Him.

Rules versus Relationship (Luke 6:2)

But some of the Pharisees said, "Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" (Luke 6:2 NASB)

The Pharisees were experts in the law. They not only knew the law, they interpreted the law, and they happily dispensed their interpretation of the law as law itself. In a way, it wasn't just God's Law, it was their Law, too, and they fiercely defended what they saw as their territory. 

The disciples were hungry and they grazed as they walked through the grain fields. Technically, it could be said that picking the handful or two of grain they ate was harvesting, and rubbing it between their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff was threshing, both of which were "work". How foolish it would be, though, for the Pharisees to complain about the disciples harvesting and threshing a few handfuls of grain in violation of the Sabbath when they were walking with The Lord of the Sabbath!

Jesus does not call us to a set of unbending rules but to a dynamic relationship with God Himself. That relationship (like the new wine from Luke 5) is one of change, growth, and steady maturity, not just a list of tasks to be accomplished. The disciples walked out that relationship for all the world to see. While the Pharisees were steadily checking off tasks on the "must-do" list and carefully avoiding the "do-nots", yet trying to sneak a few "do-nots" to the "can-do" list, in hopes of obtaining righteousness, the motley crew of disciples were laughing and eating with the One who WAS their Righteousness. 

It's easy to be a rule-checking Pharisee, especially when we are looking at someone else's actions! As we pray for our loved ones today, be sure to focus on their need for relationship, not on their need for another list to check and do. 

Pray first of all that we would live out our dynamic relationship with Christ in the same joyful way the disciples did, and that our loved ones would recognize the relationship as infinitely desirable. Pray that they will embrace a relationship with Jesus for themselves.