God’s Gifts to Faithful Men

Published on December 16, 2010 in Quotations. 0 Comments

Listen to most Christian prayer requests and they are all about physical things–health and money primarily. The Prosperity Gospel has picked up on this theme and invented a theology to go along with it.

Apparently, great faith is rewarded by lots of physical benefits. This is amazing seeing as how God thinks much higher about eternal, unseen rewards than the temporal, seen rewards. Jonathan Edwards says it better than I:

“God never would distribute earthly enjoyments so plentifully among the wicked, while he commonly gives his own children but little, were it not that they were in themselves very worthless, a very man, worthless portion. What man in his wits would be willing to take up with that portion that God frequently allots to those that he hates most?

“If God did not see all those earthly things to be very worthless indeed, surely he would not be willing to give the very best of them to those that he hates; he would reserve some of the choicest for his favourites. But it is not so.

“He commonly gives the choicest of earthly things, the very cream of all that earth can afford, to those that he hates, yea to those that he hates  with a peculiar hatred. He gives his children something of those things, so much as is necessary to carry them through their journey towards heaven.”

Assurance and Giving

Published on December 9, 2010 in Money and the Bible. 0 Comments

First John is all about assurance–knowing you are saved. Many think assurance is a feeling we are zapped with. Some say assurance is salvation–”remember the day you said your prayer? Then be assured!”

Assurance, according to the Bible, is much more practical than a feeling or trusting a prayer you said once. Assurance is based on visible results from your internal turning to Christ.

The Epistles of John are very practical, frighteningly so. John tells us how to have assurance in one of the only passages of Scripture that even mentions the word “assure.”

“And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.”

Well, what’s the “hereby” refer to? The previous verse:

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

OK, we love in deed and in truth. Sounds good, but what does that mean? Previous verse:

“But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

Give away your money if you want assurance. Many think drastic giving is unrealistic, dangerous, idealistic, impractical, and, odds are, those who think this way have little assurance.

The Bible is right whether you think it’s practical or not.

Living By Faith

Published on December 8, 2010 in Quotations. 0 Comments

How many do you know that truly live by faith? Does not the common man even doubt the existence of such sweetness in the life of faith, because he does not see believers more cheerful and contented than  others? Is it not true that if tradesmen worked in their trade as most Christians practice faith, they would end up beggars.

“Forgetting otherwise, however, let me ask you a more profitable question: Do you yourself live by faith? This week, or yesterday, how did you spend the day? What were your thoughts in the morning? What did you drink for your soul and heart’s nourishment? What was it that made you happy when you were alone and in company? Was entertainment and food of greater joy than your heavenly meditations?

“Deal plainly with yourself in this matter. This discourse will witness against you, if you refuse to put it into practice. Have you spent half an hour or fifteen minutes in exercising your faith? Have you been troubled about many things, and allowed the only thing needful to be forgotten? Have you wasted a day, or a week or a month past, and starved your soul of this refreshment?

“I fear this for many of my readers. How much more for those who are generally not readers at all? If this is true of you, let your heart smite you for this folly. Slap yourself on the thigh and say, “Oh how I have lived, or rather not lived, and wasted precious days in time-consuming vanities!”  Recover and come to your senses before you go hence and will be no more. Will you die before you have lived?

“Oh, learn to live this life of faith, for its never too late! I am sure also that it is never too soon! It’s no shame to learn to live at the age or condition that you are. If you are a prince, ruler, nobleman or gentleman, learn to live! No matter how honourable, how prosperous, pleasurable, or great you may be, this is not true happiness. True pleasure is only in a life of faith. What is a Christian without his faith? What is life without the use of faith?”
–Samuel Ward

Who has the Least has the Most!

Published on December 2, 2010 in Quotations. 0 Comments

“[The Christian] is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong. Though poor he has the power to make others rich, but when he becomes rich his ability to enrich others vanishes. He has most after he has given most away and has least when he possesses most.”

A. W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian

Counting the Cost

Published on December 2, 2010 in Quotations. 0 Comments

“It costs something to be a true Christian. Let that never be forgotten. To be a mere nominal Christian, and go to church, is cheap and easy work. But to hear Christ’s voice, and follow Christ, and believe in Christ, and confess Christ, requires much self-denial. It will cost us our sins, and our self-righteousness, and our ease, and our worldliness.

“All- all must be given up. We must fight an enemy who comes against us with twenty thousand followers. We must build a tower in troubled times. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have us thoroughly understand this. He bids us “count the cost.”
–J. C. Ryle

The Non-Threatening Sin of Normalcy

Published on December 1, 2010 in Money and the Bible. 0 Comments

Homosexuality, abortion, murder and lying get all the attention at being the BAD sins. Since we focus on the headlining sins, we often skate over the ones that trip us up most frequently, like the sin of being normal.

Being “normal” is the desire to fit in, to look like everyone else. We throw away our Christian distinctives so we don’t get made fun of, or we don’t stand out in a crowd, or so that we don’t get stigmatized as a “fanatic.”

So we dress like the world, do our hair like the world, buy the houses and stuff the world buys, and do our bestest to fit right in.

If Jesus, who was homeless, showed up at church we’d probably lump him in with those fastidiously avoided mentally challenged folks who mumble about UFO’s during Sunday School.

According to Isaiah 53, Jesus will not be esteemed by anyone, no one will respect Him. Religious and political leaders all thought He was nuts.

But they all knew He was different and He made them feel guilty. We’re supposed to be like Christ, not like the world. We’re supposed to come out from among them and be separate. We’re to be a particular people zealously doing good works.

Fitting into the world’s definition of “normal” (some may call this “being culturally relevant”), is a sin. We are not to be conformed to the world but transformed into the very image of Christ.

Israel, who is our example, was put aside by God because they wanted to be like all the other nations–1 Samuel 8; Ezekiel 20. They wanted to fit in. They wanted to be normal; being normal starts the slide down the slope to eternal torment.

“Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”

Christian Materialism

Published on November 30, 2010 in Money. 0 Comments

I fear that I and other Christians do not reflect the truth of God’s Word. Our lives reflect materialism. Our churches are often the nicest buildings in town. I fear we convey the message that God’s Word is important, but only if I can make cash off of it.

This is a tough thing. I feel bad trying to sell this book I wrote on not making money a big deal. Isn’t it hypocritical to ask people for money so I can tell them how to not be focused on money?

Every Christian radio program, magazine, book or anything else always asks for money. Churches emphasize offerings and pour the money they get into looking like the world and being “respectable.”

I often wonder if I would do all this Christian stuff if I didn’t get paid to do it. Would any churches be around if they didn’t make money being a church? Would non-profit groups dissolve if people weren’t getting paid?

Psalm 19 says that the teachings of God’s Word are “more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold.”

I wonder if any non-believer could guess this by looking at us?

Being Content With Little

Published on November 10, 2010 in Quotations. 0 Comments

“Though the wisdom of Providence has ordered you a lower and poorer condition than others, yet consider how many there are that are lower than you in the world. You have but little of the world, yet others have less.

“Read the description of those persons (Job 30:4, etc).If God has given you but a small portion of the world, yet if you are godly He has promised never to foresake you (Heb 13:5). Providence has ordered that condition for you which is really best for your eternal good.

“If you had more of the world than you have, your heads and heart might not be able to manage it to your advantage. A small boat must have but a narrow sail.

“You have not lacked hitherto the necessities of life, and are commanded ‘having food and rainment (though none of the finest) to be therewith content.’ ‘A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.’ (Psalm 37:16): better in the acquisition, sweeter in the fruition, and more comfortable in the account.”

—John Flavel

Your Stuff Means Little

Published on November 9, 2010 in Quotations. 0 Comments

“How foolish is it to account thyself a better man than another, only because thy dunghill is a little bigger than his!

“These things are not at all to be reckoned into the value and worth of a man; they are all without thee, and concern thee no more than fine clothes do the health or strength of the body.

“It is wealth, indeed, that makes all the noise and bustle in the world, and challengeth all the respect and honour to itself; and the ignorant vulgar, whose eyes are dazzled with pomp and bravery, pay it with a stupid and astonished reverence.”

—-Ezekiel Hopkins

Tithing and Beyond

Published on November 8, 2010 in Theology of Giving. 0 Comments

John Piper preached a sermon for his sons about his desire that they would tithe. Piper makes the case from Scripture that tithing, and going beyond, is an important issue of faith.

Piper does not recommend a legalistic notion of tithing, he admits the New Testament does not teach it, but he also makes a good case for godly giving.

You can listen to or read a summary of the message here.