Tag Archives: generosity

Cornelius Wades In

Christian Life, , ,

CORNELIUS WADES IN

“Cornelius said, ‘Four days ago at about this time, mid-afternoon, I was home praying. Suddenly there was a man in front of me, flooding the room with light. He said, ‘Cornelius, your daily prayers and neighbourly acts have brought you to God’s attention. I want you to send to Joppa to get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’s staying with Simon the Tanner down by the sea.’

“‘So I did it — I sent for you. And you’ve been good enough to come. And now we’re all here in God’s presence, ready to listen to whatever the Master put in your heart to tell us.'” Acts 10:30-33 (The Message).

Finally! Cornelius’ explanation put the last piece of the puzzle in place. Peter had his story and Cornelius had his; the two stories blended into one, and the whole thing began to make sense. God was at it again, moving on people to reveal Himself to a hungry heart.

Cornelius made no reference to Peter’s scruples. He did not apologise for overriding Peter’s inhibitions. It was not an issue to him and he would not make Peter’s issues his own.

What was it that had drawn God’s attention to this ex-pagan Roman soldier? Was God really interested in non-Jews? Idolatry was abhorrent to Him and this man had been born and brought up to worship idols, but at some stage in his adult life he had become disillusioned with his religion and attracted to the Jewish faith.

The Jews worshipped only one God, an unseen spirit being whom they said was the creator of heaven and earth. Their Holy Book told stories of His power and His interaction with people, including accounts of miracles that showed His love for His people.

Cornelius had never known the love of a god. The Roman and Greek gods were evil, vengeful and capricious. Their worshippers had their time cut out either trying to get their attention or appeasing their anger. They were always demanding and never giving — so unlike the God of Israel who was constantly doing things for His people.

Cornelius had been drawn towards this religion, and the outcome was that he had absorbed its lifestyle and requirements — prayer and generosity had become his way of life. Prayer meant reciting psalms and set passages of Scripture at specific times of the day. Consequently he was laying down a foundation of God’s word in his heart.

Recognising and meeting the needs of people around him, as required by the teachings of the Torah, the five books of Moses, had fostered the kind of generosity that pleased God, breaking his natural human bent towards selfishness and greed and moving him beyond the confines of his own needs and the needs of his family. These were the things that indicated his seriousness towards God.

God responded by setting up a meeting with him through the human agency of His servant Peter. Where supernatural visions and angelic visits were necessary, they happened, to bring the two parties together, Peter with his knowledge and experience of Jesus and Cornelius with his hunger to know the truth.

What an example of God’s personal and intimate involvement with us. He is not indifferent to our unspoken longings. He will never ignore even the faintest cry for Him or the slightest move towards Him. It is His will that everyone should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Unless He intervenes and draws us, we cannot know Him but He intervenes to move heaven and earth so that we will encounter Him and experience the truth.

Peter had every reason, having heard Cornelius’ side of the story, to believe that this meeting was of God and to launch into an explanation of the meaning of Jesus’ life and death so that Cornelius and his household and friends could have an opportunity to believe and receive the truth. He was free to fellowship with Cornelius in his home because God said it was okay.

Be Smart

Christian Life, , , ,

BE SMART

“‘Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way — but for what is right — using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behaviour'” Luke 16:8-9 (The Message).

The point of this story is not easy to understand. We must not get lost in the details or we’ll end up thinking that Jesus was advocating dishonesty as a way to wriggle out of the awkward situations we create for ourselves. Not at all! What was He really getting at?

Let’s look at the story. A certain farm manager had been feathering his nest at his master’s expense. When he was found out, he had to devise a plan to curry favour with his master’s debtors so that, when he was fired, he would have friends to take care of him. He was too lazy or too proud to lower himself to doing manual labour.

His plan was to reduce the debt of his master’s debtors so that they would be indebted to him. Good plan if you can deal with your conscience! When his master found out what he had done, he was so taken aback that he actually congratulated him on his wily scheme!

Jesus often told stories that highlighted the contrast between the ways of the world and the ways of the kingdom of God. This is one of them. For some strange reason, when we give our lives into the hands of Jesus, we seem to lose our sense of responsibility for some areas of our lives. For example, we ignore God’s economic system, spend all our money and even go into debt like the rest of the world and then naively declare that God will meet all our needs.

Of course God has promised to meet our needs but that promise fits into a framework of responsible stewardship and not wanton spendthrift-ness. God never advocates that we make no provision for our future. He has built into His way of doing money a savings policy that ensures that we and our families are adequately cared for in times of crisis and for the future.

God’s economic policy is built on giving, not hoarding, which ensures that we function in the realm of faith. Generosity is His way of keeping resources circulating. When we give what He asks us to give to make provision for the needs of others, He promises an abundant return on our generosity. In this way we are making deposits into a ‘banking system’ which will not crash with the stock market.

So what does that have to do with this parable? There is a principle in this story which believers need to get hold of. We need to be smart in the ways of the kingdom, just like this crooked manager was smart in the ways of the world, not in dishonesty but in the kind of risky living which takes God at His word and reaches out to take care of the needs of others first, above our own.

The kind of righteousness that really pleases God is not the ‘righteousness’ which looks after its own reputation like the Pharisees’ kind of righteousness – don’t do this and don’t do that. That is sterile ‘do-nothing-ness’. It produces only plastic fruit. Jesus said that life is much more than getting by on good behaviour.

Really living is about risking being generous in every way – not just being generous with our money but being generous with our hearts, forgiving when we have been wronged, loving when we are despised, treating all people with respect and dignity, even if they smell bad, and dying to our own selfish demands and requirements for the sake of others.

So here’s the deal. A crisis in our lives demands a plan of action. Here is the simple principle; to look after your own needs, look after the needs of others and God will step in and take care of yours. Isn’t that just what the crooked manager did? Now that’s really being smart, not streetwise but kingdom wise, because that’s how God’s kingdom works.

Micah, the prophet, put it like this: “…What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 (NIV).