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You Reap What You Sow

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YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

“Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with his instructor. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good for, at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those belonging to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:6-10.

Have you ever heard this saying? “A fool is a person who keeps on doing the same thing but expects a different outcome.” It’s the same as saying that a fool is someone who sows weeds and expects to reap wheat. Just as God has laws in the natural world that never alter, so the laws of the spiritual dimension are equally stable.

What was Paul talking about here? The law of the harvest applies at every level, but Paul had something particular in mind when he penned these words. In the Mosaic Covenant, God taught His people how to apportion their crops, not by fixed amounts but by percentage. Everything belongs to God. He had the right to tell His people how to use their resources.

At the end of each harvest, wheat, barley and whatever else they grew, and the increase of their flocks and herds, they were to give away approximately 20% and keep 80% for their own use. They had a responsibility to care for others as well as themselves and their families; their high priest; the priests and Levites; their own future, and the poor, the widow, the orphan and the foreigner, out of the 20% they set aside for this purpose.

Although the New Testament does not repeat these instructions, the principles are still the same and still found in the new covenant. Our responsibilities to other people have not changed. Many believers argue that we are now under grace, not under the law. That may be so, but everyone, including those for whom we are responsible, still has to live. God has never improved on His economic policy because it’s not about law; it’s about wisdom.

Left to ourselves because we argue that we are no longer under the law, we usually give less and less because of our innate reluctance to part with our money. We argue that we are being led by the Spirit. But what spirit? The old greedy nature still lurks deep inside us. We think that what we earn and what we own is ours. No, it is not. We are stewards of God’s property which we have on loan. We are accountable to Him for how we use it. When we use it for ourselves instead of obeying Him, we must not be surprised if our resources run out. Why should God give us more when we are unfaithful to Him with what we have?

In this passage, Paul talked about money and possessions – as simple as that! The law of the harvest applies to our money as much as it does to anything else. He urged the Galatians to take care of those who taught them the word. They have as much right to financial remuneration as those who work to earn a living. Whatever they sowed, they would reap. Paul talked about “sowing to the flesh” in the context of money.

According the Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”, we cannot make a fool of God. He established the law of the harvest and it has never been changed. When we are selfish and greedy with the resources God has entrusted to us, we will reap destruction because that is the pre-determined harvest of the “flesh”. Conversely, if we sow generosity, we will reap eternal life which is the outcome of righteousness.

“Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” 12 Corinthians 9:10, 11.

Because the law of the harvest never changes, there will always be a harvest of more of what you have sown. Just as selfishness will multiply in your life if you are selfish, so generosity will break the cycle of greed in you and set you on the road to real prosperity – not just in financial sufficiency but in the growth of your character to become more like Jesus.

Like everything else in life, generosity is a partnership with God. He will ensure that we are never in need when we obey Him by taking care of the needs of others.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or “What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:31-33.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Time To Read The Will

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TIME TO READ THE WILL

“At that time, the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.’ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.” Galatians 4:29-31.

When a family member dies, the surviving members can’t wait for the reading of the will, especially if the deceased was a wealthy father or grandfather. “Who gets what?” they want to know. God also made a will, and when the testator died, His heirs inherited His estate. Paul declared that, because we are God’s sons and daughters through faith in Jesus, we are His heirs and co-heirs with His Son.

How here’s a twist in the tale. Jesus is God. Because He died we, God’s children, all receive our inheritance but, because He lives and He is God’s Son, He is also God’s heir and we are co-heirs with Him.

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom also He made the universe.”  Hebrews 1:1-2.

God appointed Jesus to be heir of “all things”, that is, all things.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

“And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:15-20.

Paul was talking about Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. In His humanity and because of His perfection as God’s Son who came to earth in the flesh and lived and died as a human being, He earned the right to the position and authority God gave Him – the highest name, the highest place and the highest authority in heaven and on earth (Philippians 2:6-11). He inherited “all things”.

Because of God’s mercy, He reconciled us to Himself through Jesus, restored us to our position as sons and daughters and placed us “in Christ”. Because of that, we share everything He has and owns because we are co-heirs with Him.

What do we share with Jesus?

1. Just as we share our human father’s nature – the sin nature of Adam – so, in Christ, we share our heavenly Father’s nature.

“Through these (His own glory and goodness) He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” 2 Peter 1:4.

2. We share in the “all things” which are Jesus’ inheritance.

“He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32.

That means that, as God’s children, we have access to everything we need here in this earthly life, to live godly lives.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3.

How do we access these resources? Through faith in His promises.

“We do not want you to be lazy, but to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit what has been promised.” Hebrews 6:12.

3.The outcome of appropriating God’s promises for power to live a godly life and the resources to do so, is eternal life.

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 6:22.

The will has been read. The inheritance is ours. It’s time to possess what we already own.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Imitators Of Jesus!

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IMITATORS OF JESUS!

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practise hospitality.

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”  Romans 12:12-15.

This is where the rubber meets the road!

How should this magnificent salvation, which God thought up and brought about through Jesus, make a difference in the daily lives of those who believe in Him?  God told the Israelites what He expected of them after He rescued them from slavery in Egypt. Because of what He had done for them, He wanted them to be kind to one another and He spelled it out in the details of their everyday lives.

In the same way, Paul described the ways in which the followers of Jesus should respond to the ups and downs of life. God has rescued us from slavery to sin, a far worse kind of slavery than bondage to another person because it destroys the soul from the inside.

In response to God’s mercy, our first response is to give Him our bodies and our minds, allowing His Spirit, through His word, to change us by changing the way we think. We are no longer in competition with one another, but free to become who we are, and to grow our gifts through serving one another. In the atmosphere and bond of love, we can take our rightful places in Christ’s body, living and working together in harmony, showing the people in the world around us what God is like.

We need zeal and fervour – passion – to energise us, motivated by Jesus’s love for us and loving Him in return. Whatever we do for others, we do for Him. Our passion will grow as we keep gazing at Him, learning to interpret life’s experiences, good and bad, from His perspective, “seeing Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:27.

We have three groups of people to whom we relate – ourselves, our brothers and sisters in the church and the people around us in the world.

First of all we need to bring our own hearts into line with the Holy Spirit in us. When we allow Him to lead us. He will teach us how to respond to the difficult situations that arise in our lives as well as to the needs of other people, those in His family and even those who abuse us because we follow Jesus.

Since we are part of a family of God’s sons and daughters, we belong to each other. That means that we do life together and are part of each other in the ups and downs. Our resources do not belong exclusively to us. They are for us to share with any family member who falls on hard times. In this way, our generosity helps to maintain equality in the family and keeps the resources circulating.

Then we must get away from the idea that it does not matter how we treat unbelievers because they are enemies and not “of us”. It matters very much because we are the windows through which they see Jesus. Remember that, when His enemies were killing Him, Jesus said, “They don’t know what they are doing.” Don’t call down curses. Do the right thing – bless them and pray for them. You can go even further than that. You can come alongside them and identify with them in their joy and sorrow.

In order to relate properly to our brothers and sisters and to outsiders, we need first of all to bring our own spirits into submission to Jesus. Instead of complaining about every little thing that does wrong, build a picture in your imagination of how it will all be when Jesus returns. Then celebrate! It will be a million times better than that!

But keep your feet on the ground. Jesus warned that “stuff” will happen. Don’t blame the devil. He started it but God is still in charge. He’s busy reshaping you through the difficult times to look like His Son. That means that He wants you to learn to respond as Jesus did when life throws things at you. Instead of whining and moaning, and “taking authority over the devil”, keep in touch with God. You’ll be amazed at what He is up to!

What about the way we treat our church “family”? Paul said, “Be like your Father – generous. You’ll never be a loser if your do.” The more you share, the more will come back to you. That’s how it is with God. Have an open house and an open heart.

Paul put it like this: “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” Ephesians 5:1 (New Living Translation).

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Nothing New

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NOTHING NEW

“The crowd asked him, ‘Then what are we supposed to do?’

“‘If you have two coats, give one away.’ he said.’Do the same with your food,’ Tax men also came to be baptised and said, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’

“He told them, ‘No more extortion — collect only what is required by law.’

“Soldiers asked him, ‘And what should we do?’ He told them, ‘No shakedowns, no blackmail — and be content with your rations.'” Luke 3:10-14 (The Message).

So what was new about John’s message? Why all the excitement? Why did they come from far and near to hear him when everything he told them was written in their Law anyway? Had they slipped so far from the everyday requirements for living the best kind of life that they needed a revival campaign out in the wilderness to bring them back?

It doesn’t say much for their teachers either, does it? They were so busy preening themselves and devising new laws to “protect” their laws that the Law of God was obscured by rules so ridiculous that many of the ordinary people gave up trying. Like all the prophets before him, John’s message was no different, but the reason for his message was far more compelling.

“Repent!” he thundered, “for the kingdom of God is near.” What did that mean? Not the current “turn or burn” message! Not the “Be sorry for your sins and turn to God” insistence. That’s our interpretation of “repent”. “Teshuvah” meant “return” — come back to what you were — before Adam’s crazy, foolish choice — to what God made you to be in the beginning. What was that? Man made in His image to be one with Him.

“The Kingdom of God is near”? How can that be good news? I thought that the good news was that Jesus died for our sins that we can go to heaven when we die. How pathetic if that is the sum total of the good news! The really good news is that God is fixing everything that is broken and restoring everything to what it was before Adam blew it so that He can complete what He began.

Now that’s really good news! That means that we can play a part in restoring what Adam messed up. And Jesus got rid of all the obstacles that prevented us from taking part in the restoration process by paying our debt for us, releasing us from slavery to the destroyer so that we don’t have to be a part of the messing up side, ever again. We’ve changed allegiance and are now on God’s side, His restoration crew, doing things God’s way and in the process bringing heaven to earth like Jesus said.

John was showing them how that would be done. Give, share, be kind, be content, stop being greedy, selfish and self-centred. That would make Messiah’s task much easier if He came to people who were already prepared to receive Him by realising what He had come to do.

The trouble was that they misunderstood His real purpose. Restoration did not mean getting rid of the Romans so that He could rule over David’s kingdom. His plan went much farther back than that. Not get rid of the rule of the Romans — that was slavery on the outside, but get rid of the rule of sin — that was the core of the matter. Change the ruler on the inside. Get self off the throne and reinstall God’s king, Jesus, as rightful ruler of every heart.

When the old selfish, greedy disposition is changed from within, people will change, mothers and fathers will change, children will change, homes will change, families will change, communities will change, society will change, one life at a time. When Jesus returns to take His rightful place on the throne of earth, He will come to an earth where pockets of heaven are already here, practising what He came to complete.

That’s what it’s all about, really!

Whose Perspective Counts?

Christian Life, , , , ,

WHOSE PERSPECTIVE COUNTS?

“Just then He looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then He saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, ‘The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford — she gave her all.'” Luke 21:1-4 (The Message).

He noticed! Isn’t that just like God?

I don’t think Jesus was sitting near the temple treasury specifically watching and judging people as they dropped in their offerings. He just happened to notice an obviously poor woman, mingling with the rich people, giving her gift as they put their offerings in the collection box.

Why did she stand out among the crowd? Did her threadbare clothing give her away? Was she wearing widow’s garb? The wealthy people would have dressed accordingly, and she would not have blended in with them. Perhaps she attracted Jesus’ attention because His heart was always for the underdog.

In the Sermon on the Mount, He has spoken out against the practice of the ‘hypocrites’ who gave their money in such a way that they wanted to attract attention to their ‘generosity’. The collection boxes were trumpet-shaped containers which prevented would-be thieves from helping themselves because the base was too narrow to get their hands in. If a person wanted to be noticed, he would toss his coins into the funnel so that it would make a ringing sound, hence the saying, ‘Don’t blow your own trumpet.’

Amid the ostentation of the rich, this poor widow slipped in and unobtrusively dropped in her two small coins, the smallest denomination in their currency. And Jesus noticed! Once again His comment puts our ‘generosity’ into God’s perspective which differs so much from our own. He noticed, not how much she gave, but how much she had left.

Of course, that should not put us on a guilt trip. God is realistic. He does not expect us to give our entire livelihood away. What would be the point of that? But He does hold us accountable as stewards of what He has entrusted to us. The difference between the attitude of God’s people and the people who refuse to acknowledge Him should be, but is not always, that we are guided by God’s requirements and not by greed. He gives generously so that we will share our resources with others.

The first thought that comes to me is that this widow’s generosity was prompted by her identity with poor people. As a widow, if she had no family to support her, she was dependent on the generosity of others. She knew what it felt like to depend on others for her livelihood. She also knew what it was like to have nothing. Her two little coins were not much, but it was all she had to share with others.

Secondly, to give all she had meant that she had faith in God to supply her need, risking, everything on the faithfulness of God. That introduces another dimension to our responsibility to obey God — faith, which is spelt r-i-s-k. It is not difficult to take faith-risks in other areas of our lives but in the money category…that’s different!

This little woman caught Jesus’ attention because her action lined right up with God’s perspective. He did not see her as a poor nobody because of her appearance or her station in life. He saw her as great in God’s kingdom because she understood, believed and put into practice God’s will, and God always responds to obedience.

God works, not by giving to us according to our need but by meeting our need when we take care of the needs of others. When we give, we create a current that brings God’s supply to us through the generosity of the others. That’s God’s wisdom!!