Giving when we have nothing

Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats' hair,  tanned rams' skins, and goatskins; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Exodus 35:5-9

The Lord’s instructions to Moses. It was time to build the Tabernacle, the place of God’s dwelling. It was to be elaborately beautiful, extravagant even. Of the finest materials. Explicit and intricate design details. Every element representing aspects of God’s character and His relationship with His people. A place that honored God above all else.

It was time to build and God told Moses to invite the people to participate in the process. He called upon them, as moved by the willingness of their hearts, to contribute. To bring the best of their possessions - gold, silver, bronze. The finest of fabrics and building materials. Beautiful jewels, oils and fragrances.

What a beautiful scene! God’s people responding to His call, building Him such a magnificent tabernacle. A place of worship. Beautiful.

But think for a moment. What is the context for God’s call? Where were the people when He told them to build this? Not in Jerusalem, residing comfortably, working hard at their jobs, making a living, enjoying life.

They were in the wilderness! They were on the move, no means for providing for their families, much less contributing to a magnificent building. Plus, they had just left Egypt on the run, from their lives as slaves! They were not affluent nobility, relocating from one kingdom to another. They were slaves who owned nothing!

So why in the world would God ask of them such expensive gifts? Where in the world could they obtain them? They were in the desert wilderness, remember!

Well, guess what. God knew what He was doing. Imagine that :)

Go back to chapter 3 in this same book and see what God did….

Long before He freed them from slavery, He told Moses what to do. He told him that it would be difficult to get Pharaoh to release them but that God would intervene. And He promised in Exodus 3:21,22:

And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,  but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

When the time of deliverance came, God reminded them to make these requests (Exodus 11:2,3) and sure enough, God was faithful and the people obeyed. Exodus 12:35,36 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Wow.

So, in the middle of nowhere, with no means of financial support, these slaves were able to construct an edifice that, in today’s dollars, would be valued at approximately $ 57-62 million. Yep, That is $62,000,000.

Gulp.

All because God provided. For what He called them to do, He luxuriously provided.

Such a glorious truth and a beautiful story. Evokes in us wonder and praise and thanksgiving.

But what else would God say to us through this Old Testament account? He exhorts us in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

So there is a treasure trove of truth to glean from this historical record in Scripture. I am sure I don’t even know a fraction of it. But two things stand out to me as I ponder His Word. Two things that we can tuck into our hearts and draw from. Two things to share with you, my friends.

One, God will provide. For whatever He has called you to do, God will provide. Whether it’s to carry His truth to an unreached group or to live on one income or to finish that degree. God will provide. Often from unlikely channels, but ultimately He is the source.

And, two, when God provides for us, He intends us to give it back to Him. For however He chooses to use it. He owns it all, He controls it all, and He wants to direct it all. Through us. Our gifts from Him -whether financial or physical or mental or relational - are to be returned to Him for His use in carrying out His work for His glory. We can enjoy the gifts but we must understand they are for His glory.

I don’t know what God has called you to, my friend, but it’s likely that His call comes while you are in the desert wilderness, with no visible means of accomplishing what He is calling you to do. No worries. Just rest in the fact that He will plunder the Egyptians for you!

Winning the war part 2

Welcome back!

Last week, we looked at the mission and method of the enemy- he wants to destroy us. DESTROY

So remember this is serious. We need to be aware of his mission and his method - deceit. He tries to get us to doubt the Word of God - the goodness of God towards us - so that he can build a fortress inside our thought life and influence our behavior from that occupation. That is how he robs us of joy and peace . That is how he gets us to worry and fume and become fearful, depressed, embittered, and cold-hearted. That is the road to destruction.

Hopefully this motivates us to want to remedy this, to remove him from occupying our head! To do so, we must not only wage war - we must win. Praise His name that He has provided the weapons we need for victory! 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us how :  For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Therein lies our mission - to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to Christ. Perhaps you ask - what does that mean and how do we do that? We ask the Lord to show us any thoughts that stand in opposition to the true knowledge of God. Where are we believing lies about Him? What am I thinking that is untrue about my Father? To demolish the stronghold requires weapons and one of these is Scripture. Ephsians 6 tells us that His Word is the sword of the Spirit. When I have His Word in me, I give the Holy Spirit something to fight with! This means that I immerse myself in His Word, reading and meditating on it so He can reveal Himself to me. The goal of the Christian is to know God. And that cannot be accomplished without a commitment to His Word. As I learn who HE is, I see where I have yielded to lies about Him and His Word begins transforming me (continuously!) and replacing the lies I have believed with TRUTH. Another thing to do with our thoughts is to “take them captive to obey Christ” - what does this look like? It doesn’t mean that I push the thought out of my head - that doesn’t work even if I try! It means that when the lies come into my head (the what if’s and if only’s, etc) that I take control of them by subjecting them to the truth of God’s Word. I confront the thoughts and strip them of power by declaring what God says instead of what those thoughts are. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says that His Word “performs its work in those who believe”. Get it in and let it work, sisters!

The passage in 2 Corinthains uses weaponS, plural, not singular. So if Scripture is one weapon, what is the other? 2 Corinthians doesn’t specify but I think we can find the answer in Ephesians 6. This familiar set of verses describes how Christ-followers can gain victory and numerous weapons are listed here. I want to focus on the only two offensive ones mentioned:  and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,  praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, We just discussed the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) but notice what is coupled with that mighty sword - PRAYER! Prayer is also a powerful tool that God affords us in the battle. Bundling these two weapons together - Scripture and prayer - is like strapping two sticks of dynamite together! In fact, verse 4 of the 2 Corinthians passage uses a specific word to describe the divine power available to destroy these fortresses: dunamis. It means power, strength, ability and is literally the word from which we get our word for dynamite!

One final thought on winning the war. We know the enemy’s mission is to destroy us. We know that his method is to influence our thoughts and deceive us. We explored the weapons and means for us to fight. But it is very helpful to know how he gets in to our heads to begin with so that we can stop this before it gets started.

In closing today, let’s look at two passages: Ephesians 6:26,27 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. and Matthew 18:32-35 32 Then summoning him, his master *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his master, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he would repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

These verses reveal to us the entry point and the result of letting the enemy in, giving him opportunity to erect a stronghold in our minds. We give the enemy access when we don’t resolve anger in a the right way, resulting in unforgiveness. And the result of that unforgiveness is emotional imprisonment, subjecting us to the torture of bitterness, anxiety, depression, fear, shame, etc.

Gulp.

Not loss of salvation but loss of the abundant life Christ wants for us - peace and joy and freedom to follow Him fully.

The key to unlock this emotional prison, to tear down this stronghold, is to forgive. To proclaim the truth of Who God is and to extend to others the mercy He shows us. It is usually hard work (when Jesus explained forgiveness to the disciples, they cried out for Him to increase their faith! Luke 17:4,5). But the cost of not forgiving is too high a price to pay!

Here are a couple of earlier posts that might be helpful as you purpose to walk in forgiveness… Living Letters — Suzanne Chambers June 3,2013 June 5,2013

Winning the war

John 10:10 tells us that the enemy of our souls seeks “only to steal, kill, and destroy”. His intent is to devastate us - not to give us a bad day but literally to destroy us. We are probably familiar with this verse but perhaps we don’t let the reality of it sink in. He wants to destroy us.

Maybe we do know that. But are we aware of his tactics, how he goes about accomplishing his mission? Today we will take a look at some of his schemes and some ways we can thwart his efforts.

First, where does he operate? How does he get to us? We know from 2 Corinthians 4:4 that he gets to unbelievers by way of deceit: The god of this age [that is, Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God .

SO how does he get to us believers? Aren’t we who are in Christ protected? Eternally speaking, yes we are. Jesus says that nothing can snatch us from His hand (John 10:28) and that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38,39). Hooray and hallelujah! Does that mean we are free and clear? Eternally speaking, yes, but while we are still on earth, Satan strives to destroy any part of our lives that he can. Our testimony, our joy, our peace, and yes, even our physical lives.

Gulp.

How does he do that to those of us in Christ? By the same method - deceit. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ (II Corinthians 11:3) He causes us to doubt God’s goodness to us by getting to our minds.

Our minds are incredibly powerful. Amazingly so. Even for those of us who feel ours is fading and fallible! Our minds host the capacity for great good - creativity, problem solving, positive influence, on and on. Our minds also are capable of great harm - harboring toxic thoughts which spawn great evil. And we who follow Christ must be vigilantly aware that the enemy of our souls is completely aware of this dual capacity!

Undoubtedly, he has many ways to influence our thoughts but today I am focusing on one way that Scripture says he “gets in our head”. Once in our head, 2 Corinthians 10:4 tells us that he literally builds a fortress from which he operates his mission of destruction. Perhaps you are saying - WAIT! Satan cannot possess a believer! This cannot be true! Let’s take a look at that verse…

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We will look at the weapons later - for now, let’s focus on that word “strongholds”. That describes a place of enemy occupation, from where he antagonizes the occupant. Spiritually speaking, this means that he hangs out in our head and influences first our thoughts and ultimately our feelings and behaviors. This verse makes it clear that these strongholds exist and that we must strive to avail ourselves of the divine power necessary to wipe them out.

We will get to that in a minute. For now, let’s explore how the enemy is able to build that fortress - that stronghold - in the first place.

Verse 5 of that same passage enlightens us: We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, It tells us how we fight this war but first look at what allowed the enemy access: arguments and opinions that try to seem bigger than the truth of who God is (“lofty” - because NOTHING is bigger than God!) What might some of those thoughts and arguments and opinions be? Maybe you are thinking of other religions or idealogies that proclaim salvation by a way other than Jesus. Maybe this verse makes you think of evolution or self-help psychology. Certainly those can be “lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God” but the thoughts that occur to me are closer to home. Thoughts such as “I can’t do this. It’s too hard.” or “I deserve better than this”. Maybe envy like “why doesn’t something good like that happen to me?” or hurt “after all I’ve done for them, how could they treat me like this?” A response to wounding like “I always knew she never liked me” or an assumption that does not give the other person the benefit of the doubt. A critical spirit that manifests itself in thoughts such as “I know better than they do” or resentment that sounds like “why am I the one who always has to do…”. I don’t know about you but these are much more familiar temptations in my mind than Islam or Darwin!

Thus, the enemy gains admission to our mind. By the allowing of our thoughts to not obey Christ. By our ignorant acceptance that anything could be bigger than the truth of God’s love for us. And our neglect and/or unwillingness to employ the weapons He supplies us to destroy the efforts of the enemy to deceive us. In short, we fail to make our thoughts bow to the truth of Christ’s authority and love.

Well, per usual, I’ve gone on longer than I initially intended. SO we will close here for today and next time we will look at specific ways to use those tools and one specific thing to be on guard against.

Tks for reading!

Barney lied

Barney lied.  If you raised your kids singing with the lovable purple dinosaur, you may need an adjustment in your thinking.  Because his song “Everyone is special” is not truth.  By definition, everyone cannot be special!

Before you assault me for cartoon heresy, let me assure you that I believe God’s Word teaches us that everyone is VALUABLE.  But not special.  “Special” is defined as “ better, greater or otherwise different from what is usual. “  Therefore it is impossible for every person to be special! Every person is indeed valuable , being made in the image of God, and therein worthy of dignity, respect and love. But “special” – no, we are not all special.  We must reject that notion because it inevitably leads us to think that we (or our children) are the exception to the rule.  Think about where that kind of thinking leads!

As the exception, we can live by our own rules because the rule common to all does not apply to us. We deserve different accommodations, treatment, and consideration from others because we are “special”. We should not be subjected to the same requirements as others and should be free to please ourselves regardless of the impact on those “not special” others. How deceitfully enticing it is to want to be our own god!  It is easy to see how chaos ensues from that!

 The lie perpetuated by Barney also leads us to be deceived about how tough we have it. We think our trials and tribulations are so unique that we deserve either pity or commendation. We are tempted to tell our story (perhaps even exaggerating the extent of our difficulty or at least being myopic in our perspective!)in hopes of eliciting either sympathy for how hard we have it or admiration for making it through . When the listener attempts to offer a more balanced view of the situation, we often protest with “you don’t really understand”. We spend much time and expend much energy defending our justification of how different (difficult) our story is and trying to garner the appropriate response. Being special is actually exhausting!

What does God’s Word say about such “special-ness”? That it doesn’t exist! I Corinthians 10:13 exhorts us “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man”.  COMMON! Not special. The Greek word that we translate as “temptation” is “peirasmos” and comes from the word that means “experience”. Contextually, the word is telling us that whatever is happening to us has happened to plenty of other people and we need to not consider ourselves so special!

Instead of being deflating, this should instead encourage us. We are experiencing what numerous others have also experienced and the good news is that more than plenty of them survived! If they can do it, so can we. In the first epistle attributed to the Apostle Peter, he says in chapter 5 to resist the devil “knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world”.  This is followed by the glorious promise in verse 10 “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you”.

No, we are not “special”. But we who are in Christ are indeed “set apart” and counted worthy to be strengthened and established and transformed by circumstances “specially” designed for our sanctification and His glory. Amen.