Wealth and Honor Come from You!

Wealth and Honor Come from You!

If you’re a sinner, you probably think this post is about you. I won’t say you’re so vain, but you probably get the point. If you read my last post, though, you already know the answer is . . . . God! I wrote about David’s words of praise for God in I Chronicles 29:10-13, but I didn’t get into details about what made this passage so powerful in the last five plus years of my life. I’ll share that below, but before I get there, a great cross reference to David’s declaration is in Deuteronomy 8:

17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

It looks like “you” is always the temptation, which goes back to the initial bold-faced lie the serpent told Eve in the garden, “you will be like God knowing good and evil” In some ways we are very much like God being made in his image, but the temptation had nothing to do with the imago dei. Rather it had to do with epistemology, which is fascinating to think through. Why did all the misery of sin and death come into God’s good creation with knowing? Man was obviously never meant to know evil, and he already knew good. The problem was we couldn’t handle it because, well, we are not God! Seems pretty simple doesn’t it.

Related to creating wealth, thinking we are in some way God is really the core of the problem. You may say without us there is no wealth, and you would be correct. But without a theology of wealth, and sin, and God, we area easily confused. This is important to my story because I found out I suck at being God (can I do LOL in a blog post?).

First, Paul tells us (Acts 17:25) God “gives to all life and breath and everything else.” So, there’s that. We may think we’re pretty hot stuff, but every single breath is granted to us by God, not to mention “everything else.” He also asks these rhetorical questions: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” All of our abilities and skills and talents and knowledge, all of it comes from him. Even our drive to acquire these things, our ambitions and desires come from him.

When we understand and accept this, that we are not autonomous self-sufficient, self-created beings, it all somehow becomes so much easier. As much as it is up to us, in a way none of it us up to us. This tension is what we call life lived in God’s created salvific reality. It is a thrilling dynamic in which to live in light of ultimate things, in the biggest of big pictures. As Paul yet again puts it perfectly in Romans 8:

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

I would joke with my kids as they were growing up, and still do when they are, surely Paul didn’t mean all. Maybe 98%. Nope, all!

Which brings me to the I Chronicles 29:10-13 context. A month after we moved down to Florida, I lost my job of 14 years, and that at age 57. Uh oh. Now what. After two months of finding nothing, in desperation I decided to take a job in IT sales on 100% commission, something I’d never done. It was terrifying, and the first year, even two, was miserable. God and me, we did some serious wrestling. It’s hard to explain the intensity of emotions I went through. Many times, often daily, I went back to David’s praise about the greatness of our God.

Right after David says wealth and honor come from God, he declares God is “the ruler of all things.” Not some things, but all things. That is the ultimate existential question: Do we really buy this, believe it when push comes to shove, when we are confronted with, do we trust him or not.

I remember praying something prior to taking the job that reveals what a moron I am. I would pray, “Lord it would be ideal if . . .” One day it struck me like a thunderclap: How the hell would I know what ideal is!!! I’m ashamed to say I had been a Christian by that time for almost 40 years, and was still so clueless about the true Greatness of our God that I would pray something like that. I’m a slow learner, but eventually I get it.

This new job confronted me with the trust question literally every day, and it was often painful. For those old enough, you may remember ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and the video opening every show: It was daily, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Exhilarating and disappointing. Was I going to embrace the God who is “the ruler of all things”? Could I experience equanimity in the face of defeat? Could I obey Jesus and not worry? Obey Paul and not be anxious about anything? Anything?

I even got to the point of telling the Lord, “If you want me to fail, that’s fine. Thy will be done.” But I was going to work my ever-living guts out and pray every day he would bless my efforts, and whatever happens from there is up to him. And he has!

The greatest lesson, I think, was learning my knee jerk reaction is always initially wrong, and I have to fight it. Trusting God takes mental and emotional effort. Takes turning back the fear, worry, anxiety, doubt because it just isn’t necessary. It is our sinful, distrustful imagination that causes those, and we just have to stop it! Rebuke ourselves, repent (I John 1:9, and leave the inner transformation to him), and convince ourselves anew that he’s got our back. It is a wonderfully fulfilling way to live in his promise to us (Is. 26)

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

Perfect peace. 

What Happens When You See a Beautiful Butterfly?

What Happens When You See a Beautiful Butterfly?

That will depend on what our eyes and brain have been programmed to see, whether it is by the secular culture in which we daily swim, or God’s word. If it is the former, we’ll see a pretty butterfly, beautiful colors that amaze us, and that’s it. If it is the latter, we’ll see God! If it is the culture, the beauty will point to nothing beyond the beauty. If it is God’s word it will point to God! How could it not? If this butterfly doesn’t reveal God, what does it reveal? Chance? How does one explain where such exquisite and intricate beauty comes from? If there is no God, then the only explanation can be chance. How persuasive is that? Not very. When you understand that God is the consummate eternal all powerful creative artist, everything in nature compels you to worship so great a being that could create everything, including this very butterfly. We need to commit the words of Paul in Romans 1 to memory, and teach them to our children, and share them with everyone we encounter:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

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Does God Want Us to Be Happy?

Does God Want Us to Be Happy?

I’m currently reading a book that gave me ideas for two blog posts on two successive pages, which means the author gave me some pretty amazing insights. Before I get to my thoughts . . . For those who know me they will be aware of my annoying habit of always telling them to . . . . Read More! My kids have born the brunt of that abuse most of their lives, but friends and other loved ones get it too. One reason, among many, that everyone should read more, is that human beings are made in God’s image, and as such they are revelations of his being. The thoughts of other people who grapple with reality can help us better understand the nature of things as God created them to work. There is much deep wisdom outside of the Bible that helps us better understand God’s special revelation in the Bible. I would go so far as to say that those who read and study outside of the Bible can better understand what’s in it than those who only read the Bible. So if you really want to grow more in wisdom, understanding, prudence, insight, discernment, judgment, etc. (which are all basically different facets of wisdom), you will read more (books)! What this means practically is that the puzzle pieces of life will fit a whole lot better when you make extra-biblical reading a consistent habit of your life. Enough lecturing, and now on to those thoughts. (more…)

Falling in Love with God!

Falling in Love with God!

Maybe it’s because I’m officially old and cry at Hallmark cards, but it seems over the last number of years that God’s truth is able to elicit in me tears that I don’t remember in the younger me. I’m sure this has nothing to do with age per se, but with a growing realization that comes with growing in the knowledge of his benefits. These words of John Calvin in the first chapter of his Institutes captures well the nature of this divine-human relationship:

I call “piety” that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that his is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him—they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him.

Bingo! There are many profound truths here that would take many posts to unpack, but here is the gist: God is for us, not against us. (more…)

We Need to Repent! For Not Being Thankful . . . Enough

We Need to Repent! For Not Being Thankful . . . Enough

I was listening/watching the Steve Deace show a couple weeks back, and the host, a Christian, said he needs to repent for not being thankful enough. Bingo! I was instantly convicted. I wrote a chapter in my book about gratitude, and how important being thankful is, continually, in the life of a Christian. I’ve taught that to my children as they’ve grown up, but it’s so much easier said than done. Life lived in a fallen world enduring the gravitational pull of sin is hard. In one of the great understatements in all of history, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble . . .” Ya think! But he finished his sentence with, “but take heart; I have overcome the world.” I love the world for trouble in Greek, thlipsis-θλῖψις, in a sadomasochistic kind of way: properly, pressure (what constricts or rubs together), used of a narrow place that “hems someone in”; tribulation, especially internal pressure that causes someone to feel confined (restricted, “without options”). That is life in a fallen world! (more…)

It Was 60 Years Ago Today . . . .

It Was 60 Years Ago Today . . . .

That SGT Peppers taught the band to play? Nah. It was 60 years ago today that I was born! I don’t mention that to bring attention to myself or my birthday, which as my family will tell you, I am loathe to do (the birthday part), but to muse on the strangeness of the passage of time. The older I get, the stranger it becomes. Time itself is a conundrum. We all know what it is, until we’re asked to explain it. For a portion of our lives we take it for granted, and don’t think much of it at all, other than to complain that certain things take waaaaaaay too long. Then something happens along the way, for me after I hit mile-marker 40. Time which never changes its actual pace, seemed to speed up. I remember attending a seminar in my 30s where the speaker said something about five years, and that for the youngsters in the audience that may seem like a long time. I remember thinking, five years is a long time. Oh, but it’s not, at all, as you oldsters know. And speaking of oldsters, isn’t it funny how everyone complains about getting old, but nobody wants to die? (more…)