Rethink Generosity

This weekend and for the next four weeks there will be an emphasis, Rethink Generosity, Jesus was the most generous person who ever lived.  Knowing God, loving God, serving God, walking with Jesus in Generosity is one of the most important teachings of Biblical faith and one of the hardest to embrace;  often the last step, and a step some never take in their Christian life, is the jump off into sacrificial generosity.  We pray, go to church, try to help others, and do our best to be good, but generosity of self, money, and time can seem like a way of life for others;  people like Mother Teresa, the rich who seem to have money to spare,  those with more talent and time, someone else, the hope of living as Jesus did seems unreachable,  somehow we can leave one of the greatest gifts of Jesus, generosity, on the table.  A generous life is a full, happy life that connects to God, others, and life itself in a way that engages the very soul God has given us.  1.  knowing, loving, and serving God, as simple as these ideas sound are rooted as deep in God’s plan as the very cross that is the most generous act of all time.

Knowing God

When we think about who God is we are thinking the most important things in all of life.  Who is God?  How does Jesus reveal God to us?  Can we know God?  Some of the things the Bible tells us about God might help us flesh out this person we must get to know;  a God who desperately wants us to know Him:

Holy, sovereign, Almighty, creator, redeemer

Loving, gracious, merciful, faithful, Good

Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent

Transcendent, immanent

Alpha and omega, the beginning and the end

King of Kings, Lord of Lords

God who was, is, and is to come

The Holy Spirit, comforter, advocate, counselor

The door, gate, the good shepherd

The bread of life, the Living Water

The way, the truth, the life

Savior, Lord, friend, author and perfecter of our faith

The soon and coming King

The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world

(From Patrick Morley;  Pastoring Men)

I believe the first and last step in having Faith in God is Knowing God.  If we don’t know fully who He is, it is difficult to trust Him in the full ways we are asked to.  The more I know who God is, the more I know God personally, the more I am willing to place my life in His hands.

What’s a Nail Worth?

This is a photo of a nail that was once in a sailing ship from the 17th century.  They were pretty valuable.  Back in the day when these ships would dock at south sea islands, sailors would occasionally pull them out of the boat to use to purchase items and favors  from the islanders who would use them for fish hooks and other things, a very valuable commodity in a society that had no iron.  The problem was that the sailors had to decide “How many nails can I pull out before the ship becomes unsafe!”, one, two, one hundred;  and even then it might be safe in the harbor, but would it be able to sail back home, especially if a storm came up.  I think people sometimes today do this with sin,  thinking “Can I  do this one time, two, or one hundred before bad things begin to happen in my life, in my friendship with God, my family, Etc”.  In other words, how many times can I do “This” before I began to break apart;  how many drinks, how many flirting moments, how many abusive words,  how many angry acts, how many white lies, unethical financial choices, unhealthy time on the Internet,  underhanded acts that may benefit me personally and hurt another, taking amazing grace for granted. (you can name these as well as I can for we each know what we might be tempted to exchange a nail for, the very nail that is holding the ship together).  There are too many of us facing a storm we are unprepared for because we have exchanged too many nails that are of great value for things that are not of value at all.  What does the devil want to get us to believe?   That something is nothing, and something is nothing.  Hammer the nails back where they belong.