Giving

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought

to give.  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more

than we can spare.  In other words, if our expenditure

on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the

standard common among those with the same income

as our own, we are probably giving away too little.  If

our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should

say they are too small.  There ought to be things we 

should like to do and cannot do because our charities

expenditure excludes them.

C.S. Lewis

Prayer for January 2

O Lord, Almighty God and Heavenly Father, you did not give us life and set us in this world merely so we would nourish ourselves with grief and work until we return to the dust from whence we came. Instead, you ordained our lives so that we should fear you and love you, and cleave to you with all our hearts.  Even as your divine grace gave us the day to work, so you gave us the night to rest.  Under your fatherly shield of protection, we have mercifully enjoyed this rest, and for that we humbly praise and bless you with deep gratitude.  Amen.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1

Tomorrow is the start of a new year - new beginnings - new habits - new attitudes.  Praise God!

For Christmas my husband, Paul, gave me a wonderful little book titled Amish Prayers compiled by Beverly Lewis.  These prayers come from the German prayer book Die Ernsthafte Christenpflicht printed in 1708 and have now been translated into English.

My 'new beginning' - 'new habit' - 'new attitude' is to use this blog to bring you these wonderful prayers so you, too, can pray them with me.   What could be better in this fallen world than for us to raise our voices together to praise the God who created us, loves us and saved us from ourselves.  I hope you will bookmark my blog and pray in unison to our great and mighty God. 

Amen 

Being Authentic

I'm reading Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg and finding myself needing some introspection.  Why do we Christians so often put on the SMILE for everyone - you know, the "my life is perfect; my marriage is perfect; my kids are perfect; I love everyone and nothing can get me down" smile.  Is that really attracting seekers to Christianity?  Or is is repelling them due to the hypocricy and phoniness of it all?  I mean, these people aren't stupid - in fact many of them are highly intelligent.  So are we fooling them when we "act" happy all the time?  Like Stepford wives?  Like there is one mold for Christians and we're all going to fit that mold or die trying?  God made us all so different with different personalities, character traits, desires, and talents.  He has a different purpose for each of us.  So lets stop trying to be just like the Christian that everyone puts up on a pedestal and be authentic.  Here's an excerpt from the book:

. . .  authentic identity.  I can't tell you how many brand new Christians stop me after our weekend services to say that part of what drew them to Christ was the realization that there can be great diversity in the makeup of God's family.

 

I remember one man's saying, "I came to this church expecting the leaders to be pushing everyone into the same mold.  And I anticipated hearing that there was a thoroughly defined set of specs for how a Christian should look, act, talk, smell, dress, and think.  But guess what?  I found exactly the oppostie to be true!

 

He continued by saying, "I was shocked to learn that there was no single mold that everybody had to be crammed into."  Then he said something I hope I'll never forget:  "I discovered I didn't have to renounce my identity to receive and follow Christ.  It blew my mind to learn that God cares deeply about me, He loves the way I'm put together, and He wants to use me in a fashion consistent with the design He gave me."

 

One of the greatest mistakes a believer can make is to renounce or repress his God-given uniqueness in a vain attempt to appear more spiritual.  That error is deadly on two counts.  First, after ten or fifteen years of identity repression you can totally lose your understanding of who you really are.  Second, there are some people outside the family of God who will never see Him for who He really is until they watch Him living and working authentically in one of His unique sons or daughters - one just like you!

 

Do you want to be a contagious Christian?  Then stop apologizing for your God-given design.  Quit trying to deny your individuality.  Give up on trying to stuff yourself into someone else's mold of what a good Christian should be.  That's not the game plan God has in mind for you.

The Audit of a Lifetime by Ron Hutchcraft

Oh, when the auditor leaves from our annual audit, man, our administrative team is high-fivin'. Partly because, well, again we got a clean audit this past year, and our ministry's been blessed with that year after year, and partly it's just because it's over! They worked pretty hard to be ready for all the things the auditor wanted to check out.
In the business world, and sometimes even in the Christian world, audits aren't always happy. Auditors can find things that get you in trouble with your boss, with the government, even with the law. Audits uncover hidden secrets.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Audit of a Lifetime."
Now, I have a meeting scheduled with the auditor in the future. Except, I don't know when it is, because the appointment is with The Auditor, and only He knows when my audit of a lifetime is going to be. Fact is we're all facing the audit of our lives. Our word for today from the word of God in Romans 14:12 says "...each of us will give an account of himself to God."
There will be no exceptions, "...each of us." There will be no excuses, "...will give account of himself to God." No blaming your spouse, your parents, your kids, your friends, your coworkers. I will answer for me and me alone. Also, there will be no secrets. "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" - Romans 14:12 says that. The Auditor knows every website we've ever visited, every e-mail or conversation we've been involved with, every sin we thought we got away with.
Many times I've seen a road sign with these stark words: "Prepare to meet your God" (Romans 14:12). Since heaven's all-knowing Auditor will expose everything about my life, it actually makes sense to work on what I'll face in His presence. The Auditor has let us know what He'll be auditing. I'd like to know that now.
Now, I know He'll be auditing the words I speak. Jesus said so: "Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless (or worthless, that means) word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned" (Romans 14:12). All our words, including the gossip, the angry stuff, the putdowns, the dirty stuff, will be there to meet us on the day of judgment and there will be no denying my own words.
The Auditor's also going to examine why I do what I do. The Bible says, "Wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts" (Romans 14:12). I'm not too excited about those new full body scans that they're installing at airports; they reveal what no one else can see. But that's nothing compared to God's full heart scan at the judgment seat. No matter how good what I've done may be, it will burn if my real motive was me, not Him. God cares a lot more about why we do than what we do. If it wasn't for His glory, if it wasn't because of pure love, it will never survive the audit.
Then Jesus said, "Give an account of your management" (Romans 14:12). The audit is going to be about what I've done with what He's given to me: my money, my influence, my home, my abilities, my opportunities. I'm suspecting that a lot of us are going to be feeling the shame and sadness of what might have been, of how much we could have done and should have done.
And then there's this really sobering warning of what's going to come up at the audit. "When I say to a wicked man (the Bible makes it clear that's all of us), 'You will surely die,' and you do not...speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 3:18). Whew! God will confront me with all the people I didn't tell about Jesus, whose eternity depended on hearing about Him.
I guess the hardest-hitting exposure at the audit of a lifetime will be about what we do with Jesus. The Bible says about Judgment Day, "...the books were opened. Another book was opened which is the Book of Life...If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Romans 14:12). What an unspeakably horrific moment.
Jesus checks the Book of Life to see if a person's name is there. If it's not, it's too late. It's entered there when you pin all your hopes on the Christ who died on the cross for your sin. If you never have, you can have your name put in His Book today by giving your life to Him.
The Auditor's told us how to take the dread out of the audit. It says, "If we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgment" (1 Corinthians 11:31). Face it now so you don't have to face it then. It's no wonder He's so deeply interested in how we live our life. He's pretty heavily invested with His blood.

Sharing, Giving, Sacrificing

By this we know love, that he laid down his life

for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for

the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods

and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart

against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but

in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:16-18