Malachi 3 has one of those magical verses that is so often quoted when a church is looking for a little extra money.
Verses 8-10: “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse —your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it..."
I really think this text was aimed at the Levite's, the Jewish priests. I think God is telling them to take everything that has been offered and put it in the storehouse, God might say, "Do not take a portion of my offerings for yourself. Instead, just trust in me."
But most often today this text is used to encourage people to give 10% of their pay to the church. I've heard it preached two ways. Either the congregation is accused of robbing from God and shamed into it, or the congregation is promised wealth beyond their dreams if they give. Either way, let's address the text as if it were written for us.
Truth is, God does want you to give 10%. God wants you to do a lot of things, like love your enemy and keeping the Sabbath holy, but God is not going to love you less is if you can't do it, just like God is not going to love you less if you have to work on the weekend to meet a deadline.
A friend of mine, who is a pastor, was telling me that a member of his church came to him and said "Pastor, we have been giving 10% for many years, but my wife just lost her job. If we keep giving 10% we will lose our house... what should we do?" I think God would agree with his response... "Stop giving 10%." He had been giving 10% for years and he never got rich.
My wife and I give 10%, but we haven't always. After seminary I didn't have a full-time job for almost a year and we had my student loans to pay for. I was excited when we were recently able to break the 10% barrier. For some reason, I always felt like when I became an official "tither" I would change, maybe feel more generous. I never thought I'd be rich, but I was looking for some kind of blessing... I mean, that is what the text says.
I got a blessing, but not what I was expecting. The blessing is this, I don't look at the money the same way. It's not something that rules my life nor is it something that keeps me up at night. The Romans used to say that money was like salt-water, the more you drink the thirstier you get. Seems true today, our appetites for money are insatiable.
Don't get me wrong, I could figure out a way to spend money if I had it... But I'm not thirsty.
Maybe there is no better blessing than contentment.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Malachi 2
Verse 15-16: So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel..."
I could find myself arguing with just about everything God has said in the first two chapter of Malachi, if I just took the words at face value.
And I am certain that many people have taken these words at face value and walked away from God because of them. It's easy to read this verse and think that God not only hates divorce but God hates people that have gotten a divorce.
In this chapter God is addressing a problem in Israel. The world was getting away from polygomy, so men were divorcing their first wife and marrying younger women. God wasn't happy about it.
Before I continue, let me say this; God does not want you to be miserable or in an abusive relationship. What God wants is men and women to take their promises seriously. Abuse is breaking that promise. Adultery is breaking that promise. There is no way that you should keep a promise to someone that is not keeping their promise to you.
And then there is this... I met a guy the other day that has been married five times. He just walks away after a couple years when he "can't take it anymore." Take what, being around the same person every day? I wanted to say, "That's what marriage is! Why get married then?"
Divorce hurts. It hurts everyone involved. It hurts the husband and wife, it hurts the kids, it hurts the families on both sides and it hurts the friends that have to choose sides. It's not an easy thing for anyone... it's like a death in the family. It is not to be taken lightly.
Divorce is death to relationships and rips families apart. Of course God would hate it. God sent his Son to die on a cross to repair the relationship with humanity, to reconcile with humanity, to bring new life to humanity.
In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote something along these lines: (paraphrase) Love may not always be easy. After many years the thrill may be gone, but love is as much from the will as it is from the heart. The heart urges us to make promises, the will sees them through. God wants us to take all of our promises seriously...
(back to me) Because God takes all of His promises seriously. Which means even though half the people that get married end up getting a divorce, God still loves them the same as everyone else.
*** Sometimes I write blogs that I really don't want anyone to read, because I don't want to hurt anyones feelings. When I started this blog I committed to blogging about the bible, every chapter of every book. Which means there will be unpopular topics and views, but they aren't mine, they are God's. If you're divorced, I'm sure you've heard this verse before... I hope you know that God will always love you... and no one has the right to judge you.
I could find myself arguing with just about everything God has said in the first two chapter of Malachi, if I just took the words at face value.
And I am certain that many people have taken these words at face value and walked away from God because of them. It's easy to read this verse and think that God not only hates divorce but God hates people that have gotten a divorce.
In this chapter God is addressing a problem in Israel. The world was getting away from polygomy, so men were divorcing their first wife and marrying younger women. God wasn't happy about it.
Before I continue, let me say this; God does not want you to be miserable or in an abusive relationship. What God wants is men and women to take their promises seriously. Abuse is breaking that promise. Adultery is breaking that promise. There is no way that you should keep a promise to someone that is not keeping their promise to you.
And then there is this... I met a guy the other day that has been married five times. He just walks away after a couple years when he "can't take it anymore." Take what, being around the same person every day? I wanted to say, "That's what marriage is! Why get married then?"
Divorce hurts. It hurts everyone involved. It hurts the husband and wife, it hurts the kids, it hurts the families on both sides and it hurts the friends that have to choose sides. It's not an easy thing for anyone... it's like a death in the family. It is not to be taken lightly.
Divorce is death to relationships and rips families apart. Of course God would hate it. God sent his Son to die on a cross to repair the relationship with humanity, to reconcile with humanity, to bring new life to humanity.
In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote something along these lines: (paraphrase) Love may not always be easy. After many years the thrill may be gone, but love is as much from the will as it is from the heart. The heart urges us to make promises, the will sees them through. God wants us to take all of our promises seriously...
(back to me) Because God takes all of His promises seriously. Which means even though half the people that get married end up getting a divorce, God still loves them the same as everyone else.
*** Sometimes I write blogs that I really don't want anyone to read, because I don't want to hurt anyones feelings. When I started this blog I committed to blogging about the bible, every chapter of every book. Which means there will be unpopular topics and views, but they aren't mine, they are God's. If you're divorced, I'm sure you've heard this verse before... I hope you know that God will always love you... and no one has the right to judge you.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Malachi 1
Verse 2: "I have loved you," says the Lord. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?'
I haven't posted on my blog for a couple weeks, I have been on vacation and then I took our youth group to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I have driven/ridden more than 3,000 miles since my last post and have had a lot of fun. I worshipped with 35,000 teenagers, listened to some amazing jazz, ate great food and caught up with some beloved friends and family.
But I also have heard and seen some terrible things.
New Orleans still has homes that haven't been touched since Hurricane Katrina 7 years ago... there is still spray paint on the outside of homes left by the National Guard indicating how many lifeless bodies were found.
I went to the World War 2 museum and saw all kinds of various weapons designed to kill other human beings. I am proud that my country fought valiantly to save the world from oppression, but was left incredibly sad by the fact that it needed to. There are pictures of Japanese soldiers using live Chinese prisoners as dummies for bayonette training. And I don't even have the words for the concentration camps and the piles of bodies... just tears.
Just when I was thinking that we have come so far since then, the news of the Aurora shooting comes across my twitter feed. All I could say or think was, WTF? Is this a joke? What kind of person even thinks up such a plan? And then carries it out? Again, I was speechless.
So yeah, it is easy to ask God "How have you loved us?"
God's answer in Malachi 1 is incomplete. It is just a list of favors that God has done for Israel. God gives no indication of having felt what they have felt, God just complains about the food they have been offering.
If God showed up in the midst of the sorrow and pain in Aurora and started complaining about their offerings, I'd find a new profession.
But that's an incomplete picture of who God is. The message of the cross is suffering, sorrow, pain and death... and God felt it all. God knows how we feel because God has felt it. God sat idly by while His son was being murdered the most painful way possible. Just like a parent who could not get to their child in the movie theatre.
God went through that pain for a reason, so that we might be given the gift of everlasting life. Death no longer is the end, it does not, will not, and cannot win because Jesus has won.
In times like these we ask "How have you loved is?"
God's response is, "Let me tell you about my Son."
I haven't posted on my blog for a couple weeks, I have been on vacation and then I took our youth group to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I have driven/ridden more than 3,000 miles since my last post and have had a lot of fun. I worshipped with 35,000 teenagers, listened to some amazing jazz, ate great food and caught up with some beloved friends and family.
But I also have heard and seen some terrible things.
New Orleans still has homes that haven't been touched since Hurricane Katrina 7 years ago... there is still spray paint on the outside of homes left by the National Guard indicating how many lifeless bodies were found.
I went to the World War 2 museum and saw all kinds of various weapons designed to kill other human beings. I am proud that my country fought valiantly to save the world from oppression, but was left incredibly sad by the fact that it needed to. There are pictures of Japanese soldiers using live Chinese prisoners as dummies for bayonette training. And I don't even have the words for the concentration camps and the piles of bodies... just tears.
Just when I was thinking that we have come so far since then, the news of the Aurora shooting comes across my twitter feed. All I could say or think was, WTF? Is this a joke? What kind of person even thinks up such a plan? And then carries it out? Again, I was speechless.
So yeah, it is easy to ask God "How have you loved us?"
God's answer in Malachi 1 is incomplete. It is just a list of favors that God has done for Israel. God gives no indication of having felt what they have felt, God just complains about the food they have been offering.
If God showed up in the midst of the sorrow and pain in Aurora and started complaining about their offerings, I'd find a new profession.
But that's an incomplete picture of who God is. The message of the cross is suffering, sorrow, pain and death... and God felt it all. God knows how we feel because God has felt it. God sat idly by while His son was being murdered the most painful way possible. Just like a parent who could not get to their child in the movie theatre.
God went through that pain for a reason, so that we might be given the gift of everlasting life. Death no longer is the end, it does not, will not, and cannot win because Jesus has won.
In times like these we ask "How have you loved is?"
God's response is, "Let me tell you about my Son."
Monday, July 2, 2012
1 Timothy 6
In verse 17 Paul writes "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth..."
I think pastors fall into one of two categories, they either love talking about money or they hate it.
The ones that love talking about money usually start by saying that one should give more of it to the church. To make this a reality they do one of two things, they promise that the more one gives the more one will be financially blessed or they just use good old fashioned guilt.
I don't really like talking about money, not because it makes me uncomfortable but because I do not want to be accused of making false promises or using guilt. But I think talking about money is important because money is something that we can use to make the world a better place; we can make money our servant. We can take something that God has given us and use it for His purpose.
But money is dangerous because we can serve it and put our hope in it. Money gives us a sense of security, but it cannot love us or save us.
Jesus can do both... no matter what the market is doing.
I think pastors fall into one of two categories, they either love talking about money or they hate it.
The ones that love talking about money usually start by saying that one should give more of it to the church. To make this a reality they do one of two things, they promise that the more one gives the more one will be financially blessed or they just use good old fashioned guilt.
I don't really like talking about money, not because it makes me uncomfortable but because I do not want to be accused of making false promises or using guilt. But I think talking about money is important because money is something that we can use to make the world a better place; we can make money our servant. We can take something that God has given us and use it for His purpose.
But money is dangerous because we can serve it and put our hope in it. Money gives us a sense of security, but it cannot love us or save us.
Jesus can do both... no matter what the market is doing.
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