Helping Those in Need?

Questions of the day:

Is there a difference between people in need and needy people?

If so, how do you tell the difference?

What was Jesus' attitude towards people in need and needy people?

What should you do for those in need and those who are just needy?

Dry or Crispy Crackers?

I'm looking at a box of crackers. We all like dry crackers. We are drawn to eat dry crackers. It's easy to eat them and see no problem with dry crackers. Dry crackers equals fresh crackers. Yet there are some crackers that are so dry, they seem to soak out any life from your mouth. I used to say "wow, that's one dry cracker" for something that was really boring. Crackers are hard to tell when they are going bad. It's all of a sudden we realize a dry cracker is now stale.

This often becomes the life of a Christian. The longer you are a Christian, the more you seem to saturate yourself with and around things Christian. Nothing wrong with that. I highly encourage to get more Christian friends (not less UnChristian friends), read more Christian materials (the bible is always a good one), and practice a lifestyle of a Christian. (Maybe a Christian who doesn't do these things are soggy crackers. Trying to keep the analogy.)

There comes this point in life when your cracker becomes really, really dry. It seems okay, because aren't crackers suppose to be dry? Isn't a Christian still being a Christian if they walk and talk and smell like a Christian?

Hebrews 5:11-12 says "11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! " Although the writer was talking about the "elementary teachings of Jesus," I think he highlights an important aspect: teaching others.

I think this is one of the number one reasons why Christians become super-dry or stale or soggy. I think it's one of the number one reasons why Christians become and continue gossipying, grumbling and complaining, and not really learning the bible "deeply". In order to remain "Christian" dry, they have stopped being crispy. They have stopped being around those who are fresh in the faith. They themselves stop growing because they have not began to teach others what they know about being a cracker. Each cracker absorbs the other cracker for moisture, until there just isn't any more left. That's when the cracker becomes super-dry and stale.

Call it leadership. Call it apprenticeship. Call it maturity. Call it evangelism. Whatever you call it, be crispy. You don't have to be dry to be a crispy cracker.

Employ Yourself during Unemployment

So I've been kind of "unemployed" for a couple of months and I've been looking for work.  But honestly, I haven't been searching and filling everyday with getting a job.  I have been keeping quite busy doing what I love doing: serving in my local church.  I do get paid part time from my church, but I also have been utilizing my "off" time now working more on church work, helping people in need and just doing whatever comes my way for other people.  Sooner than later though, the tables will have to turn to spend more of that time supporting my family financially. Unless God continues to supply my need through these efforts.

This all got me thinking about what people do when they are unemployed.  I've prayed for many in the past and currently for them finding a job.  God has always came through and took care of them one way or another.  No doubt I trust God to do the same for me (don't misunderstand that statement to mean I sit around waiting for the job to come to me).  Yet for most of them, I rarely heard stories of them spending extra time around the church doing whatever is needed.   Maybe that is part of the problem: that we rarely share our good deeds with others because we're afraid of conveying a "look at me" attitude.  Yet, I have a feeling that for the majority, I am right on.

I don't say this to criticize, but to maybe motivate you and them to take advantage of this time to spend a little extra time starting and finishing those projects that you know need to be done.  Take advantage of this time to spend time relationally with those in need.  God has given you responsibility in the church.  The church is you.  The church is made up of you.  The church is what you make of it.

What are other people saying about me?

Taught at an teen overnighter, Identity:

When I was growing up and I was in high school, there was this pressure for me to understand who I was and what I was going to do with your life.  Everything pointed to some future career and finding out which career would be just right for me.  There were these skills tests and personality tests which would give me a list of careers that might fit who I am.  There was an artist, there was a brain surgeon.  Different things that supposedly made me more of me.  Completed me sort of thing.  But it never helped me get friends.  It never helped my basketball game.  It never helped me with the lady friends.  It didn’t help me feel purpose.  Sometime in your life, if you haven’t already, you’ll begin to ponder on the two greatest questions of life: Who are you? And Why are you here?

Who are you? What makes you you? Is there something that makes you different than the person next to you? Is there something that you have in common with the person next to you? How would you describe yourself to someone? What characteristics or personality would you want other people to identify as you? Maybe you could say “I’m an athlete, I’m smart, I’m a good looking guy.”  But even with these kinds of identifying characteristics, does someone really know who you are? Probably not very likely.  Maybe we can describe ourselves by what we do.  Why are you here on earth? Complete the statement, “I am here to _____.” “I am here to be happy, to help other people be happy, get people to like me, make lots of money, make a big difference, live and see what happens.  Or I have no idea why I am here.”  Who would your friends say you are?

See this question becomes really important, especially as we see Jesus ask his friends the same thing.  In Luke 9:18-20   ¹⁸ Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"  ¹⁹ They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."  ²⁰ "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God."  People who saw Jesus from a distant had this other view about who Jesus was.  Their view wasn’t right.  But what Jesus did was to really concern himself with what his closest friends would say who he was.  Peter was like his best earthly friend.  And for Peter, he knew exactly who Jesus was and he was completely right.  Jesus was the Christ of God! 

Identifying who you are and what you are conveying to people is important.  But there are two extremely valuable lessons here in answering these identity questions.  1) Jesus did not get his identity from other people around him, including his closest friends.  He wasn’t like, “yeah, those people believe that I’m Elijah or some prophet, that’s cool.  I suppose I could be more like Elijah or some prophet if all those people like me for being that.”  Even him asking Peter wasn’t so he could find the best answer.  This brings us to the second valuable lesson to learn from Jesus here. 2) Jesus did not ask the question to find the answer.  He already had the answer, but he wanted to make sure that at least those close to him saw the truth.  Jesus was the Christ of God before Peter answered the question.  Jesus was the Christ of God even though other people didn’t see him as that.  Being who you are should be evident to those close to you.  The farther people are from knowing you, they probably misread or misunderstand who you are.

But are you conveying who you are? Or are you concerned with trying to be someone that other people want you to be? Again, maybe you have no idea who you are. So let me finish this up and tell you who you are.  You either are this or you are not this.  ^NIV 1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” The truth is that only you who have accepted and believed in Jesus as your substitute from your penalty for your sins, can claim this as your identity. If you are not this, then you are still in the darkness, apart from God, without any real meaningful purpose.

Think about it and write down for yourself whether you have been conveying this identity and perhaps ways that you can begin to change how other people identify you as this. And if this isn’t your identity, I want you to ask yourself whether the identity that you have, whether that is the one you want.

 “Who does God say that I am?”

Initiating Love: Who's Cooking?

Valentine's Day is the day that love is expressed between couples.  Some men joke that it's this day and their birthday that they get the love they're looking for (they are not usually laughing when they tell this joke).  Some women don't get their hopes up that their man does anything out of the ordinary to make them feel special.  Both sides anticipate a time of feeling loved without having to provoke or remind the other person.  We call that "to initiate."  

No woman wants their man to say "oh thanks for getting me something, I'll go out tomorrow and get you something."  No man wants their woman to say "so were you wanting to do something tonight?"  Valentine's Day is often one of the only days of the year that both are expected to have planned personal initiatives to love.

But what about the other 364 days of the year? Who's the initiator of love? Who's suppose to be cooking? From a biblical standpoint, I would say it seems to be the husband. In Ephesians 5:25, it says that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church.  Christ loved the church first.  He was the initiator.  1 John 4:19, it says that we love Christ because he first loved us.  So men, be the initiator of love.

On a side note, the bible doesn't seem to call wives to love their husbands.  But in verse 22, it calls wives to submit to their husbands (sounds like a response to being initiated upon, I wonder how this plays into the husbands fulfilling their role?). 

However, if husbands are pictures of Christ loving the church, and the wives are pictures of the church, how is the church to love Christ? How are wives to love their husbands? They are to love him with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37); and they are to love him as he first loved us (1 Jn 4:19).

Jesus initiated love, the church is to initiate love back.  Is Love really love if it only responds?Love is love when it initiates. So who's turn is it to cook?

Neither, it's both.

Love Is A Choice, No It's A Feeling, No It's...

This next coming week is Valentine's Day (glad I could remind you all). In the spirit of that I've been looking at 1 Corinthians 13, which is considered the "love chapter of the bible" by many. Oh, love, love, love... I talk to so many people it seems these days in which their marriages are not quite what they thought it would be. They then can give me a story of someone else they know who are in the same boat. It seems as though the love boat has hit a major iceberg.

One very wise lady asked me one day whether love is a choice (combating the question whether love is a feeling. The saying goes that if it's a feeling and the feeling is not there, then there is no love anymore, and it seems logical and justifiable to go somewhere else where love might be). I answered yes, "love is a choice". When I look at 1 Corin. 13, love is described by certain actions. 'Love is a verb" some like to say, it does things. Yet, each of these actions and inactions are extremely packed with emotions and feelings (if she asked me whether "love is a feeling", I would have also said yes). So I'm kind of saying that "feeling is a choice". Please don't lose me.

For example, I've looked at this phrase, "it is not easily angered" (v. 5). What's surprising about biblical language is that there are some 18 different variations in describing anger. Here in this instance it describes something that provokes extremely emotional concern. It's an emotional concern that seems to literally eat you up inside. It's a feeling that makes you feel like you want to rip yourself apart.

So can love or unlove be described as a feeling? Sure sounds like it!. And yet there seems to be this option between acting on this extreme feeling and going with something else. And going with something else brings it own extreme feeling. Actions are generated by or enhanced by feelings and feelings are generated by or enhanced by actions.

I think you have a hard time separating actions/inactions from emotions/feelings. It's the choice of letting those feelings drive or not drive your actions. That is key. We have a choice of feeling which feelings. The ones we want may not come as quickly as we want, but the ones we shouldn't want will be lessened as we continue to choose love.

God As The Boss: Good or Bad?

In my last post, I mentioned that God is the "boss." For some, this isn't a very welcoming concept. The word "boss" doesn't convey friendship, looking out for employees interests, or even a fun environment to hang out in. The word "boss" is more like warnings, rules, being unreasonable, and someone sitting around making everyone else do the real work.

The bad part about using concepts to illustrate God is that we take our concepts of something in the world and place those concepts with those illustrations of God. Rather, we need to begin with the bible and try to understand how these concepts are meant to be developed. Seeing how God is the "boss" in the bible, is how we should strive to understand what responsibilities leaders have and what kind of relationship should be developed between "boss" and "employee."

Often times we have these wrong concepts of a lot things that drive the reason we do things or react to things. Before we react or place our ideas or concepts on God and tell people how they should live because of these concepts, let us start from the bible and make sure we develop those correctly.

What other strange concepts seem to be different from our original understanding and those truly taught in the bible?

Don't Worry, Be Happy

My 6 yr old son loves to pray for dinner every night. Some things change in his prayers, but there are two things that always remain. He starts with "thank you for today, I had real fun" and he ends with "hope tomorrow will be a fun day."

Jesus said that all of us need to be like children when comes to accepting His kingdom. It's like having the faith, softness of heart and excitement to be a part of the things of God.

Perhaps you've heard from other people, your parents, your mentor, or even yourself say that life is not about having fun. Maybe they're right, but maybe not. Solomon in the bible says that the only thing that matters in life is to be happy, enjoy your work, and consider all things as though God's the "boss" (which He is).

What do you think stops people from living an enjoying life like God wants them to?