God's Love

Do you ever have that one verse that when you read it you are blown away? At the risk of making it super overdramatic, time seems to stop as the verse penetrates right to the core of who you are. You think to yourself, how have I never caught this. Or if you are like me you think, why is this not already part of who I am? I recently experiences this type of journey and thought process for myself through the reading of 2 Corinthians 5: 13-15.

Paul writes: “If we are out of our minds, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right minds, it is for you. For Christ love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

This is the type of passage that immediately speaks to who we should be as Christians. However, the context of this verse gives us a glimpse into what it will really take to live as a Christ follower. When Paul actually traveled to Corinth he was able to start a great work and we see in his first writing to them that problems arose after he left. After he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians false prophets showed up and sought to destroy the ministry of Paul by saying that he was out of his mind and that he was crazy. They touted him as an outcast of society. When Paul decides to address this in 2 Cor. 5: 13 he shows that he has no problem being different or an outcast.

Paul’s love for Christ is so great so compelling that he begs the people to see him as crazy, as different. He puts aside everything he is to see that God shines through him. Can we say that about our lives? Are we ready to allow the full love of Christ to shine through us? Are you ready to be called crazy?

Inside Looking Out

Growing up in Church I always noticed that everyone that went to my church was just like me. Of course they were not exactly like me. But to be honest most of them came from the same type of family, had the same type of social status and similar experiences, they were just older, younger or a different sex. Odds are that you too went to a church that was full of people that were just like you.

I really didn’t notice because that was just my life, that was just how my church was. It was later that I realized that almost every church is like that. So as I began to ponder this phenomenon, and I instantly jumped to making excuses, because God forbid that there is something wrong with my church. I once heard this excuse and ignorantly agreed, “Our Church will only reach a certain demographic, we can reach out but ultimately we will only reach middle class white America.” Looking back I cannot believe how closed-minded and non-Christian this thought is. Or an even worse mindset is “This is our church and those type of people will come in and mess up our building and steal things.” I know that this seems silly and you think that no one would say this but I have heard it.

The Church has sadly become one of the most exclusive clubs in America. We require membership to get special privileges, we are leery of outsiders, and we exclude people we are not comfortable having around. This type of thinking is missing the point of what churches are about. We should care more about the people that may mess things up, or cause discomfort than those people who have made the church their home. This was the example of Christ.

In his book Messy Spirituality Mike Yaconelli says this: “According to his critics Jesus “did God” all wrong. He went to the wrong places, said the wrong things, and worst of all just let anyone into the kingdom. Jesus scandalized an intimidating, elitist, country-club religion by opening membership in the spiritual life to those who had been denied it. What made people furious was Jesus “irresponsible” habit of throwing open the doors of his love to the whosoever’s, the just anyone’s and the not-a-chancers like you and me.”

Isn’t it time to start upsetting the right people by allowing those who are different and not the status quo into our churches? Isn’t it time to spend valuable time and resources reaching the people in our community that are poor, a different race, crazy, notorious sinners? Isn’t it time to invite these people into our churches instead of making our churches an elitist group that is untouchable? I write this not as abash of the church but as a plea for change in the way that we perceive our church bodies. In everything we should remember that we are the light to the whole world not just to a world full of people like us.

Interesting questions

One of the greatest joys of my job is when students ask questions. Sometimes they require some research. On Sunday a student asked me about Luke 16 and I really had to go back and study the passage because admittedly it can be pretty confusing. Here is the response that I gave him.

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Man, your questions about Luke 16 and the Shrewd Manager on Sunday morning were great. After reviewing the passage for a brief moment on Sunday I was intrigued. To be honest I have read the story of the Shrewd Manager before but many times the end of the chapter (Luke 16:10-15) is so amazing and convicting that we pass by the story that is a little confusing.

The secret to understanding this passage is identifying that Jesus tells a story of the corruption use of wealth to inspire his disciples (and us today) to use their money in a way that grows the future kingdom. It was common practice in that day for wealthy people to have a person who managed their money. This allowed the rich person to evade the paperwork but still keep tabs on their cash. Also, it was the job of the Manager to use the rich persons money to make more money. Sort of like a modern day financial planner/accountant.

The wealthy man discovers that his funds were being wasted and decided to fire the manager. This is seen as an unwise decision because it ended up costing the rich man even more. Cleverly, the manager looks out for his own future by reducing the debts owed to his master and indebting the debtors to the manager making them friends that he could use in a future time of need.

Here is where things get a little difficult. Verse 8 says that the rich man commended the manager because he acted shrewdly. The Rich man is not commending the manager for doing an unjust thing, but the rich man realizes that he has been outwitted and he his applauding the cunning of the manager. By applauding the managers criminal heart the rich man is showing that he to has evil tendencies.

Jesus shows the application of this story in verses 16:8-13. In the same way that the Manager used money to make worldly friends, we should use material things for future spiritual benefit (Verse 9). We are to use our wealth in a way that leads people to Christ and we will see the fruits of this wisely spent money in heaven (Welcomed into eternal dwellings v.9). He gives a second application in verses 10-12 saying that those who use their money wisely and can be trusted with earthly wealth will be trusted with spiritual wealth, a.k.a true wealth. Then from this he gives one more application by saying that it is impossible to serve both God and money.

So the short answer to your question is that God uses a story about the improper use of money to show us how we are to use our wealth for the good of the kingdom. Sorry this is so long. If you have any more questions let me know.

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Finances are one of the greatest detriments to living a live totally sacrificed to God. We should evaluate everything that we do with our finances.

In Christ,