Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
Proverbs 19:17

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
Proverbs 14:31

I have to admit that when I was looking up some commentaries on giving and the Bible, too many of the sources I found focused on giving to the church. I give what I can to church, which is what I think of when the apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:12 “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” Many churches though use this as a means of forcing a true tithe of 10 percent. However, even though we are in the season of giving, we should be giving and helping year round to those who need assistance.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commands us to give to the needy:

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:1-4

Giving is not all about what you give to your local congregation, but what you give to those who are in need. We are to love our fellow man and not judge them. If we look down on the poor, the how can we look up to God. Some people blame God for the misfortunes of the world, I blame those who do not follow the teachings of love and charity. Do you have to be a Christian to have love for your fellow man or to be charitable to the less fortunate? Of course you don’t. But I will say this, too many people who call themselves Christian often follow the proverb “God helps those who help themselves.” The phrase is often mistaken as scriptural, but it appears nowhere in the Bible.

Political commentator Bill O’Reilly employed the phrase, in responding to Jim McDermott, the Democratic U.S. Representative for Washington’s 7th congressional district, who argued, “This is Christmas time. We talk about Good Samaritans, the poor, the little baby Jesus in the cradle and all this stuff. And then we say to the unemployed we won’t give you a check to feed your family. That’s simply wrong.” O’Reilly argued for a more selective approach to unemployment benefits, and the importance of individual responsibility, concluding “while Jesus promoted charity at the highest level, he was not self-destructive. The Lord helps those who help themselves. Does he not?” Political comedian Stephen Colbert parodied him in response, concluding in character, “if this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition; and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.” Colbert may be a comedian who is often irreverent, but he makes a good point.

For the vast majority of us, misfortune finds us at one point or another. Various people have helped me during those unfortunate times, and I do my best to help those in need when I am able to help. Giving is not just for the red buckets of the Salvation Army during Christmastime bit for all year round. It is also not about gifts and money, because not all of us are able to do so, but it is about giving our love to those around us. Love is the greatest gift we can give.

Peace, love, and charity!

If this post looks familiar, then you read it a year ago. I wasn’t feeling well last night, and I’d planned on posting about the hymn “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms” until I realized that I’d already written that post in October. So I decided on a more holiday themed post from last year.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:12-17

I am far too often guilty of when something sounds good in my head that it doesn’t quite come out the way I intend for it to come out, whether it is written or spoken. It happens, and I try to make amends when I realize it. Part of last Sunday’s post was that way. In that post, I wrote:

We need to let the Bible speak to us, as God intended for it to do. We should not allow our own personal bent to speak into the Scriptures. The propensity for people to take verses out of context and to allow their personal bent to be applied to verses is one of the reasons that homosexuality is condemned by modern Christians. Context matters—God speaks at a particular moment in time, to a particular people group, for a reason.

And rightly so, I was called to task for that paragraph. For me, I think this was simply an example of being unclear in my writing. I’ve been accused of that a time or two and I am sorry. I do believe that the Bible should speak to us personally. I think that is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read and study the Bible. However, with that being said, I think that the central message of the Bible, especially the teachings of Jesus is LOVE, so when someone’s interpretation comes out as hate, then I do think it is wrongheaded.

I also think that on of the problems with, not the interpretations of the Bible, but with picking and choosing verses is that they are often taken out of context. When this is done, people often condemn others and show hate for people because they take a verse out of the context of the verses around it. In Matthew 5:43-44, 43 Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus is clear that we should not judge others but show our love and compassion for everyone. The Bible can be very damaging when used as a weapon to condemn. However, we can take hope from various passages, but we should also look at the context of those passages that give us a deeper meaning. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul has been describing to Timothy the difficult times of the last days (3:1-9). He is addressing the question, How can a Christian survive and prosper in such an evil age? In 3:16-17, he reminds Timothy of the reliability and profitability of the Scriptures.

I was raised a member of the Church of Christ, and I was always taught that the Old Testament is history more so than the laws of God for Christians. Jesus came to save us all and to bring a new covenant. The Old Testament laws do not apply to Christians as the did for the ancient Jews. Few, if any Christians, follow all the laws of the Old Testament completely. Christianity is a much more loving and accepting religion than the ancient religion of the Hebrews. God spoke to both Paul and Peter and changed those laws. As a historian myself, I think we should learn from history and take lessons for mankind from it. In the case of last week’s scripture from Jeremiah, we can compare the exile of the Jews to the exile of LGBT Christians. It may not be a perfect comparison, but I do think it gives us a different perspective to look at.

The Scriptures find their origin in God. They are not the result of human religious genius. When I read and study the Bible, I allow the Holy Spirit to guide me in that study, and I have faith that God shows me true understanding. The Bible is not a set of great ideas on which God somehow approved. Rather they are the words of God imparted through the various authors. While God dictated a few portions of Scripture (e.g., the Ten Commandments), for the most part He allowed each author to use his own personality and style. But the final product came from God in the sense that what they said God said, and God guides us in our study of what those men wrote.

The bottom line is that the Scriptures are as reliable as God is. If God is the God of truth and if He “breathed out” the Scriptures, then it is inconceivable that they would contain contradictions or errors. This does not mean that every sentence in the Bible is true: The Bible truthfully records falsehood of its subjects at times. So you cannot lift a statement out of context and claim that it is true or even relevant to our present time (e.g., parts of Leviticus, Job, Ecclesiastes, etc.). But taken in its proper contextual setting, the Bible is an accurate and true record of the very words that God wished to record through the various human authors. It is totally reliable.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Today is my 37th birthday. I decided to search for bible verses about birthdays, and one of the most frequent to come up in my search (i.e. If you exclude those on the birth of Christ) was Jeremiah 29:11. It is such a beautiful verse filled with immense hope, and I wanted to look into the context of it. Conduct a Google search of Jeremiah 29:11 and you’re likely to see it referred to as “the most misinterpreted verse in the Bible.” This verse gets this moniker for a reason.

This verse, quoted to countless individuals who are struggling with discerning God’s will for them, is not written to individuals at all. This passage is written to a whole group of people—the exiled Jewish people in Babylon. The “you” in Jeremiah 29:11 is actually plural and if it had been written by an American southerner instead of the prophet Jeremiah it would say “y’all” instead of you.

We need to let the Bible speak to us, as God intended for it to do. We should not allow our own personal bent to speak into the Scriptures. The propensity for people to take verses out of context and to allow their personal bent to be applied to verses is one of the reasons that homosexuality is condemned by modern Christians. Context matters—God speaks at a particular moment in time, to a particular people group, for a reason.

What this means is that God has plans for a whole group of people, in this instance, the Jewish exiles. And if we read on in the Scriptures we find that this promise was fulfilled: those in exile returned, and the Hebrew nation was restored for a time. God made a promise through the prophets, and that promise came true.

But that’s not the end of the story, either. There is something to the out-of-context prescriptions that so many make using this verse. God is a God of redemption, after all, and He wants to redeem people and put them on a path of wholeness, just as He wanted the Hebrew nation to be redeemed and whole again.

Biblical scholars have said that in this passage, the Jeremiah is speaking not just of historical redemption, for that period in time, but also of “future redemption.” For the Israelites, God listened to their prayers when they sought Him with all their heart, and in His time, He brought them out of exile. But how does any of this apply to us today? Can we still take heart in such a beautiful promise—even though it was spoken to people long ago, people in a far different situation than ours?

First and foremost, we are all in this together. This verse does not apply to isolated individuals or to a broad community. It applies to both, together, functioning as one. The image painted here is one of individuals in community, like the Body of Christ which Paul talks about. Here are a people, worshiping God together, hoping for a future redemption.

We don’t need to be exiles living in Babylon to faithfully appropriate Jeremiah 29:11, but let’s remember something about this chapter when we quote verse 11. First, it was written to people in incredible pain, more than most of us will ever experience. They were mourning death, a move, and a transition to enslavement all at once. And yet into that context, God can still speak words of hope. That’s amazing.

I think when we apply this verse to a group who is downtrodden and seem to be without hope, this verse becomes even more powerful. As LGBT Christians and our allies, we often find ourselves exiled from the church, but that does not mean that we should be kept from our communion with God. God is so much more powerful, loving, and understanding than humans are. He created us the way we are, and we must love and worship Him. We must not give up on our faith because of the things men do, but we should believe in the redemptive power of God. Jeremiah is sending a message to all those in exile to keep the faith, because God knows the plans He has for us, and these are plans for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope.

And on one final note, as I was looking up verses for birthdays, I came across a site called BirthVerse (http://www.birthverse.com), where a group has gone through the Bible matching up numerical birth dates with chapter and verse in books of the Bible and has chosen a inspirational verse for each day of the year. My BirthVerse happens to be Proverbs 11:30, which reads:

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8

This is a beautiful verse because of its simplicity and all the meaning this verse brings to my mind. If you look up the definition of taste in on-line dictionaries, beyond the obvious meaning, you’ll find definitions such as, “a sample of experience” (e.g. the first taste of success) or “perceive, discern, or experience . . .” These definitions should get your attention as we look at this verse because this is what I think we should understand when we read this. Several commentaries suggest this verse, when it was written, meant something very deep and meaningful. In simpler terms, to taste and see that God is good is to relish and delight in God’s goodness manifested in and by God’s gifts, and in the contemplation of God’s infinite perfections and boundless love, and to be persuaded and convinced of God’s goodness as to be encouraged in the worst of times.

Taste and see how God is good.

We all have these days when nothing seems to go right. We get one set of bad news and then another and before you know it you are completely demoralized and you think how can things get worse. On some of those days, you realize just how much worse things can get. On those days we always wish things had gone better. On days like that we just have to persevere and continue on, but we just cannot allow ourselves to worry to the point of not being able to persevere. It is what it is. We have to take time to spend with God to remind us to taste and see how good God is. Everything will be okay because God has a path for us. He is watching out for us and is guiding us. Life gets messy. Perfect or not isn’t the issue. Allowing ourself to feel God’s presence is the issue. Taste and see how God is good. Then, we can be blessed. We can feel God’s grace. That is something for which I am very grateful and I hope you are too.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15)

I have a cold. It’s just that time of year. It’s not a bad cold but I am congested and coughing and my chest and head hurts. With that in mind, I decided to look at some sermons about physical illness. Not quite as easy as I thought it would be, but I came across the following story:

In May 1983, the “Chicago Tribune” ran a story about a young father from North Manchester, Indiana. His name was David Gilmore. He told about the illness of his fifteen-month-old son, Dustin Graham Gilmore, that began in April 1978. At first his child came down with flu-like symptoms. The Gilmores took him to their church, and the pastor prayed for him. Members of that church believed that faith alone heals any disease and that to look elsewhere for help (for example, a medical doctor) demonstrates a lack of faith in God. Gilmore and his wife followed the church’s advice and simply prayed for their son. Over the next weeks they prayed faithfully as his temperature climbed, prayed when they noticed he no longer responded to sounds, and prayed harder when he went blind. On the morning of May 15, 1978, Dustin Graham Gilmore died. An autopsy revealed the infant died from a form of meningitis that could have been easily treated and cured.

Whenever I read about Christians that believe that the pure belief in God and his mercy can heal and that looking elsewhere for help shows a lack of faith, I am always saddened by the actual lack of faith people have in God. If you believe that God is the Creator of all things then he is also the guiding force behind modern medicine’s healing technologies. Furthermore, God expects us to be proactive in our faith. We cannot just sit back and wait for God to heal us, we must help God to heal us.

James says, “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” This is one of the verses about healing that many interpret to mean that faith alone will heal what ails us, but this verse tells us to go to others to get help as well. You might ask about the “prayer of faith” as to what it means. Prayer is talking intimately with God and “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). It is mandatory that the person praying and the person being prayed for have a lively faith, but faith in itself does not heal, but it is God who does the healing. Our prayers are the beginning of the healing process; however, we must be proactive in the healing process. God waits for our prayers which are asked “….in the name of the Lord” (v. 14) before he steps in to take care of our requests. He answers our prayers according to His will. If we are not willing to get the help we need, then God will assist and guide our physicians.

The fact is prayer is an important tool, but it is not the only tool that can heal our ailing bodies. The idea that seeking help outside the church is a weakness of faith is merely an interpretation. I do not believe that the Bible is meant to be interpreted in only one way. When we see only one interpretation of the Bible we do not give enough credit to God, who is all things and all knowing. I believe that the Bible was written in a way to allow numerous interpretations. Just as prayer is personal, so is an individual’s reading of the Bible. The dogmatic beliefs in certain scriptures is one of the things that fragments Christianity and causes Christians to turn their backs on other Christians who do not follow their narrow interpretations.

God welcomes all of humanity. If the AIDS epidemic had broken out amongst homosexual men during the time of Jesus, he would have healed them as he healed so many others. Jesus healed men with leprosy, and I believe he would be in the heart of the Ebola epidemic. Jesus was the Great Physician and while he healed many who were sick, He no longer walks the earth as a man who is healing the sick and ministering to outcasts. Just because He no longer walks in a physical form among us, He is with us always among us. We can look to him in times of illness, but we should not depend on just our prayers to heal. We must be proactive in our faith, and proactive with our health.

“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:6-8

The above passage from Micah 6:6-8 is considered by many to be one of the most comprehensive and all-embracing statements in the Old Testament. Micah raises the question: “What does the Lord require of you?” Micah answers his own question, and makes some important points, which apply to us even today.

Micah first brings up some possibilities, even some absurdities. God did indeed speak of some of these things, but the majority are examples of hyperbole for the sake of emphasis. One could not please God by simply offering innumerable sacrifices, even things precious to the worshipper, because these things must be accompanied by other things just as essential.

First, we must act justly meaning to act toward God and man according to the standard of righteousness revealed in God’s law. This did involve the offering of sacrifices commanded by God, but it also involved treating their fellow man in a way that was right and fair. Second, we show loving kindness, by which Micah means we are “to show a compassionate warm-heartedness toward our fellow man. We are not only to treat others fairly, but to show mercy when others are mistreated. Finally, we are told to walk humbly with your God which involves living in humble and submissive obedience to God’s desires and will.

Some might think all the Lord requires is the observance of certain rituals like attending church on Sunday. We can’t just attend church, act pious, and then do whatever we want just because we regularly attend church. Don’t get me wrong, I do think attending church is important, but it’s not completely necessary to living a good Christian life. Church enhances our spiritual growth, our commitment in the work of the church, and our close fellowship with God and other Christians. I believe that it is essential that we observe what “rituals” God has ordained for us; but the Lord requires more than just “attending church.”

A close relationship and fellowship with God requires that we daily listen to God, talk to God, and walk with God. By walking humbly with God, we are more likely to keep in proper balance the demands to do justly and love mercy. If we do not do these things, then all the church services you may attended, all the sermons you may have heard, all the prayers you may have offered, will benefit you nothing!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John 3:16-21

John 3:16 is one of the most widely quoted verses from the Bible. It has also been called the “Gospel in a nutshell”, because it is considered a summary of the central theme of traditional Christianity. It is a central message in the Bible, but it’s not the verse that I believe is central to the Bible. Christianity cannot be summed up with one verse. However, the verses around it does encapsulate the major message of Christ. It’s the context that makes the difference.

The story around the text is about Nicodemus who visits Jesus in the night. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. According to John, he showed favor to Jesus. He appears three times in the Gospel of John. In the context of John 3:16, Nicodemus visits Jesus one night to discuss his teachings with him. The second time Nicodemus is mentioned is when he states the law concerning the arrest of Jesus, and the third is when he assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the corpse of Jesus for burial.

In the first fifteen verses of John Chapter 3, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that you must be born again in the waters of baptism in order to see the kingdom of heaven. After speaking of the necessity of a man being born again before he could “see the kingdom of God”, Jesus spoke also of “heavenly things” and of salvation and the condemnation of those that do not believe in Jesus.

It is the later part of this exchange that I want to discuss today. Jesus did not come to the world to condemn us but to save us, and by us, Jesus means all of humanity. This includes LGBT people, though some Christians want to pick and choose, Jesus never turned anyone away from God. If we believe and are born again, we will enter into the kingdom of Heaven. We must follow Christ’s example and be a light for the world. If we do what is true and go to the light, then it will be clearly seen that our works have been carried out in God’s name.

In a world broken by prejudice and hatred, Christians are called to embody the unconditional love of God for all. Jesus proclaimed this message to the world in his new commandment:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Jesus was not bound by the expectations of society, and through his ministry, he extended the love of God to many who had been deemed “unworthy.” Through Jesus’ own example and teachings, we are called into action.

But for those who ask, “What does God require of us?” We can look to the Book of Acts for the answer. Peter was given a vision to accept gentiles who were deemed unfit for the kingdom of God. But, God told him, “Do not call unclean what God has declared clean.” Paul talked to the leaders of Jerusalem to convince them that ministry amongst the gentiles was where God was leading him. We are called to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, and visit the imprisoned. Some may call them the unclean, but God does not discriminate because we are all His children. Jesus didn’t say, for God so loved some of the world, He said for God so loved the world. We are called to love our neighbor—not discriminate.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1 John 5:13-15

John writes with this purpose: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13) This is a key verse of the book of 1 John. John writes so that his readers who have faith in Christ may know the assurance of their salvation. In the church today there are many who truly know the Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and they are confident in their salvation.

Yet, there are some Christians who have a sincere faith in Christ but they lack the assurance of their salvation. These individuals walk the Christian life with the uncertainty of acceptance with God and a feeling that they may not be saved. On the other hand, there are those in the church that think they are saved because they “prayed a prayer” or were baptized, yet their life is unchanged. They do not live a Christian life, but are Christians in name only. These people often teach hate and judge and criticize people. They are like the hypocrites that Jesus discusses in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:5-6, Jesus says “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

He wants people to be clear in their understanding of the good news of Jesus, and the confidence that we have in Christ. He writes this letter “that you may know that you have eternal life.” Similarly, he begins the epistle by saying, “[T]hat which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” John wants Christians to “know” that they have eternal life. He desires that they come to a fuller understanding of what it means to be in fellowship with God and what is required to maintain that fellowship. By so doing, they can be confident as Christians and sure of their salvation. Like with most things, we must humble ourselves before God, yet we must have the faith to believe we are saved.

I wanted to end this series on 1 John because the phrase “that you may know” is so vitally important. I have always felt that the uncertainly in salvation is like an uncertainty in God. If you truly believe, if you follow the teachings of Christ, and if you have full faith in God, then you have the assurance of salvation. God knows we are not perfect. Only God is perfection. He allows us to pray and ask for forgiveness with the assurance that if we are sincere in our prayers and actions, then we will be forgiven of our sins. I do not doubt my salvation. Others might doubt my salvation because of my sexuality or because of their lack of belief and/or understanding of God, but their doubt does not affect me. I pray that you will have the same faith and keep the same faith that I do. Do as God commands. Love your fellow man. Believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Do these things and you will have the faith that assures salvation.

It seems that many of the passages of 1 John, remind me of songs. This one is no different because it remind me of the song “Blessed Assurance” written in 1873 by blind hymn writer Fanny J. Crosby to the music written in by Phoebe P. Knapp. The popular song reflects Crosby’s walk of faith, as expressed by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” and based on an interpretation of Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” I think it also works alongside 1 John 5:13 “that you may know that you have eternal life.” We are given these blessed assurances by God, and we should rejoice in them.

Blessèd Assurance

Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.