The Old, Old Story

When comedian Bob Newhart stood in front of a live audience for the first time (it was at the Tidelands Motor Inn in Houston), he performed the only three comedy routines he had: one about Abe Lincoln, one about a Driving Instructor, and one about the Navy.

The crowd loved him, so as he exited the stage, the manager grabbed him and told him to go back out for an encore. "That's all the material I have, " he said. It didn't matter; the crowd was cheering and the manager wanted him to do an encore.

Newhart went back onstage and waited for the applause to die down. Then he asked them, "Which one do you want to hear again?"

He had three routines; if they wanted to hear more, it could only be more of the same. The story goes that Newhart repeated part of one sketch and got laughs all over again.

Preachers feel this way sometimes, I think -- like we've got only a certain number of messages, and we repeat ourselves too often. I especially feel this way when I'm preaching through a book that addresses the same topic chapter after chapter.

In preaching, there are certain themes we turn to again and again. Sometimes it feels as though we're saying what's already been said by countless others countless times. But, to a certain extent, this is okay. In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote that "people need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." The simple topics of how to pray and have a devotional, the importance of loving others and sharing your faith, accepting God's forgiveness and forgiving others -- these are things we need to be reminded of again and again.

Peter told his readers, "Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." (1 Peter 2:2) Milk is food for beginners, but we never get past the need for milk. Neither do we get past our need for the basics of the Christian life.

While it is important for us to strive always to be fresh in our approach to presenting the gospel, we must also remember that people (and we ourselves) need to hear those same wonderful truths again and again. They never lose their power.

Love,

Mike

What's Your Identity?

What is your identity? Have you stopped to consider who you really are and what your foundation is? A life of contentment and success comes only when we are grounded in something bigger than ourselves.

Henry Ford is one of the biggest names in American life. His use of mass production in manufacturing the Model T automobile shaped not only the economy and industry, but he helped shape the values of 20th century America.

A 2005 biography of Ford tells the story of the man who achieved incredible fame and fortune, but also tragically describes his loss of identity and its ultimate consequence. In the end, this "gifted man was undone by his own success."

Ford loved the ordinary folk, and they loved him back. By 1920, half of all cars on US roads were Fords. But it wasn't just cars that Ford was selling. He preached a new gospel to a public raised on Puritan ideals of delayed gratification and self-control. Ford believed that money was for spending, and that workers should use their income to buy products that would improve their lives—products like his Model T.

Seen as a hero for making it possible for the average family to own a car, Ford's opinion was sought out for every area of life, from world peace to marriage and childcare.

The adulation of others ultimately convinced Ford that he was infallible and led him to ruinously bad decisions. It blinded him to his own hypocrisy as he preached family values and old-fashioned virtue and yet kept a mistress. It may also have driven him to destroy his only child, Edsel. The older Ford—offended by his son’s gentle style and superior education—ruthlessly undercut him at every turn, only then to mourn grievously when Edsel died young.

Ford's last days were sorrowful. On a visit to the house where he had lived as a newlywed, he told his chauffeur, "I've got a lot of money, and I'd give every penny of it right now just to be here with Mrs. Ford."

God wants something better for your life than Henry Ford experienced in his life. He wants you to live differently because you are a citizen of heaven. God wants you to live your life based on different values, different principles, and a different set of behaviors.

As long as we remember who we truly are – citizens of heaven – our lives will be different from the lives of those around us. True success? True contentment? They are the gifts that come with a realization that our identity lies in our relationship with the Creator God, and that we live for something greater than ourselves.

With Love,

Mike

Serendipity

What is serendipity? It is discovering something totally unrelated to the problem you are trying to solve. Call it an accident, dumb luck, or whatever—serendipity has given our world great products, new hope, and better ways of doing things.

For example, Columbus discovered America while searching for a route to India. It is said that the American Indians, finding no water for cooking, tapped a maple tree and made the first maple syrup as the sap billed down. Pioneers, traveling westward, stopped for water and found fold nuggets in a stream. These are all examples of serendipity.

However, the classic example of serendipity must go to George Ballas. As George Ballas drove his car though a car wash, he watched the strings of the brushes surround his car. His mind relaxed and turned to the chores he had to do before the day drew to a close. Finishing the tedious chore of trimming and edging his lawn was first on his list.

Suddenly an idea struck him. He studied the strings in the car wash again and watched them straighten out when revolving at high speed, and yet they were flexible enough to reach into every nook and cranny. Why not use a nylon cord, whirling at high speed to trim the grass and weeds around trees and the house? Bingo! The Weedeater was born!

Ballas’s first Weedeater was homemade. He punched holes in a popcorn can and threaded the holes with cord. Then he took the blade off his edger and bolted the can in place. His crude invention tore up the turf and made a terrible noise, but it whipped off the weeds just as he knew it would.

When he decided to go commercial, Ballas found the way rough going. He was turned down by the first twenty distributors he approached. “You must be crazy!” they told him. “Cut grass with a nylon string? Impossible!”

Finally, in 1971, Ballas invested his own money in the first thirty-pound Weedeater. He and his son filmed their own commercials, and then Ballas bought $12,000.00 worth of local TV airtime. Immediately, he was swamped with orders from all across the nation. “There must have been a convention in town because I only advertised on our local TV channel,” Ballas recalls.

Before long, Weedeater, Inc., grew into a multimillion-dollar international corporation. Ten minutes in a car wash resulted in serendipity!

May I suggest, serendipity awaits you as well? Ten minutes with your Bible, ten minutes in prayer, ten minutes in worship, or ten minutes of selfless service can surprise you. Serendipity!

With Love

Mike

Idealists and the Fire

Warren Wiersbe said, "A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned."

Do you know what the difference is? It's not the fire or the heat or the duration. It's the attitude you bring into it. When you look back on life's unpleasant events, you can choose to see what you learned from the ordeal, or you can choose to just see it as a bad experience.

In every trial, every problem, every difficult situation, God is seeking to teach us something new. He's seeking to take us to a higher place. Maybe it's a chance to exercise a bolder faith, maybe it's a chance to identify bad behavior that we must abandon, or maybe it's an opportunity to practice perseverance. The lesson is always there in difficult situations; we can choose to be purified and made holy, or we can just allow ourselves to become burned and bitter.

Daniel wrote, "Many will be purified, cleansed and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means." (Daniel 12:10)

With love,

Mike

Four Little Words

What would you think if I told you that on your tombstone would be inscribed a four-word epitaph? Based on your life, what would those words be? Jesus once had an encounter with a person whom he described with just four immortal words: “Great is your faith.”

Interestingly, she was a Canaanite woman, from the country north of Palestine, a country hostile to the Jews. Presumably, the woman was married; she had at least one child; but that's all we know about her. We don't know whether she was a good woman or a bad woman. We don't know her name. All we know is that in this single encounter with Jesus he spoke to her this four-word epitaph: “Great is your faith.”

Only four words, but they are enough to make her immortal. We can trust these words as being true because the expert on faith spoke them. Jesus continually searched for faith, as a gem collector would search for fine jewels. He didn’t always find it in his disciples. He never said of Peter, James, or John: “Great is your faith.” More often His words were, “Oh, you of little faith.” On only one other occasion did Jesus praise a person for their faith, and that person was a Roman soldier – not a disciple, not one of the “chosen” people.

The Canaanite woman awakens in us a feeling of admiration, perhaps even envy, because she stands where most of us would like to stand. What faithful Christian would not like it said of him or her, “Great is your faith”?

But what great thing did this woman do to prompt Jesus’ affirmation? She simply believed. She took Him at His word. She acted on His words.

If we are to have the same epitaph, we, too, will need to simply take Jesus at His word. We will need to act, simply because Jesus made a promise. Then it can be said of us, “Great is your faith.”

With Love,

Mike

Excellence

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might…

Ecclesiastes 9:10a

Achievement comes to those who look for opportunities and then seize the moment with unwavering zeal.

In the days of our Founding Fathers, Andrew Bradford held an enviable business contract. Despite its shoddy work, his company was endowed with the responsibility of doing the public printing for all of Pennsylvania. One day, Bradford was asked to print an important address the governor was planning to make. Bradford put the document together in his usual careless, unimpressive manner.

Realizing this sloppy product represented the opportunity he had been waiting for, another young printer decided to seize the moment. He elegantly prepared and printed the speech, then forwarded it with his compliments to the governor and to each member of the assembly. The rest of the story is history. This unknown printer—Benjamin Franklin—was soon awarded the contract for all of Pennsylvania’s public printing.

Benjamin Franklin not only seized the moment but gave special attention to the quality of his work. These characteristics were the foundation for a long list of Franklin’s further achievements.

Scripture urges us to take our work seriously. We are to do all things well, and all things to the glory of God.

With love,

Mike

The Gift of Community

Why did God establish the church? One reason the church exists is to provide a community of believers who take care of each other. When I am beginning to stray from God, my fellow believers draw me back. They help me know when my life is getting to the boiling point. They serve as an early warning system for my spiritual condition.

Several years after Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer died from a heatstroke during football conditioning drills in 108 degree heat, three NFL teams began offering their players a "radio pill."

Teams paid between $30 and $40 apiece for the pills, which last 24 to 36 hours.

A crystal sensor in each pill has a frequency geared to the player's body temperature. When the player's body temperature rises, so does the frequency.

A trainer punches in a player's jersey number and waves a digital device in front of him to determine if the player is "getting too hot" and needs intervention.

Like athletes who don't know they have overextended themselves and need intervention, Christians can stray from God and be oblivious to their spiritual condition. Praise God, He made provision even for this. He placed us in community with other believers. As we enter into relationship and share our spiritual journeys, we can become spiritual trainers for one another and maintain robust spiritual health.

With Love,

Mike

Choosing Your Way

Victor Frankl wrote, "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

Think of all the things you can't control: how people will respond to you, your health, the choices your children make, how other people drive, the stock market, terrorism, war, and the list goes on. You may have some influence over a few of these things, but not complete control.

The one thing you can control is how you will respond to the situations you face. You can respond with anger, doubt, and self-pity—or with faith, hope, and love. Your attitude is completely under your control.

Again and again in the Psalms we encounter David in difficult situations—surrounded by enemies, struggling with sin, sinking in despair—and again and again we see his absolute resolve to think right: Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 43:5)

You and I can't control what happens today, but we can control our actions. Don't let your situations get the best of you today; no matter what you face, you can choose your own way.

With Love,

Mike

The Things of Heaven

There is an old legend of a swan and a crane. A beautiful swan alighted by the banks of the water in which a crane was wading about seeking snails. For a few moments the crane viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired: "Where do you come from?"

"I come from heaven!" replied the swan.

"And where is heaven?" asked the crane.

"Heaven!" said the swan, "Heaven! Have you never heard of heaven?" And the beautiful bird went on to describe the grandeur of the Eternal City. She told of streets of gold, and the gates and walls made of precious stones; of the river of life, pure as crystal, upon whose banks is the tree whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations. In eloquent terms the swan sought to describe the hosts who live in the other world, but without arousing the slightest interest on the part of the crane.

Finally the crane asked: "Are there any snails there?"

"Snails!" repeated the swan; "No! Of course there are not."

"Then," said the crane, as it continued its search along the slimy banks of the pool, "you can have your heaven. I want snails!"

Many look at John’s description of the New Jerusalem and Heaven, and it all seems so unreal to them that they just dismiss it. They have set their sights on the things of this earth that give them pleasure here and thus reject any notion of the unspeakable joys of heaven. In so doing, they are just as silly as the crane that digs through the slime and mud looking for snails, when they could have the riches of heaven.

Let’s not be guilty of this. Let’s set our hearts on the things that really matter – the things of heaven.

With Love

Mike

Freedom & Civility

The United States of America turns 247 years old on July 4, 2023. That’s a long time for a nation to remain free. But, when you look at our history in the context of world history America is just a child among the nations. Egypt, China, Japan, England, and Greece all make America’s history seem short.

We are so young, and yet we stand tall among these nations because of the principles on which we were established: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is good for us to celebrate freedom and liberty & I celebrate today with you the freedoms which God has blessed this great nations of ours.

However, let me temper our celebrations with a caution: With freedom comes great responsibility. We are not free to live excessive lives. We are not set at liberty to pursue selfish ends. Our independence should not make us infidels. As Paul so eloquently puts it: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.”

What is true for the church is true for the nation: Liberty demands civility. Freedom requires righteous behavior. On this Independence Day, we celebrate both freedom and civility.

With Love,

Mike

Getting Yourself Together

The young mother was ready for a few minutes of relaxation after a long and demanding day. However, her young daughter had other plans for her mother’s time.

“Read me a story, Mom,” the little girl requested.

“Give Mommy a few minutes to relax and unwind. Then I’ll be happy to read you a story,” pleaded the mother.

The little girl was insistent that Mommy read to her now. With a stroke of genius, the mother tore off the back page of the magazine she was reading. It contained a full-page picture of the world. As she tore it into several pieces, Mom asked her daughter to put the picture together and then she would read her a story. Surely this would buy her considerable relaxing moments.

A short time later, the little girl announced the completion of her puzzle project. To her astonishment, she found the world picture completely assembled. When she asked her daughter how she managed to do it so quickly, the little girl explained that on the reverse side of the page was the picture of a little girl. “You see, Mommy, when I got the little girl together, the whole world came together.”

If your world seems out of sorts, it may be that the way to improve your situation is to begin with yourself. When you get the girl or the boy together, the world looks better.

But how do we do that? I only know of one way to get the boy together. I must be crucified in Christ and allow Christ to live in me. When that happens, it’s amazing how much better my world looks.

With Love,

Mike

Compassionate Evangelism

There's a wonderful legend about Saint Francis, the kindly thirteenth century monk, who one day informed his brethren that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching mission. He invited a novice to go along. On their way, they passed an injured man, and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the poor fellow's needs and arranged medical care for him.

They went on and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped his journey and ministered to the hungry, homeless man.

So it went throughout the day; meeting people in need, and Francis lovingly caring for them as best he could. At last, the sun was low in the sky, and Francis told his novice friend it was time for them to return to the monastery for evening prayers. But the young man said, "Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people."

Francis smiled. "My friend, that's what we've been doing all day."

That is evangelism at its most faithful. True evangelism is ministry to people in their need. Evangelism is done when we are not worrying about numerical growth or adding to one's own conversion record or winning acclaim within the denomination. Evangelism is sharing the love of God in tangible ways among His children.

With Love,

Mike

He Will Never Let Go

There is a beautiful and important scene in the movie Dr. Zhivago. The Comrade General is talking with Tanya. He asks her, “How did you come to be lost?"

She replies, "Well, I was just lost."

He asks again, "No, how did you come to be lost?"

Tanya doesn't want to say. She says simply, "I was just lost. My father and I were running through the city and it was on fire. The revolution had come and we were trying to escape and I was lost."

The Comrade General asked more emphatically, "How did you come to be lost?"

She still didn’t want to say. Finally she answered, "We were running through the city and my father let go of my hand and I was lost." Then she added plaintively, "He let go." This were the words she didn't want to say.

The Comrade General said, "This is what I've been trying to tell you, Tanya. Komarov was not your real father. Zhivago is your real father, and I can promise you, Tanya, that if this man had been there—your real father—he would never have let go of your hand."

That is the difference between a real father and a false father, is it not? A real father would never let go of his daughter's hand. That is also the difference between a real God and a false one.

We have a real God, a real Father in heaven. And He is the God who never lets go. If you ever doubted it, just look at the cross. Satan tried to separate Him from His beloved children, but Jesus went all the way to Calvary to maintain His hold on their hands. You can count on it. He is your Father, and He will never let go.

With Love,

Mike

The Detective and the Theory

There are many people who believe that Sherlock Holmes was a real person. After all, his “biography” is as easy to find as is Winston Churchill’s! From 1887 to 1927, sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of the famous detective known for his heightened skills of observation. Holmes was both memorable and beloved—and entirely fictional. Yet, there are a great number of people who would claim the clues suggest otherwise. As Holmes himself said, “The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.”

The process of gathering and interpreting information is never ending. From childhood we learn patterns of life around us and create theories on how it all works. For instance: pans on the stove burn fingers. This is one theory a child might form after a firsthand encounter with the stove. But as data becomes more complete, a child’s theories are readily adjusted—namely: certain parts of a pan on a hot stove burn fingers.

The temptation Sherlock Holmes speaks of—forming theories upon insufficient data—seems to grow with age. Strangely, as adults, we are often less willing to adjust our theories than we were as children. The biases we bring to the investigation often prevent us from recognizing data as insufficient or flawed. For instance: God cannot exist, because if God did exist my mother wouldn’t have died so young; or if God did exist, tsunamis and hurricanes wouldn’t kill people, or if God did exist, I wouldn’t still be struggling with my finances. How would we respond to a child who insisted that if broccoli were good for her, it would taste like candy?

“If God exists,” we essentially ask, “why wouldn’t God be like the God I want to believe in?” or “Why wouldn’t God be revealed in the way that I need God to be revealed?” We unreasonably hold the answers without actually recognizing what questions we are asking. “I maintained that God did not exist,” noted C.S. Lewis of his years as an atheist, “I was also very angry with God for not existing.”

The clues of a creative and personal God are all around us. Christ’s humanity is unique in its ability to change and transform lives. I, too, know the desperation of clinging to the answers that keep us from really seeing the evidence. But this is not seeing. The apostle Paul states, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that we are without excuse.” (Rom. 1:20)

Will we investigate the evidence of God with a mind to see what is really there? Perhaps there is indeed something to the call of Jesus to receive the kingdom of God like a little child.

With love,

Mike

Revealing Jesus

The Bible declares that Jesus Christ is to be revealed to all the earth. At times, we wonder if this is even possible, and yet we often find evidence of it happening in unexpected places. We see it, for instance, in the life of Bono, the lead singer for the rock group U2.

A few years ago, Bono was asked if the claim of Jesus' divinity is farfetched. His response was interesting and encouraging:

No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook.

Christ says: ‘No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher. Don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: ‘I'm the Messiah.’ I'm saying: ‘I am God incarnate.’

And people say: ‘No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take…. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you.’

And he goes: ‘No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah….’

So what you're left with is: either Christ was who he said he was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson…. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: ‘Okay, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain!’

The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase – for me, that's farfetched.”

I’m excited that people in the popular media are attempting to reveal Jesus. It’s great to hear a prominent person speak out for Jesus. It is even more exciting, however, when I see Jesus revealed in the life of an everyday, individual Christian. That’s when I thank God for the incredible power of the Gospel. That’s when I know that Jesus Christ will be revealed to all the earth.

With Love,

Mike

Praise

John Wesley was about 21 years of age when he went to Oxford University. He came from a Christian home, and he was gifted with a keen mind and good looks. Yet, in those days he was a bit snobbish and sarcastic.

One night, however, something happened that set in motion a change in Wesley's heart. While speaking with a porter, he discovered that the poor fellow had only one coat and lived in such impoverished conditions that he didn't even have a bed. Yet he was an unusually happy person, filled with gratitude to God.

Wesley, being immature, thoughtlessly joked about the man's misfortunes. "And what else do you thank God for?" he said with a touch of sarcasm.

The porter smiled, and in the spirit of meekness replied with joy, "I thank Him that He has given me my life and being, a heart to love Him, and above all, a constant desire to serve Him!"

Deeply moved, Wesley recognized that this man knew the meaning of true thankfulness.

Many years later, in 1791, John Wesley lay on his deathbed at the age of 88. Those who gathered around him realized how well he had learned the lesson of praising God in every circumstance. Despite Wesley's extreme weakness, he began singing the hymn, "I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath."

Take time this week to give God the praise due His name.

With Love,

Mike

Two Million Dollar Mistake

John D. Rockefeller was the American industrialist who built the great Standard Oil Empire. Not surprisingly, Rockefeller was a man who demanded high performance from his executives.

One day, one of those executives made a two million dollar mistake. Word of the man’s enormous error quickly spread throughout the executive offices, and the other men began to make themselves scarce, not wanting to cross Rockefeller’s path.

One executive didn’t have any choice, however, since he had an appointment with the boss. So he straightened his shoulders and walked into Rockefeller’s office.

As he approached Rockefeller’s desk, he looked up from the piece of paper on which he was writing. “I guess you’ve heard about the two million dollar mistake our friend made,” he said abruptly.

“Yes,” the executive said, expecting Rockefeller to explode.

“Well, I’ve been sitting here listing all of our friend’s good qualities. I’ve discovered that in the past he has made us many more times the amount he lost for us today by his one mistake. His good points far outweigh this one human error. So, I think we ought to forgive him, don’t you?”

Rockefeller was willing to forgive a man based on the man’s good prior performance. As unexpected as that might have been, God offers us something that is far more unlikely in terms of human logic. God forgives us even when we do not have the benefit of prior good performance. He is willing to forgive those with the very worst performance.

Romans 5:8 puts it this way:

8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We didn’t just make an error – we were His enemies! Yet Jesus died for us, showing the incredible forgiveness extended to us by God.

I thank God for His gracious forgiveness of a sinner like me – one who cannot point to any prior performance to warrant our Lord’s grace.

With Love,

Mike

Our God is a Personal God

In the summer of 1985, thirty-year-old Julie Gold, an aspiring singer/songwriter, was working odd jobs in New York City when she received word from her parents in Pennsylvania that they were shipping the family piano to her as a birthday gift. The day after it arrived, Julie sat at the keyboard and in two hours wrote a song that became a popular hit in 1990, especially among the American troops serving in the Gulf War. The song won a Minute Man award from the US Army for inspiring troops during the war and eventually earned a Grammy for Song of the Year. The song was entitled, “From a Distance.” Here are some of the lyrics:

“From a distance the world looks blue and green

And the snow-capped mountains white.

From a distance the oceans meets the stream

And the eagle takes to flight.

God is watching us. God is watching us.

God is watching us from a distance.”

While Julie Gold’s song won a Grammy, the message it sends is not the message God would have us hear. Julie’s song was about a distant God – and impersonal God – a passive God who watches but does not act. How different from the God the psalmist wrote about in Psalm 95.

“He owns the depths of the earth,

And even the mightiest mountains are his.

The sea belongs to him, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land, too.

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over, the sheep under His care.”

Julie’s song is about a God who watches from a distance. The Psalmist’s God is a God who acts – who engages with us personally, who wants to relate to us intimately, and who wants to be our Father. Personally, I prefer the God I find in the Psalms. How about you?

With love,

Mike

Reasons to Give

Jesus sat down near the place where the offerings were collected and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. There were some who made a spectacle of their giving. A poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. The motives for giving were many that day, just as they are today.

In a Wall Street Journal article titled "Charitable Explanation," Arthur Brooks examines giving in America. As much as a third of the quarter-trillion dollars Americans give away each year is collected in the month of December. Eighty-five million Americans participate.

Even so, giving is not a collective national trait. "While 85 million American households give away money each year to nonprofit organizations," notes Brooks, "another 30 million do not." There is a Giving America and Non-Giving America, he says, and what distinguishes them is not income. In fact, he reports, "America's working poor give away at least as large a percentage of their incomes as the rich, and a lot more than the middle class. The charity gap is driven not by economics but by values." Giving is apparently a matter of perspective.

As Jesus watched the people in the temple giving their offerings, he called his disciples to notice the gift given by the widow. "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on." (Mark 12:43-44)

What is it that motivates a woman to give when it is so rational to save? If we are merely products of time and chance, programmed for survival of the fittest, why would we give at all? Arthur Brooks offers one more statistic: "Americans who weekly attend a house of worship are 25 percentage points more likely to give than people who go to church rarely or never. These religious folks also give nearly four times more dollars per year than secularists, on average, and volunteer more than twice as frequently."

When Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us, I don't think he said it with the kind of despair I sometimes find within me when I look around and see how vast is the need of a hurting world. I think he said it as if it were a promise that He, too, would be near. In the cup of cold water delivered to the least of these, in the reaching out to our neighbors, in the giving to others because God has given to us, He is there among us. He is with the hand extended to the one hurting; He is behind the eyes of the one in need. As we give to these, we give to Jesus, and we are reminded that everyone in need matters to Him.

With Love,

Mike

The Whole World Stinks

Wise men and philosophers throughout the ages have disagreed on many things, but many are in agreement on one point: “We become what we think about.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A man is what he thinks about all day long.”

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius put it this way: “A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.”

In the Bible we find, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

One Sunday afternoon, a cranky grandfather was visiting his family. As he lay down to take a nap, his grandson decided to have a little fun by putting Limburger cheese on Grandfather’s mustache. Soon, grandpa awoke with a snort and charged out of the bedroom saying, “This room stinks.” Through the house he went, finding every room smelling the same. Desperately he made his way outside only to find that “the whole world stinks!”

So it is when we fill our minds with negativism. Everything we experience and everybody we encounter will carry the scent we hold in our mind.

I’ve encouraged those who are unhappy with their marriage partner to begin to change their thoughts about their spouse. Forming the habit of dwelling on positive characteristics will improve one’s attitude toward his or her mate. Focusing on positive aspects of the place where you work or the good things about your coworkers will improve your attitude about your job.

When you change your thoughts, you change your world. Try it and see for yourself!

With Love,

Mike