Judged According to our own Ways...

In Ezekiel 18, God has a word for the nation of Israel regarding His judgement. He refutes a popular proverb of the time purporting the sins of the father carry over to the son and vice-versa. The Israelites were saying, "The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge", indicating that what the father does in terms of sin will carry over to his children.

God immediately forbids them to use the proverb anymore. (18:3) Moreover, He declares that every life belongs to Him - both father and son - and the person who sins is the done who will die. (18:4) When Israel cries, "The Lord's way isn't fair", God replies, "Is it My way that is unfair? Instead, isn't it your ways that are unfair?...I will judge each one of you according to his ways." (18:25, 30)

As I read this, there is both hope and a warning in what God says. While some would trust in the position of being a part of a Covenant people, the warning is that each of us are still accountable and responsible for our choices and sins. True, there is privilege and a certain measure of assurance of being a part of a corporate body but in the end, each individual member will have to answer both good and bad not only for the corporate results but their individual choices as well.

I wonder if this speaks a word to the church today? How many of us are comfortable with our corporate identity in the church? How many are banking on the fact that we are members of a group and thus our value and even destination in life goes with that group? I wonder how many of us will wake up one day to a judgement where we will say, "But Lord, we attended church faithfully, we sacrificed for You, we tithed, etc..." but then hear, "But what about the way you treated the poor or the way you shared your faith?"

It is interesting to me when God in Ezekiel 18 describes the actions of the righteous man as doing "just and right", most of what he describes in relation to our social responsibilities. He paints the picture of the righteous as (Ezekiel 18:6-9)...

* He does not eat at the mountain shrines or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel (God-centered)
* He does not defile his neighbor's wife or come near a woman during menstrual impurity (Community-centered)
* He doesn't oppress anyone but returns his collateral to the debtor. (Community-centered)
* He does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing. (Community-centered)
* He doesn't lend at interest for profit but keeps his hand from wrongdoing and carries out true justice between men. (Community-centered)
* He follows My statutes and keeps My ordinances, acting faithfully. (God-centered)

He then declares (18:9b) that, "Such a person is righteous; he will certainly live."

It is interesting to note that two of the descriptors are God-centered and the remaining four are fellow man-centered (societal and community relationships). It is also worthy of noting that the societal/community related righteous acts are couched within the God-centered acts (numbers 1 and 6). To me this signifies not the balance but the intricate interlacing of non-separation of love for God and love for fellow man. You cannot truly have one without the other. Both ways.

In the end, the whole discourse on God's teaching on the personal responsibility of our sins is a plea from Jehova God for His people to repent and truly turn to Him. At the end of the chapter, He sums up his word to Israel by saying (18:32)...

"'For I take no pleasure in anyone's death.' This is the declaration of the Lord God. 'So repent and live!'"

Comforting yet disturbing...judged according to our own ways... 

Keeping It Simple...

On the way home from a trip to India yesterday, I had some time to read. I actually vacillated between two books: "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine and "The Pursuit of God" by A. W. Tozer. Both are very different in focus and outlook. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was published during the American revolution and presented a popular case for American independence and freedom of rule from the British Empire. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God" is of course a devotional classic written for any follower of Jesus Christ hungering and thirsting for God. However, I noticed a common thread between the two and it revolved around the idea of simplicity.

In our quest of pursuing God, Tozer states, "If we would find God amid all the religious externals we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity." For, he postulates, "When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself."

Paine, on the other hand writes about freedom and choice of government. He actually is writing against the tyrannical form (according to him) of the current English monarchy and parliament system of his time. It is also to encourage a new age of freedom and self-determination that he sees in the American colonies in their struggle for independence.

Paine also invokes the idea of simplicity by pointing to the principles found in nature. He says, "...the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered;..."

When all is said and done, our efforts to see "God's kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is really rather a simple process. We load ourselves down with theology, missiology and all kinds of other "ologies" when in simple, plain truth, we need more to focus on God Himself. I have always liked to describe myself as a "theophilus" rather than a "theologian": a lover of God over a studier of God. In truth, if our theology does not cause us to fall more in love with God, then we should definitely change our theology.

The call to simplicity, a single-eye, focusing on God Himself, is a call to freedom. Focusing on anything else in this life - honor, fame, success - even in religious and well-meaning efforts, leads to bondage.

"Keeping it simple" means to simply focus on God. In the midst of the hectic swirl and pace of life, when pressures and trials abound, keeping our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith is the simple answer.

We "seek the kingdom" when in actuality we seek the King.

I Wish You Could Have Seen What I Saw Today...

Today, I am in Bangalore, India. I am attending our BGR team meeting. I have been hearing amazing reports from our BGR field based Area Directors of what God is doing through our efforts around the world to alleviate poverty, respond to disasters and to touch people in need with the love of Christ. Amazing stories.

I also had the opportunity and privilege to go along with the team to visit several projects in both rural and urban settings. Both settings were among some of the poorest of the poor in their respective communities.

I saw some amazing things...

* An urban slum project that was feeding 250 undernourished children each day and giving them after-school tutoring as well. As our team helped served them their evening meal, it was amazing to watch children as young as 4 and 5 years old taking their treasure of food on their plates or in their containers back to their home to eat. Lots of smiling faces.

* A rural program focused on bringing light and hope to disabled children. Some of the children were smiling and even laughing during the program and visit. Almost everyone of the mothers there with their disabled child was smiling for the simple fact that somebody cared about them and their child.

* An urban program of ministry to widows. Over 50 gathered together in a small room praising and worshiping God, giving thanks for the ministry, food and care that they were receiving. Destitute and poor yet smiling with joy at someone caring.

* A rural alcohol and addiction recovery program and two men sharing their testimony of how after 20 years of alcoholism, they now were sober, holding down jobs, gaining weight and becoming the father and family man that they were supposed to be. The wives shared, with smiles, how nice it was especially since their husbands did not beat them anymore.

* A rural health care clinic that sees about 30 people/families per day in an area that has little or no access to government health care. Smiles on the faces of parents getting help for their children. Smiles on the faces of people getting access to affordable medical care.

* A job skills program for women helping them to learn and ply their trades in being beauticians and seamstresses. Smiles of pride that they had a chance at gainful employment.

I saw a lot of people in need being helped through our Southern Baptist efforts. I saw a lot of smiles on faces that went deeper than the fact that they had help, jobs, different lifestyles, etc. Smiles that also came out in words from many of the beneficiaries saying, "thanks to Jesus, I am now a changed person."

I wish you could have seen what I saw today...smiles from people who have come to know that somebody cares for them and even better, that there is a God in heaven who sees and cares as well.

Equality of Resources or Equality of Responsibility?

A couple of years back, a book was written as a wake up to those doing short term missions called, "When Helping Hurts". The basic idea was that in many cases, our attempts to help others "less fortunate" than ourselves, often times leads to dependency and actually hurting those we originally intended good for.

More recently, Robert Lupton, in his book "Toxic Charity", says, "Doing for others what they can do for themselves is charity at its worse...We must come to deeply believe that every person, no matter how destitute or broken, has something worth to bring to the table."

The bottom line is that we are all created in the image of God and each one of us have a divine spark that allows us, to a large degree, to choose betterment or even development. True, not all of us are equal in terms of capacity or potential. I was born in a western, middle-class family with unlimited possibilities for life. Much different than a person my same age say born into a war-torn, famine ridden country in North Africa. Though not equal in opportunity, we are equal in responsibility of what we do with what we have been given...large or small.

When individuals or groups of the "haves" like myself, attempt to intervene with betterment ideas and programs into a group of the "have nots" like my counterpart in poverty in North Africa, we tend to do things for them such as give away programs or resource mobilization projects. Without realizing, we begin to do things for people that they could actually do for themselves thus robbing them of the dignity for self-determination and making them the objects and recipients of our pity thus reinforcing in our minds (and theirs) that we are superior and in some way they are defective. Lupton says, "When we do for others what they can do for themselves, we cripple them."

No doubt there are situations requiring immediate relief and mercy such as those things and events coming about due to acute happenings like earthquakes, tsunamis, war, famine, etc. However, I work for an international relief and development NGO and by far the largest problems we see and address are the chronic, long-term things such as poverty and hunger that really have no easy and quick fix.

A key then, that we can keep returning to, is the simple question: who is responsible for determining their course in life? No doubt there are many things that go into answering that question. It is simple yet complex in that there are many outside things that effect my choice as well as my counterpart's choice in another place, setting and set of circumstances. But when an individual or a community is given the chance and chooses to assume responsibility for their own development and destiny, we see a light of hope begin to emerge in even the darkest of circumstances. The move from self-pity and hopelessness to building or rebuilding a better life for themselves and their children to come.

As I close this post out today, I realize that it is easy to write about these things but not so easy to put them into practice. But one thing we should remember and Lupton makes it clear from his book is that, "...Both achiever and survivor share a common responsibility: to make the most of their unequal lots in life."

Seeking Social Justice: The Product or the Process?

I recently finished a good book called, "What is the Mission of the Church", by DeYong and Gilbert. In one chapter, they discuss the current trends and meaning of social justice and make the statement, "Justice in a fallen world is not an equality of outcome, but is equal treatment under a fair law." They base their views on the Old Testament concept and teachings of justice saying, "Doing justice is not the same as redistribution, nor does it encompass everything a godly Israelite would do in obedience to Yaweh...Doing justice implies, then, fairness, decency and honesty."

DeYong and Gilbert moreover discuss two current main views of social justice: the unconstrained view and the constrained view. The unconstrained view is a result oriented view that says wherever people do not get their fair share, there is injustice. Conversely, but related, is the constrained view that sees social justice as a process by which people are treated fairly. In other words, not a 'fair' distribution of goods and resources but a 'fair' system.

I tend to agree with the authors on this point. While I am moved with compassion (and sometimes a bit of anger) when I see the results of social injustices, I tend to think it more wise and effective to focus on the process of how to make systems more just. While there is always a place and need for those to cry out with passion, stand up and even intervene for the injustices which exist, there is also a very important need for the church and the followers of Jesus to stand up for systems which help to exclude these issues.

Bringing it frighteningly closer to home, when I read the Bible exhortations touching on justice, they seem to have more to say to me as a person than they do to society as a whole. The often quoted justice statement in Micah 6:8, "Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God", is easy to proclaim to a crowd and society, but isn't it more challenging to take these words and commands to heart and let God change my life to these attributes? I wonder if the world wouldn't become a much better place if all of us who call for and promote social justice would allow God's justice and plan for justice to work in our own hearts first?

I am big on being a process oriented person. In sports, you play the game like you practice the week before. In education, you learn how to learn not just meaningless facts. And in Christian life in regards to social justice, you "do" and practice justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God before, and as a preparation to, your fight with society.

When I pray for "social justice", I eerily hear a voice that says, "Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God." I tend to think that there are better ways to effect justice in this fallen world. God seems to think that a great place to start is in my heart.

As Deyong and Gilbert say, "The story (of the Bible) is not about us working with God to make the world right again. It's about God's work to make us right so that we can live with Him (and others) again."

God, let there be justice and let it begin in me...

An Incredible Giving Church...

I would like to tell a story about an incredible giving church. I was at Second Baptist Church in Springfield, MO the other day as a part of their Global Missions Conference. They featured Kevin Ezell, President of NAMB on Sunday morning and Baptist Global Response (BGR) on Sunday night. About 40 ministries/missionaries attended coming from local ministries in Springfield, the state of Missouri, other states and international entities.

The church is led Senior Pastor John Marshall. The missions pastor, who helped put it all together along with his great staff, is John Edie. John Edie had contacted BGR out of the blue last year and asked if we could be there representing BGR and Southern Baptist relief and development work overseas. When I said "yes", I had no idea of the blessing that I was going to experience.

This is a church that believes in missions. Almost 25% of their annual budget is given to missions both domestically and overseas. Their annual budget for their Global Missions Offering is about $600,000 each year! On Sunday night during the BGR focus, they not only gave generously but held one of the most creative and inspiring missions program I have ever been a part of.

The idea was to get all their people involved and connected with some type of international aid through BGR. So they took our BGR gift catalogue from our website, made a brochure promoting individual and group giving that was very personalized. They promoted the giving idea months in advance to their membership and small groups in a way that each person/group could give a specific thing to help someone overseas.

For instance, a Sunday School class could give $1,000 to provide a water system in a developing country. A children's group could give $25 to provide a water filter for a family overseas. A goat could be purchased for $50, a pair of rabbits for $25 and 20 chicks for $15. All of this would go through an existing BGR project to help someone in need around the world.

On Sunday evening, the service started with worship in song and a quick interview of BGR by John. We basically told the congregation what BGR does and how a mosquito net, a goat or a water filter helps people and helps us also share God's love. Then the chaos and what I call "parade of love" started.

Animals were brought into the sanctuary representing what the members' donations would go for. Rabbits, chickens, a goat and even a cow made an appearance on stage! Sewing machines were marched down the aisle representing micro enterprise. Water filters, blankets and mosquito nets were also brought in. Then, the children were invited to bring their coin offerings up. They had been saving for months to "buy" an article of their choice to send overseas through BGR.

If that was not enough, Sunday School classes and small groups began coming forward in six different areas to microphones and began sharing what their group or they as an individual were going to do. Remarks like, "such and such a Sunday School class was going to sponsor one water system for a needy community." Some classes said they wanted to buy one of everything. Families pledged to purchase goats, cows and chickens for needy families outside the USA. Small children came forward and pledged their allowances to buy a pair of "bunnies" for another child. The GMC participating ministry leaders were at the front of the church recording all the gifts given on whiteboards. It was total chaos and it was a total thing of beauty!

At the end of the evening, the members of Second Baptist gave about $65,000 to help with overseas needs through BGR. Unofficial tallies of what was given included:

28 water systems for developing countries,
139 water filters for needy families,
75 sewing machines for micro-businesses,
25 BGR In Home Care Kits,
280 mosquito nets,
77 blankets,
121 starter chickens,
75 pair of rabbits,
111 goats,
41 cows and
65 stock for fishponds.

The whole evening was overwhelming. It was chaotic, festive and very moving.

I want to thank John Marshall and John Edie for having such a wonderful, giving church. I would even call them an incredible giving church.

Thank you Second Baptist, Springfield, Missouri. You have blessed a lot of people around the world with your generosity!

I Guess We Didn't Get the Memo...

This morning, Regina and I decided to try and go for a walk/run. The sun was shining outside. It was a lazy Saturday morning. We were feeling guilty from the great dinner and dessert the night before. Our friends David and Martha had brought us a pecan pie. I won't tell you how much I ate because it would be self-incriminating...

Anyway, I guess we were the only ones who didn't get the memo that an Arctic cold front had come through Tennessee last night. We bundled up, stretched, even put on gloves and intrepidly headed out the door and down our road. Sadly, after about 100 yards and our noses falling off due to frostbite (exaggeration here), we promptly turned around and headed back to our warm house.

On the way back, I displayed one of my many hidden talents. I spotted eleven cents in the road and stooped down to pick it up. My spotting and picking up coins all over the world is legendary (at least in my mind). For some strange reason, I have this gift for seeing and picking up stray coins. While I call it a gift, others (read Regina, my family, etc.) have other ideas. However, my practice is when I find these stray coins, I take them home and place them in my "World Hunger" bank adding them to my other loose change. When the bank fills up, I take it out, count it, convert to bills (or a check) and give my donation to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund.

Eleven cents isn't very much by our standards. But I began thinking: "What could eleven cents do in a hungry and needy world?" I sure wouldn't miss it and evidently the person who dropped it didn't think it worth the effort to stop and pick it up. So, is there any value to the eleven cents I just placed in my World Hunger bank?

* Eleven cents won't even buy a meal for a hungry child but it is at least halfway towards providing a warm, nutritious meal to a kid in the Horn of Africa. Pretty valuable!
* Eleven cents won't solve the world's malaria problem but it is 2% of the cost of a mosquito net for a family that lives in an area with rampant malarial problems. Just 50 more Eleven cents would provide that net. Pretty significant.
* Eleven cents won't help all the thirsty people in the world but it will provide almost 5% of the funds needed to give a family clean drinking water for one day. Again, not bad for a measly eleven cents left in the road.

The world didn't get the memo that there is hope for the hungry, sick and thirsty. And I didn't get the memo that eleven cents doesn't make a difference.

However, consider yourself served! You just got the "eleven cent" memo. What will you do about it?

For opportunities to make your eleven cents count, visit: www.worldhungerfund.com and see some possibilities for yourself of what eleven cents can do.