the blog of Jerry Bolton
Posts tagged Faithfulness
Remembering Grandpa
0Currently listening to: “Holy” by Brenton Brown
Brenton is a favourite in these parts. We really appreciate his anything-but-showy approach to putting together worship songs. Also, he has a knack for penning meaningful lyrics (with very little “I” and “Me” in them).
My wife’s grandfather passed away last Thursday – November 5th, 2009. I only had the pleasure of spending time with him once, at our wedding last year. We spent the first half of this week down in Kansas for the funeral – a journey that was full of stories in itself. We flew out of Rochester at 7am EST (which meant getting up around 2am to drive down), stopped over at O’Hare in Chicago, and landed in Kansas City around 11:30am CST. We then drove a couple hours west of KC to Abilene, Kansas – grandpa’s hometown.
Throughout our time there, we enjoyed much time spent with family – mourning the loss of grandpa, but celebrating his life. There was a lot to celebrate. If you have a spare minute, please have a gander at his obituary. Grandpa was a missionary to the Philippines, a radio personality, a WW2 vet, a Moody grad, and perhaps most of all – a husband, father, and grandfather. He loved Jesus Christ and dedicated his life to serving him. He left a legacy of faithfulness that touches even me – his grandson-in-law.
Wednesday, we made the trek home.
Today is Friday, I’m thinking about the challenge of following (and some day leaving) a great legacy. Although I didn’t know Grandpa, I’ve spent much of this week mindful of the life he lived, and of the family he raised (which includes my mother-in-law, of whom I am rather fond). Certainly, I’ve inherited a different world than he did – but we serve the same King, and are called to the same faithfulness to that King.
Feel free to check out Grandpa’s radio shows here, and other info here.
The Primacy of Preaching in Worship
0Currently listening to: “Get Me Right” by Dashboard Confessional
Chris Carrabba is a bit of a tough one to pin down. It’s difficult to know, in his songs, whose voice he speaks from – his own, or those of various characters he creates or whose stories he tells. The answer to that question would seriously uncomplicate the question of what precisely it is that he believes. What he believes is an interesting question because, before he was “The Famous Chris Carrabba – King of All Emo and the man behind Dashboard Confessional”, he was the unknown frontman of Further Seems Forever, an essentially Christian technical rock band. This song is remarkable because it’s the first one (as Dashboard) in which Chris talks in fairly straightforward terms about faith, Jesus, doubt, sin, depravity, and such things. I’m still processing what’s going on – there’s a lot of history to reckon with, and there’s a lot of voices on this record (and all his Dashboard records, for that matter).
There are about 50 blogs on my feed reader. I read most of them in their entirety every day – it’s a part of my morning routine. One that I recently added was CJ Mahaney’s blog over at Sovereign Grace Ministries. Although I disagree with CJ on some points (and really, we could all say that about anybody if we’re being honest!) I’ve really appreciated his ministry – both in book form and in his preaching.
I had the opportunity to attend CJ’s breakout session this past April at the Gospel Coalition 2009 National Conference and it was, in many ways, a pivotal point for me. Through CJ’s message entitled “The Pastor’s Charge“, God sparked in my heart a desire for pastoral ministry. Does this mean I’m hoping to be a “Pastor” someday? God only knows. Right now, I’m just working through what it means to be pastoral in character and daily practice – both internally and externally. I firmly believe that all believing men are called to strive toward the standards required of all “overseers” as laid out in Titus and Timothy and such. So, in this season of life, one of my particular concerns is to nurture and develop in those areas – striving toward being (as Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 3) above reproach, faithful in monogamy, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not an addict, gentle, not violent, not a money-lover, a good father and husband, dignified, mature in the faith and constantly pursuing humility.
With that as background, you’ll understand my excitement over today’s post on CJ’s blog, made by his friend Jeff Purswell, entitled “Preaching vs. Worship?” (entitled so as to question the false dichotomy). I’d encourage you to read it. Here’s something that stood out to me:
Why? Why so much preaching? Why all this talking? Because the primary way we encounter God in worship is through the preaching of the Word of God.
Think about it this way. Normally, in what we call “worship,” we spend significant time—perhaps the whole time—addressing God, singing to him, praising him, extolling him, praying to him. Wonderful! But in preaching we are no longer addressing God; he is addressing us. Nothing is more important than this moment. And this is why the most important worship leader in your church is your pastor.
That really gets to the heart of preaching. The Bible is not simply a book that we talk about. When God’s Word is faithfully preached, God is addressing us. God is speaking. We hear not merely a man’s voice. We hear the voice of God.
And when God addresses us, what is the appropriate response? We respond with glad and reverent hearts, with voices that proclaim his praise, and with lives that increasingly reflect his character.
God addresses us with a saving Word. We respond to him with faith, praise, and obedience. That is the rhythm of worship.
This article caught me, striking me as both true and unnoticed. As I reflect on my week-to-week experience of preaching (thanks to my Pastor, for whom I am becoming more grateful constantly), I resonate with the above sentiments on a level I can’t really express at this point. Rare is the Sunday afternoon that I don’t feel at least a little weak at the knees because of the awareness that, despite all of the flawed humanity in the preacher, God spoke to me through the faithful preaching of his scriptures. Further, as I reflect on CJ’s message at the Gospel Coalition in April, I realize the same thing – God spoke through CJ’s exposition of scripture in preaching. He called me to greater faithfulness to Him and His truth. He called me to sacrificially serve and love His church. He called me to grow and mature in Christ. He called me to repent of myself. He called me to teach and learn, to suffer and wrestle, to counsel and to seek counsel. He called me to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Jesus – the author and finisher, the perfecter, the archetype, the God-man, the dread warrior, the Holy One. He called me to lay down my life.
It’s not that He hadn’t said all of those things before – they’re all over Scripture. But, God spoke to me that day in a way I hardly understood at the time, and hardly do now. He spoke through the Bible. What an amazing gift!
May those who preach do so faithfully, and may those of us who listen to their faithful preaching worship with our lives faithfully in response. Amen.
…concerning riches
02 years ago
by Jerry
in Bible Study
Current Tunage: Fee – Rise and Sing
Blew my mind.
Along with my friend Noah, I’ve been intentionally studying Scripture lately with the purpose of applying its truth to my life. For me, that means that I’ve been studying finances and economics. For some, this might seem strange – what on earth could the Bible have to say about my money? If you’re asking such a question, the answer might surprise you: quite a lot. Everything, even.
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve found myself at one of life’s crossroads. Namely, I’m a recent grad on the hunt for meaningful, full-time employ. As is the case with any life-phase, I thought I knew what to expect heading into it, and I’ve discovered otherwise. Just like I thought I knew all about marriage before getting married only to find I had barely scraped the surface and that much of what’s to be learned can only be learned through practice and, well, living it. So, these past few months I’ve been overwhelmed by the grace of God as he has provided far beyond all I could have asked or imagined. Besides continuing the on-call position I’ve held for 7 years supporting people with developmental disabilities, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with two businesses doing freelance writing work throughout the summer and into the fall. This has provided many interesting opportunities to accumulate experience and “resume revenue”, and I’m very thankful.
With that in mind, though, I’ve realized that although I know a lot of the basics about finances (debt is bad, savings are good, assets vs liabilities, etc), I can’t think of a time that I’ve seriously studied Scripture to see what God has to say about wealth and riches. So, while my dear friend Noah is working his way through another topic, I’m working my way through finances.
This all started with what is best described as a word study. Being able to search-engine the Bible (thanks to e-Sword and various web-based tools) is a blessing and a curse. It allows us to quickly find that verse in our head (or find related verses easily) but takes away a lot of the impetus to memorize not just words but locations – which are still very important. In any case, my word study turned up a lot of hits on words like “money” and “wealth” and “riches” and “rich” and so on. I felt it most prudent to check all the significant synonyms.
The purpose of this word study was to isolate the most useful and applicable passages (while understanding that all the passages are useful and applicable). As a result, I ended up with a small handful of passages that I will be working my way through over the course of the next few days. Each one bears a significant set of implications on how we view money, finances, economics… and hammers on important characteristics that we as believers are to strive toward. Things like generosity, stewardship, wisdom, sacrificial love, and trusting God.
So, won’t you join me as I work my way through one of Jesus’ parables:
Luke 16:1-8 ESV
He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
Ok, so – first things first, Jesus is hanging out with his disciples and the Pharisees. He decides to bust a parable on them. Parables usually have one “main point”, and we’ll get to that a bit later. First, let’s check out the story itself. There’s a manager and his boss – the rich man. The manager is kind of like a CEO is to a Board of Directors – he’s the one who does the daily ins-and-outs of the business; the one who’s actually got his hands in stuff. He makes the decisions on the rich man’s behalf, for the sake of his estate. He’s the guy the rich man has to take care of collecting from those who owe him stuff – he’s the guy who “takes care of business”. Basically, he’s been blowing his boss’ cash like no tomorrow, he realizes his boss has found him out, and forgives some of his boss’ debtors before he gets fired so he’ll be on their good side.
Luke 16:8-9 ESV
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
The boss congratulates him for being such a sly, clever larcenist. Of course, it goes without saying he wasn’t happy with the guy, and it’s probably safe to say the ‘commendation’ was sarcasm at it’s finest. I’m envisioning it coming across like this: “I commend you for your shrewdness… and I hope you enjoy how shrewdly I drop your shrewd posterior into Hebrew Penitentiary”.
Which brings us to the highly applicable “parablic commentary” (as I’m fond of calling it). First, Jesus says that ‘sons of the world’ are more shrewd than ‘sons of light’ in ‘dealing with their own generation’. Then, Jesus says that it’s good to make friends with ‘unrighteous wealth’. So what does that mean? Well, I’m inclined to agree with the ESVSB‘s observations:
Jesus applies the parable both as a comparison and as a contrast. In contrast to the manager, Jesus’ disciples must not use their money unrighteously, but like the manager they must use their money in such a way that they prepare for their future life. The “sons of this world” often show more concern and skill in taking care of their earthly well-being than do the “sons of light” in taking care of eternal matters.
This brings up a couple important principles for those of us who belong to Christ – we who are “called by his name”, who are ‘sons of light’:
1. We are to strive to show far greater care, concern, and stewardship of our resources (financial or otherwise) than unbelievers.
2. We are to strive in this way not for our earthly well-being, but for eternal matters; primarily for the building of God’s kingdom and not our own.
Luke 16:10-13 ESV
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
At this point, Christ begins to speak of faithfulness. Isn’t it remarkable that in the midst of a parable about finances and wealth, Jesus talks about fidelity? I think so.
I think it’s amazing that the measure of our economics and our financial dealings isn’t numbers, but faithfulness. If it were purely numeric, we’d all be toast; our ‘unrighteous wealth’ (that is – money that is so easily and quickly either unrighteously acquired or used or made an idol of) would forever be ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’. If poverty were the measure of our righteousness in wealth, all us rich folks in the West (and that’s all of us, arguably) would be condemned. Likewise if luxury were the measure of righteousness in wealth, all the poor people in third world countries would be condemned. Praise God! His standard is not one of “you must make this much to pass!” or “you must not make more than this much to pass!”, but “you must be faithful with what you have!”.
The measure of our financial dealings (and all the numbers that represent it) is not how much or how little we have, but our faithfulness with what we do have. Think about the parable of the widow at the temple. Some rich dude drops in a couple big moneybags for show, then she waddles up and drops in two coins:
Mark 12:42-44 ESV
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Jesus praises her for what she gave. Why? Because generosity toward God looks very different when you’re rich compared to when you’re poor. It’s percentage-oriented, not numeric-value-oriented. “Aha!”, you might say, “percentages can be turned into numbers!”. You’re right, but you’re missing the point. The point is, the widow gave all she had to God and that action reflected the fact that her heart was trusting Him in faith. The rich dude gave a tiny fraction of his horde of coin – and that reflected the fact that he was still trusting in his cash to save the day (or… alternately, his life, his health, his dignity, etc) – and that’s beside the fact he was making a show of it.
So, what are the principles we can pull from this as ‘sons of light’?
1. When it comes to giving, think in terms of faithfulness – not in terms of bank balance. “What does faithfulness look like in my context?”
2. Be faithful with little (most of us, if you’re like me, have ‘little’). Be generous to God – everything you have is on loan from Him anyway.
3. What faithfulness looks like in your heart and in your bank balance never changes, no matter whether you have much or little.
4. Financial faithfulness is rooted in trusting God to provide:
Matthew 6:31-33 ESV
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Throughout Scripture, God delights in being the one who ultimately meets our needs and sustains us. When we focus on meeting our needs and sustaining ourselves (regardless of the method), that is an act of idolatry – we’ve removed God from one of his self-declared functions and replaced him with a Saviour of our own making. In the context of what we’re talking about, this means we must strive not to allow ourselves to be anxious about our finances, but to entrust them to the God who provides and sustains us as we strive to be faithful and “seek his kingdom” above our own. It doesn’t mean that we be foolish/lax in earning or handling our resources (Proverbs has much to say about that), only that we entrust them to God and live that out in faithful, trusting serenity. God PROMISES to take care of us when we trust him to. Test that promise!
This brings us to the close of our passage:
Luke 16:14-15 ESV
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Let us be mindful of the fact that living out the principles of this parable will appear utterly worthy of ridicule to ubelievers (and to ourselves in our unbelief!). Particularly if we are among those who have made a god of money – to whom it is a (dys)functional saviour, all of the above is utter nonsense. Remember that what the unbelieving world exalts (debt lifestyle, getting rich quick, extravagant living, unnecessary poverty, laziness, workoholism, loving money and using people rather than using money to love people) is an abomination in God’s sight.
With that in mind, let those of us who are ‘sons of light’, who belong to Christ Jesus and are “called by his Name” be those who entrust ourselves to God, wholly and faithfully handling what we have (little or great) and leveraging it for His Kingdom, for His Honour, and for His Glory.
Let’s close with an admonition from Paul:
2 Corinthians 9:6-11 ESV
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
Amen.
…too good not to share
2Current Tunage: Thrice – Beggars
Album of the year.
It’s been forever. I’m (kind of) sorry. There’s much to report on, but that will be another post.
For now, here’s what’s on my mind:
“THE WEIGHT” by THRICE from their new album BEGGARS
There’s many who’ll tell you they’ll give you their love,
But when they say “give” they mean “take.”
They’ll hang ‘round just like vultures till push comes to shove.
They’ll take flight when the earth starts to shake.
Someone may say that they’ll always be true,
Then slip out the door ‘fore the dawn.
But I won’t leave you hanging on.
Another may stay till they find someone new,
Then before you know they’ll be gone.
But I won’t leave you hanging on;
No, I won’t be that someone.
And come what may, I won’t abandon you or leave you behind
Because love is a loyalty sworn, not a burning for a moment.
And come what may, I will be standing right here by your side;
I won’t run away, though the storm’s getting worse and there’s no end in sight.
Some talk of destiny, others of fate,
But soon they’ll be saying goodbye.
But I won’t leave you high and dry.
Because a ring don’t mean nothing
If you can’t haul the weight,
And some of them won’t even try,
But I won’t leave you high and dry;
I won’t leave you wondering why.
And storms will surely come,
But true love is a choice you must make
And you’re the one that I have set my heart to choose.
As long as I live, I swear I’ll see this through.