Benevolence Giving

Posted on December 12, 2020 by russellmckinney

The average person has absolutely no idea how much benevolent giving the churches of America do. The reason for this lack of knowledge is the fact that much of the giving is done quietly without any fanfare. All this giving isn’t exclusively done by large churches or wealthy churches, either. Even many small churches and churches that could be classified as poor make a regular habit of helping people in need.

Many churches have benevolence committees to which requests for financial help get made. Deacon boards or board of elders often serve as these committees. Some churches empower their benevolence committees to dole out any funds the committees agree to give. Other churches allow their committees to merely recommend that requests for money be granted, after which the congregations must pass the recommendations by way of a majority votes.

Offerings known as “love offerings” are another way that churches give. A love offering is a freewill offering that is collected for a certain individual or cause during a specific church service. Since any and all contributions to this type of offering are voluntary, the amount of the offering will always be different. However, some churches do have a rule that if the collection for a love offering doesn’t meet at least a minimum amount, the church will make up the difference out of the church treasury. This ensures that any individual or organization who is the beneficiary of a love offering will at least get an acceptable amount of money.

Having been a pastor for some 27 years now, I can tell you that benevolence giving can get really tricky. I’ll offer just one story — one of a long list — from my own experience as a way of illustrating my point. I once served as the pastor of a church that did all its benevolence giving by way of love offerings. One Sunday morning we took up an offering for a certain church member who had been struggling for months with a debilitating disease. This man had been forced to miss work, spend large amounts of money on medical bills and prescriptions, and consequently really needed help financially. I was happy to learn that the offering we collected for him was the largest amount I had ever known that church to give for a love offering.

A few weeks later, another church member asked the church for some financial help, and a date was set to take up a love offering for him. But when the amount given for that offering was totaled up, it fell far short of the offering that had been taken up for the other fellow. This, not unexpectedly, hurt the second man’s feelings.

When he asked me why the offering for him had come in so much less than the offering for the first man, I named a couple of reasons. One, the first man had a lot of family in that church, and that family had contributed heavily to his offering. Two, the first man’s need was perceived to be much greater than the second man’s. I have to admit, though, that I couldn’t tell him the third reason, that being that the first man was just more popular than him. Frankly, one of the problems with voluntary love offerings is that oftentimes they become popularity contests. That’s why, if a church takes up such offerings, it’s a good idea to make it a rule that the church must bring any love offering up to a minimum amount if the offering doesn’t meet or exceed that amount.

Actually, I believe it is preferable to eliminate the chance factor of love offerings altogether by earmarking a set amount the church will give. In other words, rather than “pass the plate” and “see what you get,” just decide that the church will write a check for a fixed amount to any individual or cause the church deems worthy to receive one. While this will mean that any beneficiary who could potentially receive a very large love offering might have to settle for less, the policy will serve the overall good of the congregation by keeping the peace and harmony. That’s my opinion, at least.

Another problem with benevolence giving gets into the question: “Should the church help those who won’t help themselves?” Let’s say that a known drug addict calls the pastor or asks some other church member if the church will help him pay his electricity bill. Obviously, the church shouldn’t give that addict cash or a check made out to cash, but should the church even send a check directly to the electricity company in the amount of bill? Isn’t that the same as enabling the addict to continue in his addiction?

As you might guess, there are many variations on this theme. Here are a few off the top of my head. Should the church buy heating fuel for a deadbeat who won’t work? Should the church pay the auto repair bill for an alcoholic who wrecked his car while driving under the influence? Should the church pay the rental deposit for a woman who was evicted from her last home because of her failure to pay the rent? I mean, after all, Christ’s followers are supposed to be people of love and compassion, right? So, what kind of a reputation will we have if we allow people to go without heat on cold winter nights, lose their jobs because they don’t have a car by which to get to work, or end up homeless because they can’t come up with the deposit required for a rental home?

And then there is the problem of innocent spouses, children, or other family members who become the victims of circumstances over which they have no control. Remember that deadbeat who wouldn’t work and couldn’t pay his fuel bill? What if he has a wife who works like a dog but still can’t make enough to pay all the couple’s bills? Remember that alcoholic who wrecked his car while driving under the influence? What if his two kids faithfully attend Sunday School and Bible School and are great kids? Remember that evicted woman who couldn’t manage her life well enough to avoid being evicted? What if her mother lives with her and has Alzheimer’s?

You see, sometimes a church will agree to help a problematic individual, not for the sake of that individual, but for the sake of the innocent victims in that individual’s vortex. It’s nuances like this that keep members of benevolence committees up at night. If a committee member has any humility at all, he or she will ask, “Who am I to make these potentially life-altering decisions? I’m not God. I’m not even Solomon.” Welcome to the world of church benevolence.

One easy solution to making these decisions is simply for the church to agree to write the check for any request that gets made. This solution isn’t an option, though, because of the high number of people who would take advantage of the church. The church I pastor is located in a small county, but even here we have people who are known to make the rounds in asking multiple churches for help. What these people don’t know is that local pastors talk to each other about them. Then again, maybe they do know it but are shameless enough not to care.

Of course, some pious man or woman might make the argument that Jesus helped any and all who came to Him, regardless of whether or not the person deserved it. Admittedly, there is some merit to this argument. I say this because Jesus did die on the cross for everybody’s sins even though He knew that only a minority of those people would actually believe in Him as Savior and thus receive the benefits of His sacrificial death. For that matter, I’m sure that not everyone He healed over the course of His earthly ministry actually became a saved believer. Therefore, if Jesus didn’t turn away anyone, shouldn’t our churches follow His example?

My answer is that while Jesus, in His divinity, had unlimited resources, our churches do not. Furthermore, scripture instructs Christians to practice not only wise stewardship but also spiritual discernment. Even Jesus Himself never spent an inordinate amount of time trying to teach individuals who clearly didn’t want to learn. To see this in the gospels, all you have to do is read about His interactions with the Jewish religious leaders of His day.

Oh, and let me mention one other relevant factor in regards to benevolence giving. What if God is working through a cold house, a wrecked automobile, or an eviction notice to bring an individual to the end of himself or herself so that he or she will at last fully submit to Him? If this is indeed the case, doesn’t it logically follow that any church that extends financial aid to that person is actually damaging God’s work rather than doing it?

Like I said, welcome to the world of church benevolence. And, unfortunately, there are all sorts of other questions that can be asked regarding this topic. For example, if a church does all of its giving very publicly in full view of the church, doesn’t that bring at least a little bit of embarrassment to the people who receive the gifts? On the other hand, if a benevolence committee does all of its giving in private, doesn’t such cloaked secrecy create accountability problems between that committee and the rest of the church?

Another question has to do with whether or not a church should “farm out” its benevolence giving. What I mean is, each church has the option of making monetary donations each month or each year to local parachurch ministries such as homeless shelters, food banks, child-care agencies, thrift stores, etc. A contributing church can, in turn, then pass all requests for benevolence along to these other ministries. One advantage of a church doing benevolence this way is that the church only needs to vet the overall organization as opposed to vetting each individual who makes a request. Another advantage is that referring all requests to outside organizations keeps the church from being criticized for playing favorites as to which requests get granted. A potential disadvantage is that it allows the church to take a somewhat aloof, hands-off approach to dealing with the oftentimes messy work of helping messy people.

Well, as you can probably tell, I could write an entire book about the topic of benevolence giving. For now, though, I trust that I’ve given you enough to cause you to agree with me that the whole area is laden with mine fields. It’s sad that certain individuals take advantage of churches whose members are prone to be lovingly generous. Then again, it’s equally sad that some churches choose to become banks rather than use the money in their coffers to help those who need help. Somewhere in the middle of the confusing maze is the appropriate balance that God would have us to strike.

As for me, I have no doubts that our churches sometimes make mistakes regarding benevolence giving. We either give when we shouldn’t or don’t when we should. However, the alternative is to not participate in benevolence giving at all, and that’s just not an acceptable route. That’s why we must continue to trudge along by diligently considering each request that gets made and asking God to guide us in our decision making. If we are sincere in our asking, He will surely do His part to guide us, but even with His help the job will never be easy. It could be worse, though, right? We could be the ones standing in need rather than the ones who are trying to figure out who to help and who not to help.

Posted in Church, Deacons, Doing Good, Giving, God's Work, Ministry, Money, Needs, Pastors, Personal, Stewardship | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

R.G. Lee’s Glimpse Into Heaven

Posted on December 9, 2020 by russellmckinney

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. (Revelation 4:1-3, N.I.V.)

R.G. Lee served as the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, for 33 years. During his tenure there the church experienced remarkable growth and Lee served four terms as the President of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and three terms as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. The term “legend” doesn’t even begin to describe Lee’s influence in Baptist circles.

When Lee was 91 years old, he lay dying in his bed in his home in downtown Memphis. He was surrounded by four men: Adrian Rogers (who was then serving as the pastor of Bellevue Baptist), Tommy Lane (who was then serving as Bellevue Baptist’s Minister of Music), Billy Graham (the world’s most famous evangelist), and Cliff Barrows (the music and program director for the Billy Graham Crusades). Graham and Barrows just happened to be holding a Crusade in the Memphis area at the time.

As the four men stood around Lee’s bed, singing songs and praying, Lee himself remained unconscious. Suddenly he opened his eyes and the first person he saw was Billy Graham. When Graham leaned down to talk to him, Lee put his hands on Graham’s face and pulled him down further toward him. Then he asked Graham, “Have you won the world yet?” Next, Lee said something those four men would never forget. He said, “I saw heaven. I saw Jesus. I saw my mother. I have preached on heaven many times, but I never had the vocabulary to adequately describe it. I never did justice to heaven in my sermons.” He died not long afterward.

The skeptic who hears this story might say, “That old man had been preaching about an imaginary place for decades, and that day he just turned his imagination into a dream.” Well, it just so happens that the Bible teaches in passage after passage that heaven exists! And I, for one, have no trouble believing that as R.G. Lee’s body lay dying, his soul spent some time straddling the line between earth and heaven as God gave him a glimpse of that land of which he was about to become a resident.

Perhaps this glimpse into heaven explains why Lee’s first words to Billy Graham were, “Have you won the world yet?” Could it be that what made Lee so anxious to get the world won to Jesus was the fact that he had just seen Jesus in heaven and wanted everyone else to have that indescribable experience? Oh, and here’s one other thought for you: If heaven is real, if Jesus is there, and if believing in Jesus as Savior is the only way that anyone can go to heaven, shouldn’t those of us who have believed in Him as Savior be trying to win as many people to Him as we can? That logic certainly makes sense to me. I’m sure it did to R.G. Lee, too, and I’m also sure that his soul is in heaven right now and is with Jesus.

Posted in Aging, Comfort, Death, Elderly, Encouragement, Eternity, Evangelism, Heaven, Preaching, Salvation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Has Somebody Kept You From Your Milk & Honey?

Posted on December 7, 2020 by russellmckinney

A study of the life of Moses will show that he didn’t get to live the life he should have. Rather than lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8), he led them out of Egypt and into forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26-35). That happened, mind you, through no fault of his own.

The problem was created when the Israelites’ national lack of faith kept them from conquering Canaan on schedule (Numbers 14:1-38). Moses wasn’t to blame for that whole affair, but he certainly had to spend the rest of his life dealing with the fallout from it. To say that his God-ordained course in life took a hard right turn down an unpleasant road is a major understatement.

Perhaps you, like Moses, have been hurt by the wrong actions of someone else. God had something good in mind for you, but somebody prevented it from happening. Well, I hope you understand that the guilty party was for all intents and purposes serving as an emissary of Satan. Putting it bluntly, that person was doing Satan’s bidding rather than God’s bidding, and Satan always tries to mess up whatever God wants to do.

The Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt weren’t all lost unbelievers, but all of them except for Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:30) fell far short of living out God’s plan for their lives. Consequently, since Moses was their leader, they caused him to fall far short of living out God’s plan for his life. This should show you, Christian, that lost people and saved people alike can hinder the wonderful things that God wants to do in your life.

Now let me offer some good news. Anytime someone’s actions rob the Christian of earthly blessings, God rewards that Christian with eternal blessings to make up for the loss. Since God is a God of justice (Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 34:12; Psalm 146:7), every injustice that He doesn’t make right in this life He must surely make right in the next one. Because of this, at least from an eternal perspective, wrongs done to the man or woman of God become nothing less than a beneficial experience for that person. It’s just that he or she has to wait until the afterlife to enjoy the added blessings.

Take hope in this, Christian, the next time someone robs you of your God-ordained “milk and honey.” Remember that the experience will ultimately provide you with even more “milk and honey.” Even better than that, you’ll get to enjoy that “milk and honey” not in the limited years of this life but in the unlimited years of the next one. I’m sure that Moses would tell you the same thing if you could talk with him right now. He’d tell you that earthly “milk and honey” is nice, but eternal “milk and honey” is far better.

Posted in Adversity, Comfort, Disappointment, Encouragement, Eternity, God's Word, God's Work, Heaven, Leadership, Persecution, Perseverance, Problems, Service, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Father’s Sacrifice

Posted on December 5, 2020 by russellmckinney

A pastor stood in the pulpit and spoke of his love for his childhood friend. Afterward, an elderly gentleman stood up from the front pew and walked to the pulpit to speak. He told a story about a father, a son, and a friend of the son.

He said: “A father, his young son, and a young friend of the son were sailing just off the Pacific coastline when a freak storm caught them by surprise and prevented them from getting back to the shore. Scarcely any time passed before the fierce winds and the rising waves swept the sailboat far out into the ocean. The father, the son, and the friend worked hard to keep the boat upright and were able to do so, but there came a moment when the two boys were knocked off the boat and out into the mighty waves. Since the boat had only one rescue line, the father had a split-second decision to make. He could throw the line to his son or to the son’s friend. The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son’s friend wasn’t. With this knowledge in mind, he yelled, ‘I love you son!’ to his son and threw the rescue line to the son’s friend. The boy grabbed the line and the father pulled him back onto the boat. Once the boy was safe, the father looked to throw the line toward his son. Tragically, however, the son had disappeared beneath the waves. The boy’s body was never recovered.”

Then the elderly gentleman drove home the application of the story by saying, “That father knew that his son would step into eternity with Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son. And in the same way, God the Father sacrificed His Son, Jesus, to save us.” With that, the old man returned to his seat on the front pew.

Even before the pastor could make it to the pulpit to close the service, a teenage boy who had been intently listening to the old man’s story blurted out, “What became of the boy who got saved from drowning? Did he ever become a Christian?” From the front pew, the old man answered, “Yes, he did. You see, I was the father in that story, and your pastor was my son’s friend.”

This Christmas season, as we celebrate Jesus being born to die for our sins, let’s also remember the heavenly Father who lovingly allowed His only Son to die for the entire human race. Even more than just remember Him, let’s also mourn with Him over the fact that the majority of the human race reject that Son and in so doing render the whole endeavor useless in regards to its intended purpose. All that rejection adds an even sadder element to the story, doesn’t it? Needless to say, I sincerely hope that its an element that doesn’t apply to you.

Posted in Children, Choices, Christ's Death, Evangelism, Fatherhood, God's Love, God's Provision, Grace, Parenting, Sacrifice, Salvation | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Small Entrances

Posted on December 3, 2020 by russellmckinney

A playground in Chicago was called “the tiny tot play lot.” Any child who wanted to enter it could only do so by way of a entrance that was very low and shaped like a keyhole. If the child could walk uprightly through the entrance, he or she was welcome. Any child who couldn’t was excluded.

This illustration reminds us of how Jesus, God the Son, entered the human race. Rather than leave heaven and come down to earth by way of a flaming chariot escorted by 10,000 angels, He came by way of becoming an embryo in the womb of a virgin girl from Nazareth. Let me offer some of the passages that serve as proof texts for this event, and I’ll use The New Living Translation for each of them just to give us a fresh take on them:

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God…..So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. (John 1:1,14)

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

Can you imagine God condescending Himself to the lowly state of an embryo in the womb of a “nobody” teenage girl? And can you imagine Him doing this just so He could become part of a race that He would ultimately die for in payment for their sins? Friend, stupefying doesn’t even begin to do that story justice! No child who ever entered that playground in Chicago through that tiny keyhole entrance ever performed a feat as jaw-dropping as the one Jesus performed in entering the human race.

And yet there is still another application to this illustration, and this one applies not to Jesus but to each of us. Jesus Himself talks about in Luke 18:17 when He says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (N.L.T.). Concerning this quote, Warren Wiersbe writes:

Jesus wants us to be childlike but not childish. An unspoiled child illustrates humility, faith, and dependence. A child has a sense of wonder that makes life exciting. The only way to enter God’s kingdom is to become like a child and be born again (John 3).

Similarly, Herschel H. Hobbs writes:

So often in seeking to determine if a child understands the plan of salvation, we treat him like an adult. We expect adult answers from childlike hearts. A child’s simple, “I love Jesus and want to live for Him,” may express a profounder Christian experience than reams of theological debate and explanation. Jesus said that we have the whole thing backward. Instead of expecting an adult experience in the child, we should strive to bring about a childlike experience in the adult.

You see, just as Jesus humbly became “small” enough — in His case, both figuratively and literally — to enter the kingdom of men, each of us must humbly become “small” enough to enter the kingdom of God. This means that you must first see yourself as a sinner who stands in need of forgiveness from holy God before you can truly understand your need for Jesus and appreciate His death on the cross in payment for all your sins. This is what Jesus meant when He said that one must receive the Kingdom of God like a child.

No matter how old you are, if you want to experience the forgiveness/pardon/salvation offered by placing saving belief in Jesus, you must lose your stature of self-righteousness, abandon your efforts at a works-based religion, and make yourself “small” enough to fit the keyhole of coming under conviction over your sins and realizing that Jesus is the only way that those sins can be made as white as snow in the eyes of God (Isaiah 1:18). As Jesus said of Himself in other passages, He is the “door” through which all who enter will be saved (John 10:9), and He is also the “way” through which all who want to come to God the Father must come (John 14:6). Summing all this up, Jesus has done His part to provide you with salvation. The only question left to be answered is: Have you done your part by becoming childlike enough to allow Him to save you?

Posted in Belief, Brokenness, Children, Christ's Birth, Christmas, Humility, Pride, Salvation, Submission | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Word About Marriage

Posted on November 30, 2020 by russellmckinney

And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24, N.K.J.V.)

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6, N.K.J.V.)

A few weeks ago, I preached a Sunday sermon on the topic of marriage. That sermon reminded me afresh and anew just how important the reality of “one flesh” is to a marriage. Actually, it is this reality that sets marriage apart from all other earthly relationships.

Some wiseguy has said, “A husband and a wife become one flesh in marriage and then go on the honeymoon to decide which one they’ll become.” While this joke does evoke a chuckle, the fact is that the “one flesh” created by a marriage isn’t 100% the husband’s flesh or 100% the wife’s flesh. It is, instead, an amalgamation of the two.

There are various illustrations that have been used to depict this amalgamation. A classic one has the husband and the wife each holding a candle and using those candles to light a third candle, a unity candle. That newly formed third flame, the one created from the two existing flames, serves as an object lesson for the “one flesh” of marriage.

As I said, this matter of the husband and the wife becoming “one flesh” is what sets marriage apart from all other earthly relationships. Becoming “one flesh” with your spouse means that your marital relationship is even more important than the relationship you have with your parents, your children, your other family members, or your friends. That’s why your marriage relationship should supersede all of your other relationships, with the only exception being your relationship to God.

The husband doesn’t become one flesh with his job or his hobby. The wife doesn’t become one flesh with her job or her home. The married athlete doesn’t become one flesh with his career. The married coach doesn’t become one flesh with the team. The married school-teacher doesn’t become one flesh with the class. The married pastor doesn’t become one flesh with the church. The married politician doesn’t become one flesh with the political office.

Because of this, when a spouse — and I mean any spouse — begins to realize that either something or someone is doing damage to the “one flesh” of his or her marriage, drastic measures should be employed to deal with the problem. Whatever it takes to fix the marriage must be done. I’m talking about throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at it if that’s what it takes. When fault lines begin to appear, any delay in repairing them will only make the problem worse.

How wonderful it would be if we could get every spouse around the world to understand that nothing he or she has going on in life is important enough to damage a marriage over. I dare say that arriving at such an understanding would virtually stamp out divorce completely. Not only would it create healthier marriages, the positive domino effect of those healthier marriages would flow out to every corner of life and create a far better world.

Alas, however, we’ll never reach this worldwide goal, will we? That’s just too big an accomplishment for Adam’s fallen race to achieve. This doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t achieve it in your own marriage. So, what are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeves and start mending those fault lines, and get your unity flame to burning brightly. Trust me, this dark world needs it desperately, and for that matter, so do you and your spouse.

Posted in Children, Divorce, Husbands, Marriage, Politics, Preaching, Priorities, Sports, Wives | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Gluttony

Posted on November 27, 2020 by russellmckinney

Our family feasted yesterday for our Thanksgiving meal. My wife, Tonya, is an excellent cook and she prepared her annual buffet: turkey, mashed potatoes, cream corn, dressing, macaroni and cheese, slaw, crescent rolls, pumpkin pie, cheese cake, etc. She also included a new meatballs-and-white-rice dish that was a nice change of pace. Not only did we feast for lunch yesterday, we also feasted on leftovers for supper last night and again for lunch today. Oh, and did I mention that we feasted Wednesday night at the home of Tonya’s mom, Jessie? There we had turkey, ham, and all other sorts of holiday fare. As you might imagine, I’ll probably be using a different hole on my belt this Sunday, and it won’t be a hole for a skinnier preacher.

But do I need to repent of the sin of gluttony? Absolutely not! You see, there is a big difference between enjoying a time of feasting and being a glutton. Consider these fifteen Biblical examples of appropriate feasting:

  • Lot prepared a feast for the two angels who came to him in Sodom. (Genesis 19:1-3)
  • Abraham and Sarah celebrated with a feast the day Isaac was weaned. (Genesis 21:8)
  • Isaac and Abimelech feasted the day they entered into a covenant with each other. (Genesis 26:26-30)
  • Laban held a feast the day Jacob was supposed to marry Rachel. (Genesis 29:20-22)
  • Pharaoh held a feast in honor of his birthday. (Genesis 40:20)
  • Samson held a seven-day feast to celebrate his engagement to a Philistine woman. (Judges 14:10)
  • David held a feast for Abner and Abner’s men. (2 Samuel 3:20)
  • Solomon held a feast for all his servants after he had a dream in which God appeared to him. (1 Kings 3:15)
  • Solomon held a seven-day feast to celebrate the completion of the building of the temple. (2 Chronicles 7:1-10)
  • Job’s ten children feasted. (Job 1:4-5)
  • Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast a king held for his son. (Matthew 22:1-14)
  • The father in the story of the prodigal son held a feast (“kill the fatted calf”) to celebrate the return of his wayward son. (Luke 15:11-32)
  • Jesus performed His first miracle (the changing of the water into wine) at a weeklong wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11)
  • The fellowship meal the early Christians held each Sunday in conjunction with their observance of The Lord’s Supper was known as “the love feast.” (1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Jude 1:12)
  • The Marriage Supper of the Lamb that Christians will one day enjoy with Christ will be a time of feasting. (Revelation 19:9)

All this is to say nothing, of course, of the seven so-called “feasts” that were required by the Mosaic law. Those were: The Feast of Passover (Exodus 12:1-14), The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:15-20), The Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-14), The Feast of Pentecost (Harvest/Weeks) (Deuteronomy 16:9-12), The Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:1-6), The Feast of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths/Ingathering) (Nehemiah 8:13-18). Since the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread was held right on the heels of the one-night Feast of Passover, those two Feasts became so intertwined as to be celebrated as one eight-day-long event in Israel. Over the course of those eight days the Passover lamb was killed and eaten and all leaven (yeast) was removed from every home in Israel.

While it’s true that not all of these seven annual Feasts involved an actual meal, some did and this evidences the fact that God understands times of celebration, joy, and (yes) EATING. Someone might say, “But that was just for the Old Testament era. We Christians today don’t live under that law.” No, we don’t, but that’s why I took the time to list those fifteen non-law examples, five of them from the New Testament, wherein feasting is not only allowed but even prescribed during appropriate times.

Okay, so what then do we do about the Bible’s condemnation of gluttony? Well, let’s talk about that. The word “glutton” is found only twice in the Old Testament, and in both instances the Hebrew word translated as “glutton” is zalal. That’s a word that literally means “to shake” as in to physically shake during an earthquake or the blowing of the wind. Figuratively speaking, zalal refers to being loose (shaky) morally.

One use of zalal comes in Deuteronomy 21:18-21, a passage that was a part of the Mosaic law. In that passage, the parents of a stubborn, rebellious son, who would not obey them even after they had chastened him, were commanded to forcefully bring the son to Israel’s elders, The parents were to say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard” (N.K.J.V.). Consequently, the son would be stoned to death by the men of the city.

Even a casual reading of the passage will show that the son’s sin wasn’t feasting. Instead, the sin involved stubbornness, rebelliousness, and disobedience. All of this describes nothing less than a fixed lifestyle of ungodliness. Any sinful overeating that might have been associated with that lifestyle was merely an outer symptom of a far more serious inner attitude. Clearly, the son’s problems involved his heart much more than his stomach, and the phrase “he is a glutton and a drunkard” serves as something of a general catch-all to describe an unholy, worthless person who has nothing for God and nothing for people.

The Old Testament’s second use of zalal is found in Proverbs 23:21, which says: “For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags” (N.K.J.V.). Here again we find that the person’s problem is much more than simply having two pieces of pie instead of one. This time drowsiness (and by implication laziness) is added to the depiction of the drunkard/glutton, and the overall worthlessness of the person ultimately brings him to poverty.

Turning to the New Testament, the Hebrew word for word “glutton” is phagos, which comes from phago, which means “to eat.” This word phagos is used in both Matthew 11:16-19 and Luke 7:31-35, two versions of the same story from Christ’s earthly life. In that story, Jesus says the Jewish religious leaders called him “a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (N.I.V.). You’ll note that it’s the same pattern from the Old Testament except this time the drunkard/glutton is also spoken of as enjoying the company of disreputable friends.

What I’m showing you in all of this is that the Bible’s use of the word “glutton” is always linked up with an assortment of other bad behavior. The person being an overeater — and surely Jesus wasn’t an overeater any more than He was a drunkard — isn’t the issue. The issue is the person’s stubbornness, rebelliousness, disobedience, laziness, and penchant for the company of others like him. Therefore, according to the Bible’s definition of “glutton,” the submitted, committed, discerning Christian can’t be one. Oh, sure, the Christian might overeat on occasion, but times of feasting such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, church fellowship meals, etc. can’t even be counted among such times.

Of course, this doesn’t give the Christian a free pass to become a fatso. Remember, Christian, your body really is a temple because God the Holy Spirit dwells inside you. Also, even Paul admits that there is some profit in bodily exercise (1 Timothy 4:8) and warns against those “whose god is their belly” (Philippians 3:17-19). My point is simply that you shouldn’t allow anyone, including you, to create a false guilt in you anytime the Lord blesses you with the opportunity to do some God-approved feasting. Just ask Him to let you know whenever you are crossing the line into sin by eating too much, and then listen for His still, small voice as He does so.

Posted in Christmas, Christmas Traditions, Dieting, Gluttony, Personal Holiness, Prosperity, Thanksgiving, The Old Testament Law | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Knowing Jesus & Being Thankful Should Go Hand in Hand

Posted on November 25, 2020 by russellmckinney

Tony Evans tells the story of two little sisters who were misbehaving badly on Thanksgiving Day. The situation finally reached a point where their father said, “Girls, go to your room. You are not going to be allowed to sit at the table for Thanksgiving dinner.” The girls complied, and spent the new few minutes sitting dejected in their room.

Then, quite unexpectedly, they heard their mother call them to the table for the Thanksgiving meal. They didn’t understand how mommy could overrule daddy, but their lack of understanding didn’t stop them from cautiously making their way from their bedroom to the dining room. When they got there they immediately noticed that someone was missing from the scene. Daddy wasn’t there.

Now the girls were really confused and asked their mother, “Where’s daddy?” She answered, “Daddy went to his room. He did that because he loves you so much that he wanted you to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner. Since he couldn’t change his standard about the punishment that you deserved, he decided that he himself would pay the penalty that you owed. So, while you enjoy this meal, remember that your daddy has paid your penalty so that you could have it.”

The application of the story isn’t hard to spot, is it? It certainly shouldn’t be if you are a Christian. As Tony Evans puts it, “Bothers and sisters, when you forget to say thanks for everything else, don’t forget to say thanks for Jesus.”

The apostle Paul gets into this same subject area when he writes in Colossians 2:6-7:

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. (N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

Later on in that same book (letter/epistle), as if he can’t stay away from the subject, Paul hits on this idea again in Colossians 3:15-17 when he writes:

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

Can you see how in Paul’s mind thankfulness and Jesus became seamlessly woven together? In one way of looking at things, Paul couldn’t imagine not being thankful in light of what Jesus had done for him. But in another way of looking at things, he also understood that everything he did, even him giving thanks, was done through Jesus and in the name of Jesus. In other words, Paul would tell us Christians that Jesus is not only the motivation for our thanksgiving but also the means through which we give it.

This Thanksgiving, in the midst of all our talk about being thankful for family, friends, health, money, food, clothing, and other material blessings, let us be sure to say, “Thank You” to Jesus. Christian, your family and friends didn’t die on the cross in payment for your sins. No, Jesus did that. Going back to the Tony Evans illustration, He took your punishment so that you might enjoy the meal.

And, of course, as Paul reminds us in those passages from Colossians, Jesus paying that ultimate price for us demands that we devote our lives to Him in appreciation. As Paul says of Him, we should walk in Him, be rooted in Him, be built up in Him, be established in our faith in Him, abound in our faith in Him with thanksgiving, let His word dwell richly within us, sing in our hearts to Him, do everything that we do in His name, and give thanks to God the Father through Him. Obviously, if all that sounds like complete and total commitment, you are reading it correctly. This then is how the Christian should live each Thanksgiving Day, and this then is how the Christian should live all the other days of the year.

Posted in Children, Christ's Death, Commitment, Discipleship, Family, Fatherhood, God's Love, Grace, Salvation, Thankfulness, Thanksgiving | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Offenses Must Come

Posted on November 23, 2020 by russellmckinney

“Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:7, N.K.J.V.)

The Greek word translated as “offenses” in this verse is skandalon, and it’s a word that refers to stumbling blocks. Anything that tempts/causes a Christian to sin can be labeled as this type of stumbling block. Therefore, the teaching is that as long as we Christians live in this fallen world, we will inevitably have to overcome stumbling blocks that are designed to trip us up spiritually and get us to sin. Since the English word “scandal” derives from skandalon, we are right to say that these stumbling blocks (these temptations, these inducements to sin) can be bad enough and public enough to result in the Christian being scandalized by their outcome.

Jesus says of anyone who places these spiritual stumbling blocks in the paths of those who believe in Him, “…woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” While that is certainly an ominous warning sent out to anyone who hinders a Christian’s walk with the Lord, it’s not the part of Christ’s quote that I want to hone in on for this post. Instead, I want to draw your attention to those words, “For offenses (stumbling blocks) must come.” My question is, “Why must they come?”

First, spiritual stumbling blocks must come because of Satan and his fellow fallen angels. Spiritual warfare is real, Christian, and there isn’t a fallen angel out there anywhere that wouldn’t love to see you get tripped up and scandalized by some sin. As Ephesians 6:12 says to Christians: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (N.I.V.). Likewise, 1 Peter 5:8-9 describes Satan as ravenous, roaring lion who must be resisted. In 2 Corinthians 11:3, the apostle Paul even expresses his open concern that Satan had already corrupted the minds of the Christians of Corinth.

Second, spiritual stumbling blocks must come because of all the people who do Satan’s bidding. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, we learn that Satan (i.e. “the god of this age”) has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Jesus took this idea even further when He said to a group of lost religious leaders, “You are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does” (John 8:44, N.L.T.). You’d better realize, Christian, that some of those things involve those children of the devil placing spiritual stumbling blocks in your path.

Third, spiritual stumbling blocks must come because of our own sinful nature. Putting it simply, the Christian’s own inborn Adamic nature of sin, which the Bible refers to as “the flesh,” makes him or her a prime candidate to trip over a stumbling block that has been placed in the path either by Satan, some other fallen angel, or a lost unbeliever. Even though the Christian has God the Holy Spirit dwelling inside his or her body, the indwelling Spirit doesn’t obliterate the Adamic nature (the flesh). Instead, an inner civil war is created between the two. Galatians 5:17 says of this war: “For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want” (N.A.S.V.).

In closing, Christian, let me leave you with a couple of takeaway applications. Application #1 is: Don’t ever join the ranks of the enemy in placing some stumbling block in the path of a fellow believer. Remember, your job is to help your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ run well spiritually, not place obstacles and landmines in their running lanes.

And then Application #2 is: Start recognizing the stumbling blocks you’ve been tripping over for years and start avoiding them. Imagine a runner who lap after lap comes upon a certain chuckhole in the track and steps into it and stumbles every single time. It wouldn’t make any sense for a runner to do that, would it? Well, before you judge our hypothetical runner too harshly, you might want to examine your own life and see if there is a certain chuckhole that has caused you to spiritually stumble time and time again. The truth is that most of us have one and we don’t always do a good job of avoiding it.

Posted in Adversity, Depravity, Faithfulness, God's Work, Ministry, Problems, Service, Sin, Spiritual Warfare, Temptation, The Devil, Trials | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God is Watching. But That Doesn’t Have to Be a Bad Thing.

Posted on November 20, 2020 by russellmckinney

One day some kids were assembled for lunch in the cafeteria of a Christian school. On one table, at the end of the food line, sat a big bucket filled with apples. Taped to the bucket was a staff-written note that read: “Take only one. God is watching.” Just past that table, however, there was another table. This one held a plate of cookies. Beside that plate, on a card that had been placed there by a prankster student, was a note that read: “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”

Does God really see everything that everybody does all the time all over the world? Yes, He does. That’s one of the advantages of being a Spirit who isn’t confined to a body that has to always be in one place at a time. If we think about it, though, God seeing everything all the time doesn’t have to be a bad thing. To the contrary, it can actually be a good thing.

In 2 Chronicles 16:1-14, we find the story of Asa, the king of Israel’s southern kingdom. Baasha, the king of Israel’s northern kingdom, set himself against Asa by beginning construction on a fortress that would stand at Ramah on the boundary line between the two kingdoms. Once Asa realized what Baasha was doing, Asa should have cried out to God and asked Him to intervene in the situation. Rather than seek God’s help, though, Asa sent gold and silver to Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, in an attempt to create an alliance against Baasha. The bribe worked, and Ben-Hadad sent Syrian forces that struck against several of the cities of Baasha’s kingdom and stopped the building project at Ramah.

In the aftermath of the Syrian victories against his rival Baasha, Asa was riding high until a man of God named Hanani came to see him. Hanani was a seer/prophet, and he delivered a devastating rebuke to Asa for trusting in the Syrians rather than in God for help. As part of that rebuke, Hanani said:

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” (2 Chronicles 16:9, N.K.J.V.)

And how did Asa respond to that rebuke? He threw Hanani into prison. Welcome to the ministry! What Asa couldn’t imprison, though, was the word that God had delivered through Hanani. That meant that the remaining years of Asa’s reign would be plagued by trouble. In particular, three years later he was struck with a severe disease in his feet (2 Chronicles 16:12). Sadly, as evidence that he still hadn’t learned his lesson about trusting in God rather than in outside sources, he called in his physicians rather than praying to God. Two years later he was dead (2 Chronicles 16:13). One theory is that he died from gangrene complications in his feet.

But let’s not focus on the negative part of Hanani’s word to Asa. Instead, let’s focus on the positive part. That’s the part that says God’s eyes are constantly scouring the earth in search of people whose hearts are loyal to Him, and whenever He finds such a heart, He shows Himself strong on that person’s behalf. Do you know who that is good news for? You guessed it, the person whose heart is loyal to God.

So, tell me, does this description fit you? If it does, then you have a legitimate right to expect God to show Himself strong on your behalf. We’re not talking about mere wishful thinking here. No, we’re talking about a Bible promise! I don’t know how this promise will manifest itself in your life, but I do know that you’ll definitely be helped by it. After all, God showing Himself STRONG on your behalf has to make some blessed differences. Remember, though, that those differences only come to those who trust in the Lord rather than in other sources.

Posted in Adversity, Encouragement, Faithfulness, God's Omnipresence, God's Omniscience, God's Work, Needs, Perseverance, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Trials, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments