2007-12-14
Good Morning Cherished of God,
The Holy Spirit leads me to continue with the next two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in our comparison between the ideal person of PR 31: 10-31 and Christ's Sermon on the Mount words on mammon in MT 6: 24-34. What this does is to reveal God's will for believing mankind and His words concerning the attitude we should take, the ways we should use, the material things in our lives. You'll remember we have already seen these values: aleph-valuable; beit-trustworthy; gimmel-righteous; dalet-industrious; hay-values family; vav-organized; zayin-prioritizes Kingdom of God and decides wisely; chet-hardworking and strong; tet-wise and diligent. Today, we will look at the next two, yod and kaf, which represent PR 31: 19-20, "She spins her own thread and weaves her own cloth. She is generous to the poor and needy." Remember that mammon has been changed from its original inactive meaning, "that which is entrusted to another," by common usage to the active meaning, "that in which much trust is placed." For the sake of our discussion, we are using what was originally the description of the ideal woman to mean the idea person of any sex or marital status.
God never intended that mankind should be idle once the original sin was committed [GN 3: 1-6]. This is made clear in GN 3: 19, "You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to he soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again." I submit that the form of this work has changed with the industrial and electronic revolutions, but it still remains that God intends that we should work through most of our lives. Just look at God's will for our lives of service to Him, for example. RO 12:1, "So then, my brothers, because of God great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him. This is the true worship that you should offer." If an auto mechanic questions how he can work full time and still carry out "making his life a living sacrifice," then God is saying to him to use his talent as a mechanic to His glory. How can that be done? Who knows that someone this person encounters might be willing to hear the truth of the Gospel from the mechanic's witness? Over a period of time, any life lived in righteousness and true piety can stand as an example others will notice. The same is true for anyone in any legitimate career regardless of other variables. While trite, it's true- we are to bloom where we are planted. I'm virtually certain that the peace that I saw in the lives of some of my Christian friends when I was growing up had something to do with my own decision to want that kind of peace for myself. [You'll remember I grew up in a traditionally Jewish home]. We are naturally attracted to people who are willing to help themselves and their families. People lazy in any way are not ones we want to emulate. Thus, yod [PR 31: 19] reveals a person who helps himself.
As we have already studied in this Sermon on the Mount series of messages, Christ has had a lot to say about the issue of giving and how we should give [MT 6: 1-4]. Our ideal person, as seen in PR 31: 20, is generous to the poor and needy. Immediately, this story comes to mind, LK 21: 1-4, that of the Widow's Mite. "Jesus looked around and saw rich men dropping their gifts in the temple treasury, and He also saw a very poor widow dropping in two little copper coins. He said, 'I tell you that this poor widow put in more than all the others. For the others offered their gifts from what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, gave all she had to live on.'" I'm reminded of how Christ had only five loaves of bread and two fishes; yet He fed the 5000 on this meager store [MT 14:13-21; MK 6: 30-44; LK 9: 10-17; JN 6: 1-14]. We don't always have to have everything we think in order to make a huge difference in dong God's work. A church that I know is preparing for Christmas. It's Pastor, Robert A. Schuller, a man I respect, asked a question, "Do you have more than one pair of shoes?" The answer for 99 % of us in North American is "yes." The truth is that people answering this way make up only 3 % of world's population. This year, in connection with Samaritan's Purse, Rev. Franklin Graham's ministry, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, is asking for donations of shoes for children and/or funds to buy shoes, so that a larger percentage of world's poor children can go to school. Shoes are required for a child to go to school. In passing along this information, I am led to ask each of us to examine our own heart-attitudes about the matter of giving. How closely do we conform to the ideal person of PR 31: 20 and MT 6: 24-34? Where generosity with our mammon is concerned, consider carefully these words from LK 6: 38, "Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands-all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you." Kaf [PR 31:20] reveals the person who is generous to the poor and needy.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You in reverence to You. The wisdom You reveal to us and the clarity of Your will conveyed does not leave us in doubt. You are a God Who lives with us and in us, when we live our lives with You at their center. You expect us to do what we can for ourselves, but to have the discernment to know what we should do and what must be left up to You. People who go up on a mountain, do nothing and wait for the day of the rapture, do not understand Your will for us. People who make their lives a living sacrifice of service pleasing and acceptable to you will be blessed. 1 JN 5: 14 expresses our attitude. "We have courage in God's presence because we are sure that He hears us if we ask Him for anything that is according to His will." Today, we ask You, Dearest Abba, to make Your will for us always clear and to give us the courage to follow it. This request applies even if it is necessary for us to leave our comfortable zones to do it. We are reminded of individuals and families who are sent in unfamiliar places and must make do for many things they normally have easily available in order to do Your work. One such family went to Tanzania a few years ago. There they learned to eat food strange to them, gave rides to citizens who had no other transportation in their battered van, visited orphanages and a hospital, and learned to respect customs foreign to them. Basics like fresh water and electricity were not in reliable supply. Yet this missionary couple brought Bibles to the local seminary, taught the truth of the Gospel, and made lasting friends with the citizens around them. Not only did they make do and help themselves, but they were generous to the materially impoverished people around them. They came home with new texture to their spiritual lives they never could have found at home. Dearest Father, when I read their journal, I was given a picture of Africans dancing and singing hymns to You in a circle around their little run-down church that will remain in my mind as long as I live. Your ideal person helps himself and others; he is generous with the use of his mammon, putting Your Kingdom first. Without You, our lives are barren and useless. We can never know the great pleasure that comes from helping others and being generous with our mammon. Your work is ours, and we offer You our love, worship, adoration, loyalty, praise, and eternal thanks. In Christ's mighty name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I'm led by the Holy Spirit to look at the next two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, PR 31: 21-22, lamed [pronounced la-med] and mem. In the example of the missionaries to Tanzania, we can see Christ carrying out His own mission statement. JN 6: 39-40, "And it is the will of Him [the Father] Who sent Me [Christ] that I should not lose any of all those he has given Me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. For what My Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. Ad I will raise them to life on the last day." This family was living up to helping themselves, while at the same time being generous to the Africans they encountered. Moreover, God's greater purpose of spreading the truth of the Gospel all over Africa was being inched forward by their willingness to live righteously serving our Lord. Their example didn't come without its problems. The wife in this missionary couple became ill from some kind of infestation. She had to return home to the States early, where she could get good medical care. She has recovered and with her husband, carries this message of peace and salvation to a local church here in Minneapolis. I can personally attest to the fact that God takes care of those who serve him, wherever they are planted. It is fitting that I close this devotion with this prayer for wisdom. PS 51: 6, "Sincerity and truth are what You require; fill my mind with wisdom," Know that our Lord is eager to bless those who live according to His will. Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn