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June 2014

Daily Bible thoughts 631: Wednesday 4th June 2014:

2 Corinthians 8:8-15

When we tell true stories about the commitment and sacrifice shown by fellow-believers, we are not telling the people under our pastoral care what they must do (8). This is not about emotional manipulation or coercion. But a judicious use of such stories can stir up God’s people to be everything they can be in Him. Sometimes Christians are rocked to sleep in the devil’s ‘cradle’ and they don’t even know that they have ‘dozed off’. They need a wake up call. There are times when what is required is to be exposed to the challenge of red hot Christian lives. Followers of Jesus may get this inspiration by meeting those people who burn with intense love for Christ, or by reading about them, or even hearing about them. There are occasions when we who lead in the church have to, as it were, place the jigsaw box lid on the table where all the pieces are scattered. Then we can all see the picture we are trying to put together. As an apostle, Paul could have told the Corinthians what to do. Instead his approach was more subtle; he told them a story! When you become aware that your own performance is lacking, seeing what best practice looks like can motivate you to want to get there. If your love is ‘sincere’ it will stand comparison with ”the earnestness of others” and seek to rise to that level, and even surpass it. Once give a genuine Christian a vision of what ought to be, and he or she will no doubt aspire to it.

There is no greater example in the matter of Christian giving than that of Christ Himself (9). Stories of other Christians may inspire us, but no-one we know has given as Jesus did. He gave up (leaving the glory and wealth of heaven for a time: ”He was rich beyond our telling…” J.B.Phillips); He gave out (in a life of unstinting service to others); and He laid down (His life on the cross for the sins of the world.) No other has ever given like Jesus. Seek to copy Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is possible in any area of the Christian life to make a good start, and then begin to flag in the middle section of the race (10, 11). This was how it had been with the Corinthians with reference to this collection for the poor Christians in Judea. They had shown great ”desire” to help in the fairly recent past, and had made a start with their giving. Paul wanted to motivate them to finish what they had started. Of course, he was expecting them to give according to their ”means” (11).

What Paul wanted to see was more of a level playing field in the church (11-15 cf. Ex.16:18), where those with more helped those with less. There is a strong sense of mutuality and interdependence in these words. We need each other. ”…the important thing is to be willing to give as much as we can – that is what God accepts, and no one is asked to give what he has not got. Of course, I don’t mean that others should be relieved to an extent that leaves you in distress. It is a matter of share and share alike. At present your plenty should supply their need, and then at some future date their plenty may supply your need.” J.B. Phillips.

Prayer: May I so live that my life will inspire others to ‘burn’ with love for Jesus.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 630: Tuesday 3rd June 2014:

2 Corinthians 8:1-7

There are times when we need to communicate good news to fellow Christians so that it will be an example and an encouragement to them. Let’s learn to tell each other true stories that will help to promote godliness. Paul had something to tell the Corinthians about the ”grace of giving”. Giving is a mark of God’s grace (1). It is a sure sign that He is at work. Wherever there is a work of God you find generosity of heart and action among God’s people. As the Baptist pastor, William Still , said when there is a deep work of the Word and the Spirit in a local church, the people of God ”will delve deeper into their pockets without anyone telling them, and the offerings will swell, and the question on everyone’s heart and mind will be: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Letters of William Still, p.77. In (2; see Luke 21:4) you find a combination of ideas that you would not expect to see hanging out together: ”severe trial…extreme poverty…overflowing joy…rich generosity.” It undoubtedly took ”the grace that God has given” (1; see also 6, 7) to bring about such an outcome. ”Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor.” The Message. This giving was supernatural and miraculous. It certainly was an expression of God’s grace. They gave more than they could afford (3). No wonder Paul wanted the Corinthians to hear about them. He wanted to spur them on to ”love and good deeds.” (Hebrews 10:24). 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 deal with the offering Paul was taking for the needy believers in Judea. The Corinthian church had signed up to help, but they had been dragging their feet (6, 7). Paul used this powerful (and true) ‘sermon illustration’ in order to re-motivate them. We can all be challenged and inspired by hearing about good things other Christians are doing, and we regularly need to be.

How we need to see giving as a ”privilege” (4). F.B. Meyer suggests one reason why Christians don’t give as they should is due to a mistrust of God, and a fear that one day the supplies may run dry. And then what? ”Probably there is no greater test of our true religion than our behaviour in giving. How few, comparatively, give in proportion to their income! How few give systematically! How few have learnt the joy and luxury of giving, so that they abound therein!” Great verses through the Bible, p428.
The key to becoming a generous believer is self-surrender to the Lord Jesus. Put yourself in the offering bag! Stand on the collection plate!! You won’t give your substance if you don’t first give yourself (5). If you’ve responded as you should to the Lordship of Jesus, you will see that everything you have is His, and you will want to use it as He directs. ”What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives.” The Message. ”Pray day and night that you may abound in this grace also; and then, in faith that God is answering your prayer, begin to do violence to your churlish, niggard nature. What though it protest – Give!” F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.429.

Prayer: Lord help me to slay everything that belongs to my old nature, including the fear of lack, and the selfish desire to grip tightly to what isn’t mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 629: Monday 2nd June 2014:

 Isaiah 10:5-19

God was going to use the Assyrian superpower (5-11) to punish a ‘‘godless nation” (Judah). Judah was ”full of idols” (2:8; see 11). ”God is going to send the Assyrians to loot and plunder Judah and to trample its people down like mud in the streets! The people of Judah had become like salt that has lost its saltiness and is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men (Matthew 5:13).” Tom Hale: The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1008. The Assyrians, for their part, were proud and arrogant and did not see themselves as the instruments of God; they did not view themselves as ‘His'(5). They were out to get power and glory for themselves. They planned to conquer as many nations as they could (7) and boasted of their great success (8-10). ”But Assyria has another agenda; he has something else in mind. He’s out to destroy utterly, to stamp out as many nations as he can.” The Message. (7)

So, once Assyria had been used to punish Judah, Assyria itself would be punished (12). God was going to deal with them for the pride that said: ”I’ve done all this by myself. I know more than anyone. I’ve wiped out the boundaries of whole countries. I’ve walked in and taken anything I wanted. I charged in like a bull and toppled their kings from their thrones. I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured as easily as a boy taking a bird’s eggs from a nest. Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse, I gathered the world in my basket, And no one so much as fluttered a wing or squawked or even chirped.” The Message. (13, 14).

Verse 15 is surely the key question in this section. It is folly for a tool to suppose it is greater than the one using it. In fact that would never happen. It’s like a pot thinking it is greater than the potter (Ro.9:20, 21). ”This thought underlays the apostle’s reply to those who magnified him against Apollos or Cephas. What are we, he cries, but ministers through whom ye believed, even as God granted to each of us? We are only instruments of God’s husbandry, implements through which He fulfils his plans (1 Cor.3). It dates an era in the life, when we cease to work for God, and allow God to work through us. Thoughts like these correct alike pride and despondency. Pride, because whatever is the result of our work, we can no more take the credit of it than the pen that wrote the ”Paradise Lost” could take to itself the credit of its production. At the best, it is not you, but the grace of God that was with you. You are only a pipe in the organ, but the breath that educed your music was divine. And in despondency it is very helpful to remember that if we are nothing, God is all-sufficient; if we have failed, it is the more needful for Him to exert more power. Throw back the responsibility of all results on God. Only see to it that you are a polished shaft, an unblunted saw, and leave Him to do through you what He will.” F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.272. If God uses you it doesn’t do to boast.

In (16-19) Isaiah describes the punishment to come to Assyria. A ”wasting disease” will kill his troops (16). This happened. They died of a plague during the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. King Sennacherib of Assyria later died by the hand of his own sons        (2 Kings 19:20, 32-37). In Isaiah’s day flaming torches were used for both light and heat. God is a ‘light’ of salvation’ to those who trust Him, but He is a ‘fire’ of judgment to those who don’t. This is similar to Isaiah’s earlier teaching about God being a rock of protection to some but a stone of stumbling to others (8:13-15). The Assyrian empire was to fall ”in a single day’’ (17). It’s thought likely that Isaiah is referring to the fall of the capital city, Nineveh, in 612 B.C., about a hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words.

Prayer: ‘’I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom.’’

 

 

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