Dec 2008
Malnoursihed Christianity
31.12.08 10:00 Filed in: Leadership
Today I read
the last few chapters of the One Year Reading plan on
youversion.com. Malachi 3 for those of you who are
familiar with it is famous (and in some minds
infamous) for being what is known as the tithing
chapter in the Bible. Tithing is a command to give
1/10th of your income to the storehouse--the local
church. It is the only command in the Bible that God
asks us to test Him on by following through that he
will open up the windows of heaven with blessing that
there will not be room enough to receive it.
Don’t stop reading now I am not going to talk about whether or not you should personally tithe--that is between us and the Lord. (In case you were wondering, I do tithe, and since I am a Pastor I have the incredible opportunity to choose to have my tithe taken out of my paycheck before it even gets to me.) The verse that stuck out to me this morning is Malachi 3:10 [NKJV], “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house...”
Many scholars believe that the food referred to in this verse is literal food so the priests can eat--after all, a workman is worth his hire. This may well be true but I just thought today could the “food” be more than that?? After all, Jesus himself said, “Man does not live on bread alone but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
What if food also meant, spiritual food?? What if people or even churches that do not practice tithing are not able to grow spiritually the way God intended them? Could they be living a malnourished version of Christianity?
If you have any comments, questions, objections, or would like to carry this conversation on please leave me a comment.
Don’t stop reading now I am not going to talk about whether or not you should personally tithe--that is between us and the Lord. (In case you were wondering, I do tithe, and since I am a Pastor I have the incredible opportunity to choose to have my tithe taken out of my paycheck before it even gets to me.) The verse that stuck out to me this morning is Malachi 3:10 [NKJV], “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house...”
Many scholars believe that the food referred to in this verse is literal food so the priests can eat--after all, a workman is worth his hire. This may well be true but I just thought today could the “food” be more than that?? After all, Jesus himself said, “Man does not live on bread alone but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
What if food also meant, spiritual food?? What if people or even churches that do not practice tithing are not able to grow spiritually the way God intended them? Could they be living a malnourished version of Christianity?
If you have any comments, questions, objections, or would like to carry this conversation on please leave me a comment.
|
A Christmas Carol
28.12.08 12:24 Filed in: Life
On
December 19 in 1843 we saw the publication of Charles
Dickens, "A Christmas Carol." No other book or story
(save the Bible) has been more enjoyed, criticized,
referred to, or more frequently adapted to movies or
other media. Some scholars have even claimed that in
publishing A Christmas Carol Dickens single-handedly
invented the modern form of the Christmas holiday in
England and the United States.
G.K. Chesterton noted long ago, “With A Christmas Carol Dickens succeeded in transforming Christmas from a sacred festival into a family feast. In so doing, he brought the holiday inside the home and thus made it accessible to ordinary people, who were now able to participate directly in the celebration rather than merely witnessing its performance in church.
Dickens was one of the first to show his readers a new way of celebrating the old holiday in their modern lives. His Christmas celebrations of the Carol adapted the twelve-day feast for the upper class to a one-day party any family could hold in their own urban home. Instead of gathering together an entire village, Dickens showed his readers the celebration of Fred, Scrooge's nephew, with his immediate family and close friends, and also the Cratchits' "nuclear family": perfectly happy the way they were.
Dickens demonstrates that even in poverty, the winter holiday can inspire good will and generosity toward one's neighbors. He shows that the spirit of Christmas was not lost in the race to industrialize, but can live on in our modern world.
Here’s my thought for this Christmas… What do you need to do this year to celebrate what maybe feels like an old holiday in a new way?? Can the spirit of Christmas—the birth of Jesus, the greatest form of generosity our world has ever seen—live in our modern lives this year??
But the punch line to the book, is the very last sentence, which rarely fails to bring a tear to this historian:
It was always said of Scrooge, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”
It’s never too late to celebrate Christmas in a new way in our hearts. How will you make this old tradition, new this year, even after the day itself?
G.K. Chesterton noted long ago, “With A Christmas Carol Dickens succeeded in transforming Christmas from a sacred festival into a family feast. In so doing, he brought the holiday inside the home and thus made it accessible to ordinary people, who were now able to participate directly in the celebration rather than merely witnessing its performance in church.
Dickens was one of the first to show his readers a new way of celebrating the old holiday in their modern lives. His Christmas celebrations of the Carol adapted the twelve-day feast for the upper class to a one-day party any family could hold in their own urban home. Instead of gathering together an entire village, Dickens showed his readers the celebration of Fred, Scrooge's nephew, with his immediate family and close friends, and also the Cratchits' "nuclear family": perfectly happy the way they were.
Dickens demonstrates that even in poverty, the winter holiday can inspire good will and generosity toward one's neighbors. He shows that the spirit of Christmas was not lost in the race to industrialize, but can live on in our modern world.
Here’s my thought for this Christmas… What do you need to do this year to celebrate what maybe feels like an old holiday in a new way?? Can the spirit of Christmas—the birth of Jesus, the greatest form of generosity our world has ever seen—live in our modern lives this year??
But the punch line to the book, is the very last sentence, which rarely fails to bring a tear to this historian:
It was always said of Scrooge, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”
It’s never too late to celebrate Christmas in a new way in our hearts. How will you make this old tradition, new this year, even after the day itself?