The fear of the Lord (3)

When we give our respect and admiration to people we might get disappointed, because people and their ideologies can change over time.

God, however, deserves our respect and admiration because He is faithful, truly good, and He never changes. He is the great I am!

As Creator, He is supreme over all things which means mankind is subject to Him, whether we like this or not. To respect God or in other words, to fear the Lord is a sign of true humility... but it does not mean that we get treated as slaves. On the contrary! 👉Fearing God has great blessings attached.

True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life (Proverbs 22:4)

You gotta be kidding me. Riches, honor, and long life! Who doesn't want that? And there is more, believe it or not. God is outrageous in blessing people who fear Him 😍

• Those who fear the Lord are secure; he will be a refuge for their children. Fear of the Lord is a life-giving fountain; it offers escape from the snares of death (Proverbs 14:26-27). The fear of the Lord is a life-giving fountain! Does that sound negative, or scary, or religious? Of course not, it will be the joy in our lives to honor the Lord.
• Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need (Psalm 34:9). Oh my goodness, to have all you need, to never lack any good thing... that will end all worries and all anxiety, right?
• For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him (psalm 34:7). Hey, we live in a crazy and wicked world, we need a guard who surrounds and defends us!

All these great blessings for fearing God, isn't it wonderful? There are other reasons why we should fear the Lord as well, more about that in the next blog post.

Paid to preach?

In most churches it is common practice to pay the speaker (preacher, teacher, evangelist or pastor) for his speech.

This custom originates from the apostle Paul's exhortation in 1 Corinthians 9:14 where he states: the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it. So far, so good.

Although Paul endorses this custom, he never made use of it himself. He continues in verse 15 with the following personal statement: Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge.

Wow, strong words. He would rather die than preaching for money. So what is it? Should preachers get paid or should they deny payment? It seems a very personal choice, Paul is sharing with us. He made a living as a tent maker (see Acts 18:3) and probably did not need anyone to pay him for sharing the Good News. I wonder, however, why he uses such strong words to explain his choice... I mean, to rather die than getting paid for a good sermon... come on! (his comment made me think though... here's a radical preacher!)

Personally, I was able to make my choice as well. When I get invited to speak somewhere I do not ask for a honorarium. I do not make use of my rights, so to speak. Why not? Because I consider myself a 'tent maker', just like Paul. I work for a living and as long as I get to do that, I can freely speak everywhere. If the host insists in giving me something, I propose an offering for our non-profit organization Traveling Light.

When someone has no income from a secular job, it would be wise to receive payment for preaching/teaching, right? Maybe one day I will make use of my rights, who knows.

I am curious to hear your take on this... Do you get to speak at conferences, in churches or at women's meetings? Do you get paid to preach?

PS: I teach on paper as well 😀If you haven't done so already, you can order my latest e-book IN MY NAME on Amazon for just 2.99.

Give me an O

In my Bible Alphabet Blog Series O stands for Overflow.

Oh (O) how I love that word in its Biblical context. It stands for an abundant and abounding outpouring, starting with Gods love and grace towards mankind. If the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (Romans 5:15).

Overflow stands for the blessings the Lord will bring when we honor Him by giving joyfully and generously. Proverbs 3:9-10 says: Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

And yes, it stands for the sheer joy that we can experience when we are in Gods will, living by His Word. Psalm 119:171, May my lips overflow with praise, for you teach me your decrees. God is a God of healthy overflow, He always gives more than enough, whatever it is we need. And because He is so good and His love is so abundant, we can spill it all around us :)

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

No worries (4)

Do you read or write Tweets? Personally I think it is a great exercise to announce something funny, serious or new in 140 words (or less). There is already so much talk, writing and debate. A little shorter doesn't hurt :)

There are few people who seriously master the art of composing a short but powerful message for the public. My greatest example is the Lord Jesus Himself! He was able to silence a crowd with two sentences. He made comments that impacted like a bomb. His words had, and still have, enormous influence and effect on people's lives.

In my previous blog posts I wrote about His words on 'worrying' about someone or something. Let's continue to read in Matthew 6. Verse 34 records one of His most peculiar sayings, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Tomorrow will worry about itself? Haha, that has to be a joke, right? Days do not worry, people worry. Personally I think this is quite a radical statement Jesus makes here. If there is one thing we worry about, it is the future: tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year. I sometimes feel like Jesus is making a little fun of us here, as in: come on folks, are you serious? You do not even know what this day will bring, so why would you think you have any influence on tomorrow or the rest of this week?

Living per day, completely normal in the biggest part of our world, but an abnormality in the rich West. Possessions, knowledge and activities seem to increase our pain and worries... The words of Jesus are not a joke, but a very serious warning and command: daily manna, daily bread... that trouble is more than enough.

Don't be afraid to pray: Lord, I want to live day by day.

PS: His words do not imply that we should not make plans for tomorrow, but merely that worrying (about those plans) is a sin.

No worries (2)

In the Netherlands (where I live) it is quite normal to start the day with reading the news paper. In other countries it is custom to start the day with watching the news on television. Through internet and mobile phones we even have more ways to receive the bad news. I don't know how you like to start the day, but I like to start with the good news.

That doesn't mean I ignore everything going on in the world, but it means I purposely choose to focus on God's promises and truth. From that point of view I can optimistically do my share (www.traveling-light.nl) to make this world a better place. Worrying about drama and disaster doesn't change a thing, we must act! Jesus constantly warned the people about worrying too much: be careful folks, don't go there!

In my previous post on the subject of worrying I quoted His words as found in Matthew 6:25. Let us continue to read (verses 26 and 27), Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Again, two very interesting questions from our Lord.

Are you not much more valuable than birds? Yes, of course we are. Does that mean we do not need to sow and reap (read: work)? No, of course not. It means we should not worry. God will provide us with the things we need. The way I see it, it also means we should not put our trust in the drama and crisis stories the secular media is trying to push down our throats. Or, to make it practical: stop repeating the bad news! If we read God's promises with the same zeal we are reading the news paper with, things will change. We will begin to believe what the Word says! It would be wonderful if we began to speak about God's Word with the same assurance we often use when speaking about things seen on television.

And then His second question. Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  No, of course not. Worrying does not have added value.

How do you deal with the daily news?

Great, greater, greatest...

Our friend Brian in the food bank in Israel

We continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. I hope you are as curious as I am about the lessons we can learn. This time I want to stop at a familiar passage in chapter 9: the feeding of the five thousand.

When I was reading that story again, I noticed that Jesus offers His disciples a great opportunity to do something special. The disciples were worried about the large crowd of people that surrounded the Messiah. In the meantime Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom and He healed people with all kind of diseases. When evening came the disciples came to Him with their worried thinking and asked Him to send the people home. And you know what Jesus' reaction was? You give them something to eat! In other words, why ask Me to do something about it, this is your chance, test your faith, put it into practice. Do something!

Luke 9:12-13, Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” Their response to Jesus' command was a clear sign of unbelief and doubt: We have limited resources Lord. You don't seriously mean that you want us to solve this problem?

Do we recognize this response? Jesus wants us to do great things, and often all we can see is obstacles and limitations. Jesus sees opportunities; we see limitations and have excuses. In the Old Testament we can find a similar story in 2 Kings 4:42-44. The man of God (Elisha) orders his servants to feed 100 people with 20 loaves of bread. They had their doubts, they found it hard to believe in the impossible: How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.

In the Old Testament we see this great miracle performed by men, in response to God's word. In the New Testament we see an even greater miracle performed by Jesus. And what about us? What does Jesus say to the people who believe in Him? Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12).

What is your excuse?

PS 1: Talking about feeding the multitudes, take a peek at Brian's blog

Sowing generously

It seems most of the news we hear today is money-related. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are all broadcasting messages about the economic recession, the struggling real estate market, investments gone sour and stocks going down.

The Bible talks about money quite frequently as well; there is nothing new under the sun. The words being used may have changed, but the spiritual principles are still the same. The Bible doesn't talk so much in terms of spending and earning, but in terms of sowing and reaping. The apostle Paul wrote about it in his second letter to the Corinthians. I like to highlight a nugget from his writing on this blog: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously (2 Corinthians 9:6).

What an awesome and simple principle for a worry-free life! Within the context Paul is speaking about money, but this principle can be applied to all facets of life. If we never give other people a smile, it is very unlikely that others will give a smile to us. If we are always critical, others will be critical towards us. The principle that Paul is teaching here is based on the words of Jesus: For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38b). That goes for the way we love, judge, forgive, and share.

Paul writes 'remember this' as if wanting to say 'Make sure you realize what you're doing'. Surely, God promises in his Word to take care of his children, and He will. That is a promise, a truth that will never change. There are, however, some basic and simple principles that we should learn and practice while growing into spiritual maturity. Let's say you always faithfully give an offering in church, but it is no bigger than the amount you spend on a magazine and a coffee at Starbucks. Then, the measure you use for God is the same as the measure you use for your own leisure... Maybe I am taking that a bit far, but I am trying to give an example. Let me re-phrase: we should begin to sow according to the harvest we are expecting. If we need tender loving care, we must give tender loving care. If we need a hug, we must give a hug. If we need finances, we must give finances... and remember: if we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly.

Sowing sparingly (sparing, thrifty, economical, with frugality, moderation, scantiness, reserve, forbearance, sparsely) will NOT produce an abundant harvest. These are not my words, but the Bible says it. Although it is not an easy lesson to learn, it is one that will generate a breakthrough in our lives once we understand the principle behind it. When we start to give joyfully, freely and abundantly we will see that God will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it (Malachi 3:10). That is a biblical principle that will not be effected by the world's economy. Never! The Bible calls for good stewardship and is against waste (Jesus even ordered for the crumbs to be picked up after the supernatural feeding of the thousands), but the Bible does not call for thriftiness when it comes to giving!

Is there an area where you need to change the way you sow your seeds?

Lesson from king David:
No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing (2 Samuel 24:24)

Daily bread or more?

Over the past few years every January I picked a motto or scripture to meditate on and adapt as sort of a life lesson.

The other day I visited Lynn Mosher's blog Heading Home and noticed she picked a word, yes... one word! I thought that was very interesting. At first I wanted to skip picking a motto for this year, but then this morning two words came into my mind, words that I've been toiling with for the past several weeks: daily bread. And yes, I am in... I desire to learn more about our daily bread: literally, spiritually, and emotionally.

What's with daily bread? When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He also taught them important Kingdom principles. He shared with them how to rely on God's provision on a daily basis, and we can still do so today. Give us today our daily bread (Matthew 6:11) is not a question, it is a statement or a proclamation. For most of us in the Western world daily bread is not something we worry about, we go to the store and buy it, so for many people the prayer has lost some of it's meaning. When growing up I always thought it was weird to pray for something that was already on my plate :)

But of course 'daily bread' is more than the food on our table, it is God's Word and it is daily provision. I must admit that when I pray for God's daily provision in my life, I have a tendency to also pray for needs I can see coming up in the next week or next month. I get ahead of things and that is why this year I want to concentrate on this part of the Lord's prayer and learn more and more to rely on His provision on a daily basis. Praying for what I need today, whether that is healing, wisdom, money, peace, endurance or favor, and NOT for what I think I will be needing tomorrow or later on this month. Proverbs 30:8 says: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Such wisdom in those ancient words. Have you learned to trust Him on a daily basis? Please share...

Jesus said: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)