Contentment

1 Timothy 6:6-10 "Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs."

Godliness with contentment is great gain. This is such a foreign concept to us—or at least to me. I worry so much about money and money-related things. But never once in my life have I gone hungry or had to worry about having clothing to wear.

But this passage goes on to include a warning about not finding contentment. It says that those who seek riches fall into many "harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." Contentment is obviously the cure for these troubles.

May I continually seek riches in the grace of God and contentment in that which he provides.

God Provides ... and provides ... and provides

To the God who "is able to do above all that we ask or think," I need to give abundant praise.

After sending an e-mail to the church about my need for some help with determining what was wrong with my car (see the post from two days ago, directly below), the e-mails and phone calls began to pour in. Many people offered to give me a car (most of them permanently). One person offered to fix the car for me at no charge after he returns from out of town. Others offered to pay for the car to be fixed. One of the elders in the church who was already preparing to sell fix and then sell one of his cars offered to get the car fixed and then give it to me instead of selling it. Then he offered to fix it and sell it and give me the money he got for the car. What an outpouring of true love.

God had already provided a car (my father-in-law's pickup truck), so I expressed my gratitude to each of these people and told them that God had already provided. But what an amazing show of grace from God and from the people of my church.

My father-in-law's truck has more than 200,000 miles on it, so it's not a long-term commuting vehicle, but it is exactly what I need at this time to get me through however long it takes to get my car fixed.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Angels on the highway

My car died today. Traveling home from work, my engine began squealing and then emitted white smoke, so I pulled off to the side of the road (high occupancy vehicle, center lanes), got out, and began to wait for roadside assistance.

After 30 minutes of waiting and getting somewhat miffed at the passersby, I bowed my head and prayed that God would provide someone to assist me since I was stuck between northbound and southbound lanes of 80mph traffic and could not go anywhere without help. Within mere minutes of ending that prayer, a truck pulled to the side of the road in the main lanes and offered assistance. After explaining the situation, the truck driver backed up and entered the center lanes, turned on flashing lights, and set out a flare. He then called for towing services for me. This truck driver later told me that he is a member of Bethel Freewill Baptist Church in Springfield, Virginia.

As the truck driver was getting things handled for me, another car pulled to the side of the road in front of my car. The driver got out and headed back to where I was standing. It was my brother in Christ and fellow Occoquan Bible Church member, Dave Ross. Before even asking what the trouble was, Dave told me that his car was at my disposal for the evening and he would see to it that everything was taken care of and would get me home when everything was done. He then called his brother who lives there in the area to ask if I could leave my car at his place until I could take it to a repair shop. This kept me from having to pay a huge amount for towing all the way to my house (44 miles away).

After a long wait (well over an hour), the tow truck showed up and towed the truck to Dave's brother's house. Dave's brother was amazingly accomodating—even moving his car so I could park my car in his driveway for the rest of the week.

After the tow truck driver had finished his work, I approached him to pay for the towing services. He said, "It's already taken care of," and indicated that Dave had made payment already. I asked Dave how much I owed him and he refused to take payment for it. He said that God has blessed him and he wanted to do this for me. I was so moved by this evidence of Christian love and charity that I can't even explain it.

Dave then drove me all the way to my home, many miles past where he lives, at which time he had to turn around and head home—many hours after he would normally have arrived home to spend the evening with his family.

I don't know how people get along in the world outside the family of God. How blessed we are to be counted among God's chosen ones.

Spirits in the Material World

I don't know what to make of this report, but it's interesting.

God is definitely doing something through the recent hurricanes. I'm sure we'll all know in time.

Serious affronts to God

Romans 13:12-13:
Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Often I am just like the Pharisee who prayed and said, "God, I'm glad I'm not like these terrible sinners—I praise you that I'm not like this tax collector ... or this prostitute ... or this homosexual ... or this lazy neighbor ... or this woman who had an abortion." Many of us see ourselves in terms of how much better we are than those around us who participate in obvious sin.

But the weight of various sins is not something we should determine based on cultural and societal standards; we should see sin through God's eyes and be appalled by the things that are an affront to him.

In Romans 13:12-13, Paul tells us some of the things that are an affront to God. We would agree with these things: orgies and drunkenness (terrible things), sexual immorality and debauchery (just awful, I'm glad I don't do those things), dissension and jealousy.... Hey wait, why are those included in the list?

Webster's Dictionary defines dissension as "discord." Are we sowing discord among the brethren? Do we like to discuss the problems we see in our local churches? Do we talk about the ways other people are letting us down? Do we enjoy poiting out the failures of our government? This sort of activity is placed at the same level of sinfulness as participation in orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and debauchery. As is jealousy, which is another common pitful for me personally and for many of us.

How do we overcome these things if they are every bit as terrible in God's eyes as the other things in this list in Romans 13?

Romans 13:14—Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

It's not easy, but we have to do it. God grant us the grace to live as we should and to see ourselves as we are, not in terms of how we are better than others. And God grant us mercy when we fail to live up to this standard.

Excuses, excuses (excuses)

Why do we blame others when we fall short of the glory of God? Do we think that everyone thinks we're perfect and we may lower their expectations of us?

For my part, everyone knows I'm a bonehead. And everyone knows I'm a sinner. And yet I continually try to shift the blame when my obvious failures rise to the surface and become noticeable.

Genesis 2:12–13 reads: "The man said, 'The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

It goes all the way back to the beginning. Adam was the expert blameshifter—he blamed Eve and, as he was talking, he saw the opportunity to shift blame again so he jumped on it immediately and proceeded to blame God. "The woman did it, God. Oh and, by the way, you're the One who gave the woman to me, so it's really your fault."

Then Eve followed her husbands sinful lead and said, "The devil made me do it."

Which of these blame-shifting techniques worked best? Well—they both ended up wandering the world outside the garden. They both received the penalty of death. So obviously none of the techniques worked. Blaming others, blaming God, and blaming Satan. They all were inexcusable.

God calls us to repent. Repentance demands knowledge of our sin. We cannot repent when we don't know that we're doing anything wrong. I believe blame shifting is motivated not by our desire to hide our sins from others—they already know we're sinful. I think blame shifting is motivated by our desire to hide our sins from ourselves. To ignore our sins so we don't have to repent and turn away from our sinful behavior.

Praise God that he still loves us in spite of our sinful ways and our rebellion against him.

Calvinistic Synergism

No—it's not an oxymoron. Let me explain.

Romans 6:23

Synergism is the belief that God and man cooperate in the process of salvation. Man contributes his part (faith) and God contributes his (grace). This view of salvation has been condemned as heresy by Church councils dating back to the time of Augustine and Pelagius.

The opposing view, typically called Calvinism, holds to a monergistic salvation, in which God alone performs the actions necessary for the salvation of man. God reveals himself to the sinner, calls the sinner to himself, gives the sinner (dead in trespasses and sins) a new heart that is inclined toward God, grants the sinner faith unto repentance, and seals the new believer in eternal relationship with himself. The latter view is the view I espouse.

However, I was struck with a peculiar notion while reading Romans 6:23:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This verse shows that man and God both contributed something to the situation. Man sinned, thereby requiring his death to pay the penalty for sin. God gave man the gift of life—something man had already thrown away in the Garden of Eden.

I know this was a weird post, but then again, that's what makes the internet interesting. It lets us know we're not alone in our weirdness.

The Least of My Brethren

The human suffering as a result of Hurricane Katrina boggles the mind. Large areas have suffered entire devastation and hundreds are dead or stranded without a source of food or water. Time is running out.

In the midst of this natural (divine) disaster, the American people are reaching out to help their neighbors. We have seen this happen time and again when times are hard. It's good to know that we still have the capacity to love and care for one another. My Church is collecting donations for the victims of the hurricane. The donations are going to Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse, which is organizing volunteers to clear debris and repair homes of the poorest people hit by the devastation. As they make the repairs and clean up, they work through local churches to see that spiritual needs are being met as well as physical needs. When the work is done they present each family with a bible. An outstanding effort, to be sure.

But Christians are not the only ones reaching out to the victims of Katrina. Satan's crew is in full charity mode, too. Planned Parenthood has offered free abortions and free contraception to those impacted by Hurricane Katrina's wrath. It must gall them to know that people running for their lives are not likely to remember that they have to protect their convenience from the intrusion of a child. Perhaps they could use the slogan: "Hundreds of people have died from Katrina, why not add your child to the list?" What a shame.

Self-defense

Proverbs 2:6-7

For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity."

Lord, may I seek the wisdom and knowledge spoken of in these verses. Grant me the understanding and grace to be upright and to walk in integrity, so that you will be my shield.

Early morning meditation

With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
—Psalm 119:10

I find it so easy to fall into the muck of the world's passion for sin. Why am I drawn so desperately to what I know is wrong and repulsive to God? At times I think if I work harder at church-related things, I will have better fellowship with God. Sometimes I force myself to read the Bible (rather than simply enjoying and respecting it because it is God's Word). I do many things that I think will put me in a position of favor with God.

But I know that we can never earn favor with a holy God.

I think this verse in Psalm 119 gives a clue to what needs to be done to maintain a strong fellowship with God Almighty. The psalmist here appeals to God to let me not wander from your commandments. This is the part that so often I miss. Yes, I need to seek God with all my heart, but I must entreat him to grant obedience to me—a desperately sinful man.