Don’t be Fooled

The Bible can be so Politically Incorrect, can’t it? Imagine calling a person who stubbornly refuses to listen to God’s instructions and abide by them a ‘fool.’ Here are a few examples:

  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.—Psalm 14:1

  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.—Proverbs 1:7

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, —Romans 1:21—22
In our present society this way of referring to a person is seen as haughty, abusive, and derogatory. We would never hold this up as an example to be copied. Yet God had a purpose in selecting such a strong term that has continued to catch people’s attention from the day in which it was originally written till today. The term cannot be overlooked as it challenges our sinful and self reliant hearts to realize how great our need is for God’s guidance. Imagine that an all knowing God wants us to clearly understand how horrible a life disconnected from His instructions will end up.

Father, constantly remind us through this day how great our need is for your guidance, then give us the strength to live it out in our lives today. Amen

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Don’t Believe The Lie

I hope that you have not fallen for the teaching that God wants every Christian to be financially wealthy/rich. This comes in many forms but the bottom line is that God never promised that every Christian, or even most, would be rich. In contrast He promises that He will provide all our needs (Matthew 6:31—33), that it is hard for a rich person to enter into the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:23, 25), that we will suffer for His name (Philippians 1:29), that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Matthew 28:20), but there is no promise or measure of our spiritual growth being tied to the growth of our wealth.

An important truth that we must never forget is that the greatest need in any person’s life is not more money but a thankful perspective on what they already have (“contentment”—Hebrews 13:5) and a healthy ambition to achieve and progress in life (Proverbs 22:29). As we’ve noted, the danger of wealth and possessions is that they can deceive us into believing that our sense of significance and security comes from these things and not from God—“ Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said,

‘ I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,’ so that we confidently say, ‘ THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?’  (Hebrews 13:5—6).

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Beyond The Easy

Traditions, even good ones, run the risk of taking the place of God’s directions in our lives. This is made very plain in the account we looked at on Sunday in Mark 7:1—13. Here Jesus notes 4 times that the clear instruction of God is put aside so that human tradition might be practiced (in vain do they worship Me—v. 7; neglecting God’s commandment…hold to tradition—v. 8; nicely set aside God’s commandment…to keep your tradition—v. 9; invalidating the word of God by your tradition—v. 13).

As we look at the landscape of giving in American Christianity today we see the same pattern continuing as Americans only give 3% of their income to support the work of God through their local churches! This is a far cry from the minimum of 10%, or tithe, that is established in the Old Testament, and the New Testament’s teaching that everything we have is God’s and is to be used for His glory.

May we go beyond our traditional way of thinking (‘God doesn’t need our money,’ ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ ‘God doesn’t want me to give when things are tight,’ etc.) to hold to His instruction—“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:20—21.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Give Like God

On Sunday we focused on ‘Giving Like God’ does as we looked at Malachi 3:6—12. As we look at God’s emphasis on how His people should give we noted these 4 characteristics:

Giving is expected—God continually gives to us, therefore we are to continually give all to Him (Malachi 3:8—9; Galatians 2:20).

Giving is purposeful—Our giving at least a tenth of our earnings to our local church allows our church to fulfill its calling (Malachi 3:10a; Nehemiah 13:10ff.; Matthew 28:20).

Giving is consequential—There is a curse-blessing emphasis our loving Father places on our Him with our finances (Malachi 3:10b—11; Luke 12:47—48).

Giving is a witness—God uses our financial trust of Him to accomplish His desire on earth and thereby uses our obedience to call others to Himself (Malachi 3:12; Matthew 5:16; 1 Timothy 6:18).

My prayer is that we will all give like God so that we might be blessed by Him. So, are you giving like the Father?

Grace, a great giving opportunity will take place this Saturday with TLC. Help us show the Triangle our great church family and our even greater Heavenly Father.