Christians and money. I believe that Christians have an oft-ignored responsibility to handle their money with care. The Bible actually has a lot to say about money, and yet I wonder how often we really consult it or God before making financial decisions.

The Bible on Riches

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…”
-1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV)

That is probably the most famous Bible verse about money. People often misquote it as “money is the root of all evil,” but the wording implies a slightly different meaning. As it says later in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

What God calls for in the financial area of your life is the same thing he calls for in other areas: wholehearted commitment. So let’s get something straight here right off the bat. God doesn’t tell us that it’s wrong to be wealthy. In fact, as seen in the Old Testament, God often blesses faithful men with riches. What needs addressing is what is most important in your life?

“The call of Jesus is often personalized based on what he knows challenges our allegiance to him.”

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“As [Jesus] went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?’

Jesus said, ‘Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, honor your father and mother.’

He said, ‘Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!’

Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, ‘There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.’

The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.

Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, ‘Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who ‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?’ The disciples couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: ‘You can’t imagine how difficult. I’d say it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to get into God’s kingdom.’

That set the disciples back on their heels. ‘Then who has any chance at all?’ they asked.

Jesus was blunt: ‘No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.’”
- Mark 10:17-27 (The Message)

Using Money Wisely

God loves when we give to the poor and spend our money on those who are in need. However, God doesn’t always call us to do that. There are other good ways to use money, some of which are stated directly in scripture and others that we glean from various stories and from our knowledge of God’s character.

“Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. ‘That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.’ They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.

But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.’
-Mark 14:3-9 (The Message)

Here’s a brief list of what I believe to be good and poor uses of money, based on my faith and my studies.

The Good:

• Charity – Giving to the poor. God cares for people through his servants. Jesus praises the idea of giving money, food, and shelter to the poor. Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”
• Supplying our family’s needs – The Bible teaches that it is good to work for your wages, and those wages are meant to help provide for your needs. Proverbs 28:19: “He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.”
• Giving gifts to loved ones – Jesus likens God’s blessings to the gifts we give to our children. It is good to give gifts to those we love. God does it, and he is the perfect example for us to follow! Matthew 7:11: “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
• Helping the church – The church can also help provide for needy people, but first the members of the church need to give to it. This is called tithing because in the Old Testament Jews were required to give a tenth of their wages to the Lord. Giving to the church is the most direct way we can give to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
• Helping missionaries – Missionaries aren’t paid a salary. God provides for their needs through us. And indeed they have many needs, and their work is rough. Mark 6:8: “These were his [Jesus’] instructions [to those he sent out]: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.”
• Playing – Before you say this is a stretch, think about the good things the New Testament has to say about celebrations and parties. God doesn’t call us to be solemn all the time. We are meant to enjoy life! Sometimes, this means playing. The word of caution is to make sure you have taken care of your responsibilities first, and to remember that not all recreational activities available to us are necessarily good in God’s sight. So be careful, but have fun. Ecclesiastes 5:19: “…When God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.”

The Bad:

• Hoarding – Just read Ecclesiastes if you question this. Hoarding is no good. It’s meaningless to build up treasures in this life. Put your money to good use, instead!
• Showing off – Pride comes before a fall. God does not think highly of boasting.
• Worshiping – Again, man cannot serve two masters. Worship the God who blessed you with your money, not the money itself.

Seek Ye First

How should we treat our money? I believe that as Christians, we should pray before making decisions about money. No one answer is correct in every situation. You can’t always save it. You can’t always give it to the poor. You can’t always use it on gifts for loved ones. Seek God, and he will guide you, though sometimes that guidance is so gentle we barely notice it. Keep seeking him. Keep praying.

What are your thoughts on the matter? I’d love to get other opinions on this – or any feedback you’re willing to share!

(Note: My posts usually are not this long! Sorry!)

I wonder how many Christians really trust God. Depending on where I am when I think about this, I end up with different answers. I can be in one setting where I feel most Christians must find this easy, while in other settings it seems there are more people having trouble with it than mastering it. Trust.

It’s a hard concept, even when applied to family and close friends, but when applied to an invisible God, it becomes just that much harder. Even within churches, the amount of trust you find may vary constantly. It’s important for all Christians to work on building up their trust in God, but lately I’ve been thinking about how crucial it is for those of us who are also in or associated with the military.

My Lessons In Trust

The truth is that I strayed from God for several years during my teenage-hood, but even before that, I had never firmly placed my trust in God. Faith, yes. Trust, no. It was after I came back from what I call my time of wandering that God began teaching me to lean on him in ways I never had before. Here are two lessons combined together: the couch and the job.

In wanting, praying for, and seeking a clerical job, I put in resumes at almost all the doctors’ offices in my city, and within days I was hired at an office looking only for part-time summer help. I’ll take it! I did take it. But the pay was low, and they weren’t planning to keep me for long.

Two or three months later, I got a call from another office at which I’d applied, and they asked me (months later) whether I was still looking for a job. Telling God I gave him full credit for this amazing opportunity, I went to the interview and took the job. They started me as part time, so as not to interfere with my current job, and they paid me as much as my current job while promising to bump me up to full time and higher pay within a very short time frame. I thanked God profusely, maybe truly meaning my thanks for one of the first times in my life. This, I thought, was surely not coincidence. This was God providing for me! I knew it.

Excited about my new, high-paying job, I started thinking about the possibilities for moving out of my parents’ house. This was something on my mind constantly at that time. It was on my mind partially because I wanted to be independent but mostly because my parents were planning to move out of state as soon as their house sold, and if it sold while I was still unable to afford living alone, I would have to go with them. I ended up going with my co-worker and friend Kellie to Goodwill during a lunch break at my original clerical job, and while I was there I spotted the perfect couch. It was cheap, it was comfy, it didn’t smell like cigarettes, and I wanted it! I called my mom, and she agreed to meet me at the store after work to look at it and decide whether I could keep it at their house until I moved out.

Mom came, and we looked at the couch again. While she agreed that it was nice, she suggested that instead of buying it right away, with money I knew I would have in the future but did not have yet, I should go home and pray about it for a day. At home, I waited a few hours, then asked her again what she thought.

Had I prayed about it? No, Mom, I hadn’t prayed about it yet (said with a sigh). I went back to my room, laid on my bed, and asked God what to do. I hadn’t prayed – really prayed – in years, though I had begun going back to church not too far prior to all of this. Not only that, but it was the first time I remembered just asking God what to do without asking for the result I wanted.

Guess what happened.

He didn’t answer me. He didn’t speak into my head or give me a strong feeling of what he wanted. I got up from my prayer time just as confused and hopeful as before.

The next day I actually forgot all about the couch until my Mom called me at work. She asked whether I would like for my step dad and her to come with me after work to pick up the couch, and I said sure. When we got to Goodwill, though, the couch had already been sold. Normally this would have disappointed me, but for once I recognized it for what it was – God’s answer to my question. Should I get this couch? No? Okay, then.

First day on the job. I hated it.

High pace, high stress office with rude co-workers. I did not even meet the doctor I was working for, and got very little training before being left almost on my own. I was given no breaks throughout the day. I went home feeling very let down, and as I had a day or two off before I would be going back to that office, I began to wonder whether it would be okay to just quit. But no. I had told myself it was an opportunity from God. How could I simply quit and throw it away without giving it a real chance? I determined to stick with it and see what God had for me there, and so, on my second day, after sitting in the car for a few minutes dreading what I had to do, I took a deep breath and headed in to work.

I made it about half the day (just as rotten as the first) before I was called to the back to speak with my office manager and direct supervisor. They told me that I displayed a poor attitude and poor customer service, or something like that, and they said that I could go. Stunned, insulted, but far from disappointed, I took my check for the hours worked and went home. I didn’t understand what had happened aside from the fact that God had given me an opportunity, I had trusted him to show me his purpose in it, and then he took it away.

It was within the next week or two that my office manager at the original job told me that they liked me so much, they wanted me to stay beyond the summer. They upped my pay and hours, and they hired me as a permanent employee. I stayed at this job for two more years, until I married and moved away, and I loved it almost every day.

How Great He Is

I’m not saying I’ve arrived or that I never have trouble trusting. I still question God, and I still try to push for my desires whether or not they are in his plan. But I can say that over the course of the last three years, he has brought me to trust in him more than I ever have before. More than I’ve ever trusted another human being. Above all, I know that he intends only good for me and that all good things come from above, from his hand. Verses that were only nice words now have meaning to me.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
-James 1:17 (NIV)

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
-Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

“The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way…”
-Psalm 37:23 (ESV)

Staying Sane in the Military

More than ever before, more than during any other trial in my life, I have a need for this trust as I face day to day life in the military. While trying to make plans for our lives, for family time, for traveling, for where we live, I must constantly remember that God knows what he is doing.

When I got married, I didn’t know that Hubby’s deployment would be moved up, but God knew. Hubby and I didn’t know it would be so difficult to get into Warrant Officer school; there were problems we didn’t foresee, dumb things that are irritating and annoying because they’re ruining our plans. But all along, God knew these things would come up. He didn’t tell us they were coming, but he planned for them being there – they aren’t a surprise to him. We trust him, every day, to get us through, to show us the path we sometimes cannot see that will lead to our planned destination. We also trust him if he decides to say, “Hey, that destination isn’t exactly what I had planned. Keep following me, though, and I’ll take you some place better.”

It hurts me sometimes that I can’t pass on this same peaceful trust to others! Sometimes I have a hard time understanding (or rather remembering, since I, too, stood in that place), how people can doubt. Don’t they know God’s way is better than their way? Don’t they trust him to take care of them? I can’t force anyone to believe, but I can continue praying for them.

Please, do share your thoughts in the comments! Was there a period in your life that you’re aware of God bringing you to a better trust in him? Are you still waiting for him to teach you how? I was there, too. For a long time, I wanted to believe, but I just didn’t, not quite.

Sorry for the crazy long post!!!

For some reason, I thought all the blogs I read would have touched on Easter. I looked around, hoping to make sure I wasn’t being too redundant, and I found nothing! I can see why that is, now, and it makes sense. (There’s no reason to write about a Christian holiday on the blogs I read.) However, Ocipura.com being the blog that it is, I think it would be strange to skip over the holiday here.

The Super Bowl for the Church

My husband picked up this idea from our church: that Easter is the Super Bowl for Christians. I’m not one for metaphors, so I’ve had to put some thought into why this is so.

1. Easter brings in those who are fans and those who are only slightly interested in the church. Anyone with a bit of football interest will know that the one game they can’t miss is on the Big Day.

2. The traditions around Easter are fun enough to involve even those who don’t have much interest in the holiday, like the snacks, chili cook-off, games, and commercials that drew me to the Super Bowl party this year.

3. At the Super Bowl, two teams that have worked their way to the forefront throughout the season have a final battle against each other to determine a winner. On Easter, we remember the day that good and evil, which had been battling throughout history, finally determined a winner as well.

Meaning

Setting aside the hype around Easter, I do want to point out that it really is the most important day on the Christian calendar. It’s the day when our savior Jesus Christ conquered death. He submitted to crucifixion, a pure life, a perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. He rose from the dead three days later, giving us all access to abundant and everlasting life. Without the resurrection of Christ, our whole belief system would crumble. Without the resurrection, Christ’s death meant nothing, and even his birth would have done little good despite the messages he taught.

Christ defeated Satan and Death, and while we still have conflicts with evil in everyday life, we know that ultimately the war’s outcome is already settled and determined. Death has already been conquered, the price for sins paid, and salvation already given to those who believe.

If you have a hard time wrapping your mind around the idea of a man rising from the dead, as I did, I would highly recommend reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. It was quite a help to me as a fairly new Christian.

Traditions

I grew up in a family that celebrated Easter every year. I can’t remember ever missing a year of dipping real, hard-boiled eggs into cups of colored water. I still remember several of the egg-hunts my mom personally set up just for her youngest girl, the only one still at home, and I remember the year she got me a huge chocolate bunny (heaven).

Now, my tradition for Easter is simply to go to church, but I hope to dye eggs with my kids in the future, and bring back all the fun things that a husband and wife alone might feel silly doing.

What are your Easter traditions? And I’m curious – if you participated in egg-hunts, were they done as a small family thing or as a big church thing? What are your thoughts on the meaning of Easter? Why do you celebrate, or why don’t you celebrate?

Christianity is a hard topic to discuss. I claim it as my religion because there’s nothing else to claim that people would understand! But even so, who really understands what I mean even if I do use a common word like “Christianity?”

Denotation

Let’s get some definitions straight. “Religion” and “Christian” are words used so loosely that some may be unsure of their meanings. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s keep these definitions in mind.

1. Religion: a specific, fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

2. Christian: a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Jesus Christ.

• Real
  Jesus Christ was a real person who lived a real life in a real past. He did real miracles and healed real people and died a real death for real sins. When I’m using the word “Christian,” it’s not a synonym for “someone with good behavior” or for “someone who’s decent.” Being a Christian isn’t like being Latino; you can’t inherit it from your parents. It doesn’t mean that you go to church sometimes or all the time, or that you take communion, or that you pray.
• More Than Real
  A Christian is someone who recognizes Jesus Christ as not only a real person, but the one and only Son of God. Matthew 3, Matthew 14, and II Peter 1 make reference to a voice from the heavens speaking that “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.” John 3 says that God gave “His only begotten Son,” because of how much He loved the world, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. (Also see I John 5)
• Not Only The Son
  Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but he is also one with God. Romans 10 says you must confess that Jesus is Lord. In John 14, Jesus tells Philip that he who has seen Him (Jesus), has seen the Father. Jesus the Son and God the Father are two parts of the Holy Trinity.

3. Holy Trinity: the union of three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) in one Godhead, or the threefold personality of the one Divine Being.

• The Trinity’s third member is the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost in KJV). John 14 says Jesus will ask the Father to send us the Spirit to be a Counselor with us. Romans 5 says that the “love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (NASB) I Corinthians 2 says that the Holy Spirit teaches us about spiritual matters. The end of the book of Matthew says to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Beyond The Dictionary

The word Christian appears only three times in the Bible. Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and I Peter 4:16. The disciples of Christ were called Christians (or Christianos) by Gentiles (non-Jews) in Antioch. By my understanding, the name was first meant as a sort of insult, but that doesn’t really matter – it later grew to a title of honor. To be named as a follower of Christ means that people could see that their works, behaviors, and teachings mirrored those of Christ. They could see Jesus through these people.

Now, we call ourselves Christians; we are not given the name by outsiders. Is it in hopes that people can see Jesus through us? Or is it simply convenient? I am sometimes hesitant to even take the name for myself because I know how little I deserve it. To me, it would definitely be an honor for someone to be able to look at me and say they see Christ in me enough to call me a “Christian.”

Christ-likeness, that’s what it really means.

Who was He? How can you emulate Christ if you don’t even know Him? Many people name themselves Christians though have no idea what Christ was like or what his teachings were. It’s true that Jesus says all that’s required for salvation is to believe in His death and resurrection and confess that He is Lord, but the life of a Christian involves more than that. There is more. There are other things involved in being a Christian; things that don’t make you more or less saved, but that show your obedience and love of God.

Who Is Jesus?

• Fulfiller of Prophecy
  The Old Testament contains about sixty Messianic prophecies (with many more – over 300 – references to the coming Messiah), and Jesus is the only man in history who fulfilled every one of them. (Click for list of references.) Therefore we know that he is the Son of the God of the Bible, who created the world. The foretold Messiah.
• Sacrificial Lamb
  The purpose of Jesus’ life was to die for sins. Sin, brought into the world first through Adam and Eve, and passed down from father to son. In the Old Testament, God set up a system of sacrifices for people to atone for their sins. Sin cannot be forgiven without the shedding of blood. Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death. There is no way around it. A Holy God cannot overlook sin, un-holiness, evil. In the New Testament, Jesus, as a sinless, pure Lamb of God, gave himself for a sacrifice, so that we would not have to. This is why we no longer make sacrifices. This is why we can be sure of eternal life. Jesus took on the sins of the world to save us from death and separation from God. That is the meaning of salvation! That is the meaning of John 3:16!

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11, NIV)

The Message puts it like this:
“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!”

• Redeemer
  Jesus’ death, though, means nothing without his resurrection. He conquered death! He rose again on the third day, as it was prophesized and as He said He would. (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, I Corinthians 15)

Salvation

Some people use different phrases to refer to this same concept. To be saved, to be born again, to become a Christian – they all mean that you are accepting salvation, which is the free gift (see Romans 6) given by Jesus, possible only by His death and resurrection.

In Ephesians 2, it is reiterated that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith. It is not “of ourselves,” or not “of works.” In other words, it’s nothing we have done or can do; it is the gift of God. In Romans 3, we are reminded that there is “none righteous, no not one,” and that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Where, then, is boasting? How can we pat ourselves on the back when we know that it was nothing we did, but a gift? We can’t.

So, the question is, where does that leave us? First of all, it leaves us as still sinners. As the saying goes, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” We’ve been forgiven of our sins, but we will still continue to disobey and misbehave (sin). Even Jesus’ disciples struggled with it. Romans 7 is a good example, where Paul says, “…the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” (NASB)

It’s a struggle! We will always struggle with sin because our very nature is sinful!

“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not!

“If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace–a new life in a new land!

“…What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death be the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.

“From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

“That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time–remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!–into God’s way of doing things.” (Romans 6:1-2, 8-13, The Message. Click for NIV.)

To summarize, we must do our best not to live in sin any longer. Just because we are forgiven does not give us license to live as we please. In John 14, Jesus says twice that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. II Corinthians 5 says that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

Where does that leave us? Read God’s word! Learn what he has to say. Find out what pleases God, and what grieves Him. Spread the Good News (the Great Commission)! We are ambassadors, or representatives, for Christ! (II Corinthians 5)

(Read More in Part Two)