So, how much should I give to God?

WARNING... how and what one should give to God gave birth to the first jealous rage recorded in human history - and ended with murder. In Genesis 4, Cain concluded that whatever I choose to give is a personal and private matter and God should appreciate my decision. In fact, whether to give in the first place, and if so how much, has been sacred ground  since the beginning of  human history, and anyone who treads there does so at his own peril.

Later, the Law would conveniently mandate the proper amount down to the minutest degree, but long before Moses and the Law, God had made it clear that what He required was simply our best. Just as Able gave the first of his flocks, and did so without knowing how his decision would affect the future of his herds. His brother Cain's gift required far less risk but was well in line with the still popular notion that something is better than nothing and whatever I choose to bring should be appreciated.

Nonetheless, God rejected his frugal offering and condemned his attitude. Then, like so often happens to this very day, this volatile issue led to discord, hatred, and in the case of Cain, the murder of his own brother. No relationship is safe when humans feel obliged beyond their willingness or have their efforts scorned. In fact, God even warned Cain that his attitude was certain to bring pain and heartache, and yet his idea that it was no one's business but his own was more than he could resist.

So, what should we give... our best. Our best will require sacrifice, risks, and much consideration.  Paul taught that "each should give as you have decided in your heart to give... ." We should consider in our heart ahead of time how we plan to honor God with our gift. Our heart is where our deepest expression of love toward God rest and is a clear indicator of our priorities.

Paul continues that "You should not be sad when you give, and you should not give because you feel forced to give. God loves the person who gives happily" (2 Cor 9:7 NCV). Imagine seeking legal counsel as to the least amount one must give to his children in order to be lawfully supporting them. Such selfishness would not convey love but rather an obligation.

So, what about tithing? The tithe is an Old Testament requirement that is easily and perhaps legitimately dismissed as legalism.  But, for most, 10% is rarely a consideration anyway, and the reality is that most actually give little or nothing. However, the New Testament teaches that we are simply stewards, not owners of anything. Our responsibility is to see that every cent of the Master's resources is used to glorify Him.

Still, we may feel that "I worked for it and so I deserve to keep as much of it as I choose." I challenge you to make it a matter of prayer. Ask God what would be pleasing to Him. Seek His will for your finances, time and all other resources over which He has given you responsibility. This will allow Him to create in you the heart of not only an obedient giver but a cheerful one.


Pastor Michael Snelgrove

A Fool For a Client?

Christ desires to be our advocate "one called alongside" (I John 2:1-2).  The context addresses our standing before God as guilty sinners with Christ standing beside us speaking on our behalf-- speaking as One who has satisfied (propitiation) His own wrath for our sin. Sounds like only a fool would refuse such essential and unwarranted grace.

Unfortunately, many do reject such grace and choose to represent themselves. Why? Why, would anyone refuse to allow Christ to stand on his or her behalf; especially since He is the only hope he or she has?

Perhaps it is because I must understand that Christ is a Savior and, if He is a Savior then that means that I need saving. The angel told the shepherds (Luke 2) that having a Savior was good news for everyone... not an example, not a great teacher, not a celestial bread truck, not a cosmic buddy who understands that I am not perfect, but a Savior.

Embracing a Savior means that I have ceased to make my own case that...

• What I did could have been worse...
• Times have changed
• It's just who I am...
• I was just confused...
• Others, who attend Church, have done it too...
• At least I admitted that I should have tried harder...
• or... (just write in the one that has always made you feel better)

No... choosing to fall on the mercy offered by the death of Christ is to abandon efforts for validation or sanction for my sin... no more comparisons, equivocations, excuses, explanations, justifications, or "reasons" that if people only knew the circumstances they would understand.

We've all heard that he who attempts to represent himself in the court of law has a fool for a client. Such is even truer and far more serious in the eternal court of judgment before God. Christ is our advocate and we are fools to stand before Him as our Judge without also having Him as our attorney.

So, don't. Humble yourselves before the mighty hand of God... (I Peter 5:6). My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise (Ps 51:17 NIV).







Pastor Mike 

What Does God’s Word Really Say?

Understanding the difference between what God’s word says and what I want it to say is critical for the follower of Christ. Such sounds simple enough, especially since we have it in writing. So, whatever “I think” or “want to believe” is either biblical or it isn’t.


Simple enough, right – well maybe not.

For most followers, we, at least, begin with the premise that the Bible is indeed the final authority… period. But what happens when loved ones die who may have been lost but we desperately want to believe they are in heaven? Perhaps we ourselves have made a sinful choice about which God’s word is clear but now we sense the need for a "fresh interpretation" – one that accounts for the particulars that we feel in our case should also be considered.

We may remain cautious with these personal conflicts with scripture but, some are just too delicate, too painful, and too unthinkable for us to abandon. The final authority then becomes not what God has said but what I wish He had said. Our pain and fear of the unthinkable have begun to supersede what God has made clear and so God’s word as “the final authority” has become neither.

Once the emotional toxins have set in, loved ones who never cared about Christ are now with Him in glory, someone else’s spouse has become our latest gift from God, and the narrow way has become an interstate. We soothe our soul with notions such as “no one knows the heart” or “we are not supposed to judge” until we eventually reach critical mass wherein we now find more comfort in what we do not know (or don’t want to know) than in what God has so clearly promised.

None of this is necessary. Christ did not die on the cross in order to vindicate our decisions or to validate our notions but rather for the forgiveness of sin. Christ is now our advocate and intercedes for us before the Father. “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV). God freely offers grace and forgiveness but not endorsement.

So first, let’s leave the frightening unknowns in the hands of a loving and just God. Both people and problems are always better left in His hands than in ours. Secondly, when those whom we love, embrace that which is clearly contrary to biblical teaching, let’s pray for healing and deliverance. Normalizing or justifying their decisions will still leave them with the same emptiness that led them there in the beginning.

Finally, let's not edit but embrace the word of God. Emotionalism is where the certainty and peace of God's trustworthiness go to die. Let Him be God and when we sin, let Him be our Savior. When we cannot change outcomes, let Him be Lord of Lords. When loved ones are sick of soul, let Him heal.

 For the word of the Lord is right and true; 

he is faithful in all he does. 

The Lord loves righteousness and justice; 

the earth is full of his unfailing love. 

Ps. 33:4-5 (NIV)

There they crucified Him... 

If I live to be 100 I will never forget standing at the foot of Mt Calvary outside the City of Jerusalem in 1996. A place that is necessarily outside the city limits so as to not taint the city's religious purity by the butchery of human beings. No special gear needed for reaching the base of this ignominious geological tumor - just walk across the paved parking lot of Modern Jerusalem's city bus station.

I was amazed that such a place would be so ill-considered as I stood on the diesel saturated asphalt that terminated at its base. I later returned there at night in order to be alone and weep. The other members of the graduate project had seen me cry at various sites and seemed curious as to my emotions. I knew that this was a place where I needed to be alone.

How could they just build a city bus station at the foot of such a place? My brother in Christ, Dr. Anthony Negbenebor had reminded me earlier, at the house of Caiaphas, that these places meant something very special to me, but meant very little to most who lived there.

In fact, the Church of Holy Sepulcher is supposedly the "correct" crucifixion site. In the second century AD, Hadrian the Roman Emperor had built a temple to Aphrodite, which was later converted into a church by Constantine. Helena, Constantine's mother, claims to have held one of three crosses she found at this site over a corpse, under which one of the crosses caused the corpse to live. Therefore, she believed that this was indeed the cross of Christ and that Hadrian's former temple site was where Jesus was crucified.

However, this was all a bit too spurious for some. In addition, this site was located far too deep within the city walls to have even been a place of crucifixion. In 1863, British General Charles Gordon gave the skull shaped mound, at which I stood, further  significance after the discovery of a garden, a tomb, and wine press nearby. Also, a large underground cistern indicated that this tomb would have belonged to a person of wealth, such as Joseph of Arimathea (John 18:38).

No matter, I too am guilty of not giving the death of God Himself the significance it deserves. My worship is often hurried by obligations that I have allowed to encroach on the sacred time that should be God's and His alone. Like the choking smoke of city buses, my plans and my time often compete for attention that should belong to God.

I need forgiveness and where such was made possible could never be sanctified sufficiently. Because "there" (Luke 23:33) is where we caused the most pain to the most precious for the most worthless... me.

 Pastor Mike Snelgrove

Hiding the Mess that needs Healing the Most

I recently came across a great word from Pastor Steve Ely of Passion Ministries, concerning how that which is hidden cannot be healed. Most of these insights are his, but I wanted to share how it opened my own eyes to some precious truths as well.

In Mark 3 Jesus heals a man with a withered hand. After telling the man to stand up and come forward in front of everyone present, Jesus tells him to stretch out his hand. He did not specify which hand to stretch forth, and it may seem foolish even to raise the point… but perhaps not. 

If he were like most of us, he may have been tempted to put forth his good hand; the healthy, functional hand. Besides, Jesus told him not only to stand before the crowd but then to make his infirmity public. Just imagine if he had resisted or perhaps suggested that such was a private matter and that he did not understand how further public embarrassment was necessary to facilitate his healing. Or, what if he pointed out how he wasn't the only one present with issues?

Remember when Jesus told Mary and Martha that He needed to see their dead brother Lazarus? They seemed reluctant to make Lazarus available because of the stench they had labored for days to perfume and conceal. Still, Jesus is offering to bring life to the wretched death and decay buried deep in the tomb - the same decay at which they could no longer bear to look. 

Jesus wants to do the same for us. But first, we must remove the layer upon layers of wrappings and distractions we have used to hide the extent of the putrid rot. Since we often feel that we must conceal our brokenness, many of us have likely missed the healing that God can bring. We might even decide that it is time to find another synagogue where our withering is not so well known.

However, why not raise our "weaknesses" and glorify God. Raise our feebleness and failures to him and like the apostle Paul declare, that God's "... power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me (II Cor 12:9 NIV). 

Pastor Mike

Good News…  

America’s “Cultural Christianity” is Dying

Christianity is fading fast from America’s public square and where it refuses to fade there are forced evacuations.  Christianity, as a cultural phenomenon was woven into the fabric of our nation at inception.  However, it’s unraveling and the diminishing of its significance, which began in the 60’s, has accelerated since.  Now, only vague and meaningless ideas concerning God are tolerated, and only if no one pretends that such ideas are consequential to how we make decisions or desire to live our lives.

This recoil from faith has for some time signaled alarm, but I say that believers who sincerely trust in Christ should rejoice.  This may sound strange, until one considers how this social phenomenon of casual religion has actually hindered the spread of the life-transforming power of the Gospel.  Our culture has been “vaccinated” with a harmless strain of Christianity that has built antibodies, which prevent the development of the real deal.  So, many Americans think since they removed their hats and raised a cold beer during the Lord’s Prayer at the dirt track that all is well with their souls.

Certainly, the moral decline of American society is cause for serious concern as the growing disregard of Biblical principles has left us in a profound moral squalor.  But this did not happen because we removed the Ten Commandments from the courthouse or stopped praying at football games.  Such were tokens and symbols of a religious heritage, which once gave great significance to attending services on special days, church weddings, swearing on the Bible, and having God’s name on our currency.  But symbolism without substance, or religion without life-transformation, is hollow and has never survived the secularization of any culture.

However, as the superficial and romanticized relics of pseudo-Christianity disappear, the opportunity arises for the Church to speak life into the death and disappointment that religion is leaving behind.  The legalism that brought heat without light cannot survive as broken souls are held in the grip of God’s grace.  The symbolism of public regard for some inoffensive deity is no longer necessary for those who have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe.  Even the sentimentalism of going to church will die as the understanding of being the Church is revived.  

So, to America’s romance with religion, I say rest in peace.  Secular progressivism no longer needs the support of the Church, but neither do we need theirs.  We can pray, preach and love others anytime and anywhere we like – not because we are Americans but because we are Christians.  Such will distinguish Christianity from the pantheon of world religions that have determined to reach God.  Instead, we can demonstrate how through Christ, God has reached down to us.  Sinners can find forgiveness instead of hollow validation.  The search for meaning can be found in worshiping our Creator as individuals come to know God through His Son.

So rejoice, again I say rejoice (Philippians 4:4).  

 

Pastor Mike