Robbing God, Tithing, Douglas Wilson...

Here are some verses, a quote and a link on giving and the tithe that I have found challenging lately.

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' (8) Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. (9) You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. (10) Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Malachi 3:7-10)

I have heard John Piper say this before and in one of his sermon he spoke about tithing with these words:

My take on tithing in America is that it’s a middle-class way of robbing God. Tithing to the church and spending the rest on your family is not a Christian goal. It’s a diversion. The real issue is: How shall we use God’s trust fund—namely, all we have—for His glory? In a world with so much misery, what lifestyle should we call our people to live? What example are we setting? — John Piper (1946-), pastor and author

I also would recommend you reading these two blog entries from Douglas Wilson on the Christian and money. Almost everything that Wilson writes is worth reading and thinking about -- he also is enjoyable to read.

Seeking Financial Wisdom
Robert P. Greedybuckets III

Recognizing Our Dependence -- Sermon Notes

Here is the manuscript for my sermon today -- May 4, 2008 on "Recognizing Our Dependence on God."

I have a lot more verses quoted on this manuscript than what I shared during the sermon (Lord willing -- it is my guess - because I haven't preached it yet).

Here is the Sermon -- Click Here.

Medicine or Prayer? We Need to Know Our Bibles!

Wednesday night during our discipleship group someone asked about the girl in Wisconsin, Madeline Neumann, who died because she did not get the appropriate medicine for her treatable form of diabetes because her parents insisted on prayer instead. They are being charged with second-degree reckless-homicide. This reminds me of a story that Haddon Robinson mentioned in a sermon he preached at Moody Pastor's Conference in 2007. He told the story of John Liberger.

Jessica Ann Liberger was a 5-week-old baby girl. Jessica became ill with pneumonia. Her father, John Liberger, was a preacher. He did not believe in medication. He prayed for the healing of his daughter. He believed that God would answer prayers. He prayed day and night. He prayed fervently. Unfortunately, Jessica died. The police found that John, Jessica’s father was guilty of criminal negligence. He went to court and the judge found him guilty. Instead of putting him behind the bars, his sentence was five years of probation and community service in hospitals. When they asked Liberger about the verdict, he said: “God is my judge. I’ll give an account to Him.”

This brings up the question that many believers and unbelievers ask -- "what do Christians believe?" "Is that the Christian answer? No Medicine and only prayer." "Where was God for these people?"

Here are a few thoughts and a few links to read more on this subject:

1. The Bible states that we are completely dependent on Him for everything. Acts 17:28
2. Prayer that God would heal the sick is not only sanctioned but instructed although physical healing is not always promised (Paul prayed for his affliction to leave but God chose not to). James 5:13-18
3. The Bible never forbids the use of medicine but warns against our reliance and trust in medicine rather than in God. Doctors in the Bible are never seen as equivalent to wizards or sorcerers (Luke was a doctor). Jesus calls himself the great physician and I don't think he meant to say that all other physicians of the body are anti-Christ. Paul told Timothy to take some medicinal wine for his upset stomach--this seems strange if the only answer is to pray). Asa in 2 Chron 16:12 is condemned not so much because he went to doctors, but his lack of seeking the Lord was the general direction of his life by that time. See this page about Christians and medicine.
4. The Bible tells us that human labors are in vain or useless unless God graciously blesses them. I get this principles from Psalm 127. "Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain." The point here is not that we pray for a house and hope that God sends a angelic version of Noah to build it. The point is that we build and do the work (and the house he is talking about is more than physical--the family) in trusting reliance that it is God that must do it --"without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
   
5. People whose zealous "faith" drives them to reject all medicine, especially for their family, demonstrate what Haddon Robinson called "The Danger of a Strong Faith and Weak Theology." I encourage you to read these sermon notes by Robinson on this topic and look at the example of Jephthah in the book of Judges.
   
6. A Zealous Faith must always be accompanied by a proper seeing of God and His Word. Jephthah did not know the Law rightly and consequently killed his daughter as a human sacrifice (Judges 10:1–11:40). Unfortunately, I think the parents of Madeline lacked a proper understanding of the Word of God.
7. A Zealous faith with poor theology can result in great tragedy. I think the crusades, Jephthah, parents who let their children die of treatable sickness because of their "faith", and many others find so much grief and tragedy because of a failure to see God and His Word rightly.
   

Grand Theology for Our Little Ones

If you have little children, grand children, or nieces and nephews you might want to check this post by Just Taylor recommending this series of children's books called "Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers."

Most kids, mine included, love books and they love having them read to you over and over. My kids are little (5, 3, 2) and as the title of the books say -- THEY ARE THINKERS! (Matt 22:37 -- "Love the Lord with...all your minds") Here are four books that look age appropriate and God-centered. I think I will order them for my little ones.
You can purchase them through this page.

The "slightly hyperactive male adolescent" in us all

Andrew Furgeson in the Weekly Standard wrote a piece on the brand new "Newseum" that just opened this April in Washington D. C. He describes the new style of museums and I couldn't but think how that relates to how many "do church" on Sunday morning with the "primary goal of seizing and holding the attention of a slightly hyperactive male adolescent, that cheerful, vacant fellow who has just clambered down from the school bus and has detached himself from the ear buds of his iPod and is in danger of growing fidgety from the sudden lack of stimulation."
Heres is the quote:

The wow experience has now become mandatory in the design of modern museums. A museum visitor no longer just visits a museum and sees stuff: He is given a visitor experience--a sequence of sensations that can be packaged, advertised, and controlled by the curators. If the visitor experience is interactive, that's terrific; if it's immersive--well, you're going to have one wowed visitor on your hands. For the great enemy of the museum designer today is not ignorance but boredom. Like most public institutions in American life, from movies to libraries to baseball parks, museums are designed with the primary goal of seizing and holding the attention of a slightly hyperactive male adolescent, that cheerful, vacant fellow who has just clambered down from the school bus and has detached himself from the ear buds of his iPod and is in danger of growing fidgety from the sudden lack of stimulation. His discomfort must be avoided at all costs. Sometimes I picture the entire educo-entertainment industry as one of those villagers in the old horror movie Children of the Damned, utterly terrified of offending the alien children lest they turn their scary X-ray eyes on them and .  .  . poof! Displease the kids and your museum (movie, theme park, retail store, school) is a goner.

If you click here, you can read the entire article online.