I determined early on my family’s development that I would always go to Sunday Church. I think the reason was this: that I wanted my kids to love the church, even in it’s glaring flaws and inconsistencies. Since that time, the Local Church has not been exemplary in its display of the biblical standard. Yet, we have rarely missed attendance over the years.

There is a growing interest in departing from the church along with its local manifestations. Substitutes like “organic church’ replace what they call the “institutional” church. The description “institutional” (reminds me of some mental hospital), is used to imply that the Church has become something unnatural, formal, stiff, legalistic. So good meaning Christians reject the organized church for an “organic” church in the form of house churches or in many cases no church at all.

CS Lewis expressed it this way: (the church)… is a unity of place and not of likings, it brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity (God) desires. He continues, “the search for a “suitable” church makes the man a critic where (God) wants him a pupil.”

Do you see the point

• The church is a unity of place, NOT of liking

• The church is the vehicle to unite individuals who may not normally like each other

• When we give up on the church simply because it does not “suit” our standards, we become a critic not a student of it!

Here is how I see it. One finds fault with his local church. He searches the internet and finds several web pages that describe the faults of the church and give a basis for returning to the authentic manifestations which it seems only occurred prior to Emperor Constantine. Prior to him, the church was really real…  Since then, it has been only a facade.

Then what happens? This person starts hanging out with those who “agree” with him. And what is lost? The sanctification that occurs of learning to live with and love those whom you would normally not hang out with…. Along with a fundamental witness to the skeptics of Christianity. Jesus exhorted his followers to love their enemies. It is easy to love those who love and agree with you. Jesus asked in effect, “what kind of effort is required of you when you  choose your own friends?” None! But to love one you don’t like, one you would never choose in a thousand years, that is something else altogether, something to talk about. It cannot be duplicated by any unbelieving skeptic.

I must be honest. Could it be that those who only hang out with those who hang out with those who reject God’s church, become quirky and become “One message” people….. I think because they have no sanctifying and balancing force in their life through others who may disagree with them (not to mention the other means of grace in the local church:  preaching, sacraments etc)

My kids have grown up in local church. They love the church. They love Jesus who’s body it represents. I think it is time we agree with Augustine that “there is no salvation outside the Church.”  There is much in that thought.

Francis Shaeffer said it well: Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful. Christian community is the ultimate apologetic . (quoted in Total Church, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

The hebrew word for “to whom it is due” is actually “from its owners.”   I have heard it said that ancient and traditional cultures considered one’s obligation to helping his neighbor as obligatory and deserved.   In our western/individualistic culture, we may tend to struggle getting a handle on this sense of the right due our neighbor.

In this verse, there is a sense of injustice  (Lev. 19.13) done when we do not move quickly to come to the aid of our neighbor.  There is also the idea of inconsiderateness (Deut. 24.14,15).

Thus the maxim:  Bis dat qui cito dat:  “He gives twice who gives promptly.”

See my other post on A Time to Give…

BTW, I got this info from a wonderful commentary on Proverbs by Derek Kidner.

I know of others who read books by financial gurus and have become focused on the first responsibility by saving as much as possible, paying off their houses, preparing for retirement etc … in order to be wise.  But I wonder what truly is the wise decision in these times.   Or may we be the ones referred to by our brother James?

James 2:14-17   What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? …   Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,  and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”– but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?   So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

Paul certainly stated quite clearly that generosity “accrued” profits to our own accounts (Phil 4.17).  Generosity is the safest guarantee of a good and secure future.  So what is our responsibility to bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6.2)?   Jonathon Edwards said that in order to truly bear another’s burden necessitated that it be a burden to us…. otherwise it is no burden.   In other words, does our giving actually effect our standard of living or do we give just enough so as not to “rock our boat?”

2 Corinthians 8:12-14   Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality.  Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal.

Do you have plenty right now?  Or like me, are you afraid to give radically for those in need simply because when your need may come, others, who have an abundance will not step forward to meet your need?  So a sort of paralysis kicks in and we don’t do anything.   But this should not dictate our actions.  We MUST act and we must act now!

We are even encouraged by examples of those who gave sacrificially in the midst of their own poverty…

2 Corinthians 8:1-4   Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.  They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.  They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.

There are so many more commands and promises in the bible concerning generosity.  In our individualistic society it is certainly challenging to look beyond our own needs.   The only sure guarantee for a secure future is by humble obedience and trust in the Lord’s commands.   Lord, move our hearts to be the community of believers!

Today the stock market dropped to it’s lowest in over ten years.  Most of you reading this are probably not invested but I think it important for you to read the quote below and learn a lesson now before you are older and forget that everything has its season and the outward condition of any man does not determine his/her spiritual condition. OR God’s disposition towards them…

Some people make a lot of money, living in a time for gain. Others lose a great deal.  Prosperity is His gift, and so are stock-market crashes.  God allows us to store it all up. He appoints the day we throw it away, not caring about it any more.  God is the one who gives the power to get wealth (Dt. 8.18). And when men forget Him, He is the one who brings financial calamity upon them  “Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store” (Dt. 28.17).  The commotion of the stock market reveals the hubris of man better than few other things.  We believe we can pump up the Dow forever and make money at a fine clip forever… but we cannot.  The cycles ordained by God for everything in this fallen and silly world will come around again, and many a millionaire will go white in deisbeleif.  “How could this happen?”  Friend, look at the world. How could it not?

Douglas Wilson,  Joy at the end of the tether.  The inscrutable wisdom of ecclesiastes.

It is appropriate at these times to give thanks to our loving Father who knows much better than we what we need.