Blessings in the Basics
When You Give
January 20, 2019
It was on the anniversaries of first fruit offering that Noah’s ark came to rest, Israel crossed the Red Sea and Haman hung on the very gallows he built for Esther’s people. It was also on the anniversary of the first fruit offering that Jesus hung on the cross and united heaven with earth. We honor God not only by lifted hands and a song on our lips. We honor God with our wealth and our possessions. We honor God by giving our tithes and our alms and our offerings. In giving, the principle rather than the law is at work. God honors those who honor him and after a Friday at Gethsemane he sends a resurrection Sunday.
When You Pray
January 13, 2019
“Remember me,” prayed the thief on the cross. Prayer is legality. It is access to the threefold God. In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus instructs the crowds with “when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,” and “when you pray, go into your room and shut the door,” and also “when you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases.” Prayer is not for the applause of an audience. Prayer is wrestling with a bear and a lion with only a flock of sheep for an audience. Likewise, it is prayer that kills giants. Prayer is a pathway to blessing, for heaven, remembering a prayer, moves.
Make a Change
January 6, 2019
Ephesians 1:3 is the only place in the scripture to use a single word in three different grammatical functions: blessing as a verb over us, blessing as a noun for us and blessing as an adjective to describe us. Like a crown on a king’s head, may January through December of the new 2019th year be encircled with the goodness of God. Do not despair if the old year passed with storm winds still blowing. Perhaps there is blessing in the rain that destroys our houses built on sand. When we bless God by praising him not because of what he will do for us, but because he is good, God cannot pass without ‘crowning the year with the favor of the Lord’.