A Gift of New Life

April 17, 2009
So, it’s been a few days since Easter but I feel that time is worth going back to recount for you.
In the weeks before Easter I was getting very excited about the thought of a new celebration of the Lord. However, I was also getting a little sad that I may not be able to participate in many of the fun celebratory traditions that I usually do – dying eggs, learning a message from an enlightening homily at a familiar church, spending a day with overflowing love from close family and friends, receiving colorful and tasty chocolate treats from my mom even though I’ve outgrown them, and many other things many of us cherish about Easter traditions spent at home.
The closer it got to Easter the more I realized that virtually all of these things I cherished would be missing from my Easter this year. Even though I thought my sadness was somewhat pitiful and missing such little physical things was childish, I realized that I needed to make preparations to avoid falling into a slight depression (one lesson I have to say I learned at camp in preventing homesickness – Take Preventive Action!).
I set to work on redirecting my focus from the material aspects of the holiday to Christ’s intended spiritual focus of this time – Himself, God, and the Holy Spirit. The week before Easter I went to church in Apeldoorn, Holland. It was a last minute decision and my lack of preparation and thought was apparent to me as I sat in the Dutch mass and realized I would not be finding a service in English in such a small town; neither here, in Austria, nor probably in Italy. I spent that time in mass listening intently to foreign Dutch words hoping to understand a word here or there; or hoping that I would perhaps be miraculously gifted with tongues enabling me to understand the message and communicate with my Lord during that hour. There are only so many things I could think to pray about: the homeless, the oppressed, world leaders, my friends and family, my enemies, the Kleins, my faith, my friends’ faith, and my purpose during this time of travel in my life and in the future. After those ten minutes, I was kind of stumped. I admired the ancient church’s paintings and sculptures and squinted to see the distant alter pressed far against the back wall of the church behind iron railings guarding against pleading sinners. I slowly got frustrated with this whole situation and wished that this reality of being a foreigner wasn’t true. Most Dutch people speak English, why didn’t they at least have an English program or copy of the homily? (Classic American Philosophy: why shouldn’t the world should cater to English speaking Americans, most tourists speak English and it would help everyone). Then I thought about foreigners living in America, and how it never crosses our native minds that people have to deal with such struggles on a daily basis. I was in a selfish mode of thought which was the total opposite of what this time in church was supposed to be purposed for.
But the hour and a half long service was not a total loss. The chapters from the bible readings were printed in the Dutch service leaflet I bought for $.30 and I had brought my recently purchased copy of the New Testament. I focused intently on following the readings and as they read them in Dutch I worked on my translating skills matching word for word along my English print listening closely for the related words I could pinpoint like Jerusalem and Jesus. I also racked my memory for the priest’s traditional presentation of the Eucharist at home –I could tell this Catholic Dutch service was using the exact the same words and intonations. I whispered to myself the Nicene Creed, the Our Father, the prayer for Forgiveness of Sins, and participated in the Peace. All in all, when the service ended I felt satisfied in my worship participation but knew that I could make more preparations.
When I returned back to my hostess’ house, I looked up next week’s Easter readings and printed out a 2008 Easter homily from an Episcopal church. While I made a few preparations, I did not print out the words from the Old Testament, of which I didn’t have a copy. This I would find almost devastating at the Easter mass in Austria.
After a tired long journey to Berwang, Austria a few days later I should have reveled in the gift to be with a familiar face for celebrating Christ’s resurrection and for Doris’ wiliness and desire to accompany me to a Saturday night vigil and Sunday Easter mass. While I did appreciate these things, when I ventured to the small town’s local church the German mass was not so similar and the quiet close space didn’t leave much room for Doris to whisper translations to me. I became very frustrated when she didn’t pay attention to the announced chapter in the bible, the message that was being communicated, or make an effort to keep me abreast of the ancient stories that were being recounted. All things which I held very dearly. After having missed the Good Friday mass, I wanted to make that Saturday night vigil into an intense spiritual meditation on Christ’s sacrifice and having to sit in silence unable to sing or listen to the stories I needed to hear was making me increasingly upset. It didn’t help that this Saturday night service was not following traditional programming and I couldn’t figure out whether people were reading or praying or what I should be doing.
After mass I ended up falling into tears to Doris communicating frustration about not being able to participate in worship. A good friend, she listened as I cried as I explained how my heart yearned to do this one thing so vital to my being and purpose in life – honor my God. After relieving all of these emotions, I began to have some clarity on God’s perspective on what I was feeling. I heard his wise response as a father advises a child – "I know you want to worship me and participate in the service like you traditionally do, but really, this Easter season isn’t about focusing on your needs. It is actually about recognizing My sacrifices, not yours."
He wouldn’t say it to my face but I could realize the different levels of sacrifice. Mine: sacrificing an hour of sitting still listening for the Lord and just spending time with Him without necessarily receiving satisfaction. His: God giving up His only son through a painful death as He bore the weight of the world’s sin on His heart.
"I appreciate you just being there. For giving up the hour. For loving me and contemplating my death" He would continue. "Everything, especially this season, isn’t always necessarily about you, my child."
After hearing this message, I began to calm down a little. As I had heard my concerns out loud, I realized the Lord was right (dugh). But I also realized that I was more to blame for my frustration than God or life. What I saw was that I hadn’t prepared enough for mass that day but I also hadn’t prepared my soul over the Lenten season. At the beginning of the Lenten season, I thought about the tradition of giving something up for God. The more I thought about it, the more I began to despise the act as something Americans had transformed into a dieting excuse. I also thought about adding something to my worship schedule as I had tried before – such as daily devotionals or prayer time. But instead I lazily dismissed the idea because I was sick of making promises to God that I couldn’t keep, devotional commitments were something I had seemed to fail at regularly.
So now that Easter was here I found myself resenting the fact that everyone else was celebrating Christ’s resurrection when I hadn’t got to morn his trails and death. But it was no one’s fault but my own. Despite my feelings that this Lenten period had been modernized out of its true meaning, I realized that the period of self-sacrifice to acknowledge Christ’s still holds great value.
As I tried to make sense of how to move forward from this new perspective, I heard knew I couldn’t go back in time 40 days as much as I wanted to. I also didn’t want to be the one at the party who was still morning death instead of celebrating life. I decided that Christ and I both were satisfied with my lesson learned and we both decided to move on and do better next year. Another essence of character I love about our Lord: the ability to look past transgressions, appreciate a child’s mistakes and the lessons they learn, and give us, through grace, yet another shot at tackling life and faith.

I let you know how it goes…

Love Gives

Thursday, 2 April 2009
JOHN 3:16 NKJ
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave . . . .

His only son.”

GALATIANS 2:20 NKJ
20 ". . . I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me.

EPHESIANS 5:25 NLT
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ
loved the church. He gave up his life for her

Love is only expressed through giving. If there is no giving,
there is no evidence that love exists. The only proof of love
is giving. Giving is the action that demonstrates love.

So, the measure of your giving is the measure of your love. The
more you give -- of yourself, your time, your attention, your
affection, your patience, your treasure -- the more you love.
This is what Jesus meant in John 15:13.

Love is an effort. Who am I giving to right now, at this very moment? I guess I am giving my time, my attention, my mind, my heart, my soul to the Lord through this devotion. That is how every day should start and continue. But it does. I love the Lord by loving others I meet throughout the day. Showing compassion on the needy. Lending a helping hand when I can. And that is why it hurts so much when I pass up an opportunity to help someone out of fear, selfishness, or weakness. It is because I am passing up my God. My King, my Lord. I am denying his children my aid.
But I am still torn…I don’t have endless amounts of money to give to beggars on the street.
Oh how I can so clearly hear in my ears the voice of the Almighty –

“You have plenty. I have provided for you so that you could share it with your brothers and sisters. You have never wanted for anything – that I have given you. That is some my love, that gift. You need to pass on the gift to others, for it was not meant for you to hold onto or to be yours alone.”

He is right. The Lord has done nothing but provide for me. Whilst saving for this trip, I was sure with every paycheck to commit my tithe of 10% back to the Lord. Some days I feared I wouldn’t have enough money for my journey or for all the exciting things I wanted to do. But as a friend once explained to me, that money is not mine. It was a gift from God and who am I to deny the provider one small request. Those checks were some of the biggest I have written and while part of my had to force my fingers to let them drop into the plate, the overwhelming sense of joy that I received after releasing that money from my wallet was incomparable. I felt like a I was making my Daddy proud in such a small and simple act and I had a huge feeling of relief. That a burden had been lifted from my shoulders, the burden of responsibility for the money. The responsibility to use my gifts in a way that please the Lord, that is not selfish, or succumbs to the materialism of this world. It is true; the bible says one cannot serve God and Money. I relieved and grateful to choose the Lord.


JOHN 15:13 NKJ
13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's
life for his friends.

Why did Jesus say there was no greater love than to give your
life? Because you can't give any more. That's total commitment!

I give my life to the Lord. Today and this day forward.

So, whenever you see "love" in a sentence, you may substitute
"giving" and express essentially the same meaning.

JOHN 13:35 NKJ
35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you
have love for one another."

Who will I give Love to today? A man on the street, a child with a smile, a grocery clerk with a bad day. There are so many opportunities not only to Love throughout my day. But to look for the Lord.

One of my favorite missions of our camp counselor bible study in the summer is to look for God throughout our day. You can see him in little acts of love, in the innocent children, in the beautiful nature around you, in a counselor’s effort for a child, in caring for the horses and God’s creation, but fostering true morals and holy virtues in the children that attend there. By worshiping on Sunday outside in the chapel area looking up at Old Bald watching over the breezy lake, or any day. In London perhaps.

So, I’m going to try something. I am going to try throughout my day to note the presence of God around me and report back to you. To show that he is out there. And to brighten my day. I encourage you to do the same and see what we find. Feel free to post your results in a comment. And if you’re reading this later than today – do it anyway. Come back to this when you have something to add – God calls us to witness to the world. To give testimony. This can be a place for testimony. For we are God’s disciples. And we are called to spread his love.

By understanding that love results in giving, we see that Jesus
indicated His disciples would be known for their giving. We are
to be famous for our giving! This is the way Jesus indicated
people would know His true followers: by their giving. (Not our
fighting, our preaching, or even our correct doctrine.)

We see in the early days of the church, this is exactly what
happened.

ACTS 4:34-35 NKJ
34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were
possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the
proceeds of the things that were sold,
35 and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to
each as anyone had need.

Don't think that your gifts should only go to churches and
preachers. Jesus made it clear that giving to any believer was
the same as giving to Him.

MATTHEW 25:40 NKJ
40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say
to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me.'

But God has not called us to give to others just so we could
end up poor, also. NO! God has promised to multiply what we
give, so we will have more to give in the future.

LUKE 6:38 NKJ
38 "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed
down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your
bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be
measured back to you."

2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-8 NLT
6 Remember this -- a farmer who plants only a few seeds will
get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a
generous crop.
7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And
don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. "For God
loves a person who gives cheerfully."
8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will
always have everything you need and plenty left over to share
with others.

As testimony, after relinquishing that tithe with fear that I would not have enough funds for my travels. I surpassed my savings goal by 60%. God will provide.

So, based on God's promises, we can give to others in faith,
with confidence that God will continue to supply all we need.

EPHESIANS 4:28 NKJ
28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor,
working with his hands what is good, that he may have something
to give him who has need.

(This verse gives us an idea of how giving was paramount in the
thinking of early Christians.)

JOHN 15:12 NKJ
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you.

If you desire to follow Jesus, love (giving) is not optional.

SAY THIS: As a disciple of Jesus, I will be a giver.

The WHITE text comes from a daily email devotional I recieve http://aDevotion.org/tell the bold words are things I want to emphasize