Buen Camino!

If you've never seen the movie, 'The Way,' with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez it's definitely worth a watch. In this movie, Martin Sheen plays an aged ophthalmologist named Tom (great name, by the way) from Valencia, California who travels to France to collect the remains of his son, Daniel (played by his real-life son, Emilio Estevez), who was killed by a storm while walking the Camino De Santiago De Compostella, or the way to the burial place of St. James, which is in Spain. Tom has always been the traditionalist who believed in working hard, making good money and living a good, American life. Daniel, though well educated has always suffered from wanderlust and succumbs to a storm while on pilgrimage in the Pyrenees in France. Moved by the death of his son, Tom decides to make the 600 some-odd mile pilgrimage his son never got to finish and scatter Daniel's ashes along The Way, as a final gesture to his only son.

Throughout the film you will hear the pilgrims, or 'peregrinos,' use a phrase to encourage each other: Buen Camino! Buen Camino is a Spanish phrase meaning, literally, "good road". But it means a lot more than that. We might liken it more to the French phrase, "Bon Voyage". There's not really an English equivalent that truly captures the meaning of either of those two phrases. We might say have a good trip or a safe trip, have a nice flight, etc. but nothing really comes close. It's a phrase meant to encourage fellow pilgrims along The Way, to wish them peace and safety as well as joy and fulfillment. I guess it's easier to understand within the context of being a pilgrim because everyone on the road is there for pretty much the same purpose, even though they may not be there for the same reasons. Perhaps an equivalent English expression today might come in the form of a high-five or a fist bump. Some things are better expressed in other ways.

I've been pondering this concept of life as a journey, because I've heard it a lot lately. We hear it in the Christian recovery movement - life's a journey, we're all on a journey, he's on his own journey, she's got to walk her own journey, etc. At the church we visited this morning the pastor referred to life as a journey, as have many. Of course, one of the most famous Christian books of all times is 'The Pilgrims's Progress, ' and let's not forget Robert Frost's road less traveled in the poem "The Road Not Taken". In The Way, a character named Jack from Ireland delivers a comprehensive list of metaphors that describe life as a road: the high road, and the low, and long and winding, the lonesome, the royal, the open road and the private, the road to Hell, the tobacco road, the crooked, the straight and the narrow, on and on, including for the 'yanks,' the road to the White House.

But is it Biblical?

I'll admit that sometimes I'm not as quick as I'd like to be. I'll explain more about that in a minute. But I actually began to wonder a bit, "Is this concept Biblical?" Or is that just psycho-babble mumbo-jumbo that creaped into the church from the recovery movement or from some semi-Christian self help books designed to make us feel better about the lack of growth in certain areas of our lives? Are we really just on a journey, just passing through? Or should our focus be more fixed on this world? That's where I was really coming from. Because frankly, I'm a real pragmatic one. We should make it our goal to work quietly with our hands and mind our own business, to win the respect of outsiders and focus on what impact we can make right here and now, rather than holding our breath until this is all over. Like Yoda said of Obi-Wan, 'Never his mind of what he was doing. Hmmm? Where he was!" Forget all that, "I'm on my journey and I'm just not there yet" junk. Deal with it now. That's the pragmatic side of me.

But while I was in church today a phrase jumped into my head. This was where I began to realize how spaced-out I was. Strangers and sojourners. Strangers and sojourners. This is the verse I was looking for:

"Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul..."1 Peter 2:11 (emphasis mine)

Pilgrims...I like that even better. Here's another one:

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them,* embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Hebrews 11:13

Strangers and pilgrims. Without getting into a lengthy discussion about the Greek here (this is a blog not a dissertation), the words for strangers and pilgrims are also translated as sojourners, aliens, foreigners, nomads and exiles. They refer to people who don't really belong where they are and who aren't among people like themselves. I might throw in transplants, wanderers (though not aimlessly), vagabonds, or visitors.  We are in the world, but not of it. The world looks at us and says, "You're not from around here, are you?" We are indeed just passing through. But, we are also commanded along the way to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." (Phil 2:12) We are also told by Jesus Christ himself:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14 (emphasis mine).

 But perhaps the biggest face-palm for me came from this verse right here:

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6

Jesus. The way, the truth and the life. He is the road and the destination. The journey that leads us to itself. And we have a loving father who goes before us, behind us, and covers over us. (Psalm 139:5) I hope someday to take the Camino myself. If I ever make a bucket list, you can believe that this will be very near the top. It is one of my life's ambitions. But until then, I consider myself to be on the Camino now. I am on pilgrimage. Not just to Santiago, but to Jesus Christ himself. I hope you will join me, the journey is worth it, and begins with a single step of faith. Don't forget to enjoy it!

Buen Camino!

Cast Your Nets, Repeat

4 "When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking." Luke 5:4-6

Don't you love it when God gives you just the right scripture you need at just the right time? For me, this was it today. I've been leading the Men's Ministry at church this year and our current venture is getting to Men's Camp. We're trying to raise enough money for 15-20 guys to go, most of whom are either not working or barely working, or are working but are broke just because of the economy being the way it is right now. So far we've had a car wash and an ice cream sale and made about $140. Not too promising. I also applied for a grant from a certain retailer. No word. Looking at the calendar, our Saturdays are filling up with other things and our time is short. Looking at our circumstances, it doesn't look too good. I began to wonder what the problem was. Why is it so hard to raise money? Doesn't God want our men to go to camp? We're working, we're willing to work, but it just seems like we couldn't sell a cold bottle of water in the middle of the desert. 

I've been reading through Luke. I just happened to be on chapter 5 today. Here, Jesus sees Peter again, along with Andrew, James and John. They've just come back from fishing all night long, because that's the "best time" to catch fish. Exhausted and frustrated, these men come back to shore wanting nothing, I'm sure, but to go home and collapse. Maybe they were even dreading the looks in their family's eyes when they see them come home empty-handed again. And here comes Jesus. "Mind if I borrow your boat?" I would imagine that they weren't really in the mood to have church at that moment. But, they indulge him and hear the message of the parable of the four soils in Mark 4. Following that, he returns to Peter. "Let's go fishing." The second to the last thing they wanted to do. But again, they indulge him. "If you say so." The result is astonishing. 

6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.  

I know the apostles were feeling what many Americans are feelings right now: I've been fishing all night and caught nothing. I've tried everything and nothing works. I've sent hundreds of applications and resumes, I've started a work-at-home business, I've gone back to school, I've done everything I can think of to get a job. I've called all my customers and they just aren't ordering. Or, I've tried everything I can to fund our activities at church, like Men's Camp, and I can't even sell an ice cream cone on the hottest day of summer. What's going on? 


I'll spare us, for now, my theories on why I think we're in a recession, who's fault it it, etc. In truth, the how and why doesn't matter. Because the only thing that matters is God. Here's what I find in this scripture. 


1. God cares about our business, our work, our livelihood. Jesus didn't just come along and say, "Come be saved from your sins," which would have been enough. But he filled their nets. A miraculous, yet practical and tangible way of meeting their needs. 
2. He made them do their part. He could have made those fish jump into the boats. He could have taken one fish and multiplied it (which he will do later), but he didn't do that yet. He made them do their part, take a step of faith and cast their nets. 
3. He blessed their socks off! He didn't just give them enough, he loaded their boats to the point that they were sinking. Pressed down, shaken, and running over was poured into their nets. 
4. It came in his time. He didn't do it the day before, or the day after, he did it right when it was prudent and necessary. 


God's providence requires faith and work. God does his part and we do ours. If we cast our nets, he will fill them when the time is right. Not a moment too late or too soon, but according to his perfect will. If you're tired of pulling in empty nets, let Jesus sail your boat for a while, and keep casting your nets. And when they come in empty, cast them again. Today could be the day!

Am I Good Enough?

"Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." I Kings 19:4


One of my all time favorite comedies, still to this day, is City Slickers. In this movie, three almost-middle-age guys join a cattle drive in an attempt to "straighten the knots in their ropes" and kill their demons. We have Mitch, played by Billy Crystal, who is struggling with age and finding meaning as he approaches mid-life; Phil, played by Daniel Stern, is recovering from a broken marriage after years of living with an unloving wife and having had an affair with a young girl; and Ed, play by Bruno Kirby, who is struggling with something I think a lot of us deal with--whether or not he is better than his father, who abandoned him and his family when he was 14 years old.


He's now the owner of a successful sporting goods store who is married to a gorgeous, young underwear model. Sounds great, right? Except he's scared to death because his beautiful, young wife wants to have kids and Ed's afraid that he'll be just like his father all over again, a cheater and a scoundrel. It's a commitment thing. 


After the trail boss (Jack Palance) suddenly dies and the two trail hands abandon them, the group is faced with a choice: leave the herd and go for help or continue to drive the herd to Colorado. Ed, driven by his need to prove he can stick with something, decides to drive the herd himself. Phil goes with him and, of course, Mitch eventually follows and the three of them save the day and drive the herd to Colorado. After that, Ed is confident that we will be able to stick with it and decides to go home and tell his wife he's ready to have children. It's amazing some of the things we do to prove we are better than our ancestors.


I think Elijah, like many of us, wrestled with the same question Ed did: Am I any better? Better than my ancestors, who made and worshipped a golden calf right after God just led them out of Egypt, who grumbled in the desert, who kept going back to idol worship over and over again, who God often referred to as an adulterous nation? He himself seems to be falling into the same pattern when, after just having slaughtered the 400 prophets of Baal, he now finds himself running and hiding in a cave because of one woman named Jezebel. Exhausted, frustrated and weary, he collapses under a broom tree and says, "I have had enough, LORD, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." I'm no better. 


It appears that even the great Elijah had a few issues of his own. I must confess I have felt the same way, when I see so many bad examples of what not to do as a Christian being splashed across news pages. "Where are the men of God?" I wonder. "Someone's got to show this world that it can be done, that a righteous life is possible, that there's someone out there who's serious about this, who's real, who's genuine." I have even found myself comparing myself to Elijah and wondering, "Why not now, Lord? Why not me? Why doesn't this happen now?" (btw...This isn't just good old-fashioned Pentecostal talk, check out Spurgeon's comments here). I have even found myself thinking, "I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna be the one, I'll show 'em!" But who does that glorify, myself or God? And then I think, "No, can't be me, I'm too _____, I struggle with _____, I'm not _____ enough."


Who are we trying to please or impress, anyway, and by what standard are we to be measured? The only person we have to please is Christ, and his is the only standard by which to be measured. To aim for simply being better than anyone else is actually to aim for a lower standard than his and to judge our neighbor in the process. We dare not judge another, like the pharisee in Luke 18:11, by trying to be better than them. Let's start, rather, by beating on our breasts with the heart of the sinful tax collector who said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Let's fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who will complete the good work he began in us, and run in such as way as to get the prize. What he starts, he always finishes. So be patient and have mercy on yourself, as God did with Elijah. God's not finished with you...yet.

"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:6

What's With the Snake?

"The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived." Num 21:8-9


I have to admit, this scripture has always puzzled me. Some quick background. Moses is leading the Israelites across the desert after having delivered them from Egypt. When the Israelites start to get hungry and thirsty, rather than ask the Lord for their needs, they decide instead to grumble against Moses, and his status quickly diminishes from hero to weirdo. "Why have you brought us to the desert, Moses? To die of starvation and thirst? Did you have an "exit plan" in mind?" So God, hearing their sinful grumbling, sends snakes among them. People are bitten and some even die. The people come to Moses again, with a different attitude, of course. "We sinned, please do something." So, being the man of God that he is, Moses goes to God with the problem and God offers an interesting solution, one of the most unique in all of scripture: 


"The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." v.8.


A snake? Isn't Satan the snake? He's described as such in Genesis and Revelation. Even aside from that, scripture does not describe snakes in the best light:


They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. Micah 7:17
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Luke 11:11


Yet in John 3, Jesus actually compares himself to the bronze snake:
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life," vv. 14-15 (Jesus speaking).


Why would both Jesus and the devil be equated with a snake? This perplexed me. So I ran the events over in my head again. The people grumble...God sends snakes...snakes bite...then God says, "Make a snake." So the same thing that hurt them is the same thing that they look to for healing? I didn't get it, it took some meditation but suddenly it hit me. The one who bites is the same one who heals. Bites, heals. Here's what I think it means. 


Jesus is our judge and our savior, the one who was lifted up on the cross for our sins and the one who will judge us on the last day. He is also the one who convicts us of our sins. Consider these two scriptures:


"...he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man." John 5:26-27. 


"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" Heb 12:7.


Along with this one:
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Heb 12:11


The snakes were sent to convict the Israelites of their sin. Jesus, who is both the righteous judge and the healer, "bites" us, to show us those areas that need to be healed. It's not pleasant, but it's a love-bite. The one who convicts (bites) us, is the same one to whom we look for healing, and that's why he bites in the first place. When we are bitten, we need to remember why. It's always for our good. He bites those parts of us that need to be amputated. 


Better to enter eternity with a snake bite than be thrown into Hell. 


What do you think?

Have You Ever Felt Outnumbered?

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." II Kings 6:16.

Have you ever felt like you were outnumbered? I have been, lately, in many ways: other religions out numbering Christians, my bills outnumbering my paycheck, the number of people who need help outnumbering the church's resources, the unemployed outnumbering jobs, the innumerable barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. It seems we're up to our eyeballs, just barely able to keep our head above water, let alone get ahead, and sadly in the minority.

I went back to school this year at my local community college. There is what appears to be a very active Islamic group there. I say appears because I've never actually attended a meeting to see how many people are involved in this group. But they paper the school with advertisements, some with pretty convincing statistics: "1 in 4 Americans are Muslim," "Islam is the fasting growing religion in America," etc. And then there are the non-religious, namely the ol' "New Atheists." I say "ol'" because there's really nothing new about atheism, not by a long shot. The only thing new as that they appear to be more mobilized than ever. No longer content with sitting back, outside the church, they've begun to attack. Just pull up any Christian video on YouTube, or any story involving religion on a news website, and you'll find their comments under the article, denouncing religion as superstitious, irrelevant, corrupt, false, a scam, etc, even bashing God outright. But they don't discriminate, they bash all religions. They're tolerant like that.

Financial woes are affecting everybody in The Great Recession. People get poorer and poorer while the cost of everything gets higher and higher. Even churches are closing down due to money. Hey, 10 percent of nothing is nothing. Hard to tithe off of nothing. With churches struggling just to stay alive, trying to help the poor is nearly impossible. Many churches simply have no choice but to turn people away with a prayer and an encouraging word. "Maybe try the church down the street." As a result, due to their situations, many people are simply losing faith and walking out of the church for good.

Looking at the circumstances it can seem pretty hopeless. Like Peter looking at the waves when he should have kept his eyes on Jesus, we can start to sink into despair as we allow the cares of this world choke us out. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." Hebrews 12:2. This is what the prophet Elishah was demonstrating to his assistant in II Kings 6:15-17.

"When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

It may seem to some like I'm mixing topics, providence and persecution, but I'm not, because the answer to both of these problems is the same: God. We are not outnumbered by cults, atheists, debts or barrels of oil. We serve a God who is all-powerful and all-knowing, and is the unending source of all our needs. There's a bigger picture here, the edges of which we are not able to see, and a Great Artist, the author and finisher (perfecter) of our faith. I like the words of Paul Harvey: "In times like these it helps to recall that there have always been times like these." There is nothing new under the sun and nothing that has happened has taken God by surprise, he is still in control.

Don't Get Caught Resting On Your Lees

"Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles." Jeremiah 48:12&13, KJV.

Although I've been reading through Isaiah I came across this verse in Jeremiah. Both Isaiah 16 & 17 and Jeremiah 48 predict the judgement and invasion of the land of Moab. Dave Guzik is one of my favorite commentators. In his notes on Isaiah 15 he refers to this verse from Jeremiah. After quoting this passage he says, "When we are at ease, and are never “poured” from vessel to vessel, we “settle on the dregs(lees)” and are never refined. God uses the “pouring” process to refine us".(Insertion mine). I didn't pay much attention to the word "dregs" but when I read the verse in the KJV it used the word "lees". What are lees, you wonder? So did I.

According to Wikipedia, lees are "deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of "fining", to the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation and aging." Did you get all that? In other words, it's the junk that settles to the bottom of the barrel when wine sits for a long time. Now, sometimes lees can be useful to flavor other wines, but for the most part they're tossed out by "racking" the wine. Hmmm...racking...

Racking: the process of siphoning the wine or beer off the lees into a new, clean barrel. To put in language even I can understand, racking is the process of moving wine from one barrel to another, leaving the lees behind. As the lees settle to the bottom the purer wine rises to the top and is skimmed off. In order for wine to be refined it has to be moved to prevent itself from getting clouded up with dead yeast, the stuff it doesn't need anymore.

The moral of the story: we need to be kept moving to refine us and keep us from getting sedentary. Moab was resting on its lees. It was a small but prosperous community surrounded by superpowers that had been picked on since they were built. Interesting. Small but sedentary versus challenged and large. My wife and I often discuss where we would like to go someday to retire, to slow down, to live a slower pace of life. But so far God has not allowed that. We have moved, and moved, and moved. In 7 years of marriage we have lived in 7 different places, sometimes living with other people. Sometimes (ok, often) it's easy to look at that and get down on ourselves. If only we had stayed in school, if only we had better jobs, if only we had planned better, we shoulda, coulda, woulda...

I have even used the David angle: how long, Oh Lord? When is it ever going to just get easier?! Seems no matter what we try to do it fails or is just so painful we wonder why we try.

But maybe we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves. For this is God's fermentation process. We are being racked. Boy, are we being racked. Why? To prevent us from getting sedentary and to purify us of the lees, the dregs, the old junk that settles at the bottom of the barrels of our hearts and minds and keeps us from being as pure, refined, and full-bodied as we can be and to help us grow. Yet along the way, we had many opportunities to minister and to see God move in our lives in ways we wouldn't otherwise have known. It's no accident that there's a correlation between little, unshaken Moab and big and powerful yet persecuted Israel. There are tons of examples of this in the Bible: wine being racked, and eagle stirring its nest, gold being refined in the fire, Job being tested, and, not least of which, the temptation of Christ.

God seems to speak in threads, probably because he speaks to us right where we are, and the thread lately has been simply, "Press on. Don't give up. I'm not done with you yet. Yeah, you've taken some lumps and dropped a few balls, but I'm not done." I've come to realize this morning that God is racking me, sifting me, keeping me moving so to get the good part of me to rise to the top and leave the junk in the old barrel. If we will not rack ourselves, then God will rack us. I'd rather do it myself. I'm looking forward to my new barrel.

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on..." Phillipians 3:13-14.

The Christian Conundrum

This is my very first blog. This is actually something I wrote a while back, just to get started.

"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions." Matthew 11:18-20.
There's an old saying for the sentiment expressed in these verses, I'll digress from that, but it seems that no matter what we do as Christians we're going to be judged ether way. I just read an article on cnn.com (won't bother posting it) about a pastor in Chicago who is giving away money at his church. Every Sunday he gives $500 to two people in his congregation by drawing numbers from a bucket. Whoever's sitting in the lucky seat gets it. Granted, the guy's a little showy, however, consider this:
1) The church has long been criticized for being stuffy, boring, and out-of-touch with the here and now.
2) Since the actions of a few TV evangelists many people have become suspicious and hesitant to give to churches, not wanting to fatten the pockets of greedy, crooked pastors.

So what does this guy do? He makes his church un-stuffy by using a fun approach to do something that can sometimes be difficult for people to do: accept charity, and gets downright generous by giving away $1,000 per week to help the needy.
Now, what bothered me was not the video itself, but the (unfortunately predictable) comments of two individuals who had also viewed the article. For the sake of time and space I won't quote them completely but let me summarize.

The first comment basically pointed to the fact that churches have a tax-exempt status and stated they they are therefore a drain on the community, and should be stripped of their tax-exempt status. It is true that churches, as non-profit organizations, receive a tax-exempt status. However, they are still not completely tax-free. For example, they still have to pay property taxes. But what I'd like to point out is that they also do not receive any support from the government, either. I know of a certain church that is a government food shelter, and yet is still required to purchase the food FROM THE GOVERNMENT! They receive no funding from the Fed, State or local government and rely solely on the faithful giving of their members and fund-raising and believe me the recession has affected us all, even the church.

The second comment criticized the theology of the pastor, stating that he was preaching a prosperity gospel. Personally I didn't hear the preacher say hardly anything at all, really. It wasn't his fault; his preaching just didn't make the final edit---what a surprise. All that made the edit was him drawing a raffle ticket and giving away this cash to the tune from The Price is Right. I don't think from that video we have enough evidence to label anyone a prosperity preacher. So where did that idea come from? I can't but feeling, and I could be wrong, that it's because if someone sees money in a pastor's hand, or hears him talking about money he's automatically labeled a prosperity preacher. Like pastors are forbidded to touch or have money. Was Jesus anti-money? Not at all. We know the apostles carried a money purse, because Judas used to help himself to it. As a matter of fact the Bible speaks more about money-related topics than any other topic. Why? I think it's because God knew where our hearts would be. As Christ said, "Where your heart is, your treasure shall be also." In fact the Bible contains over 2,000 verses about money. But the first message Christ ever preached, after being baptized and tempted, was a passage from Isaiah:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor..." Isaiah 61:1,2; Luke 4:18

Here we find the mission statement of Christ, and the first issue Christ addressed was poverty. How do you help the poor? By giving them what they need. And what many people need right now is money. Giving people food and clothing are important, sure, but mortgage companies don't except canned corn or blue jeans, neither does the landlord. Money is essential for life. So here's my question: if it was so important to Jesus, why are we so afraid of it? If Jesus gave to the poor, if the apostles gave to the poor (they even had to recruit more leaders to run the giving ministry) why is it such a taboo to see a pastor giving away money? Was Jesus a prosperity teacher? I won't open that can of worms, but in a word, my answer is no. For he also said,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Nobody had anything positive to say.

So, getting back to my point about greedy pastors, here's a guy who's giving away money and still he's criticized for it. If a pastor asks for money, he's suspected. If he gives money, he's criticized. I already granted that, at least from what we see in the video, he's a little showy about it, and there might be something to be said about not doing your acts of righteousness before men, but at least he's doing acts of righteousness! God uses weird people, and how lucky for you and me that he does. He uses the foolish to shame the wise. God spoke to Balaam through his jackass, and has been speaking through jackasses ever since, so I don't feel too proud if he should want to speak through me. There's no cool-factor with God, he is no respecter of persons. John the Baptist was a weirdo who lived in the desert and wore camel's hair and ate locusts and honey, Paul was a short little guy with a big nose and bad eyes, Moses had a speech impediment, and so on and so on. God uses faultering, damaged, used-up, beat-up ragamuffins and sometimes we have some quirks, but hey, who doesn't? Some segments of society have become quite proud of their quirks; should we be any different? By the way, we get criticized for being too perfect sometimes, too. Like we're all a bunch choir boys held over from the 50's. John came neither eating nor drinking and they thought he was a demoniac, Christ came eating and drinking and they called him a lush. There's an expression for this that some might use, that we're damed if we do, damned if we don't. Praise God, we are not damned at all if we believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. And in the end it won't matter what others said. All that matters is our faith and faithfulness.

In Peter's words:
"But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God." 1 Peter 2:20.

We're going to be judged, criticized, ostracized and so on no matter what. As the world hated Christ it will hate us. But at least we can make sure we are suffering for righteousness' sake. Better to be criticized for being a do-gooder than a hypocrite. Wisdom is proved right not by how cool you look or how much the world accepts you, but by our actions.