Category: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 14:3-4

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“When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: ‘How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

At first blush here, it feels a little odd that God would call Israel to taunt Babylon when they are brought low in judgment from the Lord.  Isn’t that just cruel?  Why kick someone when they are down?  This Old Testament god here must be the vengeful, gleeful-in-wrath god we’ve always heard about from our critics. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 9:7

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“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

What is it that makes a cheerful giver so much better than otherwise?  Well, who wants a begrudging gift?  I sure don’t.  When someone gives something under compulsion, it tends to take all the joy out of receiving for the recipient.

What’s more, when someone is giving to God under compulsion, that person is treating giving like a religious exercise.  You do a religious exercise not because you want to or because it’s the right thing to do, but because if you don’t, you will incur the wrath of the deity you are trying to appease.  No one wants to do that.  God makes abundantly clear in the Scriptures that He has absolutely no interest in that kind of thing.  He’d rather people not even bothering trying if all they’re going to give Him is a half-hearted religiosity.  He wants our hearts, not our wallets. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 8:12-15

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“For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.  For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.  As it is written, ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Tithing is a big issue in most churches.  While our power and sustaining comes from God, His provision most often comes via the money our members give.  Sometimes that giving is generous.  Sometimes it isn’t.  (And the amount of the giving has little to do with the level of generosity it reflects.)

What all this means, is that churches need money to make ministry happen.  That doesn’t sound terribly holy, but it’s no less true for that.  That’s the nature of the world we live in, and while God isn’t limited to that, He tends to work within it more often than not.  What this means further is that talking about giving is something all churches have to do on occasion. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 7:10

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“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the phrases people sometimes use in a moment of exasperation is, “Good grief!”  Charlie Brown is particularly famous for saying this.  But, if you’re at all like me, you’ve always kind of wondered at this phrase because grief isn’t good.  Right?  No one wants to grieve and when we are it means something has gone wrong, doesn’t it?  Well…not necessarily. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 6:3-10

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“We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.  We are treated as imposters, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

When it comes to sharing the Gospel with the world around us, our goal should be to make certain that the only offensive thing about us is our message, the Gospel itself.  Everything else about us should be a gigantic yes to the world.  Or, as Paul puts it here, we commend ourselves in every way. Read the rest…