hope

What do we do with our money?

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Through no virtue of my own, I was born with skills that have allowed me to find a good job, and to manage my money. Before I was a Christian I thought that this was just good luck, and that I didn’t have to thank anyone for this. I could do with my money what I pleased (of course, in consultation with my wife!).

We have always had a joint bank account, but when she became a Christian many years before me, she suggested that we each have an additional private account which we can use completely as we please. I was happy with this, as I could then ‘treat’ myself without feeling guilty, and also it seemed to make the act of giving each other presents a bit more meaningful, and it allowed her to give money to charity without having to ask my permission.

I used to think myself reasonably charitable. I’d give to people in the street, and I gave a little to Macmillan nurses after my father died of cancer. I was probably like most of the rest of the country, quite happily giving less than 1% of my income away. And following worldly advice I set some financial targets for my life – I decided to have saved £100,000 by retirement age. (I have to admit I struggled to know what I was going to do with it, but it is something that you have to do, isn’t it).

On the road to becoming a Christian I read ‘challenging lifestyles’ by Nicky Gumbell. I decided that it was OK to give more away. I didn’t have to keep it all for myself for the future, and so I made a standing order from my bank to a Charity Card account, of a relatively small proportion of my income. Perhaps the surprising rate at which the amount I had in the account built up showed how little I was really giving away. But having that account meant that I had to give it away – and I found that really quite rewarding. “Now, who can I give this to” is quite a nice feeling. And I didn’t feel any poorer!

But when I first visited Mozambique I learned so much more!  It was so liberating to see how much closer people come to God when they have no money.  And if you put a Mozambican and an Englishman next to each other and dressed them the same, how would you know who was the richer?

But I also saw again the massive amount of good work that is not happening because of lack of money.  I wept when Pastor Caetano described how he had started the orphanage at the House of the Sparrow with all he had – how they don’t know each day where food is coming from, but God always provides.  Forty-seven children, being cared for and loved by a Christian pastor with nothing but what God provides.  I learned that God really cares what we do with our money.

If someone asks us to give to charity the first thought is, “Can we afford it?”  Of course we can – we still have so much more than the children in Mozambique.  Can we afford not to?  No, not unless we want to harden our hearts.

Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal.  Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are. (Matthew 6:19-21)

My experience is that my giving to charity has increased twenty-fold or more since choosing to follow Christ, and my financial savings goals have disappeared.  Where is the logic in saving for something that might be needed in the future when you can see something that is needed today?

Message from Mozambique

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Here is a recent email from a Mozambican friend.  An example of Christ’s teaching.

Days ago, I was invited to visit some sick people in their houses here in Beira. My heart was so shocked with what I saw; most of them are HIV positive and widows. They have lost their husband because of HIV Aids.

Here in Africa, women are hundred percent dependents of their husbands to provide. When they lost their husbands, they lost hope as well, mostly if they find that are HIV Positive.

As we go where the person is living, and give him a hug, bring her water or medicines, or food for her young children, or take his hand, we too are making a bit of history: a powerful declaration of God’s love, a prophetic statement of his heart to people who often feel totally rejected by the church. The church cannot stay silent when faced with his issue.

Yes, there are still some churches here are rejecting HIV Positive people, still ignorant and a lot of stigma. 

I am a pastor; have to do it as an example to another brothers and sisters in Christ who are willing to do the same. 

An argument for, and definition of God.

/ Minimalist Christian / 12 Comments

I have started reading Anselm; interesting stuff. Not sure I’ve really got my head round it yet, but nevertheless let me try to paraphrase my understanding of his argument so far in a modern context:

We are all aware that there are ‘non-material’ things: love, justice, purpose, hope, belief, to name a few.  An act of love is carried-out through ‘love’, and an act of justice is carried-out through ‘justice’.  If love did not exist then one could not carry-out an act of love. And it is through ‘goodness’ that we are able to carry-out an act of love; without goodness we could not carry-out an act of love, or of justice, or…  Apart from goodness, all other non-material things are carried-out through goodness, and therefore goodness is the ultimate non-material thing, or ‘essence’ and it exists through itself.

We can also perceive that some acts are express more love than others; there can be great love, or great justice, or great goodness.  And we can imagine that for any great goodness there could be a goodness that is just a little greater … until we reach infinite goodness.  And so everything that is good in any way is within that infinite, or supreme goodness.

Everything exists through something, and we have seen that of things immaterial everything exists through supreme goodness.  But everything must exist through one thing.  If we imagine that there were more than one thing, then either there would be one thing through which the more than one thing were able to exist – which would then be the one thing, or they might exist through a ‘power to exist through oneself’ – which would then be the one thing, or they would exist mutually through each other – which defies reason.

The universe exists, and so it exists through something. Non-material things exist, and they exist through supreme goodness.  Therefore either the universe exists through supreme goodness, or supreme goodness exists through the universe.  But can supreme goodness exist through the universe?  We can conceive that there are other universes, but it is inconceivable that those other universes exist without supreme goodness; being non-material supreme goodness cannot be constrained within a material context.  Therefore it is impossible that supreme goodness exists through the universe, but the universe must exist through supreme goodness, and there can only be one supreme goodness –  which we define as God.

Related posts

https://philhemsley.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/proof-of-god/

https://philhemsley.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/the-god-of-science/

 

A rational look at heaven

/ Minimalist Christian / 2 Comments

A common view of heaven is that it is a reward for being good. Be good in this life and then you can go and have a ball in heaven – no longer having the restraint of having to pass the entrance exam. Indeed, some believe that when a martyr gets to heaven he is immediately met by seventy-two virgins and promised everlasting happiness.

Maybe our parents said things like ‘be nice or you won’t go to heaven’, in the same way that they might have said ‘do your homework or you won’t go to university’. Perhaps we grew up thinking that the final test will be to weigh our good deeds against our bad deeds, and if the scales tip the right way we get in.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the film ‘Meet Joe Black’. Joe is ‘Death’, come to claim a wealthy American who it seems has led a ‘good and honest life’. Joe takes a short holiday with the American before he takes him to his final destination. When it’s finally time to leave the American asks, “Do I need to worry where I’m going?” to which Joe replies, “A man like you…. No”. His reward is heaven. He got there by his own efforts and he deserved it!

Then there is Pascal’s wager. Put simply, if you believe in God and he exists then you get to heaven, if you believe and he doesn’t you simply cease to exist when you die – no negative consequences, so a safe thing to do. If you don’t believe in God and he doesn’t exist then you simply cease to exist when you die, but if you are wrong you suffer in hell – a serious negative consequence, not a safe thing to do. As I’ve written it there is the implication that if you believe in God you get to heaven, which some take as the ‘entry requirement’.

A friend likes to turn Pascal’s wager upside down and say something like, “If I don’t believe in God and find out heaven’s real then I get a double bonus as I haven’t had to do all the religious stuff and I get to heaven as well”

Then there is the ‘Christian’ view that we can all go to heaven because of Jesus dying on the cross; he has bought our entry, we don’t have to do anything.

But is heaven like any of these concepts? Let’s apply some reason to the question.

I don’t invite people to my house as a reward for them being good. I invite them because I like them.

I don’t feel I have a right to go to someone else’s house because I’ve been good. I only go if I have an invite, and because I want to get to know them better because I expect to like them.

Heaven is God’s house. Wouldn’t we expect a similar situation to apply to heaven? Isn’t it a cheek to expect to go to his house just because we’ve done good deeds? Isn’t it reasonable to only go if we want to get to meet God? Would we expect to treat God with less respect than we would treat our neighbours?

And what of this idea that once we get there we can just enjoy all the things we’ve given up to get there? Seventy-two virgins…. Yet I wonder if they would consider it heaven. And that’s really the point. Heaven is not set up for me as an individual to live in wanton pleasure to the detriment of everyone else. Heaven must be a place where everyone lives for the good of everyone else – otherwise it wouldn’t be heaven. When I helped in prison, the chaplain used to say ‘Sin can’t get into heaven’. If sin was allowed, it would be no different to here; it would not be heaven.

Therefore, if you or I want to hold on to our selfish ways, if we want to hold on to any of our ‘sin’ then we cannot be allowed to enter.

We need a transforming of our mind to be able to enjoy heaven; heaven would be ‘hell’ if we didn’t enjoy and thrive on being selfless and loving.

It’s not about ‘be good and go to heaven’. We need to be willing to undergo complete transformation of our way of thinking if we want to be fitted for heaven, we need a new ‘heart’. That’s what so much of Christ’s teaching was all about – how to be completely selfless and loving, putting others before oneself, preparing ourselves for heaven.

Things that matter to a Minimalist Christian – Hope!

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Sometimes people will say things like “God would never forgive me for the things I’ve done”. They have given up on themselves, and they have no hope or expectation for the future. They recognise what they have done wrong in the past, and are trapped there, unable to break free.

Central to a Minimalist Christian is that this is simply not true. There is always hope, whatever you have done and whatever situation you find yourself in.

Think about the person who recognises that they have ‘sinned’ and done stuff that they feel cannot be forgiven. How can they know that they have hope? We read early in the gospel of Mark that “Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” from which we can conclude that it is Good News to recognise and wish we hadn’t carried out all the bad things we’ve done, and ‘repent’ of them. So the recognition of what we’ve done is a first and positive step.

Later in Mark, Jesus says that “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven”.and at the end of Luke he says “There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.” When Jesus says ‘all’ he means ‘all’. None of us are beyond God’s forgiveness. And we learn that Jesus has the authority to forgive when he comes across a man paralysed from birth. Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” Later Jesus asks “Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” So Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, demonstrated by his power to perform miracles. However, he also delegates that authority to those who choose to follow him, for in John’s gospel he meets the disciples after he has been crucified and resurrected. Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” and we can know that his followers must forgive us because he explained it to Peter: Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! So, we can rest assured that if we have done bad things in the past, and we now regret them then we are forgiven as soon as we ask, and so we can move on in our lives with renewed hope for the future. And we can know that every time we mess up in the future and with regret ask once again for forgiveness that we will once again be forgiven. Jesus would not tell his followers to forgive ‘seventy seven’ times if he were not going to do that himself! But of course, if we don’t ask to be forgiven then we won’t receive forgiveness.

But suppose we are nearing the end of our lives. Is there any point in asking forgiveness, after all, we’re not going to be around much longer? Well yes! A Minimalist Christian knows that this life is not all that there is; there is a life to come. St Paul summarised this rather well when he said that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So whatever stage of life we find ourselves in, there is always hope and always sense in asking for and receiving God’s forgiveness.

And Jesus tells a story of how a landowner hired workers throughout the day, some only working a short time. But at the end of the day they were all paid the same amount. This shows that it is never too late to choose to receive his forgiveness, and to receive it in full.


The people that Jesus spoke to understood this, and in response to receiving forgiveness and hope they wanted to know what to do what was right in the future. Jesus told them, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” I’m not sure that anyone who recognises God as the creator and sustainer of the universe would argue with the first, and we all understand the second ‘golden rule’. But it’s nice to know that a good future is not a killjoy future.

Underpinning all of this hope is the knowledge that God loves each and every one of us. He demonstrated that love in such a powerful way, there can be no doubting it. As recorded in the gospel of John “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgement against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgement is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” Forgiveness and eternal life are freely available for anyone who wants them, but anyone who wants to keep living an evil life has already judged themselves; they will not seek forgiveness with a sorrowful heart and unless they ask they will not receive it.

So the bottom line is, whatever stage in life we are, no matter how much we’ve screwed up, no matter how unwilling we are to forgive ourselves, God will forgive us if we truly want him to and he will give us hope for the future.

If you feel you are worthless and if this speaks to you, give up your pride and self pity and just ask. And when you ask, know that you are forgiven. Embrace the hope that the future holds.