daily java

Daily Java:

Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.” But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.” But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!” So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah. (1 Kings 17:9-16)

You have ten dollars left for a while to feed your family. The preacher comes up and says, give me five. You want to honor the man of God and you respect him and all. But what do you do?

The famine was bad and there no food. The widow in this narrative had just enough flour and oil left to feed herself and her son one more time and then they would die. The prophet came up and asked, bring me something to eat. She told him her predicament, that two small loves of bread stood between her and starvation and they were about to eat them.

Do it anyway, he said. and use what is left to make you and your son a meal. But if you do this, you will never again run out of meal or oil. And she did.

It took a fair amount of faith for her to give him what he asked for, especially since it was all she had. But she did. And she was blessed for it.

We may not have much, but God said that he would bless us in what we had and in what we gave. Sometimes we may not be able to give money, but there is something we can give. She had a little food and she gave it. And God blessed her. She had flour and oil forever.

As long as we give, God gives to us.

Ella and I are extremely short on money. We cannot give any. There is absolutely no extra. But we have time and we have talents. And one other thing we have is the desire and the ability to feed people.

We are always having people over to our home. It has been that way for a long time. And the great thing about it is we have never wanted for food. We have a full freezer of stuff right now. As long as we share it, we have more.

This is not because we are so great, but it is because we want to give hospitality to others. We believe in it and have for a long time.

Several years back, I had invited someone over for supper. We were in a monetary fix at the time then too. Ella was obviously unhappy. I finally asked her what was wrong. She replied, “We have no money and you are giving our food away!” I opened the freezer door and it was jam packed with food. I opened the other freezer door on the other refrigerator and it too was full. It had meat, cheese, bread, vegetables – everything you can imagine – in abundance.

She realized the unique and really kind of weird blessing we had from God. As long as we do it, we have plenty. As long as we give it away, we have plenty.

And not only that, we bring people in the church together in a small group setting. I learn more about others and they learn about us. we talk about God and the things of grace and we have a good time.

It makes a difference. In many ways, we – Ella and I – are the only real hospitality outlet of our church. Outside of us, there is not a lot of getting together. I want to change that.

But it starts with me and with my generosity with what I have. When I am generous with others, God multiplies it to me.

Praise his name.

daily java

Daily Java:

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

The point made here was not the stuff done. It was the service and selflessness behind the stuff.

Those who had helped Jesus, who had fed him and clothed him and all, never knew it was Jesus. They are surprised. “We didn’t know it was you. We fed a lot of people but don’t remember you.”

Jesus answer: when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. I was there in the midst of those people that needed help. I was there in their hearts and I was there in your heart when you helped.

Those who didn’t help said, “Wait. If you had told us it was you, we would have given you the best of what we had. All we saw was a bunch of poor people.” And again his reply: when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.

Again, the point was that those who were in Christ helped as they were helped. They loved as they were loved. The others waited for just the right opportunity so they wouldn’t waste their money.

I read an article the other day that said that conservative people tend to give a lot more money to charities and church and the like than liberal minded people. Their mindset is different.

You can imagine the liberals being at the front of any well-publicized event, with names in the paper and pictures taken. The others just do it out of love.

Jesus said here that if you love him, you are going to help others in some way. You may not have a lot of money, or things to give, but if you love him, you will do so.

When his heart is in your heart, you share your heart with others.

picking up hitchhikers

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! (Hebrews 13:2)

Jay Nordlinger in his column in National Review Online called Impromptus says this about hitchhikers:

“A final thought? A friend and I were talking about this the other day. Not so long ago, this country was full of hitchhikers. People hitchhiked all over the country. Especially young people — that was how you saw the country, if you didn’t have very much money.
There came a time when you couldn’t: It was just too dangerous. Such a shame.
It is a shame, yes, that you can’t hitchhike. But you know what is the bigger shame? That you can’t pick up hitchhikers. You want to stop and help someone, give him a lift. You may even desire the company. But is it wise?”

I was thinking about that and remembered four times when it was a good idea to pick up a hitchhiker.

The first was as I was driving back to Texas from Seattle in 1987. I was driving a 1971 Plymouth Duster that was overloaded with the big UHaul trailer full of books and a motorcycle and other stuff. I was getting 100 miles to a tank of gas.

I was driving through Wyoming and ran out of gas a couple of miles from some town on the freeway. I started walking and a man picked me up and took me into a little town where the gas station was just about to open for the morning. As we rode, he said that he picked up about eight people a year on that stretch of freeway. I was grateful.

The second was in Texas as a pastor friend and I were headed to a pastors’ meeting in Abilene, TX. We were driving through the area around Waco when we saw a woman in high heels walking away from a car parked on the highway.

We stopped my Chevette and offered her a ride. She had a ways to go before she got anywhere with a phone. She debated in her mind about getting into a car with two men (both of whom were wearing suits and ties). Finally the fact that she was wearing high heels and was stranded won out over her fear.

She got into the car and sat very quietly in the back seat. My friend and I ignored her as we knew she was nervous and went on talking about something (probably some obscure Bible interpretation) until we got to a convenience store. She thanked us and went in the store. We drove off.

The third was a friend of mine who had been in jail on a false charge and was suddenly without any notice released from the jail into a town fifteen miles from home with the money he had on him at the time of arrest ($4) and his clothes. Even though his arrest turned out to be false, he had been in jail for over two years. His hair and beard was long, but for some reason a woman picked him up and took him the fifteen miles to home where we, in great surprise, welcomed him. We have no idea who she was. Since he had accepted Jesus in the jail, we figure he might have had a divine intervention.

The fourth was a man who was walking out in the middle of nowhere dressed nicely and in obvious non-walking shoes. He had been trying to make the next town and ran out of gas.

None of these people were dangerous. But with all the hitchhiker movies and such, including the 24 hour a day cable news programs, we have perceived hitchhiking as dangerous.

When I was in Germany, I knew enough French that I hitchhiked with Arabs. Most of them knew French so it was simpler, since I had not yet learned enough German to get around. In fact, young people hitchhiked all over Europe in those days.

It is a shame that something as innocuous as hitchhiking has gotten such a bad rep, but it is mostly due to our perception, not reality.

In seminary, we were talking about the Good Samaritan parable and how the man involved was beaten, robbed and left for dead. The teach made the comment that the parable told us to help others. But he had to admit, it was more dangerous today. One of us in the class asked, “How is it more dangerous today than then? The man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. Hard to get more dangerous than that.” The teacher had nothing to say.

But Jesus still said to help. Hebrews 13:2 said to do so. The Bible in general encourages us to help others no matter the problems or inconvenience to us. After all, it was terribly inconvenient for Jesus to be killed. Yet he went to the cross willingly.

Just a thought.

daily java

Daily Java:

There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas). She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. About this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room. But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!”  So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up! He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive. (Acts 9:36-41)

A great tragedy had hit the church at Joppa. One of its prominent members had died. She had touched everyone in that church and had done a lot of good. She had a great talent. What was it?

She was a seamstress. She made coats for poor people.

That’s it. She wasn’t a great speaker or a rich woman who gave a lot. She didn’t write books about the grace of God or systematic theology. She just made clothes for poor people.

And she was so important to that church that an apostle came. And not just any apostle, either. It was the great Peter, leader of the Twelve.

Peter came in and the room was filled with the ones who had benefited from her generosity. And they were all weeping at the loss of such a great woman.

After everybody left, Peter told her to get up and she did. There was joy in the church. People were happy. Their seamstress was alive again.

It is easy to exalt those who are mighty speakers, great teachers, good writers, that have visible, very public talents. But there are also those in the church without whom the church would have a tough time existing. The teacher teaches, someone has to be taught. The writer writes, someone has to read.

But then there are the people that serve in smaller ways. There are those who keep the church lawn, who take food to sick people’s families, who encourage, who are generous, who show the love of Christ in a million small ways.

In Romans 12, the apostle Paul said:

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly (12:6-8).

The things we do well are gifts from God, no matter how small or great they are.

Tabitha, or Dorcas as she was called in Greek, was such a person. Her gift was a combination of skill and generosity. Someone else may have paid for the cloth, but she gave the time and effort to make them.

And it made such a difference that she was singled out, from all the dead people, to be brought back to life.