Last fall when the housing crisis became known, a group of us decided to pool our money to help people within our sphere of influence who might have tough times.  We believed it was our responsibility, and in fact our joy, to be there for them.  We didn’t know at that time, nor do we know now, how bad things might get, but we wanted to equip ourselves to help in any way that God might supply.

 

Our first opportunity came with a family that one person of our group knew whose husband and father is out of work.  We were able to buy that family a month’s worth of groceries.  It’s a small thing, maybe, especially in view of the fact that the family is losing its home.  But even at that, a month’s worth of groceries can take care of one concern so the family can concentrate on their other concerns, including what to do about housing.

 

What if unemployment hit 10%?  If ten of us each put into the pool 10% of our income, we’d be able to fully help 1 unemployed wage-earner within our sphere of influence.  Ten of us fully helping one family covers that 10% unemployment rate.

 

There’s a lot of controversy as to whether the government stimulus plans will actually help families.  Regardless of whether you think they will or they won’t, the quickest and most immediate help comes from you and me.  I have some specific ideas that I ask you to consider.

 

1.       I’m suggesting you help people directly within your sphere of

influence.  I’m not suggesting you become some sort of relief

organization helping everybody who comes along looking for a

handout.  If you contribute to relief organizations or churches

that have relief outreaches, that’s great, and in fact such

organizations need the support.  But my suggestion here is

direct person-to-person help, not just throwing money at

something through contributions and becoming self-satisfied.  If

the recession deepens, or if it becomes a depression, every

one of us will personally know people who are adversely

affected.  It’s these people who we know and have

relationships with that we should be prepared to directly help.

2.      Get together with a group of people and together commit to

helping others in this way.  Open a separate savings account,

either as individuals or an account designated as a pool

account, and feed that account with every paycheck you get. 

If there is nobody at this point within your sphere of influence

who is in need, keep feeding the account.  There very well may

be one or more people who God brings to you as time and

conditions go on.

3.      Be prepared to open your home and your pantry to one or

more people or families who need help.  Money and food go

a lot further when they are used for more than one family.  When I

was in seminary, a bunch of us for various reasons had

extreme money needs.  Since we all lived within about 20

minutes of each other, we got together every night at one of

our homes and all had dinner together.  One member of our

group even gave another member of the group his credit card

with the instructions to use it whenever he had a need that he

couldn’t meet himself.  It was a huge learning experience for

me, not only regarding the economic power of joining

together, but the power of sacrificial love in creating bonds

between people and families.  You may elect to have an

individual or even a family live with you in your home.  You

may have income property that you provide rent-free.  Or you

simply do whatever else your group has the means to do,

whether to purchase a month’s worth of groceries, or to just

 anonymously drop a sack of groceries on somebody’s

doorstep.  If you don’t have the means to do something big,

don’t ever think that you can’t do something.  And the more

of you who do it together, the more direct impact you’ll have

in the real lives of real people within your sphere of influence. 

4.      If you do contribute regularly to a relief organization or if

you contribute to a church that helps individuals and families,

for sure, continue doing that.  But don’t let that be a substitute

for your personal involvement in this way.  As a Christian, I see

this as a personal responsibility given directly to me by the

Lord Himself.  And I believe He gives me more responsibility

than simply getting a tax deduction through my throwing

money at it.  But as I said earlier, it’s not just my

responsibility – it’s my joy!  There’s a joyfulness in serving the

Lord in this way that is really hard to describe.  It may be

because the Lord is so pleased about our obeying Him in this way.

 

Please respond to this if you decide to do this, either here or by e-mail, so I can talk about what you're doing during KRKS Mornings.  And keep me posted as time goes on as to your experiences.  I want to learn from your experiences, and I’ll post insights as I grow in my experiences.  I believe this is one of the most important things we can do as individuals, as families, and as a nation.   

Have you ever understood one thing, only to have that understanding lead to a wrong conclusion on a related thing? Since the book of Galatians says salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, some people think that they therefore can traffic in any kind of sin as they live out their lives.

Paul deals with that error by the implications of his statement in Galatians, “through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself up for me.”

The Law, which we violated, according to the Jewish Scriptures in fact killed us. A law no longer has a hold on a dead man. Killed by the Law, we were crucified at the cross with Christ and rose with Him to share in His resurrection, no longer to live for ourselves but to live for God. No longer to live out of our own human powerlessness, but in fact Christ lives powerfully in and through us. We now follow His bidding, which is the definition of faith.

His bidding involves an inner transformation, which is detailed by Paul in his letter: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”

A person who has Christ living in him by the Holy Spirit has stronger impulses to obey God than one who is trying to obey using only his human effort. That’s because the Holy Spirit has united with our inner spirit to oppose the desires of the flesh from inside us. (We might try to “reform” by living according to the Old Testament Law or some other standard we regard as “good,” but we’re talking about something quite different from reform. We are not reforming ourselves, but rather are being transformed by the Spirit of God within us. That transforming impulse is much stronger than mere reformation, if for no other reason than God is relentless and not subject to our rationalizing away our sins.)

In our fellowship last week, we showed a video by former Congressman Bob McEwen who schematically illustrated this transformation. The schematic had three columns representing the tripartite human being: The left column represented our sin nature or the desires of the flesh; the middle column represented the soul consisting of our mind, will, and emotions; the right column represented our human spirit. He went back to the account of Adam and Eve’s fall in the first chapters of Genesis to point out that, as a result, all of their offspring – us – are born with a dead spirit. That means our flesh (the left column) is alive, and our soul (the middle column) is alive, but that part of us that was designed to interact with God, our spirit, is dead. (If you don’t buy the idea that your spirit is dead because of an action on the part of your first parents, then check your own life out and see if you have perfectly obeyed the Old Testament Law. I can promise you that you haven’t, and therefore the result is the same – your spirit is dead until it is brought alive or “born again.”)

Whichever way you arrive at it, our mind, will, and emotions are left with a sin nature, or “flesh,” raging inside us with no counter-acting spirit to oppose it. Some of us have been more effective at moderating that flesh than others, but we all have it attempting to dominate us. Paul details that nature: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these….” Paul’s reference to “things like these” is an interesting statement because it implies there is no end to the list. These are the things that occupy the left column in McEwen’s schematic.

As we have been seeing, salvation is by grace alone by faith alone. God comes “knocking on our door,” not because of any good thing that we have done, but simply because He wanted to. He gets our attention through various means. He had to knock Paul, the writer of Galatians, off a horse to get his attention. He let me destroy my marriage with Donna to get mine. But whatever the means, whether traumatic or not, once He gets our attention, we respond by agreeing with what He’s telling us, and that’s called faith. At that point of conversion, the Spirit of God brings our spirit alive (the right column.) We become “born again.” Paul says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” With our spirit now alive, the Holy Spirit does battle through our spirit (the right column) with the works of our flesh (the left column.) Our mind, will, and emotions (the middle column) now cooperates with the spirit to subdue and eventually put to death the deeds of the flesh.

“Eventually” is a key concept here. When a person’s spirit becomes born again, there are old habit-patterns, some of which are quite imbedded, that take time and effort for the Spirit to overcome. There are other things about which the newly born-again believer may not be familiar as being “wrong,” and an educational process is in order. And there may be a priority list that God has whereby one thing needs to be taken care of before another. That’s why we are not to judge others, because we might not know exactly how God wants the process to play out. We as observers are to be there to help, encourage, instruct, model, and above all pray for him or her. Lovingly confront, maybe, if the Lord seems to be asking us to do that, but not to judge.

As for the newly born-again, his responsibility is to learn how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. (That’s another aspect of faith.} Every one of us who has been with the Lord for a long period of time knows that those things that once seemed so dominating in our flesh eventually lose to the spirit as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. That’s what it means to live no longer for ourselves, but for God in the power of a resurrected life.

A word of caution: things from the sinful nature can be fanned into flame again, so once the Holy Spirit conquers those things, don’t step even your big toe back into indulging in what has been conquered. It’s like an alcoholic having “just one drink.” There’s no such thing. Put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit of God and continue living for God, never again going back (Scripture likens going back to a dog returning to its vomit.)

Scripture References
Galatians 2:19-21
Ezekiel 18:1-4
Genesis 2:15-3:24
Galatians 5:16-25
2nd Peter 2:18-22

For the past few weeks whenever I worked out at the gym, it seemed the heartbeat monitor was wrong on every machine I used.  I was getting pretty disgusted about that so this past week I tested a whole row of machines, and every one of them showed a heart rate of 150 before my even beginning my workout.  Armed with this indisputable knowledge, I sought out the general manager and told him that all of his machines were calibrated wrong.  Puzzled, he got on a machine himself and it was something like in the 80s.  Then I tried it, and it was 150.

 

As he stared at me as some sort of a phenomenon, it dawned on me: just the week before, I had been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.  The machine was picking up a heart flutter which was sort of like a drunken bongo player.  Stuttering and stammering in embarrassment, with a developing twitch in my eye, I acknowledged that the 150 was correct and thank you very much for your time, sir.

 

 As he walked away I just know he was making a mental note marking me as one of those loony customers that every manager and clerk tries at all costs to avoid.  I expect the next time I come into the gym, he’ll quickly look the other way hoping I won’t recognize him so I won’t come over to him with some other goofy thing. 

 

Like asking him why his abs machine isn’t working properly since I obviously don’t have the same abs that are on the posters in the gym. 

 

(Now that I think of it, maybe just for fun I will seek him out and ask him that.) 

 

At any rate, it is apparent that I discovered the beginning of an irregular heartbeat some weeks ago at the gym without even knowing it, when every machine I worked out on showed a heart rate of 150.  I also more recently developed periodic shortness of breath and dizzy spells.  Initially I thought it was some sort of cold or flu that had settled in my chest, but when it persisted, I went to my family doctor who diagnosed the irregular heartbeat.  He referred me to a cardiologist who prescribed medication to slow the heart rate and thus eliminate the shortness of breath and dizzy spells.  The cardiologist also scheduled an echocardiogram to find out if there was any structural problem with my heart.

 

As an aside, my friend Bill Rogan, who is sports director at our sister station, KNUS, is a rabid Notre Dame fan.  I am a Michigan State graduate, and of course therefore have no use for Notre Dame.  You probably know that Notre Dame is a Catholic university.  Doesn’t make any difference to me – I still have no use for Notre Dame.  But upon hearing of my heart-related issues, Bill was very concerned, and reminded me that I could die at any moment.  Then his tone became very ominous when he said, “Tom, I think you should give very serious consideration to becoming a Notre Dame fan before it’s too late.”

 

Notre Dame notwithstanding, the echocardiogram showed that my heart is healthy.  The irregular heartbeat, as I understand it, has something to do with the electrical charges that govern the heart rate.  In addition to dealing with the difficulty breathing and dizziness, the medication is also designed to deal with the risk of blood clots and strokes.  If you have shortness of breath, dizziness, or any kind of chest pain, check it out.  Even if you think it is the result of last night’s pizza, if it continues, check it out.  Even if you’re a Notre Dame fan, check it out.

 

So it looks like I’ll live a little longer.  My wife, Donna, can put the insurance policies away, take back the new clothes she bought, and set aside plans to contact old boyfriends.  Dying of a heart attack, at least for now, is off the table.

 

Now, if I can just avoid getting hit by a truck.

 

Oh, one other thing: Beat Notre Dame!

 

The attendance by heads of state at the United Nations in September gave yet another opportunity to magnify the belligerent rhetoric of Iran’s (seemingly) ever-smiling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.   He made the statement in October, 2005, that “Israel must be wiped off the face of the map.”  During a D-8 Summit of mostly Muslim developing nations this past summer Ahmadinejad was asked for clarification - if he objected to the government of Israel or Jewish people.  He was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation on July 8, 2008: “Creating an objection against the Zionists doesn’t mean that there are objections against the Jewish.” He added that Jews lived in Iran and were represented in the country’s parliament.  If his “clarification” is honest (which in itself is questionable) his problem with the existence of Israel is that it exists as a geopolitical entity occupying land that he believes should belong to the Palestinians.   If I get this “clarification” right, the “map” that he referred to in his “wipe off the map” statement is something like Rand-McNally should be labeling the region “Palestinians” and not “Israel.”  He made a similar “clarification” during his September appearance at the U.N. – He has nothing against the Jews as a people, but rather against “the Zionists” as a state.  By implication that state should not be named on the piece of paper we call a “map.”  He wishes to give us comfort that he has no intention of attacking Israel or annihilating Jewish people.  This, in turn, should give us no concern about his desire for “peaceful” nuclear capabilities. 

 

His clarification does not give me any comfort whatsoever.    

 

First of all, you cannot separate the Jews as a people from Israel as a land.  God, who is the landowner, gave the land to that people as His chosen tenants (as it were.)  While there are specific boundaries that are yet to be fulfilled (in God’s time and God’s way) the prophecies of the Jews returning to the land have been fulfilled….and, by the way, with Israel being recognized by international law as a geopolitical entity.  Yes, there are and will continue to be efforts to destroy the people chosen to occupy that land, stretching right up to the time the Messiah destroys Israel’s enemies as written in Zechariah 14.  But even in the face of efforts to destroy Israel, God will continue to enforce His decree.  It is my opinion that the 1967 Arab-Israeli war when Israel destroyed a militarily superior force in just 6 days is evidence of that.

 

Secondly, it’s important for us to remember God promises to bless those who bless Israel, and, ominously, curse those who curse Israel.  People, whether terrorists or countries, who think they can remove Israel from the land have an unbeatable foe – God Himself!  Certainly there are a lot of issues Israel needs to deal with concerning her neighbors including the Palestinians.  But whatever the complexities of the issues in this fallen world, one thing is certain - God Himself has special concern for the people He chose to be in that land.  We Christians, who according to St. Paul have been grafted into Israel, must be among those who bless Israel through our continual prayers, our assistance, and our politics.  And we must always be on heightened alert for those who threaten Israel’s existence. 

 

Iran used to be known as Persia.  In fact, Ahmadinejad’s “wipe Israel off the face of the map” comment was made in the Persian language.  The book of Esther in the Jewish Scriptures tells about a time when the Jews were exiled in Persia and enemies within Persia attempted to completely destroy them.  At that time also, God saved them.  It may or may not be pure coincidence that Iran seems to be positioning itself in very much the same place that its Persian forebears were.  But the fact that this is coming from the same soil where Esther and her people were threatened with extinction increases my already elevated alert level.