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Obedience Before Sacrifice

What if I told you that Jesus didn’t die for you and I. You would think…”well, this concludes my reading of this crazy blog.” But, in fact, He didn’t. He died because he knew it was God’s design…God’s order… God’s plan and it was his duty to be obedient.

My brother and I once were asked to obey by cleaning the living room. I was slower to get up than my brother. He quickly became anxious and said “what about Jason? why isn’t he helping?” My dad then immediately instructed me to sit down in the living room and watch my brother clean the entire room by himself. He told my brother, “I told you to do something. What he does is not your concern. You worry about you.” My dad was looking for obedience and this was a chance to teach that. Does it sound harsh to make a kid clean a room while everyone else watches? Maybe to some. But I never forgot it. So it worked. It taught me about obedience.

Most of us have heard the story of Jesus praying before the betrayal of Judas. He knows what’s coming. So he decides to sit down and have a little chat with God. He basically gets so stressed he can’t stand up. He asks God 3 different times to remove this burden from him. He didn’t want to do this. The only thing that drove him to the cross was his obedience and love for his father. I’m fully convinced Jesus could’ve taken many different routes. He could have just wiped out an entire army with one command. But he chose to be obedient.

We often find ourselves trying to negotiate with God. We have a better idea. We have a plan that works. “I gave my tithe to the homeless man. I think God would understand.” Actually, no, He doesn’t. He understands obedience. Jesus could have said, “I’ll still sacrifice, just in a different way…surely you’ll understand, Dad…right?” This is tough for all of us. But for God it’s very simple. OBEDIENCE BEFORE SACRIFICE. Sacrifice is good. Sacrifice is necessary. But obedience is imperative. It’s imperative to validate the sacrifice. Without the obedience, the sacrifice falls on dead ground. The moment we decide we know better, we immediately walk away from the best God has to offer. The moment we choose to put our tithe where we think it will be better served, it then serves as a burden to us, instead of a blessing. I use tithe because this happens more often than anything else. But it’s certainly not limited to that.

Jesus knew he could give his life. He was hoping to just do it in a way that maybe God hadn’t thought of yet. (feels funny to even type that). Notice that after he prays, he checks on his guys who are sleeping. He scolds them, telling them he needs their help. Yeah, Jesus said he needed their help. Chew on that a second. Jesus wasn’t afraid to ask for help from his friends. Then he returns a second time. Same result. Then a third. This means that he asked God 3 times… “you sure about this one? There has to be another way!”  All three times God had the same answer. The ball was in Jesus’ court. Obey or doom all of mankind. He chose to obey. Learning to simply obey will enrich your life. Teaching your children to obey will save theirs. Teaching them to obey requires consistency, firmness, compassion and a willingness to not let your feelings get in the way of a lesson learned. Had my dad worried about our feelings on the matter(that also felt funny to type), I would not have learned that lesson.

Throughout the Bible, obedience always came before love, sacrifice, generosity, encouragement… anything and everything. Obedience came first. Obedience opens the door for everything else to be validated and supported by God. I’m thankful that Jesus decided to be obedient. As a result, we all have an open door to the very Guy that carved out the oceans and painted the sky. Stay classy GP!

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To Think or Not to Think

I remember being told to be quiet in church. Told how to be polite. How not to be rude. Steered in certain directions. Then as I got older, I was told to make my own decisions. Be an individual. Have my own opinions. Then as an adult, it was like it went back to childhood. Next thing you know, you’re being told how to think again.

I grew up around all boys. I understood boys. How they thought, felt, acted. I knew what a boy across the room was thinking without him ever saying a word. And it was usually about sports or boobs. I mean, what else was there? I never understood the difficulties and types of hard challenges that girls faced every day just being a girl. The way their mind worked. What was important to them. How fragile and soft they were. “That time of the month!” I never understood any of this until I had daughters. My daughters changed my entire life, starting with my thinking. I chose to be the best dad I could possibly be. By doing so, I had to begin to understand how a little girl worked. But the only way I was going to achieve this was to forget what I knew and genuinely listen to what they said. I teach my children and bonus children all the time that the key to life summed up in one word is “Others.” I had to, as a dad, put “others” before me. In doing so, I saw a brand new perspective on life. A totally different way of operating life. It was mind blowing…. for the better. Be transformed by the renewing of your gym membership. Wait… no… it’s the renewing of your mind.

This is not at all about the details of the Kavanaugh case but rather how we as Americans handled the news. This Kavanaugh situation is a direct combination of the first two paragraphs. We, as an American society, have somehow gotten to a place where we’ve stopped thinking for ourselves and allowed a group, club, team, (that could easily be translated “people that give me purpose”) to decide how we feel about something. We have completely flipped to “guilty until proven innocent.” All because we can’t think for ourselves. We’ve bought in to this “pack mentality” that says if someone smarter than me says it, then it must be true. So I believe it too.

WE MUST FIND A WAY TO GET BEYOND HOW LITTLE WE DIFFER IN ORDER TO SEE HOW MUCH WE ARE ALIKE.

There isn’t a single republican, Democrat, tea party, Whig party, independent or libertarian in the world that was going to make me decide on Kavanaugh’s innocence or guilt prior to hearing facts. I simply refused in the face of a missing solidarity that our country once had.

So maybe you’re reading this and thinking, maybe I’ve been unwilling to hear another point of view and be willing to accept it as an intelligent idea and genuinely try to see things from their perspective. Well there’s hope. But it will require you to get beyond yourself and serve others. To make every attempt to look through their eyes. Then, and only then, will we stop spewing hate rhetoric about a man, or a woman and their families without hearing FACTS. Think for yourself. Don’t be a puppet for any political party. It’s not worth it. It tears families apart and ruins lifelong friendships. It’s completely up to you to think….or not to think.

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Giving is ALWAYS for the Giver

Giving is ALWAYS for the giver. Receiving is ALWAYS a burden. Once we understand this basic principal, we can proceed with caution. We are all quick to receive. Gimme gimme gimme. We are usually reluctant to give, unless someone is watching. But here’s the problem…

I’ll never forget the time we rescued an Australian Shepherd puppy. He was too young to have done anything that he was born to do. We put in an ad to place him and a farmer calls. We take him to the farm to meet the farmer. The puppy sees the herd of cattle and starts panting and wagging his tail. Keep in mind that there’s a very slim chance he’s ever seen a cow in his young life. We disclaim to the farmer that he may take some time to be trained because he’s never been out of a suburban neighborhood that we know of. The farmer then looks to him and says, “Go ahead boy!” he looks up at us as if to ask permission. We say “Go!” He takes off like lightening and immediately successfully herds the cattle where the farmer wanted them. He was born to do this. He never had to be taught. It was purely innate in him. We don’t have to be taught to give. It’s innate in us. It causes all types of things to happen. Science tells us that giving, no matter how big or small, releases endorphins in our brain. There’s a reason. The Creator made us that way. This explains a parents’ delight in watching their children open Christmas presents. Parents benefit more than the child. The Bible actually says “Give and it will be given back, pressed down, shaken together and running over”…in Red letters, btw. So the measure in which we give will be given back. But what about receiving?

This is where the whole conversation gets tough. We like to receive things. I know I do. But what we have to understand is that if we’re receiving something, it’s usually because we lack it. Once we receive what we lack, it instantly becomes a burden until it is used correctly. One example of this that is familiar to me is when someone in a visible position receives compliments. They are showered with, “you’re the best singer in the world!” or “you are so awesome!” So far there’s nothing wrong. What they do with those compliments is the key. If they choose to wear them, thereby believing that they are the reason for the compliments, then the problem begins. But if they collect it to the side and later, in the quiet place, offer them to God saying, “Hey, look what they said about you”, then the compliment is no longer a burden.

See, we weren’t meant for that much praise. We weren’t designed to receive. We were designed to give. I personally believe this is what killed Elvis. He didn’t know what to do with all the accolades and began believing that he was the reason for the success, instead of believing that God was the reason for it all. There were times in his life that he gave God credit. He even recorded true Gospel records later in life. But he was never consistent in offering the praise in the proper direction. So next time someone is offering something, make sure you’re able to use it, or distribute it correctly before agreeing. Remember though, sometimes it’s necessary to receive what someone is giving just to
make sure you’re not robbing them of a blessing. But again, making sure that you use the gift properly or it will become and remain a burden.

Something that was previously mentioned is the fact that we only give if someone is watching. Why is that? What is it that makes us need to be recognized for our giving? The answer is quite simple, yet very complex. The simple answer is that we don’t fully understand who we are in Christ. If we knew exactly who God says we are and bought into that, we wouldn’t need anyone else to pat us on the back for doing what God calls us to do on a daily basis. After healing the man with leprosy, Jesus told him not to tell anyone who did this. Why would He do that? Because he understood this principal and as a result, his genuine concern was for the welfare of this man and not His self-promotion.

So knowing all of this, why is it so tough to just give? I’m as guilty, if not more guilty than anyone reading this. We could talk all day about the various answers to this question but it comes down to one primary thing. We simply don’t trust God. We believe that we must hang on to what we have for fear that we’ll never have it again. But God said “give and it will be given back to you”… so why don’t we just give? Trust. Lack of trust also stems from a need for control. If you’ve lived a chaotic life, full of dysfunction, having never been in control of anything that happened to you, you feel the need to be in total control of your life from here on. Sometimes, trusting God means not being in total control. (Lord have mercy! Now I know what mt father means when he says that he often preaches to an audience of one-himself). I didn’t grow up in dysfunction. But I still struggle with trusting immensely. The fact remains, once we trust, giving follows. And what follows that… is the coolest chapter of your life.

Lastly as a side note, I’ve, all too often, heard ministers referring to Tithes as generosity. The two are not related. Proper perspective is everything. Tithe is obedience. Malachi 3:8. What you give above that is generosity. So when reviewing this, don’t consider tithe as giving. It’s relinquishing what wasn’t yours in the first place. Giving is above and beyond that. Well, this was going great until I said that. HA! Truth is truth. I didn’t make it up. I just scribed it down.
Giving is ALWAYS for the giver.