Now Walk With God

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

My family used to be ancestor-worshippers. Barely five years old, I assisted my mother by carrying plates laden with food and fruits to serve and place them before the ornately framed photographs of my grandparents. We would burn incense and joss-sticks and pray to each grandparent in turn, asking for their blessings. This ritualistic performance of  worship at every Chinese New Year or the birthdays of the dearly departed served as a vivid reminder of the social-spiritual relationship and hierarchy between men and gods.

I became a Christian in my teenage years. Members of my family followed suit several years later. Naturally, we expunged the ancestor-worship routines from our lives, treating such practices as superstitious drivel. However, in discarding all practical rituals of worship and removing them from familial traditions, we missed a very illustrative manner to express our devotion. 

How do we worship? In the Old Testament, the prophet Micah asked a series of rhetorical questions (Micah 6:6-7): 

“With what shall I come before the LORD 

and bow down before the exalted God? 

Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, 

Shall I come before Him with yearling calves? 

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, 

with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? 

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, 

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Considering these questions allow us to be in the right frame of mind to reaffirm the appropriate relationship between the Creator God and His lowly servants. With some trepidation, we could respectfully ask, “What can I offer you God?”. To which, the real answer is, that there is nothing of any value we could give that would be adequate. 

The early Christians were willing to become martyrs. Even so, the offering our very lives would not be adequate. How can we find any proper offering in exchange for the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ?

Still, it is alright to approach God with these questions. These almost unanswerable questions will make us see our unworthiness and place all our achievements and possessions in their proper perspective. Perhaps the only appropriate response is not in considering what offering to bring or what sacrifices to make but to ask, “What do you require me to do?” The prophet Micah's answer was

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.”

This invitation to walk with God is unbelievably gracious. There is a description of this walk with God in Genesis 3:8: “the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day”. The only two persons to have enjoyed such an experience in 'the cool of the day' and to have heard 'the sound of the Lord' were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 

What a waste! Despite enjoying such blissfulness with God, Adam and Eve, in their pride, chose to disobey God and thus rob us of Eden. But now Jesus presents us with another opportunity to walk with God, 'Now Walk With God' 

On God's holy word I challenge you.

To give to the Lord your life anew, 

My friend, make your choice; he waits for you

For this is the moment of truth.

Now walk with God and he will be your dearest friend

Where'er you go; in everything you do

And may your life reflect His love to everyone

Now walk with God and He will walk with you.

  

What will the nature of this walk with God be?  I think it will be:

• A physical experience: a walk by the sea or in the woods, in touch with nature and to note the beauty of God's creation in the cool of the day.

• A prayerful experience: a walk that will be contemplative and inspiring; a respectful conversation and fellowship will ensue.

• A practical experience: a walk involving some form of ministry to others especially to the poor, needy and downtrodden.

Lionel

Updated the article which was first published on 1 January 2011

Generosity - the Joy of Giving

Generosity
Originally Uploaded by richbeechina

‘Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?’ Ecc 5:10-11  

In today's materialistic society, we are tempted to buy more than we actually need. Going home after shopping, we are carrying lots of shopping bags full of things we will seldom use. We shoppers do not open our eyes. We fail to see that in the same places where the shopping is good, there are also many people who are very poor and needy. Many of our neighbours struggle to put food on the table. Yet we go around wasting our money and showing off our wealth.

Can we give up our spendthrift ways? Can we help others in need? Someone shared:

Why should we give money to save the heathen abroad 

when there are heathens in our own country yet to be saved.

Why should we give money to those in other parts of this country 

when there are needy ones in my own state.

Why should I give to those in other parts of the state 

when there are needy ones in my hometown.

Why should I give to the poor in the town 

when my own church needs the money.

Why should I give to the church 

when I should give to the family

Why should I give to the family what I want for myself.

Why?

Because I am a Christian and I am not a heathen. 

And a Christian is called to be generous.

 

What is generosity? It is the act of helping and giving willingly without expecting anything in return.

The first offerings described in the Bible is that by Cain and Abel in Gen 4:3-7. Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. God’s preference of Abel's to Cain's offering has nothing to do with meat over crop offering. Cain’s attitude in giving back to the Lord mirrors the attitudes of many Christians, we give what we think is good enough for God but not the best, not our first fruits.

Proverbs 3:9-10 encourages us to ‘Honour the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.’ The Christians who expound the prosperity gospel see this as a guarantee to wealth; give and you will get more. Grace and Blessings are not the results of bargain or tit-for-tat. To give generously and not expect anything in return is to honour God.

How can we be generous Christians?

Generosity comes by Purpose: John Wesley in his sermon “The Use of Money " had this to say “The love of money, we know, is the root of all evil; but not the thing itself. The fault does not lie in the money, but in them that use it. It may be used ill: and what may not? But it may likewise be used well: It is full(y) as applicable to the best, as to the worst uses.” The first lesson about being generous is to learn to use money for the good that can come from it. Cor 8:3,4 notes, "For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing the gospel." Instead of giving impulsively, give purposefully. 

Dr David Livingston, missionary and explorer extraordinaire said “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If anything I have will advance the interest of the kingdom it shall be used or given away. Only as by giving or using it, I may promote the glory of him who I owe all my hopes in time and eternity.” Another great doctor-missionary Albert Schweitzer said, “One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” 

Generosity comes by Grace. 2 Cor 8:6 notes “ .. we urge Titus that as he begun so he would also complete this grace in you as well…meaning he would continue to encourage you to give as God’s grace enables you to.” We think that only rich people can be generous. When we meet a truly generous person – we know that it is a gift from God, a person given by God the gift of generosity.  Those who really give a lot don’t boast about it. They can be rich and they can be poor but they know deep inside that they can give only because they have experienced the love of God, the touch of God and they feel gratitude.

Hudson Taylor, a poor medical student, once chanced upon a widow with many children. One child was sick and in need of medicine. Hudson Taylor was filled with compassion; he started to pray. As he was praying he heard a voice whispering to him, “hypocrite.” He continued praying but the voice again said, ‘hypocrite.’ Hudson reached into his pocket and he felt a half a crown which was the next week’s tuition fees. Hudson gave that half crown to the widow and left, not knowing when he would eat his next meal. The next day, in the mail Hudson received a letter from a friend. The friend had written that he was moved to hand some money to Hudson. In that envelop was money seven times that half a crown.

Generosity comes by Giving. 2 Cor 8: 5 “And this they did not as we had expected but they first gave themselves to God and then to us by the will of God." John Wesley in the same sermon on the use of money said, “Let not any man imagine that he has done anything, barely by going thus far, by "gaining and saving all he can," if he were to stop here. All this is nothing, if a man go not forward. Add the third rule to the two preceding. Having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then give all you can."

This is the time to give. The Corona virus pandemic is not just a threat to public health but also to economic livelihood. The requirement to stay at home and to close all businesses in order to break the cycle of transmission will bring untold suffering, loss of income and savings. Many Singaporeans will have difficulty to make ends meet. Furthermore thousands of foreign workers have been afflicted by the virus. Many of them are not able to work as the government shuts down all construction work. These people will need help.

If there is someone who has given generously, we will find in this person someone given to God. Our lives are in God’s hands. If you are truly consecrated to God what do you have to fear? That you have no money?

Lionel