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Psalm 112 – How the Godly Man Can Live Open-Hearted

[Listen to an audio version here]

When I was in Egypt, I saw over and over again a spirit of generosity that really surprised me. Everywhere I went I had experiences like the ones I had in a restaurant one night. A guy had on a Star Wars shirt, and I really liked it. I told him so. Without any hesitation, he replied, you can have it, if it fits you. This was the sort of response I got everywhere.

Here’s another example. After going to two restaurants, I told our tour manager, this is just too much food. We cannot eat all of this. We can’t even come close! Here’s what he suggested. After you eat, he said, ask for a box. Then, ask them to give it to someone who needs this food or have your tour guide help you give it to someone in need. That way, you will bless someone who needs it, and it will help you build a relationship with the people who see you give.

Everywhere I went, I found this same sort of attitude. It was not just giving to the poor. It was welcoming people with gladness. It was truly valuing people. I came up with a name for this type of living. I call it open-hearted living.

It’s not easy to live open-hearted. We get wrapped up in our own activities. We have anxiety over our own things. We get preoccupied with our own problems. So, here is the question I kept asking myself, how do we find the resources that will enable us to live in an open-hearted way toward others? How can we keep giving, when others don’t give to us? How can we remain gracious when times are tough? What resources do we have to enable us to show kindness when others are unkind? That’s the question that I think this Psalm answers for us. Let’s consider this answer in four steps. First, let’s consider the reaction that we should have to those around us. Second, let’s look at the resources we have to react that way. Third, we’ll look at how we should respond to the resources available to us. Finally, we will look at the amazing results that come from using this resource.

Our Reaction to Those Around Us
How does the blessed man live in relationship to those around him? He is a giver. “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor” (Psalm 112:9). The word used here for “freely scattered” indicates a wide variety and large quantity of gifts. It involves money and material resources but also encouragement, friendship, and emotional support as well.

Let me note on the side here that the person who is truly open-hearted is not only a good giver. He is a good receiver. You build community not only by giving to others, but you also build community by allowing others to do you good. In other words, you build community not only by loving but also by letting others show love to you. Continue reading “Psalm 112 – How the Godly Man Can Live Open-Hearted”

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The Unity of the Evangelical Protestant Church on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone

There’s no question that the variety of churches can be a bit dizzying. How did we get so many denominations? It’s a long story!

What’s easy to miss is the amazing unity that exists on the most important doctrines of the faith. There is a surprising amount of unity on what the Bible teaches about who God is, who man is, what his problem is, and how he comes to eternal salvation.

One of the key points of agreement is in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. What this means is that whatever we have done or however much we have failed, God forgives us and accepts us a free gift received by faith alone without any of our obedience, merits, or works. We also teach that good works are the fruit of this justification, but we always emphasize that our free acceptance is the root and the good works are fruit of that acceptance.

Here are a few examples from some of the historic documents of evangelical churches for your edification:

Wesleyan: We believe that justification is the judicial act of God whereby a person is accounted righteous, granted full pardon of all sin, delivered from guilt, completely released from the penalty of sins committed, by the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith alone, not on the basis of works.

Augsburg (Lutheran): Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4. . . . Furthermore, it is taught on our part that it is necessary to do good works, not that we should trust to merit grace by them, but because it is the will of God. It is only by faith that forgiveness of sins is apprehended, and that, for nothing. And because through faith the Holy Ghost is received, hearts are renewed and endowed with new affections, so as to be able to bring forth good works (Art. 20). Continue reading “The Unity of the Evangelical Protestant Church on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone”

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Calibrate Your Emotions to Reality

Emotions drive our lives. They are powerful forces that can impel us towards good activity. Unfortunately, they can also impel us toward destructive activity. Some of our best decisions and some of our worst decisions came out of strong emotions. Does it have to be this way?

Throughout the ages, philosophers, psychologists, and religious leaders have contemplated the problem of emotions. Here is a summation of their key finding: calibrate your emotions to reality. As Thomas Aquinas says when it comes to courage, “Hence it belongs to fortitude that man should moderate his fear according to reason, namely that he should fear what he ought, and when he ought, and so forth” (Q. 126, A. 2, 1718).

Our emotions may reflect reality, but they also may not. We do not need to take them at face value. Concretely:

  • If we are scared, it does not mean there is a real threat.
  • If we are sad, it does not mean that we have lost something.
  • If we are angry, it does not mean that there is an injustice.
  • If we are joyful, it does not mean that things are going well.

The reverse is also true. Continue reading “Calibrate Your Emotions to Reality”

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Enjoying a Relationship with God Forever – A Summary of the Christian Faith

What is Christianity all about? Why are people so interested in it? Why do people give their lives for it? Why do more than a billion people follow it? Here is my brief summary of the main points of the Christian faith and its significance.

God
When we talk about the Christian faith, we begin and end with God Himself. Most people of the world believe there is a God, and that is the standpoint from which we begin.

When we think about God, we know that He is far greater than us. He made the earth and the heavens in all their splendor and variety. He made the complexity of our cells and the vast expanse of the universe. He’s far greater than we could imagine.

He is also good. We see this in the beauty of the universe, in the amazing provision this world offers us, and the way we can enjoy so many good things in this world. God has made this world so we can know Him and experience good things.

God is also holy. This means that He is pure in every way. He wants us to be pure. We all have a sense of right and wrong that we did not invent and that we cannot just dismiss. This is our conscience. We all have a sense that right and wrong is not just a preference or something convenient for us. Instead, it comes from our Creator, requires us to do right, and points us to the holiness of God.

Humans
When we think about humans, one thing we know about them is that they are created for God and to connect with God. They can know who God is. Within us all is a sense that we can pray. We also have a sense of God’s commands and that we are to live before Him. We are created to connect with God. Continue reading “Enjoying a Relationship with God Forever – A Summary of the Christian Faith”

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9 Powerful Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our nation was formed with the idea that all people were created equal. However, from its inception, there was a glaring contradiction to that principle in the enslavement of African-Americans. We fought a war to bring an end to this contradiction, but even after the war, justice and equality were denied to African-Americans throughout the nation and particularly in the South. For prosperous Americans, it was too easy to ignore this injustice. Thanks be to God that He raised up Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others to compel this nation to pay attention to this injustice and seek to right it. Here are 9 quotes from Dr. King that powerfully describe the conditions African-Americans faced, the method he would use to confront those conditions, and the vision of new conditions that he wanted to bring about.

All of these quotes are taken from The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. compiled and edited by Clayborne Carson. I highly recommend it.

The Problem

1. “My mother confronted the age-old problem of the Negro parent in America: how to explain discrimination and segregation to a small child. She taught me that I should feel a sense of ‘somebodiness’ but that on the other hand I had to go out and face a system that stared me in the face every day saying you are ‘less than,’ you are ‘not equal to'” (3).

2. “A man who lived under the torment of knowledge of the rape of his grandmother and murder of his father under the conditions of the present social order, does not readily accept that social order or seek to integrate into it” (268).

3. “The throbbing pain of segregation could be felt but not seen. It scarred Negroes in every experience of their lives. . . . This Freedom Ride movement came into being to reveal the indiginities and the injustices which Negro people faced as they attempted to do the simple thing of traveling through the South as interstate passengers” (153).

The Method

4. “The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community” (134). Continue reading “9 Powerful Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

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