How Much Is Too Much To Give?

How much is too much to give to Jesus?

Can you give too much of your time to Him? Too much of your energy? Too much of your resources? Too much of your life? Is there a limit to how devoted and surrendered you should be? Can expressions of love and devotion to Jesus ever be too costly and extravagant?

THAT’S TOO MUCH

I remember years ago hearing a sermon from a pastor where he talked about giving a commencement speech at a high school graduation. His message was about holding nothing back. He told missionary stories, He talked about dying to self, and he expounded on the glories of Christ. He did all he could to convince these young students that Jesus was worthy of the greatest and most radical sacrifices; that He was worthy of their whole lives. After the speech, a father of one of the students, a Christian himself, found the pastor and began rebuking him, saying something to the degree of, “How dare you try and persuade my daughter toward this kind of sacrifice. Loving Jesus is fine, but we don’t want it to consume her life.”

I was so blown away by that story when I heard it, that someone could claim to love Jesus and yet put limits on how much He is worth. But as the years have gone by, I have since realized that even if I don’t say it like that father did, I live it. Everyday I live like Jesus is only worth a tenth of my finances, only worth a quarter of my energy and only worth two-thirds of my life. I hold back from going all in because I rationalize in my head that giving Him everything would be unreasonable. It would be foolish and wasteful. And obviously Jesus wouldn’t want me to be foolish and wasteful with the things He has given me.

A BEAUTIFUL THING

For the last week or so I have been stuck in Matthew 26, reading over and over the story of the woman who anoints Jesus. This woman (who was Mary, according to John’s gospel) takes an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and pours it all over Jesus’ head while he reclines at the table in Simon the Leper’s house. Now, to our twenty-first century minds it is such a wild story. Why would anyone do such a thing? But at the time it was a pretty normal situation. It was just good hospitality in the first century to anoint your guest’s heads with oil, especially distinguished guests. The crazy part seems to be not that she anointed Jesus’ head, but just how much of the expensive ointment she anointed Him with.

As soon as the disciples see it, they say, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor” (Mat. 26-8-9). Their interpretation of the event is that the woman wasted this ointment on Jesus. It was irrational, illogical, unwise, foolish and wasteful to put it all on His head. She should have perhaps put a little bit on Him and used the rest for a different and more rational purpose. But the woman clearly wasn’t thinking about what the most rational thing to do was. She was interested in performing a lavish gesture of love, obviously because she thought Jesus was worthy of it. She thought that this would be a good use of what she had.

Well, somehow Jesus becomes aware that the disciples are grumbling about this woman’s actions and he speaks directly to them, beginning with these words, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mat. 26.10).

EVERYTHING

Put it all together. The woman makes an incredibly costly and extravagant sacrifice to honor Jesus. She dumps out the entire bottle of what Matthew says is a “very expensive ointment.” If John’s account of Mary anointing Jesus is in fact this same story, then it’s a bottle worth tens of thousands of dollars, upwards of an average year’s salary. What a waste! From a logical and rational standpoint, the disciples are absolutely right. The bottle could have been sold and the money could have gone to the poor or to a thousand other things. You would think Jesus would have rebuked the woman for being a bad steward. Instead, he approves wholeheartedly of what she has done. He welcomes it. He says to his disciples with the woman probably in ear shot, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.”

The more I read this story the more I am convinced that when it comes to us giving to Jesus, there is no such thing as waste. There is no surrender too great, no act of devotion too strong, and no gift too extravagant, because He is worth it. He is worthy of it. If the living creatures can say in the book of Revelation, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing,” then He worthy of anything I could possibly give, even the entirety of my short little life on this earth (Rev. 5.12).

The reality is that a Christian life lived well, will always look strange to others; it will look like a waste. But that is ok, because at the end of the day all that matters is if the One whom we are living for approves of how we have lived. Giving your life to Jesus on the mission field may look like a waste to the world, but Jesus says, “He/she has done a beautiful thing to me.” Giving your finances to furthering the work of Christ in the world may look like a waste to even people in the church, but Jesus, “He/she has done a beautiful thing to me.” Laying down your time, your career, your energy, your resources at the feet of Christ may seem to everyone around you too radical of a sacrifice, but Jesus says “He/she has done a beautiful thing to me.”

While we think about how we will live for Jesus today, and tomorrow and next year, the question we should ask should never be, “Is this too much to give to Jesus?”

If the woman with the alabaster jar has taught me anything, it is that Jesus is worthy of it all.

Book Review: “A Theology of Play: Learning to Enjoy Life as God Intended"

“A Theology of Play: Learning to Enjoy Life as God Intended” by Kevin M. Gushiken

As soon as I saw the title, “A Theology of Play,” I was intrigued. I am not the kind of person that struggles with finding time and motivation to play. That part comes fairly naturally to me. But I have wrestled often with wondering whether God even wants me to play and to have fun? Like, is it alright to go skateboard, or should I be reading Scripture in all my free time? More then that, if play is a part of God’s design and intentions for me, then how can I make skateboarding and other activities of play glorifying to God?

Gushiken provides answers to those questions and many more in his book. He addresses the person like me who loves to play but carries some level of guilt about it, as well as the person who doesn’t make time for play but needs to. He examines things like the common barriers to play, the need for spontaneous play, the relationship between suffering and play, finding freedom from guilt and shame in play, and magnifying God’s glory in our play.

Of course, the most important part for me of these aspects of play is not Gushiken’s thoughts on them, but God’s. Does the Bible provide answers to my questions about play? Can a person actually discover a Theology of Play in Scripture without distorting verses to try and justify it?

My impression from page one and on was that Gushiken is a man who is well versed in the Scriptures, who gives great exegetical thought and care to his study, and who, in this book in particular, was/is seeking to know what God’s Word has to say on the subject at hand. This is not to say that you shouldn’t read this book and then like the Bereans, examine the Scriptures to see if these things are so. We should do that with any book we read. But I do think you can read this book with confidence that Gushiken is equipped to and devoted to genuinely and intelligently finding insights into play that are absolutely found in and based on Scripture.

All that being said, if I had any greater hopes for this book, it would be that Gushiken would have provided further insight into his study. Again, he does a good job of showing the biblical basis for each chapter, but I would have loved to see even more! With Theology in the title, I was hoping it would be a little bit more technical than it was. But, in his defence, then the book may have been less accessible to a wide range of readers.

All in all, a great book. It is a strong and biblical argument for play being something designed and ordained by God, for our joy and His glory.

If you struggle with seeing a reason to play, or if you struggle with guilt in your play, this one’s for you!

Missions and End Times

Do you ever think about missions and end times in the same thought?

Do you place those two things in the same category?

I will give you my answer to those questions, or rather what use to be my answer. No.

I rarely if ever thought about missions and eschatology (the study of the last times/things) together. For the longest time I treated them like two separate theological subjects with very little overlap. That is until one day I happened to come across a journal article from the 1970’s by New Testament Professor, James W. Thompson, entitled “The Gentile Mission: As an Eschatological Necessity.”

In the article Thompson addressed Mark 13.10. If you don’t recall Mark 13.10, its that point in Jesus’ Olivet speech when He says to the disciples, “And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.” Now, maybe that seems to you like an obvious and simple enough verse, but I had never really grasped it before, especially its eschatological implications. I knew it was an important one for the missions community, but I never thought about its relation to the end times.

And then I started reading Thompson’s article, wherein he argued, and in my estimation argued successfully, that Mark 13.10 was an indication that the mission to the nations was just as much a prelude to the end as the other apocalyptic signs from the beginning of Mark 13.[1] As he says in his own words in the article, must indicates that for Mark and his readers, “the world mission was an eschatological necessity.”[2]

Without unpacking the entire article, argument and exegesis for you, just think about the implications of that for a moment. If, as Thompson suggests, Mark 13.10 is describing the mission to the nations as a precondition to Jesus’ return, then 1) missions should not be just another department of ministry, it should be everyone’s ministry! And 2) our thoughts about the end times should be consumed not with raptures, and anti-Christs, but with the Gospel going to the edges of the earth!   

During the blip that was COVID, I preached through the book of Revelation. I can’t tell you how many people came to me during that series to talk about things like whether so and so was the beast out of the sea, or whether the new apple watch was the mark of the beast. It was endless. Of course, I don’t fault them for it. When we think about eschatology, our minds seem to naturally go there. But maybe, if Thompson is right, and I think he is, it should go somewhere else first.

Since reading Thompson’s article, I have become even more convinced by Scripture that world missions and eschatology are actually not two separate and unrelated things. Missions is eschatological in its very nature, and eschatology has to do missions. So then, if we are drawn to thinking about the end times, then let us be drawn to thinking first and foremost about (and being a part of) the mission of Christ, to bring the Gospel to places where it has not been named.

In the words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24.14).

[1] James W. Thompson, “The Gentile Mission as an Eschatological Necessity,” Restoration Quarterly 14 (1971), 23.

[2] Thompson, “The Gentile Mission as an Eschatological Necessity,” 24.

Book Review: "The Soul-Winning Church"

“The Soul Winning Church: Six Keys to Fostering a Genuine Evangelistic Community” by J.A. Medders and Doug Logan Jr. The Good Book Company, 2024.

I am probably the thousandth person by now to make a post like this about the “Soul-Winning Church,” but I have to say it. This book was fantastic. It was to my heart what kerosene is to a fire. Fuel!

I have lived and pastored for a long time now with an always increasing frustration and confusion as to why our churches aren’t making more disciples. Why are the baptismal waters so still? Why is so much church growth dependent on other church’s decline? What are we doing wrong or missing all together? What needs to change? I have walked around with these questions swirling around in my head, but not ever really being able to put them into words, let alone find their corresponding answers. And then this book showed up in the mail.

In only 164 pages (making it super accessible and easy to hand out to almost anyone) Medders and Logan do a massive job, and they do it well. They give hope to pastors like me that our little churches can be soul-winning churches; that evangelism can be ingrained in the culture of our churches and not just be another category of ministry, and that we can love the people that come from other places, without settling for transfer growth as the ultimate means of growth.

Medders and Logan identify in the book six key areas of focus for becoming a church that reaches the lost. Each key is just as convicting, convincing and compelling as the next, well at the same time being so obviously biblical. I am not lying when I tell you that I only made it through chapter one before stopping to spend the next week reflecting on the first key and laying out plans for walking through the chapter with my elders at our next meeting (which is exactly what we did).

I think if you’re a pastor you need to read this. I think if your plumber you need to read this. I think that this book needs to be read by home groups, men’s groups, women’s groups, youth groups, and by everyone else in the church that’s not in a group. At the end of the day, I don’t think that I am the only one feeling this perplexing frustration about the lack of souls being won. Something is missing, and Medders and Logan identify that missing piece. They remind readers how central soul-winning is to the mission of the church, and then they go to work on equipping the church for that mission.

We have got to be churches that are consumed with winning souls, because Christ is consumed with winning souls! And if there is a book that can play even the smallest part in further fueling that passion and preparing Christians to walk it out, then in my mind, that is a must read.

As Spurgeon writes (and as Medders and Logan quote him saying), “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every believer. We should each say with Simon peter, “I go afishing,” and with Paul our aim should be, “That I might by all means save some.”[1]

Grab it, read it, and lets go!

[1] C.H. Spurgeon, The Soul Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Savio (Fleming H. Revell. 1895), p 9.

Book Review: "Honor"

“Honor” by Adam Ramsey. The Good Book Company, 2024.

I have been so encouraged, inspired, challenged and fed by The Good Book Company’s “Love Your Church” series. Every book that has come out in this series so far has been a gift to me both as pastor and simply as another Christian disciple. They are short enough to be quick reads, but dense enough to have substance. Rich with Scripture and biblical insights, and ascetically pleasing too!

All that to say, as I picked up Adam Ramsey’s latest contribution to the series I had high expectations, and they were absolutely met.

As the title suggests, Ramsey writes on the topic of honor. His main ambition in the book is to paint for readers a biblical picture of what honor is supposed to look like in the Church and in the lives of believers. Of course that sounds simple enough, but it may just highlight for you how little you actually understand honor as it is defined and described in the Bible (at least that’s what it did for me).

While defining honor Ramsey at the same time casts a vision for what an honouring church could and should look like. What does a church look like that properly honors God, that has an honorable witness, that honors its leaders, that is led by honorable leaders?

Let me just say, that I needed this book. In my home, in my community and in my church, I fail on a weekly basis to honor others, lead honorably and to give all honor to God. Ramsey spoke so clearly to the shortfalls in my life when it comes to honor. More than that though he stirred in me something that needed to be stirred up; a conviction and a passion to want to be an honorable and honoring Christian and pastor, leading an honourable and honoring Church.