Investing, AAPL and Grandmother

Grandmother and her 3 great-grandsons

My 99-year-old Grandmother went home to be with Jesus last week. An amazing woman. As I reflect on her life and legacy, a theme pops up into my mind. The theme is that of delayed gratification and guaranteed dividends.

For context, the word on Wall Street is that Apple (ticker symbol AAPL) will pay its first dividend in 17 years. For those who had the foresight to invest in Apple, a share sold for a mere $10 ten years ago. Shares as of closing today are above $600, making it the world’s most valuable company in the world (source). The idea of investing is that by delayed gratification and wise choices, money can go and get more money. If only I had some of that AAPL.

But what if there was a way to obtain a guaranteed dividend that would tower above any other investment and you knew about with plenty of time to buy in? And it was tax free to boot? No financial advisor would ever promise you this with AAPL.

There is. Luke talks about it in chapter 16.

Luke is quite practical when it comes to money. Luke’s advice is to make all you can and give away all you can. In fact, Luke says more about money than any other Gospel writer and this particular passage is unique to Luke.

in Luke 16:1-13, it comes to the attention of a certain rich man that his manager is ripping him off and he fires his manager. The manager, realizing that he is in a pickle because he can’t dig ditches and won’t beg for a living, calls in those who owe money to his boss and drastically reduces their bill.

The manager is probably cutting out his commission knowing that when he is out of a job, the people who have had their bill reduced will welcome him into their homes and provide for him. Whatever the case, the rich man is impressed by how shrewd his ex-manager is.

Jesus is impressed too. For this is what He says: And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9, ESV).

In other words, give your money away to the expansion of the church and you will be welcomed into heaven by the friends you have bought. When you give money to fund missionaries and evangelists, the people who come to Christ from their ministry will be in heaven to welcome you there.

How cool is that? What kind of people would want at the entrance of heaven waiting to welcome you there?

So when Grandmother finally made it to heaven, I can just imagine all the different kinds of people welcoming her when she arrived: People from Argentina, Congo, Kenya, China and maybe even some from Somalia, and that’s just for starters. I know she and Grandad supported many different missionaries and hosted even more in their home over the years.

May God help me to learn from her example of delayed gratification and guaranteed dividends. And how about some of that AAPL stock for the people on my list of countries who I want to be welcomed by....

Don’t go to Church this Sunday

My family and I have been having this discussion lately:

If the church is not a building, where do we go on Sunday mornings?

You see, the church is not a building and it is not a program. It is a group of people who have acknowledged Jesus as their Savior. In Acts 8, Saul the persecutor began rounding up the church and sending her to prison.

Did Saul put a building in prison?

Did Saul put Awana and women’s ministry in prison?

Nope and nope. He put believers (aka the church) in prison.

Why is this important? How we think impacts how we act.

If the church is a building, then the next logical step in the progression is that the building is sacred; it is a place to find God. Really? The only building that ever helped a person find the Lord was the Temple King Solomon erected, for God’s presence was there directly. God through the Holy Spirit is now embedded in believers. Not buildings. Plus if a building was sacred, then as soon as I get in my car to go home on Sunday, I leave the presence of God.

Other by-products of this thinking lead to competition betweem churches and the mentality that if I can only bring a person to a building I’ve done my job. Nope. Does God still work that way? Yep. But there is something that is activated in the church when she realizes her identity and potential. She is released to accomplish her mission thus fulfilling her purpose. It is like a cheetah that no longer feeds with the hyenas on carrion but eats still-warm dik-dik.

So please don’t go to church this Sunday. If you are a believer, you are the church. Go gather with the church and worship the Lord on Sunday in order to be propelled out into the world being fully activated as the church.

The Way to Pray

When we pray, Hallowed be Thy Name, this is what we mean.

The motive is this, "Oh! that God could be glorified, that Jesus might see the reward of his sufferings! Oh! that sinners might be saved, so that God might have new tongues to praise him, new hearts to love him! Oh! that sin were put an end to, that the holiness, righteousness, mercy, and power of God might be magnified!" This is the way to pray; when thy prayers seek God’s glory, it is God’s glory to answer thy prayers.

C.H. Spurgeon
When Spurgeon died, 60,000 people came to his viewing and even the pubs closed on the day of his funeral. Not bad for a cigar-smoking Baptist preacher.

Quote: CrossGlobal Link: "Mission Moment" 9/27/11
Stat: Mark Galli, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know

The End Product of True Evangelism

This little book is changing my life. The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me by Major Ian Thomas. Chapter 27 - all two pages of it - gets at the core of the purpose behind our evangelization.

The end product of evangelism is not just to get you out of hell and into heaven, but to get God out of heaven and into you, so that Christ living in your heart might bring God out again into the open where He can be seen. This is what brings glory to God.

This happens when we are prepared to identify ourselves with Christ in His death and to share His resurrection Life: You acknowledge as a redeemed sinner that Jesus, risen from the dead, has come to reinvade humanity so that you can place all that you are at His disposal. Others who look at you will see Him behaving, just as people looked at Jesus and saw the Father behaving.

This is the gospel.

What then is the ultimate end product of our obeying this gospel and entering into the good of that which has been provided for us in Christ to restore us to our true function as human beings?

God has predestined us "to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Therefore, when you are finally evangelized and people look at you, they should see the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what God has always had in mind of us, from the eternal ages of the past.

That is why Jesus is the end product of evangelism - His Life indwelling you is exactly what God had in mind when He sent His Son to redeem you and to reconcile you to a holy God. He sent us His Son not just to get you and me out of hell and into heaven, but to get the God of heaven into you and me, so that Christ living in our hearts might be our hope of bringing God again into the open where He can be seen, to His glory!

We identify ourselves with Him, saying as Paul did in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ," and we share His resurrection, just as Paul went on to explain in the same verse, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me"--not I but Christ. Paul is saying, "I am a redeemed sinner, and the risen Jesus has come to reinvade my humanity so that He can serve with my hands, walk with my feet, speak with my lips, see with my eyes, hear with my ears, think with my mind, and love with my heart, so that to me, to live now is Christ. It is my privilege as a forgiven sinner to place my humanity at His disposal so that others looking at me will see Him behaving, just as those who looked at Jesus saw His Father behaving."

This is the gospel as we need to understand it, because the Lord Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21)--sending us on the same terms and for the same purpose.

He is the Sender, as we are the sent ones, and for this reason the only authority you and I can legitimately exercise in any area of life is the authority that derives from our submission to His authority.

So, how are you today?

One of the benefits of having participated in the Renovation Center is that I have personally learned and been impacted by the other guys. One thing I have learned and use is called SASHET.

I for one, and maybe it's a guy thing, am not the most adroit when it comes to checking in with other about how I am really doing. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's just not sure how I am doing.

Here is what SASHET stands for:

·         Sad

·         Angry

·         Scared

·         Happy

·         Excited

·         Tender (feelings toward another, perhaps who is struggling)

Here how it works. Each person takes a moment to silently reflect on which of the six SASHET emotions they can identify with and why. Then in 90 seconds or less, each person checks in with the group by sharing the emotion they are feeling and why.

While my boys rolled their eyes the first couple of times we did this as a family, they now have gotten to the point where they actually ask to do it at the dinner table. I have learned things about them that I didn’t know before.

Try it! It will be a good dinner conversation, meeting starter and community builder. And most importantly, you give yourself a chance to authentically connect with others.

Existing for the City

It is cool to see what God is doing in other places. To see people who love God and love a city getting after it is inspiring. This is one way to exist for the city. May God give us all a vision for what it means to provide multiple opportunities for every man, woman and child to see and hear what Jesus is all about.

The Gospel: The Best 11 Minutes on the Web

This is an incredibly powerful video explaining what the Gospel is. It is also a great image of how the power of truth set to music and video can be multiplied. Hollywood knows what they are doing. My only reservation in the video relates to "Satan's legal right" over us. The implication could be taken that Jesus' death paid him off, though I doubt that is the intent. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him" (Romans 5:8-9).