Helping the Poor—A Biblical Perspective

“Poverty at 15.1%, highest since ’93.” A couple of weeks ago, as I was flying back home and reading the newspaper, this caption on the front page caught my attention. In the article, the writer said, “2.6 million more people moved into poverty, the most since Census began keeping track in 1959.” Obviously, poverty in America is on the rise, not the decline.

One of the concerns I have about this current trend has to do with our current budget crisis, as lawmakers strive to significantly reduce the national debt and control deficit spending. You see, I believe we pay our congressmen and congresswomen very well, especially when you consider what they actually get accomplished. Moreover, many of those in Congress have other means of substantial income.

My take is that when there isn’t enough money to go around, as is the case with our federal budget, those with the money and the power will make decisions first and foremost that benefit those with the money and the power. So, what kind of voice will the poor have at the tables of debate in Washington? Little or none, I believe. From a biblical perspective, helping the poor blesses a nation: “He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given” (Proverbs 19:17, NKJV).

By and large, the American people are extremely generous. I am always moved by how readily they reach into their pockets and help others when natural disasters strike or when personal tragedy makes the national news. Also, during the Administrations of our current President and of those in the recent past--both Democrats and Republicans--there has been significant funding for social programs within our federal budget.

But now our national debt and deficit spending are so out of control, it can no longer be business as usual. Serious cuts will have to be made to stem the tide. To me, that means defense spending, entitlements, and social programs must undergo serious cuts or modifications on the spending side of the equation. Politically, the smallest of these portions of government spending, the social programs, is the easiest to do away with. The other portions are regarded by one political party or the other in Washington as sacred.

Hope I'm wrong, but I don’t sense that in Washington there exists the heart to make the tough and responsible budgetary choices needing to be made. From my Christian perspective, if Congress fails to make the tough choices that it should, and conveniently makes all cuts at the expense of the poor, this will not bode well for our nation. Based on the verse quoted above, even if the poor don't have a voice in Washington, they have One in heaven.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

True Worship Requires Brotherly Love

Many of God’s commandments have more to do with how we relate to each other than they do with how we relate to Him. For instance, among the Ten Commandments we find mandates such as “thou shalt not kill,” thou shalt not steal,” and “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” These commandments speak specifically to our dealings with each other.

A conclusion we may draw from this truth is that we can’t separate our relationship with the God of heaven from how we relate to those whom we see and interact with daily here on earth. Now let’s extend this point to our worship experience. We can’t be reckless in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the faith and assume that we are engaging in true worship at the house of God. This is because God is holy, and He doesn’t look at our outer appearance, but God looks on the heart.

It should be, but the truth is that it’s not uncommon for worshipers who attend the same local church to come and worship God faithfully each week, while overtly showing dislike for each other. I have actually witnessed this kind of enmity between fellow church members explode into physical fights within the church.

But as part of preparing ourselves to worship God, we must examine our hearts and make sure that we are walking in brotherly love toward others. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift,” Jesus said (Matthew 5:23-24, NIV).

Wow, how many people do you think would really do that? It would draw lots of undesired attention to you if you were to go to the altar, get up from the altar leaving your gift, go to a person whom others know you have offended, make peace with the person, and then return to the altar to worship God with your gift.

Though it may seem radical to us, this teaching from Jesus really drives home an important point. People tend to focus on our religious activity during a worship experience. But in this teaching, Jesus focuses on a secret conversation between us and our heart. And He is saying that if we are serious about true worship, we must be proactive to make amends with our brother and sister when have offended him or her.

Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Survey: Denominational Affiliations Will Become Less Important

( Article first published as Survey: Denominational Affiliations Will Become Less Important on Technorati.)

 

There are at least hundreds of Christian denominations in the United States. One estimate I saw places the number at approximately 1200. Suffice it to say that there are lots of Christian denominations in America. Since we have such a large number of these variations of the Christian faith, relative to what was first delivered to us by way of the Bible, one would assume that church denominations serve practical and necessary functions.

 

A majority of pastors affiliated with denominational churches believe denominations do serve a vital role. That’s the finding of a survey conducted by LifeWay Research of 900 American Protestant pastors. The findings were published last Tuesday.

 

Generally speaking, church denominations do serve practical and necessary functions. Some of the disagreements that divergent Christian bodies have with each other are so profound that they can’t function effectively as one Christian body. Same sex marriages and the ordaining of gay pastors, for example, have resulted in serious infighting within some mainline denominations. In such cases, splinter groups from those parent bodies tend to formulate their own movement within Christendom to facilitate the practice of their faith.

 

Even though the pastors who participated in the abovementioned survey said denominational churches play a vital role, they also said they believe that the importance of denominational affiliations will decrease in the next 10 years. Overall, sixty-two percent said they believe this will be the case. Several factors seem to influence a pastor’s outlook:

 

• Pastors of larger churches are most likely to agree (strongly or somewhat) that the importance of Christian denominations will diminish over the next decade.

• Pastor’s with less than a bachelor’s degree are more likely to strongly disagree than pastors with at least a master’s degree that denominational affiliation will lose importance the next decade.

• Although the majority of all age groups agree that said importance will decrease, pastors 65 and older constitute the age bracket most likely to strongly disagree.

 

Though I believe church denominations do serve practical and necessary functions in our diverse and complex society, I also believe church denominations should not be regarded as a silver bullet for all serious infighting within the Christian body. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace,” we have been commanded (Ephesians 4:3, NIV). Hence, when disunity exists within the Christian body, the decision for a divergent group to go its separate way should be viewed as a last resort.

 

LifeWay’s survey was limited to pastors of denominational churches—did not include pastors of non-denominational churches.

 

Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

 

Finding the Purpose of God for Your Life

Do you know God’s purpose for your life? If you don’t, believe me, you are not alone. I know some Christians who have been on a quest for tens of years trying to discover the purpose of God for their lives.

I believe that sometimes, we are just looking too hard. For instance, I was recently reflecting on my own experience in this regard, and I entertained an interesting point. It is that more often than not, we can see evidence of God’s purpose for our life in our natural abilities, if we just pay attention. When I was in grade school, for example, I was very shy. During class, I seldom opened my mouth. But interestingly, whenever my teacher asked me to stand before the class and speak, I took great pride in speaking loudly and clearly, and I felt comfortable doing that. My teacher told me she felt I was destined to be a public speaker of some kind.

Similarly, when I reached the twelfth grade, my English teacher observed that I had strong grammar skills. She often complimented me on that and thought that when I grew up I should be a writer of some kind.

During those years in school, I was not a Christian, and so I never thought about how those God-given abilities my teachers observed in me might be connected to the purpose of God for my life. But now that I have been preaching and writing for over 30 years, I can see the big picture. And I am saying to you that if you don’t know what your ministry gift(s) is, you should pray to God to help you discover it, but also I am saying the answer may be hidden in plain sight. What is it that you seem to have a knack for, and your ability in that area stands out before others? The answer to this question may suggest what your calling is.

Let me make sure you catch the chain of events here. My high school teachers made some predictions or suggestions about my future--years before I became a Christian. You see, I believe that the thinking among many Christians is that God waits until a person becomes a Christian, and then He decides what gifts and abilities He will give the person. The truth is that He saves and calls us “according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Since God determined His purpose for us before the world began, it should not be hard to understand that we can be born with gifts consistent with that purpose. As for me, it was some time after I became a Christian that I discovered God’s purpose for my life. It turns out that the gifts my teachers saw in me as a youth were consistent with what I later discovered was God’s purpose for me. Hopefully, my sharing this will help those of you striving to know God’s purpose for your life.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

The Quality of Our Work for God

Have you ever asked yourself this question: “What does God think about the quality of the service I render in His name?” Today, I was at a church preaching on this subject, and I want to share a couple of points with you in this post. The passage I was preaching from was 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, but I will need to limit the scope of what I address here.

According to verse 12, symbolically, our work may be comprised of any of the following products: “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.” As you can see, these classifications of products are listed in descending order of quality. Conversely, these classifications of products are listed in ascending order of flammability.

Why is this an important point? Because our “work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work” (1 Corinthians 3:13, NIV)! So all of our works will be tested as if subjected to fire. And the last time I checked, wood and hay and stubble won't survive the heat of a fire.

Let me be quick to say that the context of verses 10 through 15 is that we have built our work on the proper foundation which is Christ, however inferior the material we may be using to build thereupon. Hence, when Christ is our foundation, the judgment that the Lord subjects our work to is not to determine our salvation but our reward. Those who serve the Lord faithfully will be rewarded greatly in heaven. But the unfaithful will have little or no reward in heaven.

The reason I believe the message contained in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 is important is because we have exploited the message of grace to expand its application beyond the boundaries defined by Scripture. My point is that just because we are saved by grace does not mean that Christ ceases to be Lord. We are still accountable to Him for our stewardship. Whatever works we perform in His name should be done in the spirit of excellence. Whether we serve the Lord by preaching the gospel of by greeting the saints as an usher, He deserves nothing less than our very best.

When Christ died on the cross for us, He bought us with His blood. Not that we might serve ourselves but that we might serve Him. As our Lord, we will meet Him one day. And He will make an assessment of our works. Yes, we are saved by grace, but Christ is still Lord.

Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Called to be Like Christ

As I pen this post, I am thinking about a particular individual whom I have spoken with several times in the past about attending church and ultimately becoming a Christian. This person doesn’t drink alcohol, he doesn’t attend wild parties, he is faithful to his wife, and he lives a quiet life. Anyway, during our conversations, he proudly talked about his personal life. Then he would talk about some of the less than honorable behavior of churchgoers he has observed in the past.

The point he was making was that he considered himself more righteous than some of the very people who attended church regularly. I will be among the first of those to admit that there are people who have never attended a local church, who don’t claim to be Christians, but who live more morally upright lives than some churchgoers who say they are Christians. That a person strives to live a morally upright life is certainly commendable. It’s good for the neighborhood, good for the work place, and good for society at large.

But when it comes to our relationship with God, we must bear in mind two important considerations:

• One is that no Christian is trusting in the merits of his personal life to make it into heaven. The Bible teaches the concept of justification by faith. This means that we get right with God by placing our faith in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. We can’t add anything to what Christ has done. He has paid the total cost of redeeming us. When we truly believe and trust in Christ's work on the cross, God declares us to be a just and blameless person!

• Secondly, as far as the Christian life goes, Christ is our example. In 1 Peter 2:21, we find these words: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps.” Hence, we are admonished to be like Christ. Yes, I am saying that we have been justified solely by faith in Christ, but afterward we should devote our lives to being followers of Him.

I find this commandment for us to be Christlike extremely humbling. You see, it’s easy for any of us to single out others who we think we are better than and to boast about it. But they are not the standard; Christ is the standard. And whenever we measure ourselves against the true standard, which is Christ, we will see how badly we miss the the mark. Thank God for His saving grace!

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

The September 11 Attacks and New Yorkers' Faith in God

(Article first published as The September 11 Attacks and New Yorkers' Faith in God on Technorati.)

Tragedy in our life tends to draw most of us closer to God, even if only for a short while. So as we approach the anniversary date of the September 11 attacks, here is an interesting question: How has this tragedy affected New Yorkers’ faith in God? The results of a study by the Barna Group, aimed at addressing this question, were released this past Monday.

As for the nation as a whole, immediately following the attacks, an increased number of Americans made their way to places of worship. But based on tracking research by the Barna Group, religious activity returned to normal within a few months.

The observations noted above perfectly agree with what I observed during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when allied forces invaded Iraq. I was a church pastor during that time. To my surprise, though I was an African American pastor in the inner city with an all black congregation, I received invitations from several predominantly white congregations and from local churches of other denominations inviting us to come together with them to pray for our troops and our nation.

Though we and those local churches normally had no dealings with each other, the Persian Gulf War brought us together. But months later, after Operation Desert Storm was declared over, churches went back to their segregated business as usual.

With the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaching, the Barna Group performed new analyses of its tracking data to assess the spiritual profile of New York City and the surrounding areas. Based on the analyses of research conducted over the past 14 years, residents of New York City showed an overall rise in religious participation, but much of this change may not be attributable to the September 11 attacks.

Why? According to David Kinnaman who directed the study, “Most of the change in spiritual behavior seems to have happened since the middle of the last decade. Church participation in the New York market especially has shifted most since 2004.”

My conviction is that tragedy can but oftentimes does not draw people closer to God. In fact, sometimes, tragedy has the opposite effect. The September 11 attacks were the most deadly and horrific acts of terrorism ever committed on American soil. Words can’t come close to describing the horror of that hellish morning. Even ten years later, deep national wounds remain. But according to the study, it is questionable as to whether this painful chapter in our history has had any measureable effect on our nation or New Yorkers’ faith in God.

Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.