Mar 23 - Cost and Value

Mar 23

    Cost and Value

2Sa 24:24 ….that which doth cost me nothing. 

For several years I have described what seems like senseless waste as “That which cost nothing, is worth nothing”.  People who are given costly things, may not care for them or value them because they did not have to pay for them. College students are especially susceptible to this when they do not value their educational opportunities because good ole dad is footing the bill. For them college is a chance to party-hardy without parental interference. Not all students do that, but it is so common as to need no further explanation. That which cost nothing is worth nothing.

     Another “truism” I often use is similar. It explains why some people make silly decisions when it comes to things and finances. “Too many people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing”  I once found an old wood plane with a set of cutters in the original wooden box. It was in a garage sale and I gladly paid the $5 price, knowing that plane was worth a lot more.  A few years later I had not used it and it was just taking up space so I sold it to a guy who wanted it. He paid me $35. I made $30 profit and felt pleased with myself until I happened to see a book in the library on the price of antique woodworking tools. Yes, you have already guessed it. That wonderful plane I sold for $35 was valued in the book at $1500.

     But the people who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, do not make a one-time mistake like I did. It is a way of thinking for them. They see everything as dollars and cents. The intrinsic value of something is lost to them. They will not pay the cost of anything that is worthless to them. They equate cost with value. If it cost a lot is has a lot of value. Scam artists thrive on people like that.

     An example of that is found in the new testament. Only a few days before Christ was crucified, a woman came to him while he ate and poured some very expensive ointment on his head. The apostles were upset with the woman. She had just “wasted” 300 pence worth of ointment that could have been sold and the money used to feed the poor. They knew the cost but not the value of what she had done.  It is interesting that after this in Mark’s gospel Judas went to betray Christ. It must have driven the money hungry Judas to distraction to see all that money slip away from his grasp. It may have been the last straw for him. At least he could get some money from the chief priest for turning Christ in.  He knew the cost of everything and the value of nothing!

    Another example is Ananias and Sapphira, who sold something and kept back part of it before coming to the Apostles and donating only a portion of the price. Acts 5 reveals to us they knew the cost of things but not the value  But our verse for today is just the opposite.

    In the last few verses of 2 Samuel, (and 1 Chron 21) we see David again repenting of sin. He is told by God to build an alter in a particular place. David goes personally to purchase the ground for the alter. He is a king, he is doing what God told him to do, and yet he does not assume the right to take the land. He will buy it.  The owner of the land offers the land for the alter, his oxen for the sacrifice and his wooden farming tools for the fire. But David refuses such a generous offer. He pays the going price for the land and oxen. Why wouldn’t David have accepted such a generous and noble offer?

  2Sa 24:24, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

David will not offer to God something which cost him nothing!  Value is more important to him than cost. Unfortunately that is too often not the case with some Christians today. They will find the least costly way to worship God. If the exercise of religion becomes costly, in time, attention, or simply bother they groan under the weight of such high costs. Some won’t even pay attention. They seek a form of worship which deprives the least of their time, recreation, attention or goods. They are happiest when there is no cost to their religion. They do not value it and therefore do not want to suffer any burden of cost. A religion which costs little is desirable. One which costs nothing at all, is even better. I leave with two thoughts for your consideration. First, how much does your Christianity cost you? What value have you attached to it?

     Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, what did your salvation cost God? We know how much he valued us.  Let us think today on these two questions. What does it cost us; what did it cost God?

 

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten Son…

 

 

 

Mar 22 How Big is Your Cup?

Mar 22

How Big is Your Cup?

Ps 23:5 …..my cup runneth over.

By the time they stopped pouring beer on the ground the mud was a couple inches deep. Beer may be an odd subject for a devotional but it was the best example that came to my mind. During my time in the military I was stationed in Germany. There was always a big picnic on the 4^th of July with mounds of food and more beer than an army could drink! But I want to focus not on the beer but how it was served.

A long table sat behind two military trucks filled with barrels of beer right from the brewery. Spigots were pounded into the barrels of beer, they were laid on the tailgate of the trucks and turned on.  Servers filled two quart pitchers from the running spigots and slopped it over the line of beer steins guys held on the serving table. They did not pour beer into each stein. Rather they tipped the pitcher and quickly poured a stream of beer over several steins. Some steins overflowed, others were partially filled. Lots of beer splashed onto the table and then onto the ground.

That is the way I want to think about the cup of blessings God gives us; In abundance, overflowing, and more than we can ever hold. The word cup as used in the 23 psalm is a figurative cup. The word means to hold together, contain, hold the portion allotted someone. Cup is a common and proper translation, especially in reference to God setting a table before us. Except for that, the container could be a bucket i.e. my bucket runneth over, or my barrel runneth over.  it is the container of the portion allotted us.

Now how big is your cup? That is another way of asking have you counted your blessings.

The daily pressures of life can take our eyes from our blessings. Perhaps you are in a situation where you feel you have no blessings. There may be some strained relationship with another person or organization that occupies your mind. Paul, in Philippians, lists four distractions; people, things, circumstances and worry. If these are worrisome to you then you may not notice your cup is overflowing with blessings. Join me while we review some of God’s richest blessing to us.

Ps 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us

with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Our daily blessings are many. A young man saw an older man struggle with a coughing spell and asked “Having a bad day, old timer?” and was corrected with the response “Any day I wake up is a good day!”  Waking in the morning is a blessing. Being refreshed by a good nights sleep is a blessing. That first cup of coffee or juice is a blessing. Indeed our days are loaded with blessings. And that is just in the physical realm. Our spiritual well-being is an even greater blessing.

Pr 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich,

and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Where do we start?  How can we list all that God has done for us? No wonder the psalmist said his cup overflowed. I am unable to list your blessings. But perhaps I can give you some seed thoughts to aid you in seeing how our great God has poured his blessings upon you.

Our physical blessings are often taken for granted.

Mt 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. Yes, I know you may have problems with, people, things, circumstances or worry. You may wish your problems were gone. Consider for a moment what would happen if you were with a huge crowd of people and everyone took their problems and put them in a clear plastic bag. Then they were told to hang it on the wall of a huge auditorium and walk around looking at other people’s bag of problems. Next they were told they could have any bag of problems hanging along the wall. Most people would run to grab their own bag of problems.  

Many of our difficulties are blessings from God! They are given to us to teach us what we could not learn any other way. Consider what you think are problems and look for the blessing. Even the apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and knew why it was there.

But beyond the physical blessings of food, raiment and housing, God has made our spiritual cups to overflow as well. Consider with me the two types of blessings we receive as Christians. They are often linked together.

The first is mercy. Count, if you can, the mercies you have received of God.  Mercy is not getting a punishment you deserve.

4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were

dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,  

6 And hath raised us up together, and made us

sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Grace is just the opposite from mercy. Grace is getting something you did not deserve. The old acrostic still works; G-R-A-C-E is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Once again name for me all that God has given you that you did not deserve.

Now place your cup under these two streams – physical blessings and spiritual blessings. How quickly did your cup fill to overflowing? What size cup did you bring? Oh it wouldn’t matter, it would still runneth over. “…my cup runneth over.”

1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen,

 nor ear heard, neither have entered

into the heart of man, the things which

God hath prepared for them that love him.

Mar 21 Are You Good Enough?

Mar 21

Good Enough?

Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Be a good little boy and you will go to heaven. Variations of that wrong advice fills books, dogmas, and the minds of those who have been defrauded. The Bible teaches no such thing as earning heaven, or being good enough, or working hard enough, or sacrificing enough. There is a wonderful paragraph in Joseph Allenes wonderful book, Alarm to the Unconverted.

     “Men may pray long, fast often, and hear gladly, and be very forward in the service of God, though costly and expensive, and yet be strangers to conversion. They must have more to plead for themselves than that they go to church, give alms, and make use of prayer, to prove themselves sound converts. There is no outward service but a hypocrite may do it, even to the giving of all his goods to feed the poor and his body to be burned. (1 Cor 13:3)”

      Yet we are bombarded with the idea that we must be good enough. We must follow the ten commandments. We must be a member of a certain church. We must be baptized, we must perform certain rituals, and on and on.  Often people latch onto a verse or a part of a verse and use a few words to build a doctrine, while ignoring the basic principle of salvation. How many main line denominations practice such ideas while claiming to be Bible believing churches. They do use the Bible as well as some “special person” who was given a message contrary to what the Bible clearly teaches. They wrote a book which is used to interpret the Bible, or in some cases to move the Bible to a lower level of authority. Other churches teach the traditions established by the church have equal weight as the Bible, and if there seems to be a contradiction between them the traditions, or other writings are taken as more authoritative than the Bible, or the Bible is explained away.

     So with all this confusion what does a man need to do to be saved? What must we do to acquire some hope of heaven? Nothing! Christ has done it all. 

     Our verse comes from Ephesians. That would be a good starting place.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

This verse says it is not of works.  But surely a person who has been moral their whole lives will get some benefit from that, won’t they? I mean a no good, rotten, thief and murderer should not have the same kind of salvation experience as a person who has been good all their lives, should they?  

The answer is a simple one of perspective. If we compare ourselves with some creep then we will look pretty good. But if we compare ourselves with the Holiness of God we fall so far short that there is no difference between us and the low down creep. It is as though God’s Holiness was a million miles high and we were 5 steps above the creep. When we look at the person worse than us we appear way above them. But when we look at the Holiness of God, it is so far out of our understanding there is essentially no difference between us and those who are a little worse than we are.

We like to think that God grades us on a curve, or a grading scale where C+ is a lot better than D-. But salvation is a pass-fail system. A blood bought, born again Christian passes. Anything less than that fails.

I will stop blabbering and confusing you. Let us see what the Bible says.

Isa 64:6 ¶ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

 Ac 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified

from all things, from which ye could not be

justified by the law of Moses.

Ga 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

 Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

There are far more verses that say the same thing in different words than space permits here.  Most people reading this will already be aware that you cannot gain heaven by good works.

     One final proof comes from a delightful little book God’s little Instruction Book 

“Heaven goes by grace, if it went by merit,

you would stay out and your dog would go in!”

Mar 20 No one will find out.

Mar 20

No One Will Find Out

be sure your sin will find you out. 

Why is it men in high positions think they can get away with bad behavior?  In 2014 the head of France came to the United States but did not bring his wife. She had learned about his mistress. He attended a State dinner at the white house alone. The results of his sin was broadcast over international news. The whole world found out.

A president of the United States, who had a history of infidelity, was finally exposed (no pun intended) and the world learned he had sinned and repeatedly lied about it on live television. .

There are endless stories that could be told about people who tried to cover their sins and were still caught.

A joke about a butcher is based on getting caught. A lady asked for a nice chicken for a dinner she was having. The butcher only had one chicken left in the cooler. When he weighed it the lady said it was too small, did he have another one? The butcher returned to the cooler with the chicken, slipped a 2 pound weight inside the chicken and returned with it. It was better but the lady decided she should take both chickens!   Be sure your sins will find you out.

But there is nothing humorous about the story of a king in II Samuel who tried to hide his sin. Chapter 11 of II Samuel records David’s sin with Bathsheba. David should have been with his army in battle, not lounging around the royal residence.

2Sa 11:1 …But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

One night he got up and walked around on the rooftop. From there he could see a woman washing herself on her rooftop. He did not just glance and then turn his eyes away. He studied her as she washed. She was beautiful to look upon.

So David asked who she was and was told her name, and the name of her husband who was out fighting a war for David. So he sent for her and committed adultery with her. His sin progressed from an innocent walk on his roof to taking another man’s wife. David had sinned. He had gotten away with it. No one would know, but…

2Sa 11:5 And the woman conceived, and sent

and told David, and said, I am with child.

Now his attempt to avoid our verse for today.

be sure your sin will find you out.

If you are not familiar with the story read II Samuel chapter 11. David tried some things to cover his sin but when they didn’t work he decided murder was a good way to hide adultery. So he had the woman’s husband killed and then after a period of mourning he married her. We can see how foolish it was to commit a second sin to hide his first sin.  But when we allow sin into our lives we are not thinking about the future, just the present satisfaction we will get for ourselves. The lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh can make people think some crazy things.

In life everything has a cost and benefit. Too often we only see the benefit and do not count the cost. The cost benefit ratio is essential to help us make Godly decisions. Any benefit from pleasure that is against God’s will for us is too costly.  In David’s case the cost was very high.

2Sa 12:9 …thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword…

2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house…

2Sa 12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house…

2Sa 12:11 …and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour,

2Sa 12:12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel,

2Sa 12:18 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died.

Failure to glance away from a bathing woman cost David for the rest of his life. He paid a lifetime of regret and God’s punishment for a few minutes of sin. 

 How about us. Do we see people around us who are paying a lifetime of limited usefulness because they thought they could do wrong and no one would ever know?  Modern day civilization has figured out how to get away with sin and not get caught. Just change the definition of sin. Then if it isn’t sin there is nothing to have to hide. So according to the government and society in large, filthy speech is OK, premarital sex is now just a part of dating, telling lies is a normal procedure in politics and advertising, cheating is no big deal, sodomy is now protected by law, men can marry men, every perversion of pornography is just a mouse click away from most homes, and government is the solution to every human problem.

 Since none of the above are seen as wrong, sinful or ungodly that means we have nothing to hide and there is no price to pay. That is probably why this generation does not suffer from hunger, strife, violence, disobedient children, crimes in high places, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, floods, droughts, and economic disaster.

On second thought, maybe we aren’t getting away with it. If I remember correctly God punished the nation of Israel with many of these same difficulties. They never learned their lesson. May we not repeat their fatal mistake.

Ga 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked:

for whatsoever a man soweth,

that shall he also reap.