Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4  Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5  to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:3-5 NIV. We need each other! It’s true, regardless of our age, our marital status, or how long we may have known the Lord. God has designed us in such a way that we need healthy, intentional relationships to help us become all He intends us to be and to strengthen and equip us for each season of life. These kinds of life-to-life relationships, fueled by His Spirit, grounded in His Word, and enabled by His grace, bless us and bless others around us. They provide mutual encouragement and support in the trenches of daily life. They rescue us from purposelessness, from discouragement, and from deception and sin. I have lived in Titus 2 off and on for nearly a decade—during the writing of  Adorned , I transitioned from being a younger woman to being an older woman and from being single to being married. Through the course of that time, I have had the joy of experiencing the outworking of this message in many different relationships—not so much in formal, structured mentoring relationships as in fluid, organic friendships that have molded and shaped my life. As I wrote  Adorned , I was reminded of the older women God has placed in my life over the years and how much I owe to them for their investment and influence. I was also inspired to become that kind of woman in the lives of the younger women He causes to intersect my life. Each book I write ends up confronting my own heart before it ever goes to press.  Adorned  was no exception. I grappled afresh with what it means to glorify God, to embrace the qualities He has set before us, and to pursue Christlikeness in each of the areas addressed in this text. Repeatedly, I found the Scripture searching my own heart, showing me my need, bringing me to repentance, and leading me to say “Yes, Lord” to the message I was laying out for other women. Transformational Principles The principles and precepts of Titus 2 address virtually every nook and cranny of our lives and have transformational implications for our walk and our influence—at home, in the workplace, in our churches, and in the world around us. For example, “sound doctrine” ( Titus 2:1 )  is absolutely indispensable to a healthy heart and a godly life. It’s foundational and critical to know what God’s Word says. Scripture anchors our hearts, our emotions, and our lives to truth. But it’s not enough to just have a head knowledge of Scripture—sound doctrine is radically transformational! Lived out, it changes everything about us. Sound doctrine is also intensely practical. What we know about God and His ways is intended to change the way we think and respond and act—day after day, moment by moment, in every situation and circumstance of life. Every season of life provides opportunities to know God, to experience His tailor-made grace, and to gain treasures to share with those who are coming behind us. A particular season or situation we find ourselves in may feel impossibly restrictive, painful, challenging, or mundane. But as we receive and offer back up to God each circumstance, each unsolved mystery, each unanswered question, and each seemingly meaningless task, He blesses and sanctifies it all—for our joy, for our greater usefulness, and for the advance of His kingdom. We Can Make a Difference As we get older, there is a subtle temptation to want to take it easy, to retire to the sidelines and let others do the heavy lifting, to become complacent or self-indulgent—after all, we’ve paid the price, we’ve earned this break! But this is not a time to rest on our laurels or to just coast to the finish line. There are women coming behind us who need us to help them in their journey, to remind them of God’s faithfulness, and to encourage them to persevere in faith and obedience. I believe if women would take seriously the exhortation of  Titus 2:3–5 , we would have fewer casualties, fewer women “stuck” in unhealthy or sinful patterns, less need for crisis counseling and long-term therapy, less depression, frustration, guilt, shame, purposelessness, and anxiety . . . and we would make room for greater joy, freedom, and usefulness. This lifestyle won’t make our problems evaporate; it won’t transport us to some pain-free existence. But it will redeem those hard places and transform even our greatest afflictions into something of great beauty and value. We may feel disqualified from investing in the lives of younger women, due to our own weaknesses, inadequacies, insecurities, or failures. But our failures can actually be stepping stones to greater fruitfulness and effectiveness. The greatest gift we have to offer other women is not our picture-perfect lives, but our testimony of God’s mercy and grace that we have received in the midst of our helplessness and need. Women living out the gospel make the truth visible and beautiful to others, because they see Christ in us, and they see the gospel changing us.

He is aliiiiive! He is aliiiiive!"  It was Easter Sunday morning. My five-year-old nephew was to be baptized that day. "Nana" had flown into town to share in the occasion. As the family was getting ready for church, she heard little "Mookie's" unmistakable voice coming from the bathroom down the hall. She quietly slipped into the hallway to see what was happening. There stood the child, on a step stool in front of the mirror, carefully combing his hair, then straightening his shirt and pants, while singing at the top of his lungs, totally oblivious to anyone who might be listening in as he joyously serenaded the Lord. Children sometimes have a way of grasping things that grown-ups miss. Take the time that children shouted out praises to Jesus in the temple during the week before Passover. The children shouted out their praises without inhibition, while the leaders feared that things might get out of control—their control, that is. The children were preoccupied with Jesus—they weren't the least bit conscious of how others saw them or what anyone else was thinking. The leaders, on the other hand, were concerned about how they looked, about holding on to their position, about what everyone else would think about this whole scene. This time the children had it right. The grown-ups had it wrong. Why Should I Praise? We should praise the Lord because  God loves praise and He seeks worshipers  ( John 4:23 ). We should praise the Lord because praise is the primary, eternal occupation of heaven ( Rev. 4–5 ). We should praise the Lord because  He commands us to praise Him . Did you know that the most frequently repeated command in all of God's Word is the command to "praise the Lord"? (I suspect it may also be the most frequently neglected command.) We should praise the Lord because  He deserves our worship and praise  ( Rev. 4:11 ). We should praise the Lord because  we were made to bring Him pleasure , and praise pleases Him. Do you ever wonder what your purpose is here on this earth? When you praise God, you are fulfilling the highest purpose for which He created you. We should praise the Lord because praise takes us into  His presence and brings down His glory  ( Ps. 22:3 ). A Lifestyle of Praise Scripture teaches that praise, worship, and thanksgiving are to be the eternal occupation of every believer. Praise is not just an activity we do at scheduled times; it is to be a  continuous lifestyle. Praise is an  expression of faith and an act of the w ill. It is not based on how we feel. David understood this concept as few others in the Scripture when he wrote during one of the darkest periods of his life, "I will bless the Lord at all time: his praise shall continually be in my mouth" ( Ps. 34: 1 ). Praise is a  ministry to God . Praise is first and foremost for God, not for us ( Ex. 30 ). Praise is  both public and private , much as a husband and wife may display their affection for each other, both when they are in the company of others as well as when they are alone ( Ps. 107:32 ,  Daniel 6:10 ). Praise  requires personal participation —it is not a spectator sport ( Ps. 103:1 ). Many years ago I had an experience I don't think I will ever forget. I was on the road, spending the night in the home of a friend. A pastor and his wife visiting from Nigeria were also guests in the same home that night. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by a sound unlike anything I had heard before. In the bedroom next to mine, that dear couple was singing "How Great Thou Art"—slowly, loudly, with a heavy accent, and with all their hearts. I wasn't sure I hadn't died and gone to heaven! That man and woman were not spectators. They were right there on the stage—active participants in the great eternal drama of praise, performing for a sacred audience of One. How Should I Praise? There are many different expressions of praise and worship taught and illustrated in the Scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you in your worship. Here are some of the ways He may lead you to respond: Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, to His feet thy tribute bring; Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, evermore His praises sing; Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the everlasting King. -Henry F. Lyte (1793–1847) Physical posture . A variety of different physical postures can be used in worshiping the Lord praise Speak to the Lord . We can use our mouths to express love, praise, and thanksgiving to the Lord ( Ps. 145:5 ). Sing to the Lord . This one of my favorite expressions of praise, and one that I believe merits special attention. Do you have a favorite song or way to praise the Lord? How are you praising the Savior today? This post has been adapted from Nancy's book,  A Place of Quiet Rest.  Used by permission.

Lessons from an Anti-Hero: Jonah Jonah was the only prophet called to people out of Israel. That fact makes it easier to sympathize with Jonah’s resistance to God’s call to go to Nineveh. “I didn’t sign up for this,” Jonah must have thought. “No one else has ever been asked to do this!” In his own book, Jonah is the anti-hero: a reminder of what we are not to do. God gives Jonah four directives in his book and Jonah (initially at least) rejects all four. The first two calls are coupled together. “Arise and go!” God twice tells Jonah. Last week we examined God’s call for Jonah and us to arise and we reflected just how difficult it is to swim against the cultural current and arise. But arise we must. And Go. We must go into the mess. We’re called to step into the entanglements of lives around us. It’s easier to keep the lids on the trash cans, but you can’t get into the lives of those around you unless you start taking off some lids. Some opt-out because of the mess. Others opt out because they don’t think they’re qualified. We think that explaining Christianity is best left to the experts. Better to leave it to the pastor with the theological degree to explain it than mess it up myself. For some of us we can hear those words, “Arise and go” and we immediately think about that in terms of vocational missionaries who are called to go overseas. And indeed, we ought to send, support, partner with, and champion those who are called. But Christ’s call to go isn’t merely a call to the professionals. It’s a call for all of us. God never tells us to do what he hasn’t done. Because God cares, we care. Because God came, we go. Dozens of times in the gospels Jesus emphasizes that he was sent. The word “sent” occurs over 120 times in the gospels alone, almost all of those referring to the fact that Jesus was sent or that Jesus sent others. God didn’t just put out his shingle and say, “stop in if you want to experience life the way it was intended.” God came. Jesus came to seek out and to save those who are lost. At the end of his life, Jesus calls us all forward with this purpose to go. Jesus concludes the gospel of Matthew with these familiar words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The central command is in the text is to make disciples with “go,” “baptize,” and “teach” hanging on that central command as participles. Christ has left us with a disciple-multiplying mission and his means for us to carry that out are by going, baptizing, and teaching. It’s like: “Clean the kitchen! Taking out the trash, sweeping the floor, and wiping down the counters.” Our going, then, is not an end in and of itself, it is a going directed toward making disciples, toward speaking the hope of Christ into the lives of those around us. And we do so in the power of our Triune God, who sends us, has rescued us, and fills us and is with us! We not only follow God’s heart, we also are promised to have him with us as we go. It is a call for everyone. A call overseas is the outlier. If God calls you there, you better follow, but his first call for all of us in where we are going in our lives already. We’re called to build bridges from the gospel to the world. God is a bridge-building God. Pastor Robert Lewis, in his book, The Church of the Irresistible Influence says that a bridge is the perfect analogy for what we are called to be as the church: a lifeline of hope to a world in need. But building a bridge has consequences and danger. In Lewis’s book he shares the story of the first bridge built to Prince Edward Island, the bucolic setting for Anne of Green Gables. When the bridge was built it created the ability for locals to easily navigate their way to mainland New Brunswick Canada, but it also, for the first time, opened up the door for a flood of traffic to come to the island and impact the island. So it is with the church. It is our call to be those who build bridges from the good news of Jesus to the world. But those bridges are dangerous because traffic goes both way on a bridge. Life is not as bucolic when you get off Prince Edward Island and have to deal with those wild Canadians. Let’s arise and go, friends. Let’s build those bridges and deal with the messiness that ensues. Because he commands it. And because he came first. 1. What keeps you from telling others about Jesus? 2. Write a simple testimony about how you found Christ as your Savior. 3. Who was the greatest spiritual influencer in your life ? Why were they?

Lessons from an Anti-Hero The Anti-Hero isn’t a modern invention, thousands of years ago Jonah was the Anti-Hero of his own story. Jonah’s story is in the Bible to hold up a mirror to ourselves and ask if our hearts reflect Jonah’s twisted heart for the world or God’s compassionate heart. God, the Hero, speaks first in Jonah’s tale. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me,” God directs Jonah. “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish” (in the exact opposite direction, over sea instead of over land). “Arise!” we hear for the second time in the narrative from the godless captain of Jonah’s boat as the ship is pounded by the relentless sea. The captain shows the depths of God’s prophet rebellion when the pagan directs the Jewish prophet to “call out to your god!” Into the dark sea Jonah is tossed and swallowed by a great fish. Following his repentance he is spat out onto the ground. And the Hero returns, “Arise, go to Nineveh,” he repeats, as if to make sure that Noah has no doubt that his mission has not expired. Are you stubbornly refusing the call of the Hero of your story? Where is he calling you to arise to? God is calling you to move. For many of us, we are docked on our couches. We need to move. We need to arise. For many of us, even though we walk into our workplace every day, we hunker down, put our head down, and disengage from our coworkers. Arise! It’s easy to hear the call to “Arise” and functionally opt-out. It’s not so much that we refuse to go, we just don’t opt-in. Our lives are magnificently structured to push back at this call. Everything about our lives screams “Sit, stay” not “Arise, go.” We sit and stay instead of getting up. The inertia of life pushes against this call. The force of the couch and the television is strong. We even use our personalities to opt-out of the call to arise. As someone who falls on the introverted side of the spectrum, it’s healthy that I know that I’m energized by time alone, by reading books and working out. But that can serve as a ready excuse, where I pull back from others and don’t press into the lives of neighbors and friends as I’m called. We live isolated lives. Who spends time on their front porch any longer? Chairs on our front porch are just decorations. Our automatic garage doors are ingenious inventions that protect us from having to have a conversation with our neighbors. We share fewer communal meals. Fewer conversations. Faces exchanged for screens. We stay. Since we’re in a new neighborhood, we’ve been trying to greet every new person who has moved in. It’s funny how people respond to their doorbell being rung. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco has a great bit about this. 20 years ago when your doorbell rang, you responded with joy: “it’s company! The whole family went to the door.” Nobody looked to see who it was, you just opened up the door. “I was in the neighborhood, I thought I might stop by.” Today, everyone freezes and hopes they go away. These days when your doorbell rings you assume it’s either someone selling something, someone trying to get your signature for something political, or a Jehovah’s Witness. It’s a lot different than it was even when I grew up. Our world is built to protect us from other people. We have back patios with fences, not front porches with an extra rocking chair for a neighbor. Even our homes are built to “sit and stay” not “arise and go.” It is going to require work, effort to transform what has become so ingrained in how we live. It’s going to be hard to arise. We need a reason. We won’t put down screens and choose people out of sheer will. What will cause us to arise is when the person we are arising to go toward we care deeply about. When our reflects the care God has for every human being. Who are those people who God is calling you to arise and go toward? Think of one or two or three names. Not groups of people, but individuals God has placed in your life. And arise. Walk over to your neighbor who you wanted to bring brownies to when they moved in, but that was a year ago and now you’re embarrassed. And bring them those brownies! They’ll still love them. Invite your cubicle mate over for dinner. Listen. Learn about their family and about their background. Arise, Christian. 1. How often do you greet someone you don’t know? 2. Do you know your neighbors? 3. How often do you reach out to those in your sphere of influence?

Jonah was the only prophet called to people out of Israel.[i] That fact makes it easier to sympathize with Jonah’s resistance to God’s call to go to Nineveh. “I didn’t sign up for this,” Jonah must have thought. “No one else has ever been asked to do this!” In his own book, Jonah is the anti-hero: a reminder of what we are not to do. God gives Jonah four directives in his book and Jonah (initially at least) rejects all four. The first two calls are coupled together. “Arise and go!” God twice tells Jonah. Last week we examined God’s call for Jonah and us to arise and we reflected just how difficult it is to swim against the cultural current and arise. But arise we must. And Go. We must go into the mess. We’re called to step into the entanglements of lives around us. It’s easier to keep the lids on the trash cans, but you can’t get into the lives of those around you unless you start taking off some lids. Some opt-out because of the mess. Others opt out because they don’t think they’re qualified. We think that explaining Christianity is best left to the experts. Better to leave it to the pastor with the theological degree to explain it than mess it up myself. For some of us we can hear those words, “Arise and go” and we immediately think about that in terms of vocational missionaries who are called to go overseas. And indeed, we ought to send, support, partner with, and champion those who are called. But Christ’s call to go isn’t merely a call to the professionals. It’s a call for all of us. God never tells us to do what he hasn’t done. Because God cares, we care. Because God came, we go. Dozens of times in the gospels Jesus emphasizes that he was sent. The word “sent” occurs over 120 times in the gospels alone, almost all of those referring to the fact that Jesus was sent or that Jesus sent others. God didn’t just put out his shingle and say, “stop in if you want to experience life the way it was intended.” God came. Jesus came to seek out and to save those who are lost.[ii] At the end of his life, Jesus calls us all forward with this purpose to go. Jesus concludes the gospel of Matthew with these familiar words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The central command is in the text is to make disciples with “go,” “baptize,” and “teach” hanging on that central command as participles.[iii] Christ has left us with a disciple-multiplying mission and his means for us to carry that out are by going, baptizing, and teaching. It’s like: “Clean the kitchen! Taking out the trash, sweeping the floor, and wiping down the counters.” Our going , then, is not an end in and of itself, it is a going directed toward making disciples, toward speaking the hope of Christ into the lives of those around us. And we do so in the power of our Triune God, who sends us, has rescued us, and fills us and is with us![iv] We not only follow God’s heart, we also are promised to have him with us as we go.[v] It is a call for everyone. A call overseas is the outlier. If God calls you there, you better follow, but his first call for all of us in where we are going in our lives already. We’re called to build bridges from the gospel to the world. God is a bridge-building God. Pastor Robert Lewis, in his book, The Church of the Irresistible Influence says that a bridge is the perfect analogy for what we are called to be as the church: a lifeline of hope to a world in need. But building a bridge has consequences and danger. In Lewis’s book he shares the story of the first bridge built to Prince Edward Island, the bucolic setting for Anne of Green Gables. When the bridge was built it created the ability for locals to easily navigate their way to mainland New Brunswick Canada, but it also, for the first time, opened up the door for a flood of traffic to come to the island and impact the island. So it is with the church. It is our call to be those who build bridges from the good news of Jesus to the world. But those bridges are dangerous because traffic goes both way on a bridge. Life is not as bucolic when you get off Prince Edward Island and have to deal with those wild Canadians. Let’s arise and go, friends. Let’s build those bridges and deal with the messiness that ensues. Because he commands it. And because he came first. Do you know how to "build a bridge" with others? What are some ways you can deepen that connection in your relationships? Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to opportunities to share the gospel. [ii] Luke 19:55ff [iii] This is a great article explaining the translation: http://thinktheology.org/2013/11/07/greek-geeking-the-great-commission-in-matthew/ . See also Leon Morris, Pillar "Matthew", 746. The three participles all have the force of a command as well, but the emphasis is the initial command: make disciples. [iv] Powerful also in verse 19 is the Triune command to baptize in the name (singular, not plural!) of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. See Morris, Pillar "Matthew", 748. [v] Leon Morris, Pillar "Matthew", 750. The ministry of Jesus continues to today.

Jonah doesn’t get much right. Not much at all. God called him to arise and go to Nineveh. Nope and nope. Jonah ran the opposite direction. But after God gets Jonah’s attention, Jonah ever-so-tentatively obeys God’s call. The third call God placed on Jonah’s life was that he “call out against” Nineveh “the message that I tell you.” After being spit up by the fish and told a second time to “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you,” Jonah finally heads to Nineveh. We aren’t told what God tells Jonah to tell the Ninevites. The story moves ahead and we find Jonah wandering the streets of Nineveh, speaking these words, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”[i] We don’t know whether Jonah delivered this message once or multiple times as he walked through the city. The text is ambiguous about that. What was the tone Jonah delivered the message with? Was he compassionate? Fiery? Earnest? Certainly none of these. If we look ahead one chapter, it is clear that Jonah’s obedience isn’t whole-hearted. After he delivers the message, Jonah sits perched on an overlook, anticipating the destruction of the city. If there was any pep in Jonah’s step as he delivered his message, it was anticipatory malice. He hoped that God would bring destruction, that salt would be poured on the wound of Nineveh’s disobedience. So let’s picture the scene of Jonah’s evangelistic walk through Nineveh. In my mind’s eye I picture the bleached out Jonah wandering slowly through the city, head down, speaking monotone in a barely raised voice “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” Jonah mumbles. Passersby crane their heads to catch what the strange man says. The odd man shuffles along and murmurs, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” And again he says, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The delivery wasn’t likely to sin any Prophets Monthly awards. But what about that message? What a weird message! Could this really have been the message God commanded Jonah to deliver to the Ninevites? On the one hand, it seems like it can’t possibly be the message. There is no mention of God, no mention of repentance, and no offer of hope if they did repent. Jonah’s message is hardly a pattern for evangelism. There is no ordaining body in the world that would confirm the ministerial call of such a poor preacher. But maybe it was the message Jonah was given. Maybe God knew that this was all the Ninevites needed. They, after all, repent even with this skeletal message delivered by a half-hearted man. We don’t know. And yet, Jonah’s calling out was enough. The word “call out”( qera ) pops up only four times in the Hebrew Bible, all of which are clustered in Jonah (1:2, 3:2 (twice), and 3:4). It’s a word that was translated in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible as kerygma , a word that would have significance in the Christian tradition, understood both as our call to preach and the content (the good news) of that preaching. I don’t know whether the message Jonah delivered was the message God gave Jonah to deliver, but either way, it is an incredibly encouraging story. Thousands were saved by possibly the most barebones evangelistic call ever delivered. How many of us opt out of our call to share the good news of Jesus because we think we don’t know if we would explain it well enough? How many of us opt out of our call to evangelize because surely someone could do it better than us? But here Jonah is, with a monumentally bad gospel presentation that elicits the conversion of thousands! How can that be? Because the work of salvation is the work of God. Period. He is the one who draws.[ii] He is the one who calls.[iii] He is the one who opens ears.[iv] He is the one who changes hearts.[v] God’s work of salvation is despite us, not because of us. It is a gift, perhaps the most profound gift we can experience as humans to participate in God’s work of salvation.[vi] And it is his grace that he allows us to be part of it. Barna released a study in 2013 that shared that only 52% of evangelicals said they had shared their faith in the past year.[vii] How sad that half of Christians are opting out of one of the greatest privileges we have: to speak the hope of the rescue of God into others’ lives. Let us open our lips and, filled with boldness and hope, proclaim the call to repent and the offer of life through Jesus, our Savior. Let us speak. Who shared Christ with you? Why is it difficult for most Christians to share their faith? What difference will it make if you take the time to be bold in sharing the Gospel today? Photo by Melany Rochester on Unsplash [i] Jonah 3:4 [ii] John 6:44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” [iii] Romans 8:30: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” [iv] Isaiah 50:5: “The Lord God has opened my ear.” [v] Ezekiel 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” [vi] 1 John 1:4: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” [vii] https://www.barna.com/research/is-evangelism-going-out-of-style/

Do you know what Jonah’s final recorded words were? Were they words of repentance? Words of gratitude? Words of praise? Nope. They were words of spite. The last words that Jonah speaks are, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” Those are not words motivated by suffering or grief. Those are words that come straight out of the hateful heart of our anti-hero, a prophet who cannot bear that God would have compassion on a city he deemed worthy of destruction and upset that the God who provided a plant for shade for him would allow it to wither. The compassion of God knows no bounds. He orchestrates the salvation of a city that every Jew would have longed to see the destruction of. A city that was not only a military threat to the Israelites, but whose pagan worship was a stench to those loyal to the one true God. It is the Hero who has the final say in Jonah. These final words reveal God’s love and call us to this deep compassion: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” The book of Jonah closes with a glimpse of the compassionate heart of God. Within the final verses of Jonah we see some incredible truths about the depth and power of God’s love: God’s love is attentive: Like a caring spouse or parent, no detail is left uncared for by our compassionate God. God’s compassion for his stiff-necked prophet is so deep, he grows a weed up over Jonah to shade him from the sun even as hatred boils in Jonah’s heart for those God loves. God’s love is for the big things (saving a city of 120,000 from destruction), but it also for the small things: Jonah’s discomfort in the heat, and even for the animals. Isn’t that final statement “and also much cattle” beautiful? God cares not just for the people of the city, but for the cattle of the city. God’s love extends to his creation. As I type, a Common Lesser Earless Lizard is sitting outside my window on a rock, pumping his arms in his speckled glory. God knows everything about that lizard and cares for it. Not as he cares for humans, made in his image, and for whom his Son died, but he loves the lizard nonetheless. Our infinite God’s love is not expended or taxed as our love is. God cares about the details of your life. The coffee you spilled on your lap this morning, the three lights you missed. And he cares about your neighbor you find so difficult. He is attentively compassionate. God’s love is powerful: God brings a storm up to prevent his wayward prophet from fleeing and then re-directs him in the belly of a fish. How is that for evidence of his power? Our God’s love was not held at bay because of our sin. It wasn’t held at bay because we couldn’t be reconciled through our good deeds. It wasn’t held at bay because reconciliation required God to become man. It wasn’t held at bay by death itself. God’s love is powerful. God’s love overcomes. Everything. God’s love is persistent: Upon receiving word that he was to call Nineveh to repentance, Jonah flees. But God is not thwarted. He will provide the opportunity for Nineveh to repent, and it will come through Jonah. Because he loves Nineveh and because he loves Jonah, his love persists in bringing about his perfect, sovereign plan. God’s love persists in spite of us. This morning I spoke with someone wrestling with the thought that they had expended God’s patience and that it was too late for them. No, friend. If it wasn’t too late for Jonah, it’s not too late for you. If it wasn’t too late for Nineveh, it’s not too late for me. God’s love persists. Nothing is beyond the reach of God’s love: Any Jew would have considered Nineveh beyond hope. Anyone who knew Saul as he stood overseeing the stoning of Stephen would have thought it ludicrous that he would ever follow the Savior he stoned Stephen for following. Our anti-hero, Jonah, was not beyond the reach of God’s love either. What is the end of Jonah’s story? What happened with him? We don’t know. His final words are words of hatred. But I have hope for Jonah. How did we get this story? Who accompanied Jonah on his trek? Who sat with Jonah under the wilting weed as God shared his great compassion with the compassionless prophet? No one. And so I have hope. Could God have supernaturally shared Jonah’s story with another author? Yes. But I have a hunch that a transformed Jonah wrote his own story. And like the apostles, who wrote their stories with brutal honesty about their own faithlessness, Jonah transparently shares his ugly heart. It is not just the Ninevites who are not beyond the reach of God’s love. None of us are beyond his reach. Not even Jonah, the anti-hero. If he can transform Jonah, he can transform the most stubborn, arrogant, heartless person in your life. If God’s love can transform Jonah, it can transform me.  If God’s love can transform Jonah, it can transform you. Arise, go, speak, and love out of the overflow of God’s love. Have you ever been angry at God? Why? Did you feel that God had asked you to share the Good News and you were angry when the person was mean, angry, or hostile? How did you respond? What can God do to help you become more compassionate?

Our doorbell rang – an odd occasion –I got up from the dinner table and walked toward the door. My step hitched halfway to the door as I realized it was likely a child selling something… too late. I opened the door and a high schooler stood in front of me, fundraising for his baseball team. Being asked for money makes me uncomfortable. There is something reasonable about being uncomfortable when we’re asked for money. The pang might speak to whether the cause is worthwhile, or whether the tactics are coercive. But the reality is that far too often that twinge of discomfort points not to the worth of the cause, but the grip money has on our hearts. In 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us that God doesn’t want uncomfortable givers, he wants cheerful givers. The way to cheerfulness isn’t by willing ourselves there, it’s by reshaping our affections. Paul thinks that if our hearts can be moved by God’s big why for generosity, then our relationship with money will be reshaped. In this series, we’re going to unpack four transformative reasons for generosity and then unpack Paul’s instructions for how we ought to give. Teaching Generosity to Messed Up People 2 Corinthians 8-9 contains the most compact teaching in the Bible on generosity. It’s odd that it is in one of Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth that we find concentrated teaching on giving.  We might assume that Paul teaches his most mature disciples about generosity, but Corinth was far from earning that title. In fact, the Corinthian church was Paul’s most troubled church. In his two letters, we discover a church with all sorts of problems. One member of the church was sleeping with his mother-in-law, and no one batted an eye or spoke up. The way communion was celebrated at this time was in the form of a potluck meal held at the end of the time of the community’s worship; however, at Corinth, those who were rich were separating themselves from the poor and not allowing the poor to eat at these meals. The church at Corinth was misusing the gifts of the Spirit and had even rejected Paul’s authority over them. We tend to think about stewardship and generosity as something God calls us to once we’ve got it all together. But that’s not how Paul thinks about generosity. Paul invites the spiritually immature into generosity. Generosity is for everyone. Paul wants us all to experience the blessing of the grace that is generosity. He urges this church to step into God’s grace in this way. Do you opt-out of godly generosity because that seems like something for you when you’re more spiritually mature? Paul would say, “if I call the Corinthians to generosity, I call you to generosity.” The Grace of Generosity After sharing the story of how God motivated the poor churches in Macedonia to give, Paul exhorts the church at Corinth to give. The first reason Paul exhorts the church to give is that giving is a grace. It’s to this mixed up, immature, and even rebellious church that Paul writes these words: ”Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace [participate in giving]. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.” 2 Corinthians 8:6-7 Two times in these two verses Paul refers to giving as a grace. He will hammer away at that word, using it ten times in total in chapters 8 and 9. What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor; it is an undeserved gift. Giving is a gift. It is undeserved that we get to give. Giving isn’t first a duty; it isn’t first a burden; it isn’t first an obligation. Giving is first a grace. You are missing out if you don’t participate in it. The Work of Generosity God wants to give us a gift and our hearts reject it as a burden. When I was a teenager, my parents bought me a guitar and guitar lessons for my birthday. I don’t think I asked for the guitar or the guitar lessons, and, while the idea of playing the guitar was nice, the reality of practicing to achieve that end wasn’t so nice. I took the lessons and half-heartedly practiced. And then the lessons ended and my playing petered off to nothing. I can’t play a single chord today. I so wish I could. I would love to be able to lead my family in worship, our connection group in worship, to be able to lead worship at funerals. I wish that I had seen that gift for what it was: a gift. Why didn’t I put in the time to learn how to play the guitar? Because I saw it as a burden, not a gift. A lot of us play around with our generosity. We like it okay when the mood strikes. But it usually feels like a burden, and so we give intermittently and haphazardly. We are not generous. But just as I wish I could go back and tell my teenage self what a gift playing the guitar is, how much greater is the gift of participating in the grace, the unmerited favor, that is giving! If we experience giving and generosity as fundamentally an obligation and a duty, we will never unlock the joy that God has for us in it. We have an opportunity to experience the unique delight of the heart of our God in giving. May we not miss out! How do you feel when someone asks you to give generously? Do you find it hard to give to God in a difficult financial climate? Are you afraid you won't have enough? Pray today for God to give you a compassionate heart. He will!

No one argues that miserliness is an admirable character trait. The national convention of Ebeneezer Scrooge urging Americans to be less generous doesn’t exist. Many perceive one of America’s strongest virtues to be generosity. There is some evidence for this. News reports gushed that over $471 billion was given to charity in 2020, the highest recorded number on record in U.S. history. That’s a huge amount of money. But that number represents a mere 2% of the US’s GDP, which stood at $20.94 trillion in 2020. 2% hardly seems a number to hang on our wall. What about Christians? Unfortunately, we do little better, giving approximately 3% of our income to charity. And fewer than 5% of Christians tithe.[ii] Generosity isn’t graded on a curve. Most disappointingly is the self-deception of Christians. 17% of Christians report tithing despite the actual number of 5%. Worse still, 10% of those who claimed they tithe actually gave less than $200 to charity.[iii] The Second Reason to Give Paul would have something to say about this. In this series, we are exploring the reasons Paul says that we should be generous. The first reason was that giving is a grace; it is a gift offered to us by God. Paul’s second reason is found in 2 Corinthians 8:8, Paul urges, “I say this [that you ought to participate in the grace of giving] not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.” Paul’s second reason for giving is that our giving proves that we love Jesus . That ought to catch our attention. The ledger of my giving is the proof of my love of Christ? What About Legalism? Wait a second, you might say. Isn’t this legalism? It isn’t. Just as the fruits of the Spirit don’t save us, but prove the authenticity of Christ’s work in us, so too does our generosity prove the authenticity of our love of Jesus. Consider: you have a friend struggling with depression. You sit down on the couch after a long day of work, turn on Netflix, and your friend starts sending you frantic texts: “Help!” “Please call me.” “Please call. I’m in a dark place.” “Please call. I’m struggling with suicidal thoughts.” You silence your phone, flip it over, and keep watching your show. Do you love your friend? Consider: you effusively tell your wife you love her frequently, but you never arrive home when you say you will. You can’t remember the last time you vacuumed, dusted, or folded laundry. And your anger gets the best of you every couple of weeks, leading to curse-laced tirades directed at her. Do you love your wife? Consider: you sing lullabies over your baby and tell her you love her every night. But she screams herself to sleep some nights from hunger because you sometimes cash your check and buy meth instead of formula. Do you love your baby girl? So it is with giving. Do Your Finances Prove You’re a Christian? Consider: you go to church, you serve as an usher, but your giving is throwing a $20 in the giving box every now in then. If you ever took time to crunch the numbers, you would find you give 2% of your income. Do you love Christ? God’s request that Israelites tithe in the Old Testament was not just a call for Jews to give 10% of their income, but for those who trusted him to give their first 10% to him. It was a declaration that all they had was his and a mark of trust that they did not trust their own hard work, but the faithfulness of the God who owned the cattle of a thousand hills. Does our giving reflect this kind of ultimate trust in God for his provision? Does it prove that we have submitted control of our hearts, our lives, and our finances to him? If we claim to be Christians and are stingy, we need to look in the mirror and ask if we really are Christians. Have we been changed by God’s generosity? Do we really believe the first reason: that generosity is a grace, an opportunity, given to us by our Savior? Let’s prove our faith with our generosity. [i] http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/statistics/ [ii] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/the-flesh-is-weak-churchgoers-give-far-less-than-they-think_b_1846516.html [iii] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/the-flesh-is-weak-churchgoers-give-far-less-than-they-think_b_1846516.html www.thebeehive.live.

Why do we give? The first hit when you Google “why should I be generous?” is this article which lays out four reasons: 1)      Giving frees you from the “burden of materialism” 2)      Giving helps you “to feel better about yourself” 3)      Giving makes you less self-centered 4)      Giving helps make people like you. Do you find those reasons compelling? Two of them (1 &3) have echoes of biblical truth in them. But 2 & 4 are shockingly empty reasons. Paul also has four reasons for giving: none of which overlap with this list. Here is Paul’s list: 1)      Give because giving is a grace 2)      Give because it proves your love of Jesus 3)      Give because Jesus first gave 4)      Give because you will be blessed. Give Because Jesus Gave Today we arrive at the third reason on that list: give because Jesus first gave. Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thought he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Paul echoes and unpacks this statement to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” With each step of his descent, from taking on human form to his death on the cross, Jesus displays his perfect generosity in giving up his position, giving up his protection from death and sin, giving up himself. Give Because the Father Gave And Jesus does not stand alone as generous. It is not as though the Son is generous, but the Father is stingy. No, our Triune God is over-the-top generous.[i] Father, Son, and Spirit give. John 3:16 describes the generosity of God the Father, whose love overflows in giving: “For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son.” Who can imagine handing his or her child over to death for the sake of anyone, much less for the sake of an enemy?[ii] And we were his enemies! And in their generosity, God the Father and God the Son give us the Holy Spirit.[iii] Give Because the Spirit Gave Consider the generosity of the Spirit! The Spirit, who indwells us, unites us with Christ, seals us for salvation, bears fruit in us and gives us spiritual gifts.[iv] Blessing upon blessing is given by the generous Spirit! God withholds nothing from us. As we are conformed into his image, we grow in our Triune God-echoing generosity. When we give, we display the very character of Christ to the world. We, ambassadors of this strangely generous King, display his category-defying generosity in our own generosity. www.thebeehive.live. [i] Kelly Capic’s God So Loved, He Gave is a wonderful treatment of the theology of generosity on this foundation. [ii] Romans 5:8-10 [iii] See Luke 11:13, John 15:26, Acts 5:32. [iv] 1 Corinthians 12:7.

Why do we give? The first hit when you Google “why should I be generous?” is this article which lays out four reasons: 1)      Giving frees you from the “burden of materialism” 2)      Giving helps you “to feel better about yourself” 3)      Giving makes you less self-centered 4)      Giving helps make people like you. Do you find those reasons compelling? Two of them (1 &3) have echoes of biblical truth in them. But 2 & 4 are shockingly empty reasons. Paul also has four reasons for giving: none of which overlap with this list. Here is Paul’s list: 1)      Give because giving is a grace 2)      Give because it proves your love of Jesus 3)      Give because Jesus first gave 4)      Give because you will be blessed. Give Because Jesus Gave Today we arrive at the third reason on that list: give because Jesus first gave. Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thought he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Paul echoes and unpacks this statement to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” With each step of his descent, from taking on human form to his death on the cross, Jesus displays his perfect generosity in giving up his position, giving up his protection from death and sin, giving up himself. Give Because the Father Gave And Jesus does not stand alone as generous. It is not as though the Son is generous, but the Father is stingy. No, our Triune God is over-the-top generous.[i] Father, Son, and Spirit give. John 3:16 describes the generosity of God the Father, whose love overflows in giving: “For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son.” Who can imagine handing his or her child over to death for the sake of anyone, much less for the sake of an enemy?[ii] And we were his enemies! And in their generosity, God the Father and God the Son give us the Holy Spirit.[iii] Give Because the Spirit Gave Consider the generosity of the Spirit! The Spirit, who indwells us, unites us with Christ, seals us for salvation, bears fruit in us and gives us spiritual gifts.[iv] Blessing upon blessing is given by the generous Spirit! God withholds nothing from us. As we are conformed into his image, we grow in our Triune God-echoing generosity. When we give, we display the very character of Christ to the world. We, ambassadors of this strangely generous King, display his category-defying generosity in our own generosity. [i] Kelly Capic’s God So Loved, He Gave is a wonderful treatment of the theology of generosity on this foundation. [ii] Romans 5:8-10 [iii] See Luke 11:13, John 15:26, Acts 5:32. [iv] 1 Corinthians 12:7. www.thebeehive.live.

Perhaps my favorite nursery rhyme is Humpty Dumpty. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again. As I read that, I have a question. Who pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall? Humpty Dumpty  is a picture of what happened at the greatest crime scene of all time. Adam and Eve, sat in this perfect place, called Eden. Who pushed them? Obviously, they were nudged by Satan, but ultimately, they pushed themselves off that wall. They made a decision that led to sin and to the fall. When we think about biblical history, Adam and Eve became the first Humpty Dumpty of all humanity as they fell off that wall and broke into a thousand pieces. They couldn’t get back on the wall; they couldn’t get back into Eden. We have spent generations trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again through: religiosity. good works. wars that have tried to settle disputes. positive thinking. entertainment. drugs to try to dull pain. movements and philosophies. We can even use something like  Intentional Living  in the wrong way to try to rectify what only God can. God is the only One who can put Humpty Dumpty back together again through His offer of salvation, but the cracks remain. The Crime Scene The reality is what happened in the Garden of Eden, when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall, became the greatest crime scene of all time. At a crime scene, the first thing you want to do is to find out what really happened. When people ask for help, they’re facing emotional or relational issues. And I’m always interested in going back to the Genesis story in terms of their own life. What was the starting point of these issues that they’re facing in their life? What happened? Why did it happen? And how is it affecting them today? As we come to know Christ, we hear about Adam and Eve’s fall, their sin and find the only solution is a sacrifice, and God provided that. Then there’s a period of silence between the old and new testaments. Then Jesus comes on the scene as the ultimate redeemer. Jesus lived His life in perfection. He went to the cross and gave His life in exchange for ours. He was buried and He rose again. He returned to Heaven to prepare a place for us. And He’s coming back again to retrieve us to be with Him (John 14). The problem is, we don’t hear very much about how what happened at the fall affects us. We learn about brokenness and that we need a Savior, but not about the cracks that exist in our lives as a result of Humpty Dumpty being put back together again with a lot of cracks. We’re not immune as followers of Christ from the cracks that occurred on that moment in time. It only took a day, a few hours or thirty minutes to move from a place of perfection – sittingon the wall of Eden – to Adam and Eve’s fall. Humanity has spent eons of time trying to correct and rectify everything that was destroyed in that moment. You and I are the victims of Adam and Eve’s sin. When Humpty Dumpty fell, we were dragged along and we’re still suffering from those things that occurred emotionally, relationally and physically. What happened on that day, in that place, is real. Shame, blame and pain  vibrated throughout history when Humpty Dumpty hit the ground, and those three things affect the lives of every single person today. And we’ll look at these three cracks in the following blog,  3 Cracks in Humanity from the Fall that Affect You Today. The Garden of Eden was perfection – no sin (Genesis chapters 1 and 2). But in chapter 3, the fall of man began when Satan tempted Eve, and she chose to disobey God. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6 NKJV). Disobedience is a crime against God, punishable by death.  Shame (and guilt)    Shame causes us to cover up;  guilt causes us to hide out. We tend to blend those two and view them as the same thing, but they’re not. Shame is about me, who I am. Maybe you grew up in an environment where you never felt like you measured up. You thought you could never be good enough. Or you walked around feeling ashamed all the time. When Adam and Eve fell from the wall, they felt shame. And like everything that occurs as a result of following sin, shame and guilt distort your lives. When we sin, shame is something that could cause us to come back to God, but instead Adam and Eve covered up (Genesis 3:7 NKJV). We often cover up in our relationships today. If I feel shame in my life, I’m going to cover up from you. I’m not going to be vulnerable to you. Guilt is a different emotion. Guilt is what I  feel  as a result of something I’ve done or not done. And so, I’m going to hide out. So, what’s the solution? The two most important ingredients are to Confess to Christ (Romans 3:23, Romans 10:9). Have confidence in Christ. The greatest ways of dealing with feelings of guilt and shame are to: Be honest with yourself. Be honest with God. He already knows. Confess the truth. And then develop confidence in Christ. 2. Blame   Blame is just a quick escape from guilt. It gets me out of it and pushes the feeling aside. God called to Adam and asked, “Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9). Adam said, “I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10 NKJV). God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded that you should not eat” (Genesis 3:11 NKJV). Adam blamed his wife (Genesis 3:12). It’s human nature to blame other people. Here’s some examples of how we blame today: I wouldn’t have yelled at you if you had done what you were supposed to do. I would have gotten it done if traffic hadn’t slowed me down. It’s the government’s fault. It’s my neighbor’s fault. Blame can keep you from really experiencing the intentional life God has for you.  So, the solution to this blame game is the first law of five laws of  Intentional Living,  which is to take 100% responsibility. Remember the three-foot rule, “I’m responsible for anything that happens within three feet of where I am.” We’re each responsible for our own thoughts, attitudes and actions. You can’t blame anyone else for how you choose to live as you strive to follow Christ (Ezekiel 18:19-20). Blame holds you back from the freedom God intends for your life.  It’s a powerful, freeing moment in a relationship to be able to say to your family, your children and friends, “I was wrong, will you forgive me?”  3. Pain Today we not only experience the pain of living, but also the pain of dying. God was not happy with Adam and Eve’s behavior. He addressed Satan first and then spoke to the woman about the consequences of the fall (Genesis 3:16). God then told Adam he would toil the curse ground and return to it because that’s where he came from (Genesis 3:17-19). The consequences: Adam and Eve started to experience the pain of dying that we all face today— the physical, the emotional and the spiritual. They also began to know the pain of living. Yet we find a solution in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation,  that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (NKJV). The reason you receive comfort from God is so you can comfort other people. Adam and Eve are the  Humpty Dumpties  of humanity. And these are the three cracks that are important for us to remember as a result of the fall. Have you ever confessed your sin? Have you been afraid of death? Do you know that Jesus conquered death by being crucified on a cross and being raised from the dead? How has God comforted you? www.theintentionallife.com.