Abounding as Needs are Met

In Philippians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul showed that he understood what it meant to abound and to suffer need. We are so blessed in this country that few people here really know what it means to “need” food. Sure we might have times when we are hungry because we cannot find a drive thru restaurant, but few have to worry about starving to death. - Still, most of us know what it means to live on a budget. In other words, we do not have a limitless supply of money to buy whatever we want to. That is actually a good thing, because it teaches self control and responsible stewardship. - Part of our stewardship as a family involves keeping a small emergency fund set aside. This fall we were grateful that we had it because both vehicles ended up needing repairs, a couple of us visited the hospital for minor issues, and a new baby was added to our family. In spite of all these challenges, by God’s grace, we have been able to pay all our bills. - Our story probably sounds quite familiar to many of you who are going through similar times in your home, but our story took an interesting turn about a week before Christmas. Our new baby had a slight tongue tie. It was not serious enough for the local doctor to even be concerned about it, but it was causing serious problems with his nursing. - We found a specialist in Lincoln, NE that could do a minor surgery, but it would cost $250 plus the expense of driving out there. After talking it over, we decided that even though finances were tight, we should go ahead with the procedure and trust God with the rest. As we made that decision, we received a gift of $50 in Bancroft Bucks. Then while we were gone to Lincoln, a couple of men stopped by with another $50 in Bancroft Bucks. Then the next day a lady stopped by with a bunch of groceries and a $150 gift card. The Bancroft Bucks and gift card replaced the $250 we spent on the surgery. - We were overjoyed that our only expense for the procedure was our cost to drive out to Lincoln which came close to $100 in gas. Then the next day we received an envelope with our typed address and no return address with a $100 gift card to Fairway. - We were praising God for His provision through the loving charity of others, but it did not stop. We also received another $50 gift certificate for gas and another Johnson’s Grocery gift card. Further, we also received gifts from other individuals. What a wonderful Christmas it has been. The Miller family knows what it means to abound. - Philippians 4:12-20 says, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” - I want to thank God and all those He used to help us abound.

The Best Gift

When I was a child we would get a couple of huge toy catalogs. We would go through and pick out our favorite items so that we could pass a list on to Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa with hopes that they might fulfill our desires. Recently our little boys found one of the small toy catalogs that came in the mail. They were enjoying looking at all the pictures but had not get grasped the idea of asking to have the items they saw. For now the catalog itself is a satisfying gift for them. - When it comes to Christmas shopping, I must buy for young and old alike. It is easy to find gifts for little boys who get excited about looking at bright pictures on pieces of junk mail, but it is much harder to find a gift for my mother who already has almost everything she needs and doesn’t really want a lot of extras. - You see my mother has reached the contentment that comes with maturity. When I say that I do not just mean the physical maturity of aging, but the spiritual maturity of godliness. The Apostle Paul had reached such a place in Philippians 4:11 when he said, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” - My little boys are pleased with almost any gift and my mom doesn’t really want much more than time with family. Both are easily satisfied. On the other hand, so many people are so preoccupied with what others have that it can end up ruining what could be an otherwise joyous holiday. - Rather than coveting the possessions of others we are to covet the best gifts. “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31) The next chapter makes clear what those best gifts are. “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) - The word here translated “charity” is “agape“- the wonderful Greek word for selfless love that gives to others. Jesus Christ set the perfect example of this love when He died on the cross to pay for our sins. “Greater love (agape) hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) - His death provided the means for us to have the best gift of all- a gift that is completely free- the gift of eternal life after death by having our sins forgiven. “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” (Romans 5:14-15) - When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone as our Savior, we get the free gift of salvation. It is far better than anything in the Christmas catalog or anything our neighbor has. When we accept His free gift we should realize that we are getting something really special. Once we have Jesus as our Savior, we never have to worry about Him leaving us. Other gifts will get broken or lost. Other gifts will lose the excitement as they age. If we put our hope in other things we will quickly lose our contentment and want something better, but when we receive Christ, we get the best. His gift is one we can really be content with. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5)

The Truth About Christmas

A few weeks ago our little boys looked out the front window and saw the beautiful Christmas lights in and on our neighbor’s house across the street. One of them got all excited and said, “they have Christmas!”
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Not long after that we went to the open house at our local bank and the boys got free coloring books. One of them saw a picture of Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, and since he is young enough that he doesn’t know all his animals well, he asked if it was a horsey. When I told him it was a deer, his older brother asked, “we shoot him?”
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Now before you start to think that we have been training our children to kill Rudolf, understand that we come from a family of deer hunters. Although I have not hunted for a few years, my brother did this year and my boys heard me talking to him about it. Furthermore, when they pretend that their sticks are guns, we often tell them to shoot deer instead of people. Thus our boys are much more familiar with the pursuit of the whitetail than they are with the legend of Santa and his reindeer.
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We do not emphasize Santa much in our home. For our boys, he is the man at the bank open house who gave them their candy canes. The same boy who wanted to shoot Rudolf saw a figurine of Santa and said, “he give me candy.”
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I want our boys to view Santa for who he really is- a local man who dresses up in a funny outfit with a fake beard because he likes kids. I do not want them to think that he really lives up at the north pole or actually has a sleigh that flies through the air. I want them to know that the gifts they got at Christmas time came from Grandma, not that man who gave them candy. I want them to know that the man who was dressed up did give them a candy cane and that they should say thank you.
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In other words, I want my kids to know the truth about Santa Claus instead of trying to deceive them. I want my kids to know that they can trust what I tell them and that I am honest with them. I want them to be excited when they see reindeer at the zoo, but not expect them to land on our roof.
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As they hear stories from make believe I want them to know the difference between fun and real. I want them to believe the real stories from the Bible. I want them to know that Jonah really was swallowed by a whale, but that Paul Bunyan is just for fun. I want them to know that Samson did have super human strength, but Super Man is just comic book fiction. I want them to know that the Apostle Paul really did survive a shipwreck and was stranded on an Island for a time, but that Gilligan is just a funny made up character.
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I do not just want my children to know that I will not lie to them, I want them to know the difference between truth and fiction. Then I want them to understand the important truth- that God sent His only begotten son into the world so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I want them to know that Jesus came into this world to die for our sins. That really is the true meaning of Christmas.

Hypocrisy or True Morality?

Our family continues to grow. We just had another baby boy. He was welcomed home by three older brothers and a couple of aunties who helped care for him the first week of his life as mommy recovered. He was also welcomed home by a daddy who not only lived with his mommy, but was married to her.
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I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how the moral values of our society have degraded farther than we could have imagined. I recently read how few teenagers have both a mom and dad in the same house. Parents separating or divorcing is just part of the problem. According to the CDC, 41% of all births in the USA are to unwed mothers.
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Such statistics should break our hearts, but instead they have become the new “normal”. It is not my intent to single out unwed mothers. They did not reach that state alone. There was a father as well. If he can be found he will be forced to pay to support his child and that support will be a huge financial burden on him. At the same time the mother trying to raise the child herself will face challenges that are almost unimaginable.
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As a father of little boys, I cannot imagine trying to raise them without my wife’s help or her raising them without mine. My heart breaks for those trying to go it alone. At the same time I am so grateful that so many unwed mothers are choosing to let their babies live. I am definitely a strong advocate of adoption, but recognize it is not as common as raising a child alone.
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I bring all this up to show that this is one more area of our society where moral values have changed. The family structure has definitely broken down. My mother talks about when she was in high school in the early 1960’s and how girls were “sent away”. What often happened is that an unwed mother would be sent to live with relatives a long way away so no one would know she was pregnant and then the baby was put up for adoption.
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I fear the stigma ended up making the pregnancy itself look like a sin when there is nothing sinful about being pregnant. On the other hand, the behavior that results in pregnancy is to be reserved for marriage. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” Fornication is the idea of sinful sexual relations. Hebrews 13:4 tells us, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
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Today the values of our nation have changed much from what they were a century ago. Too many have forgotten or do not even care about God’s way. When everyone does what is right in his own eyes regarding sex, why are we surprised when there are so many sex scandals?
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Premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia, and bestiality are not wrong because I say they are wrong, they are wrong because God says so. If we condemn homosexuality and participate in premarital sex are we not hypocrites? If we condemn pedophilia but commit adultery are we not showing a double standard? The point is not that we should accept other sins because of our own sins. The point is that all sin is wrong, including the ones we are involved in.
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The truth is that we are all sinners and that is why Christ came to die for our sins. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20b). “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2)