Are You Earning Your Keep?

I don't mean to overstep, but I'd like to talk to you about your finances: specifically, your paycheck.

In Numbers 18, there's a lot of offering and tithing going on. I'm going to try to make this as concise as possible: the people (Israel) gave their tithes and offerings to the Levites; a tithe being one-tenth of whatever they produced or earned, and an offering being the best of the best, the firstfruits of all they had. It's really not that simple, but I need to get to my point. So, the people hand over their tithes and offerings to the Levites who served in the tabernacle (later, the temple). After removing one-tenth, the Levites hand the people's tithes and offerings over to the priests in sacrifice. Once these have been given to the Lord, they will be given back to the Levites for sustenance (God's way of providing for them). The Levites, on their own behalf, give the reserved one-tenth to the priests in sacrifice. Once sacrificed to God, the one-tenth is given to the priests for sustenance (God's way of providing for them).

1 Peter 2:4-5, 9 says we are now priests, and our job is to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:15-16 says those sacrifices come in the form of praises and good deeds which are pleasing to the Lord. Our bodies themselves, our schedules, our possessions, our lives belong to God and are, therefore, the means by which we serve and honor Him. So, are you earning your keep?

The priests in Aaron's day, when God spoke the words we find in Numbers 18, served the Lord and the people. Numbers 18:1 declares Aaron and his family responsible for all that goes on in the sanctuary and the integrity of the priesthood. The priests were to stand in the gap for the people. They went before God and gave, on behalf of the people, the sacrifices that would honor God. The priests had to remain acceptable to the Lord in their observance of Torah. They could not allow corruption to enter the presence of God --in which case, God would have to impose His justice by destroying it (or him)-- and in this way affirmed His holiness as well as protected the people from the consequences of sin. In this way, they "earned their keep."

Are you, as a believer, fulfilling the responsibility of the priesthood? Are you earning your keep? Please note, these are the questions I asked myself as I read this passage this morning. I pray I will continue to ask these often as I seek to serve the Lord with my life. Am I standing in the gap for others through prayer? Am I lifting the names and situations of others before the Lord as often as I'm making suggestions of things He can take care of for me? Am I pleading for the lives of those who don't know Him? Am I obeying, keeping my words pleasing to Him and my thoughts pure? Am I, everyday, all day living the life that was purchased for me at the cross, or some watered down, Sundays only version? Am I a good imitator of Christ, or might others fall away because of my poor leadership? Am I earning my keep?

The priests and Levites of Israel received the best portions for their service to the Lord and His people. As believers, we have already received the righteousness of Christ, freedom from sin and death, the best of the best. Our account has already been credited. However, it's what we give back in service to Him, our loyalty to and stewardship of the priesthood that will sustain us in ways we never imagined. Let's get out there today and earn our keep!

Photo courtesy LuAnn Martin

Better Than Eden

It doesn't make any sense, objected a coworker. First, there's Adam and Eve, and that all goes wrong; then the flood thing. Now, everybody's talking apocalypse. Can't God just make up His mind? And where does Jesus fit into all this? 

Proverbs 17:28 says,  Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent. (NLT) Let's just say, I should have remained quiet. As a pretty new believer, and anxious to point someone to Jesus, I answered in ignorance and haste, and succeeded only in pointing to myself. I started with Eden and talked about man's failure to meet God's standards, but I just couldn't articulate the Gospel without making it sound like some sort of contingency. To this day, I cringe when I think of that conversation. The Gospel is anything but Plan B. 

Looking at the world from the time of its creation, Scripture tells us it was "good." God created mankind, making all God had made "very good." We are told the man, Adam, lived alone the Garden of Eden, but Genesis 2:18 tells us, Adam's solitary human existence was "not good": he needed a helper, a female equal. This Garden of Eden, full of beautiful and fruitful plants, gold, and precious stones, had the potential for something "not good." It was not a place of perfection, but a place of possibility. God had provided for His creation, but not everything in the garden was freely given. Adam, was permitted to eat of every tree but one; and as we know, the serpent arrived, enticed Adam to disobey that restriction, and mankind followed him into sin. So, in the garden, there was the potential for harm --the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-- a boundary established to protect mankind from that harm, and the presence of an enemy to tempt human beings to sin. Eden itself was unsecured. Not exactly what we would call the perfect place. Which brings me to the question, Why would God create an imperfect place when He could have created a perfect place from the start? (In some sense, the same question my coworker posed all those years ago: Why not get it right from the start? Why create a world that is going to need a Rescuer?)

I'll start with the simplest answer I've got. God does all things for His glory. It's what we're told in Scripture and it's what I believe. But, if you're needing some assistance processing that through, maybe this will help. To create a perfect world with perfect people, people who would never stray, people who would never suffer, would require creating robots, robots without free will. Robots, of course, are programmed, programmed to obey, to do exactly what you've instructed them to do. Therefore, a robot cannot choose to obey out of fealty, or love out of will or with true emotion. A robot will do exactly what you have programmed it to do --nothing more, nothing less. There is no respect in a robot choosing to obey, because it really hasn't made a choice at all. There is no relationship in a robot choosing to love you, because it really hasn't made a choice at all. Even we want our children to respect us enough to obey us in some things. Even we want our children to love us simply because they love us. Because we are not robots, we are free to go shopping wherever we like: atheism, pantheism, agnosticism, mysticism. We are not, however, free from the consequences of our choices.

And what of things like natural disasters, sickness, poverty, death? Though they are consequences of mankind's sin, they exist because God allows their existence. Why would He do that? Again, robotics. Only in this case, for God to provide us only with good, He would be our robot. If He created only "sunny-and-75" kind of days, watered the crops from the ground as He did in Eden, poured out only blessing, and never removed from us our pets or children or parents or friends, everyone would love Him, right? In truth, probably not. People would love themselves, as is the human condition. A vending machine keeps getting our money only because it gives us what we want; TV holds our attention only because it entertains us. Robotics. The minute our button pressing is answered with an empty trough or TV bores us with predictable plots and an onslaught of commercials, we find ourselves looking to satisfy our longings by some other means. 

Faith, worship, obedience in spite of our present circumstances or free will is not some great favor toward God, but it is common sense. God is worthy, and that's where the "for His glory" thing comes in. The history of humanity is His-story. It's a picture. Nancy Guthrie puts it this way:

The first Adam failed in the work God gave him to do. Jesus, the second Adam, accomplished the work he was given to do, declaring from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The first Adam failed to obey regarding a tree. Jesus obeyed regarding the tree of Calvary. The first Adam failed to love and protect his bride. But Jesus loved his bride by giving himself up for her. Understanding the failure of Adam in Eden compels us to take hold of the true Adam, Jesus.

God is allowing us to see all He has redeemed us from. He is allowing us to see just how inadequate, inept, incapable of any good we are, absent Him. Even Eden, as good as it was, was not as wonderful as what will be for those who love Him, for those whom He has called. 

Photo courtesy LuAnn Martin