The Church in Jerusalem and Judea was poor by any standard of measurement, and the people of that church was on Paul's heart and mind. As he traveled he asked Christians to give offerings to help meet the needs of the home church, and people responded; even the people of the churches in Macedonia, another group of people who were extremely poor.

The churches of Macedonia had nothing of material things really, but they did have love for God in their hearts. Their love caused them to give to the Jerusalem church with "liberality" ( 2 Cor. 8:2). Paul says that even though they were in "deep poverty" themselves, that they still gave, "according to their ability, and beyond their ability" (2 Cor. 8:3). I don't know how one gives beyond their ability but Paul says they found a way to do it, and "gave of their own accord" (2 Cor. 8:3).

Paul then asks the Corinthian Christians, and us, through them, to have this same kind of mind, this same kind of heart -- a heart of liberality, a heart of generosity, a heart that finds a way. It is a heart profoundly lived out among us in Jesus who, "though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty mighty become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).

Christians ought to be the most generous people on the face of the earth, generous in giving, generous in love, generous in forgiving, generous in worship, generous in mercy, generous like their Savior is generous.

More than what we give is how we give it -- our attitude, our motives, our spirit, our sincerity. Giving patterned after Jesus enables us to be "a fragrance of Christ," the kind of aroma that makes God look good (See 2 Cor. 2:14-16).

We don't know how much the Macedonians gave because that's not important. What we do know is that God had gotten a hold of their lives, and had made all things new for them. What a testimony!

THE POWER OF QUESTIONS

Along time ago I decided it wasn’t my job to make people happy. I don’t mind making people happy, and I do try to be an uplifting and positive influence, but if I don’t make people happy I don’t lose sleep over it.

Rather than making people happy I would rather be a voice that might lead them to think about things. I love to raise questions. I believe great exclamation points can be driven into the soul with a strategic question. And, it is usually a question of some kind that gets us thinking.

Most of us have been told about how powerful the who, what, where, how, when and why questions are. They seem to come up in just about every conversation, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly.

Sometimes asking the right question is more powerful than what the answer to the question might be. I know in my life I want to know the truth about things, as much truth as I can know, at least. I don’t want to become stagnant; I want to grow. I don’t want to have to guess at answers but to wrestle with all necessary questions in order to get as clear an understanding as possible.

I’d rather know that I’m asking good questions than to be fed information that simply feeds my already existing worldview. Knowledge is freedom; at least internal freedom, which is the most important kind of freedom imaginable. Asking the hard questions, if they are the right questions, will lead to powerful revolutions where the powers that be can’t rest on their laurels or their own self-written press releases, and the powers that aren’t can’t rest in the pity of powerlessness.

Sometimes certain people have spoken right questions into my life and they didn’t make me happy. In fact, they made me mad. And, I love them for it because it is not their job to make me happy. It is their job to love me enough to tell me the truth, and to get me thinking. Do that and you have once again parted the waters of the Red Sea.

Jesus showed up and made all things new for the world. He didn’t die for some; He died for everybody (2 Cor. 5:15). He had you and me on His mind when he entered to the place of suffering, dying, and death. He had you and me on His mind when He rose up from the grave. When He poured out His love, He had you and me on His mind.

So new and powerful is the life of Jesus in those who have come to live in His life that the Bible says they are now “a new creature,” so much so that “the old things passed away, behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The love of Christ has taken over in their lives and His merciful, holy, wondrous, transforming, and majestic love now controls who they are (2 Cor. 5:14).

Here is a wonderful thing to consider. What God does in a human heart doesn’t isolate people but moves His people to be engaged in the world, sharing the love of God with others. The love of God brings to us “the word of reconciliation” that we in turn share with others (2 Cor. 5:19). We get to tell others about how much Jesus loves them. We get to share with others the transforming work of God’s amazing grace. We get to share with others that they can be reconciled to God, and live above the downward pull of separation from God.

When the love of God controls us the world begins to look differently. It is still the real world with all its issues, but now we see it is a world embraced by grace, and filled with the life of God.
We live because HE lives; it can’t get any better than this.

Everyone lives in the tension of the "already but not yet." Our past brings us into the present, and the future is yet to be written. Today we live between what was and what is to come.

The world we live in today is filled with all the realities of life in a sinful world. All around us we see the evidence of a world that chose against God and His "good and acceptable and perfect will"(Rom. 12:2), and "we groan" (2 Cor. 5:2). In this world life is hard for everyone, even believers. Yet, in this world we look forward to what is ahead. There is hope. In Christ, the future doesn't rest simply upon the foundation of the past. The future rests in the actions of God that led Jesus to the cross and to the resurrection. We move forward within the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead.

Tomorrow looks very good even though we don't know for sure when it will come to us. While "we groan" we also celebrate the fact that while we are here we get to live for God. Who would have thought it? All it means for God to be God comes to us everyday, and He leads His people forward to that day when we will finally "be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).

Between now and then Jesus calls us be faithful, "to be pleasing to Him" (2 Cor. 5:9). Realities that lead to groaning could lead us to self-pity, but they don't. Instead they lead us to live in this world in a way that pleases God. And how do we do that? In Galatians chapter five Paul tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."

Go out and make Jesus look good. How? Put your life into His life and be people of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You'll surprise others, you'll feel good about yourself, your light for Jesus will shine, and you will be pleasing to God.

I’m in. How about you?

In Jesus there is a new order of doing things. The new order revolves around the fact that Jesus is about life and living. Many things at work in the world seem to lead to dying, to slavery of some kind, to bondage that is rooted in fear. No so with Jesus. In fact, followers of Jesus are boldly told by the apostle Paul that by coming to Christ and by living in His life they are actually "putting to death the deeds of the body" that lead to slavery and fear and are ushered into a personal relationship with God that invites them to call Him, "Father" (Rom. 8:15).

In that family relationship followers of Jesus discover that they have been "adopted" by God the Father (Rom. 8:15) to such a degree that from that moment on they are to see themselves as "Children of God" (Rom. 8:16). Being a child of God becomes the context in which a new order of doing things is lived out, a context in which slavery finds no home and fear is denied access. The outcome in this new context is described by Paul in the little phrase, "You will live" (Rom. 8:13).

We are called to live in the context of the family of God. In this family we are enabled to say NO to the deeds that lead to death-embracing realities. We are called to say YES to life, life in which we find that we are safe in the arms of God who took the initiative to adopt and did the work necessary for it to happen.

There is a key to how this all works in a person's life, and it is that they are "being led by the Spirit of God" (Rom. 8:14). So, it's not passive belief; it is active responding to the leadership of God. As God's child we are ever moving forward into what God would have us be.

Take God's hand and let Him lead.