Woo hoo, freedom!

It is amazing how deceptive our perspectives can be, as is illustrated in this advertisement from where I do my banking.

Woo hoo, freedom!

Really?

When I was a teenager and wanted to get my driver’s licence my father spoke to me a warning that I have never forgotten.  He told me that I should not be in too big of a hurry to “grow up” and get a driver’s licence and a car.  He said that once a person does this he becomes a slave for the rest of his life.  He further explained the costs of these and the requirements to have a job and a bank account and the many other things required to maintain this so-called freedom.

In the advertisement the perspective being presented is that banking provides freedom for a person to accomplish those things that one’s heart desires.

This, however, is a deception that mankind has eagerly embraced.

On this matter the Lord Jesus spoke frankly, saying:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.  (Matthew 6:24)

This statement declares much more than one may first perceive.

The first, which is easily overlooked, is that freedom is often perceived incorrectly.  For freedom is not the same as independence.  No human being is truly independent.  Every person is a dependent.  The question is, “to whom or what?”  One’s dependency manifests itself in whom or what that person serves, or to whom or what that person is a slave.

The Lord Jesus declares that God and mammon are the two masters that are commonly served.

The one is perceived as a powerful overlord who makes stringent demands upon His servants.  But is this the truth?  Is this really how things are?

The other is perceived as a tool that sets a person free to be what one wants and to do what one chooses and to have whatever one wants.  Yet mammon, that is, material possessions, enslaves people quite ruthlessly.  The world is full of examples of this.  We all experience it at whatever level that we choose to follow the ways of mammon.

But of the master known as God, what does it really mean to serve Him?  What does He require of His slaves?  The simplest answer is that He requires that He be acknowledged as their one and only Master.

The Lord Jesus explains this further, saying:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 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? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  (Matthew 6:24-33)

God speaks of Himself as our Father who provides for us in all things.  When He demands that we acknowledge this, who is being served by this demand?  Ultimately, are we not the ones that this commandment serves?  If acknowledging God as our Father and Master means that we are released from our bondage to endless worrying and fretting and striving after mammon, if it means that we “fear, love, and trust in God above all else,” is this not actually the truest form of freedom?

In a family, who is more free?  Is it the father or the newborn babe?  Of the two, which has the bigger burdens?  Which has the requirement of working and providing and defending.  Of the mother and the infant, which one is better described as slave to the other?  Which one works and slaves for the well-being and happiness of the other?  Which one intently listens to every sound of the other, ready to come running to provide for even the tiniest need?

This is why the Lord Jesus also declares:

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 18:3)

The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom in which the true faith unites God and His children.  The true faith binds the hearts of the believers to the one who rules for their everlasting good.

Is this not true freedom?

For those who prefer banking regulations to the will and Lordship of God, slave away!

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  Joshua 24:15


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Helping the Homeless

Last week I had to renew and pay the registration and other fees for my business equipment: my truck and chipper and other two trailers.  Once again the State of Kansas changed the rules, costing me a couple of days in contacting the right sources and changing my registrations and tags.  Naturally, the cost also has increased on account of this new and improved method of taxation.

After finalizing the process, with my notebooks and files and information and new tags in hand, a fellow called out to me from the parking lot.  I forget his exact words, but I think that they were, “Hey fella!  Can you do me a favor?”

He wanted $1.50 for bus fare on account of the cold weather and snow and ice.  All I had was a ten dollar bill, and I needed that for my daily supplies.  So with a certain degree of guilty feeling I told him that I could not help.  It was the truth, but it still felt wrong, because my heart naturally wants to help those in need, even when I know that they could be trying to trick me, and are asking for what I do not have to give.

He was clearly homeless, as he claimed.  He also smelled of alcohol, which he promised he was not going to purchase with my money.  His pants were wet down the inside of the legs, which indicated that he may not even have been aware that he had wet himself.  But in cold weather that can happen even without the influence of alcohol.

As I walked away, it occurred to me that perhaps I could give him a ride to where he needed to go.  So I turned back to him and asked how far he needed to go.  He paused, and then said that he wanted to go to Pastor Dan’s church, where he helps homeless people.  So I offered to take him there.  According to his directions, it was not significantly out of my way.

As I drove I conversed with him, asking about his situation.  I asked whether he was homeless by circumstance or by choice.  I know of people who do choose to be “homeless,” to live without the obligations of rent or a mortgage and property taxes and the like.  But he responded that he was homeless because he had lost his job.  He had been working at Evergreen Pallet LLC, recycling used pallets.

As we continued talking he shared that he was trying to gather enough money for bus fare to go visit his sister who had liver disease.  As I queried further, I asked about him being able to find a job, to which he responded, “Oh, I can get my job back where I was, but I don’t have any transportation.”  He said that it was too cold to ride a bike or to walk, with which I can sympathize.  Yet it also informed me that he was indeed homeless and without income by choice, even though he did not perceive this.

I do deeply sympathize with this man and the many others like him.  I am glad for the fact that the Lord’s Diner and Pastor Dan and other places are established to help them at least to have a meal when they are down.  Moreover, I also do help in small ways when I am able.

Yet I am not responsible for his circumstances and it is wrong for me to take that upon myself.  Certainly his situation is sad.  In a certain sense, because of his mindset, he is unable to escape this or to improve his circumstances.  But this is on him, not me.  I have my own failings with which to deal.  I can help in small ways and I can speak the Truth to him in love, but I do not have the power of mine own to set him free.  Only the Gospel can do that.  I can proclaim it, but only the Holy Spirit can work the regeneration that this man needs.

I recall another situation, where a lawn maintenance company owner encountered a man on a corner with a sign asking for assistance, claiming to be homeless and in need of food.  This businessman was moved to compassion, and when he went to McDonalds to get breakfast for himself and his crew, he also bought a meal for this man and drove by and handed it to him through the truck window.  The man threw it on the ground, declaring, “I don’t want food!  I want money!”

A person has to discriminate between those in genuine need and those who are not.  Otherwise one is not being a faithful steward of the resources received from the Lord.  One can actually find oneself contributing to evil unaware.  As a friend and neighbor said today on this issue, “I want to help people, but I am not willing to pay for someone’s next drunk.”  He also said, “It’s getting harder and harder to be a Christian in the world.”

So it seems.  Yet nothing is easier than being a Christian.  What is actually hard is being a sinner.  The Old Adam is ever taxing the fleshly nature, urging it to fight against the spirit.  The devil uses the worldly influences, the fleshly desires, and hard circumstances, to challenge the spirit and to embolden the Old Adam.

The Christian is in the world but not of the world, and so the Christian is very much like a homeless person in the world.  This can seem hard when a person looks to this rather than to the grace of God in Christ.  When the daily frustrations are given priority rather than rejoicing in the means of grace provided in the divine service and in regular time in the communion of God through hearing the Word, then being a Christian seems hard.  But the Lord has provided His means of grace through which He renews us and strengthens us continually so long as we do not neglect our partaking of them.

A wonderful hymn reflecting this is:



                    "If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee"
                          by Georg Neumark, 1621-1681
                 Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878
                                  Text From:
                              THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
                 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)



    1. If thou but suffer God to guide thee
    And hope in Him through all thy ways,
    He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee,
    And bear thee through the evil days.
    Who trusts in God's unchanging love
    Builds on the Rock that naught can move.
   
    2. What can these anxious cares avail thee,
    These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
    What can it help if thou bewail thee
    O'er each dark moment as it flies?
    Our cross and trials do but press
    The heavier for our bitterness.
   
    3. Be patient and await His leisure
    In cheerful hope, with heart content
    To take whate'er thy Father's pleasure
    And His discerning love hath sent,
    Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
    To Him who chose us for His own.
   
    4. God knows full well when times of gladness
    Shall be the needful thing for thee.
    When He has tried thy soul with sadness
    And from all guile has found thee free,
    He comes to thee all unaware
    And makes thee own His loving care.
   
    5. Nor think amid the fiery trial
    That God hath cast thee off unheard,
    That he whose hopes meet no denial
    Must surely be of God preferred.
    Time passes and much change doth bring
    And sets a bound to everything.
   
    6. All are alike before the Highest;
    'Tis easy to our God, we know,
    To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
    To make the rich man poor and low.
    True wonders still by Him are wrought
    Who setteth up and brings to naught.
   
    7. Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
    Perform thy duties faithfully,
    And trust His Word, though undeserving,
    Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
    God never yet forsook in need
    The soul that trusted Him indeed.



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Junk Mail - Hard to Believe

Just now I cleared my junk mail folder.  1258 items were in the folder, compiled over the last three days.

This is a very sad manifestation of the condition of sinful mankind.  It is not really anything new.  Deceivers and scammers have arisen in every age.  The Internet has made this easier for such minded people.  But it is not a new thing.

Even more disappointing is to examine oneself and to realize one’s own sinful desire to cheat and deceive.  It is present for each one of us.  We can turn a blind eye and lie to ourselves, telling ourselves that we are not like these other people.  But in is in our sinful nature.  It does manifest itself in our desires that we cannot suppress.  They appear, even though we may not want them to appear.

For the Christian is this constant battle, as St. Paul describes in Romans 7.  It is a genuine war that is waged between the two natures: the old sinful nature inherited from Adam; and the regenerated and sanctified nature inherited through Baptism.  Thanks be to God that the victory is already won in Christ Jesus the Lord.  He died in our place to set us free and rose again that His perfect and holy life would be imparted to us in the water comprehended in God’s command and connected with the Word and Promise.  Through Baptism God joins us together with Christ in this victory so that even in the midst of the daily struggle we have the everlasting hope of Life everlasting in God’s holy communion.

Thus, the junk mail serves as a blessed reminder of the gracious activity of the Lord in the lives of His saints.  We see the prevalence of sin in the world and we recognize our own need to be rescued from this wretched condition so that we are continually turned again to the gracious working of God through His means of grace.  There we encounter the mighty Judge who has elected from eternity to take our judgment Himself so that 1 John 1:8-9 can be proclaimed openly and honestly to us.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Eco Pure Generosity

Today I was very pleasantly surprised by a display of generosity by one of our local merchants, Eco Pure of Wichita.

I have purchased bottles from Eco Pure several times in the past, which I have used for water storage and for making our Communion wine.  Their charge is a very reasonable price.

Today I called as I have a neighbor whose water was shut off by the city of Wichita and he cannot afford to have it turned on again.  Thus he is having to use bottles to lug water from a neighbor, but he had only one bottle.  Chelsey at Eco Pure promised to find a couple of bottles that I could give to my neighbor to help him to get by.  When I arrived at the office, to my surprise, she had two full bottles prepared as well as two cases of bottled water to give to my neighbor.  He was excitedly grateful for the kindness shown by Chelsey and Eco Pure.  I am delighted to observe this kind generosity on their part.  Now my dear neighbor will not need to lug water for a few days and will be more efficiently able in the future.

I was planning to pick up the bottles and to fill them for him from our reverse osmosis water filter.  But Chelsey saved me the extra effort, and made it possible for me to make the water available to him immediately.

My neighbor was and is very excitedly grateful.  Now the bad weather is less of a factor for him as he can obtain his water in a larger quantity when inclement weather is not a threat.

Thank you Chelsey and thank you Eco Pure!

And of course, thanks be to God for His grace manifested through the generous gifts given and received.

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