Worthy of a tithe

Posted on November 30, 2012 by matthewbuley

There used to be this term in Christianity called “tithing.” It was a good word, rooted in the Old Testament and meant giving 10% of your income to church. I can’t tell from my pew if it’s around anymore. We use the term “giving.” “Offering” is still okay. But “tithing?” I’m not hearing it.

I’m convinced this has to do with churches wanting to be inviting to new people. “Tithe” lost it’s appeal. Probably brings up too many memories of pipe organs, scripted church services and having to dress up on Sunday morning.

I hope the Church isn’t letting it go the way of khaki pants.

Tithing does invite debate. People wonder why it doesn’t come up in the New Testament and if it’s outdated. Some debate if a specific number should be assigned at all. And then there’s the debate about where money can go and be counted as a tithe.

There are those convinced that a tithe can only go to your home church. If you want to give anywhere else, that should happen after the 10% to church. On the other end of the spectrum are people who think the 10% can go to any good work. They’d consider a gift to church, the Red Cross or the Humane Society a tithe.

I fall in the middle. I think a tithe can go to an organization that has a Christ-centered mission, and I also think the home church should have a prominent place. I stand before God on that view, but it’s one of many.

The thing that stands out more critically to me is how much I want Children’s Shelter of Cebu to be worthy of a tithe. I want us to share the gospel with children as our first priority. I want to teach kids how to pursue holiness. I want us to steward gifts in a way that honors God. I think we do all three very well.

You may not need us to be tithe-worthy. Or, you might not think anything we can do makes us so. Either way, we are better for the children when we strive to be worthy of your tithe.

CSC kids praying at our school (Joel Reasoner)

Darkness disappears

Posted on September 10, 2012 by matthewbuley

mle@photofool.com

“for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light” Ephesians 5:8 (NASB).

That’s interesting. It’s not just that you were in darkness. You were darkness.

This shouldn’t surprise you. Go out on a pitch black night where nothing is visible. Neither are you. Darkness consumes and drags everything else in with it. Everything except light. Light makes darkness go away. Where there is one, there can’t be the other. Darkness is all-powerful until light shines. Then, darkness is gone. It doesn’t exist anymore.

Are you like me and sometimes fear the darkness is back? Because, as the Apostle Paul put it, “I do what I don’t want to do” and get tripped up in sin? If you have accepted Christ, don’t let yourself get tricked into wondering that.

Now you are “Light in the Lord.” Upper case light, a part of something in and with our great God. There can be no darkness, light has made it disappear. But, we and the Ephesians seem to need the reminder to walk in the light that we are a part of. Wait, but how? Thankfully verse 10 has the answer: by “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” I’m reminded to walk in what has already been given to me.

My dreaded prayer request

Posted on March 21, 2012 by matthewbuley

Tammy and Mitch lead special birthday prayers (J. Reasoner)

I’m feeling the need to change something about myself. It’s one of those “I really ought to be doing more of that” feelings. Which, frankly, I don’t like. It’d be nice if it was enough to feel bad about the things I do wrong. Adding all the things I neglect to do right is just piling on.

Amen?

Fine, nevermind.

I think this all started with a note from a supporter of CSC. He and his family sponsor a child through our Foster Friends program. He lost his job suddenly and the connection we have through CSC prompted him to ask for prayer. I was touched that he did.

His prayer request got me asking: would I do that? The question hung in my mind for a split-second before I knew the answer. I know I wouldn’t have the guts to ask for that prayer. I’d be holed up in a corner not wanting people to know something bad happened.

How about you?

It’s hard to ask for prayer. It can be hard to come up with a personal prayer request when asked. We often have an easier time sharing someone else’s prayer need. It’s easier to ask for prayer for upcoming surgery for an uncle’s dog than to start a sentence with “I could really use prayer for….”

I figure we have some basic reasons for holding back:

We are embarrassed by the need.
We don’t want to be a burden.
We don’t think the issue on our mind is that big of a deal.
We aren’t sure the other party will pray for it.

That sums up my excuses for not asking for prayer. The list seems pretty benign I guess. Except it’s not. It’s a stinking lousy list. Here’s why. I could write it this way instead:

I’m too proud to ask you for prayer.
I don’t want to need you.
I don’t want to bother with God’s clear direction.
I don’t trust you enough to follow through.

We’ve got pride, ignoring community and ignoring God. In the quiet decision not to ask you for prayer I am putting a wedge between me and all kinds of possibilities for humility, trust, faith, community and change. I’m stopping a beautiful process in the confines of my self-reliant heart.

I for one am going to have to get a whole lot better at initiating the dreaded prayer request…my own.

Does God speak to you?

Posted on October 30, 2011 by matthewbuley

I’ve never heard God. I’ve never seen him either. At least not in the way some people have.

Ultimately, I’m okay with that. I don’t question my salvation or my place in God’s kingdom because clear sights or sounds have never come to me. Though, there are definitely times I’ve wished God would speak in a voice that I could make out with my ears.

I have had people tell me that they heard God. Right there in their eardrums were the reverberations of the Most High. Once someone told me that God audibly directed them to take a different path to their car which resulted in them meeting a famous person. Nothing more came of it so they just assumed God was proving his faithfulness to them.

I have to admit, I can tense up when someone says something like that. When that person told me their story I kind of wanted to ask if they were sure this was how it all played out. It’s hard not to proceed with incredible caution when my relationship with God just doesn’t work like that. Still, if I had questioned the validity of this story it would have been out of arrogance that this can’t be because I haven’t had the same thing happen to me. I’m not drawing that line in the sand.

I wasn’t filled with theological questions when I heard the story. You want to know the full selfish truth? It made me jealous. I would love to have the same thing happen to me. Something like a voice in the silence, an angel appearance or a burning bush.

Why? Because I want to be so sure I’ve heard from God that there is no other explanation for something having happened. It’s a question of calling. Calling is about purpose, and for a Christian, being asked to do something by, with and for God.

Calling is an amazing thing. Calling is God saying “here, your turn.” If you’re called, you’re being asked to respond, to fill a need that God knows you can. Calling is a little like faith. It’s our turn to take what we know and go. It’s our chance to have a part to play in the history of a world held in the hands of a sovereign God.

It’s occurring to me that being called is probably never easy. A voice would be nice, so would a burning bush, but calling rarely looks simple however the signal comes. That burning bush was a clear sign, but one that made for a difficult path. God was telling Moses to do something that he felt totally unequipped to do. He believed God had the wrong guy and he was afraid. Moses wasn’t so different from most of the rest of us.

Being afraid doesn’t mean you’re not called. In fact, being afraid might be one of the signs you are. It’s okay to be afraid. As long as we don’t wait around for the sure sign that someone else got or question our qualifications to the point of doing nothing. Sure God says “your turn,” but He never asks us to take that turn alone.

So God has never spoken to me the way He has to others. Maybe He has to you. Either way, He is speaking.

Dawn…and night

Posted on March 2, 2011 by matthewbuley

Are you as bad at waiting as I am? I hate waiting. I hate stoplights, lines and being on hold. I have to admit how hard it is for me to wait for God too, to keep praying for the same thing wondering if it will ever come.

Our Six

Imagine waiting for God to give you a family. Analiza, Jenive, Bernardo, Birny, Jeffrey and Rafael have been praying for parents since 2005. Every day and then some. They wait and wait with no idea if the prayer will be answered.

My devotions brought me to Isaiah 21 this morning. After reading the repeated question, “Watchman, how far gone is the night,” verse 12 stopped me. “The watchman says, ‘Morning comes but also night. If you would inquire, inquire; Come back again.’”

Morning will come, the light will break at the horizon and we will have our dawn. “…but also night.” That’s what hit me. There is a place for the night too. There is darkness and unknown for a reason. You are anxious and afraid and anticipating the new day, but there is a place for that anxiety, fear and waiting. There is especially a place for your hope for what will come. There is a purpose for all of it. Keep hoping, and keep asking. The watchman invites us to keep coming back to ask the same question when we feel the need to again.

Funny how we go to God most often when we are worrying and afraid. No wonder there is the night. I can be so consumed by the waiting and wondering when God will answer, that I fail to savor the fact that the waiting is drawing me to God more often than even the excitement of “arriving” can.

God will answer our prayers and open a door. Of course, we never know if it will be the one we had in mind. I just pray that those six kids will get the answer they’re asking for. As I pray with them, I pray for them to be blessed in their waiting too…and that you will join me on their behalf.

In the end: can’t-miss glory

Posted on January 4, 2011 by matthewbuley

Last night I listened to some of John Piper’s message via live feed from P2011, the Passion Conference in Atlanta. He was talking about the ultimate goal being in God’s glory, in all things. This can strike some people as troubling because that means His love for us, His leaving the 99 and seeking out the one, His sacrifice on the cross all have as their ultimate intent God’s glory.

Piper cited a few scriptures, including Luke 4:14-20, the heralding of Jesus’ birth by the Angels begins “Glory to God in the highest.” 2 Corinthians 5:15 was another example: “…He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Notice it says He died for all so we’d live for Him.

I can understand why some might struggle with the idea that God’s intent in all things is His own glory. There are many nonbelievers who paint God as an attention-hound who just creates things to worship Him as some kind of filler of His insecurities. We can easily picture a selfish man who makes everything about himself and uses others to feel good about who he is. The question is, how is God different from that?

For one, the selfish man I am picturing only leaves others worse off. He’s drained their energy to serve his own purposes. God makes others better. He fulfills their purpose in drawing them into the truth of his glory. God’s glory isn’t changing or going away, and the God of glory would neither separate himself from it or ignore it. He is saying, “I love you and I’ll prove it. Here’s you for starters. Look at yourself and recognize you’re my creation knitted together–I filled a gap in this world with you! Here’s the cross of your restoration, here’s also the opportunity to do well and to please me. You can be pleased in me and I in you–we share that in this love I have. You are totally dependent on Me, but not because your worship changes me or betters me (here’s where God and the selfish man part ways more, the selfish man requires the outside attention for his benefit and ego), but because I want to draw you into Me in the greatest thing there is—my glory.” We can’t share God’s glory as it’s source, but we can share IN God’s glory! That is quite a privilege. The selfish man doesn’t share any of his things or any of his attention…that is what makes him selfish. He does enough to get what he wants. God gave it all on a cross to get what He wanted…us. You. Me. Yet, the ultimate end in that isn’t you or me. How could it be? Neither of us is a worthy end. We are sin-stained and weak. We could keep on living a thousand years and still not beat sin for a week straight. We are strong when we accept redemption by the perfect sin sacrifice of God’s son.

Instead, there at the end of all of things is God’s glory. It is perfect. We will one day see it and reflect it, and I’m confident it will be nothing close to anything we’ve seen or experienced on earth. How could we serve a God who’s chief end was us? That would be pathetic. I want to serve a God who is so magnificent that the only option for a “chief end” is Him!

My two cents. Bless you today and into 2011.

“You are what you eat” moments

Posted on March 9, 2010 by matthewbuley

I couldn’t guess how many times I’ve heard the saying "you are what you eat." Neither of my parents were big on it, but the count still must be in the hundreds. Most of us are probably in that ballpark. Did you ever have a moment the light dawned on some cliche like that and you realized the truth behind it? I can remember realizing "hey, I really am what I eat! The things I put in me eventually make up my physical body. Wow."

You’re probably not so dense, but every so often the truth of something really sinks in. It’s funny how a new perspective on a familiar thing can be so eye opening. Lately, I haven’t been able to shake the tremendous brilliance that went into God’s design of a day. We wake up in the morning with perhaps some agenda, take it as it comes, do the best we can with it, and then it comes to a close and we go into this shutdown mode called sleep for some period of time. Imagine if God didn’t build into our physical make-up the need for sleep, or didn’t cause the earth to rotate on its axis so we had day and night. Can you imagine if reality just kept going? No fresh starts? Not shut down for sleep? No new day?

That sounds terrible! I need that beginning and end. I need to start over…with a whole new chance at reality, an opportunity for a fresh perspective.

It strikes me that God operates outside the boundaries of day and night. It sounds so simple, but that’s completely different from the very framework of our reality. For God, thousands (hopefully millions) of people are saying a prayer right now, millions are waking up, millions more are eating dinner, others are going to bed. It is absolutely mind-boggling. It doesn’t begin or end for God.

It’s just one more thing I love about Him. One more reason to understand just how magnificent and powerful this Creator must be. How much more amazing that this creation of his culminated with us–a being who loves, hates, rejoices and disappoints. There at the center of all of this, the galaxies, stars and perfect rotation of the earth around the sun is a creature given some chance to grasp the magnificence of its Creator. A creature made to actually be in union with its Creator. Not because the Creator is so selfish as to require praise, but because He saw fit to create someone who might actually see the bounty of Him and respond in the only way that makes sense. Wow.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Psalm 139:4

And…?

Posted on May 20, 2009 by matthewbuley

Twice today I’ve heard a peculiar statement. A sort of half-statement that sits empty and unfulfilled. In neither case has it been directed at me, so I’m responding to it as an outside observer. The statement? "You are in my thoughts." You are in my thoughts? Hmm. That’s kind of nice I guess. You haven’t forgotten this other person, you are perhaps worried for them or feel a sense of empathy for their situation.

For me though, that doesn’t hold a candle to "you are in my thoughts and prayers." Now we’re talking. You are not only remembering me, but bringing me and my situation before the great God of Israel, the Lord of all the universe? Now that’s cool! That brings me peace and hope and causes my heart to skip a beat. That statement fulfills my desire for relationship with another person, and with my Creator.

The "secularization" of the statement leaves it deprived of all its bounty and wonder, and left bland and barely worth saying. I don’t mind being remembered one bit, but being remembered in prayer? I’ll take that option any day.

In Case You’re Interested…

Posted on February 19, 2009 by matthewbuley

When the men came to Him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else.’" Luke 7:20. Ever wondered about that question? I have. It’s odd to me that the man who proclaimed Jesus’ coming and baptized the son of God has friends ask such a question of Him later on. John, of all people, wouldn’t you know?

Maybe you’ve thought about this, and maybe you haven’t. It’s always interesting to me that we all seem to have different questions for God, and can be troubled by such varying issues. If this is one of yours, I’d recommend checking out what Jon Bloom of Desiring God Ministries had to say about it. I enjoyed reading this and felt better able to understand how such a question came to be.

I will say that these kinds of things only make me love the Bible more. Luke didn’t have to record that, and someone could have plucked that section out before it "went to press." But they didn’t, I’d argue they couldn’t. God’s authentic word to us is just that. It’s not always easy or comforting, but it is true and affecting, even when we leave a reading of it grappling with something more than when we picked it up. Come to think of it, especially when that’s the case.

Double Take

Posted on February 7, 2008 by matthewbuley

Donald Miller, who wrote Blue Like Jazz, writes about he and his brother memorizing scripture they would recite to get people to scratch their heads, even become offended. You know the smiting or otherwise violent passages that are not high on most people’s lists of favorites. I’m in the midst of 1 Corinthians for devotions and just read a passage that could also be considered edgy in our day. I’m reminded once again that scripture is not easy…just true.

9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

There’s a hot-button topic or two in there I’d say. As a former bearer of at least one of those definitions (which or how many hardly matter now) I can say with confidence that life is 100% different when you leave them behind. I ended up reading this scripture shortly after a remarkable experience Saturday.

We went to our church’s Saturday night service on a whim, and I dropped the young boys off at the kids program. I noticed Theresa talking to a couple of people on my way up, but would never have guessed who one of them was. No it wasn’t a famous person. For us it was better. Standing with Theresa was a friend we used to hang out with regularly back, well, let’s just say in our verse 9 & 10 days. It was actually overwhelming to see him at church, as he was an agnostic at best the last we talked. He’s still searching, but I give great kudos to the friend who invited him to seek at church. It was emotional for both Theresa and me to see him there.

I took last week off and that was a much-needed rest. December left a lasting taste of stress into January and a week of doing pretty much nothing really helped. It’s back to shaving and working for me again though.

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Matthew Buley – President Children's Shelter of Cebu

Category Archives: Faith & Theology