The divine ideal of generosity has been lost behind the rush to promote our generous activity.  We praise those who are outwardly generous with their time, talent and treasures and hold this up as an ideal for all.  Businesses now boast and make commercials about their acts of charity.  How ironic that altruism is now a strategy to get us to purchase a particular product.  What we learn from this is that we are to do generous things, especially if they make us look good.  Here's the problem - deeds of generosity can be done by people without generous hearts.  God wants and works for us to be transformed, to be truly changed, to be people with generous hearts.  People who are inwardly generous always do acts of generosity in their daily activities. 

That we would be generous people, inside and out, is God's goal for us.  Consider 2 Corinthians 9:10 & 11, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity.  The righteousness God is producing in us has divine generosity as one of its characteristics.    God is lavishly generous, we see this in creation and in the giving up of his most valuable possession, his Son, for our salvation. Jesus lived a life of extreme generosity, giving his time, his power, his attention, his wisdom, his possessions and finally his life to those in need.   

In order for us to grow in generosity and live it out, at least two transformations are required.  First, we must love others so that their needs become more important than our wants.  It's hard to picture Jesus going on a shopping spree, to the country club or to a day spa.  He was too focused on those in need.  Second, generosity requires the willingness to work hard.  We cannot be generous by simply tagging an extra dollar onto our purchase at the grocery store. In the New Testament, the generosity of Jesus' followers required intimate, relational knowledge of those in need as well as leadership and organization to meet the need (Acts 6; 20; 24; 2 Cor 8-9; Gal 2, etc).

When we consider the true nature of generosity, it's no wonder we would rather do generous deeds without seeking to have and grow generous hearts (the two go hand in hand).  Those who have chosen to follow Christ, have not chosen the easy way, but the more difficult path of transformation.  Let's seek to be like our heavenly Father, let's seek true transformation into generous people so that we may live generous lives and become more like our Lord.
This Sunday:    Jesus Generosity    - 2 Corinthians 9:10-11
Keep Pressing On,
- Pastor Tim

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 
- Jesus (Matthew 16:24)

To take up your cross literally means to carry the horizontal beam of the cross (known as the patibulum) which the Romans used for crucifixion.  This is what Jesus carried through the streets of Jerusalem as onlookers mocked him.  When Jesus told his followers to take up their cross, he was using a physical instrument of death to symbolize our need for spiritual death.  Some teach that "bearing our cross" means bearing up through life's difficulties and struggles.  God helps us with life's burdens, no doubt, but they are not our cross.  To take up our cross (instrument of death) means to literally and deliberately die to oneself.  We are to die to our wants, our ways, our thinking, our attitudes, etc., so that we can be resurrected to the new life of Christ.  

One example of something we need to die to is self-righteousness.  Self-righteousness means thinking another person, because of their behavior, beliefs, political ideology or some other characteristic, is an inferior human being (Luke 18:9-14).  We are self-righteous when we think another person is not worth the excess carbon they produce.  Let's be honest, we come across people every day (usually other drivers) who because of their incompetence or simple annoyance justifiably deserve our contempt, our mocking and our demeaning.  The only solution to becoming like Christ and loving the "worst" of humanity is to kill our attitude of superiority.  Thus the need to take up our cross.

What death does God need to bring about in you?  Even Paul the apostle said, "I die daily" (1 Cor 15:31).  Are you seeking Christ and letting him kill your pride, lust, apathy, selfishness, greed, unforgiveness, dishonesty, etc.  Jesus didn't call us to the easy life, he called us to the new, abundant, kingdom life.  That life is realized through resurrection, which means that first, we need to take up our cross and die to our old selves.

Here's to death that leads to resurrection.

Keep Pressing On, 
- Pastor Tim
HilltopSD.com

The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed... - Luke 6:49

Ballast is the weight at the bottom of a boat that keeps it upright in the water.  Without ballast, a small wave can cause a ship to roll over.  Ballast, weight, burden, load, gravity, pressure, etc. are good things because they keep us upright.  Just as a ship's crew can foolishly choose to lighten the ships load so it moves faster in the water, we can chose to reject wisdom and throw off divine ballasts we perceive are holding us back.  Keep in mind, God-given ballast does not hold us back, it holds us up, but that doesn't stop us from getting ourselves free.

In his book, "No Silver Bullets," Daniel Im suggests three ballasts that both the Bible and social science tell us are necessary for Christians to mature in Christ These ballasts are necessary if our faith is to continue growing and we are to continue becoming more like Jesus. These ballasts keep us from toppling over and wandering away from the path of following Jesus.  What are the three?  Just a warning....you will not be surprised.  They are: 1) Reading the Bible; 2) Attending worship service at your church; 3) Attending small classes or groups that study God's word and encourage each other's faith (from "No Silver Bullet's" kindle location 1220). 

John Wesley, the 18th century church reformer (; included these same ballasts in what he called the means or ways God's power flows into our lives.  He used the terms, "searching the Scriptures, the Lord's Supper, and Christian conferencing." (1) (I admit that last one sounds funny to us today).  You can find these ballasts in the Bible as well, check out Acts 2:42 as one example.  Now the important question, "What ballasts, what weights, what "burdens" are those who call themselves followers of Christ mostly likely to throw off because they get in the way, hold us back and/or are "unnecessary"?   The answer is:  Daily Bible reading, worshiping weekly and committing to small group discipleship.

In the bible the word for God's glory (kabod), literally means weight.  Those who give glory to God, give him ballast, reverence, honor, respect.  They respect and therefore learn and follow his word and his ways.  The decision to keep or toss God-given ballast, is a decision between two glories.  When we toss aside the God-given ballast (weight, glory) it is because we think something else is more glorious.  When we choose to go do something else on Sunday instead of worshiping God with our church family, we glorify and honor that something else more than God (the same goes for what we choose rather than reading God's word and being in discipleship relationships).  Our choice brings us apparent freedom, but it's a freedom that is missing God's glory.  It is a freedom that lacks the loving ballasts God has given to us.  The choice you make will determine whether you stay upright or topple over when life tosses its waves at you.  The wise person, therefore, keeps a God-ballasted life.

Keep Pressing On, 
- Pastor Tim
HilltopSD.com