There are certain categories of books that you can read once and never return to—you read a single title on that subject and it tells you all you ever need to know about it. But there are other categories of books that you need to return to on a regular basis. In my experience, that includes books on giving—on living a life marked by financial generosity. Over time I find my natural tendency is toward keeping rather than giving, toward saving rather than freely distributing. So I need to regularly read books that will interrupt my apathy and reaffirm what I know to be good and true.

Gospel Generosity

A new book on the subject proved to be just what I needed. Nathan W. Harris’ Gospel Generosity: Giving As An Act of Grace is part of B&H’s “The Short Guide Series” and, as such, wastes little time in getting right to the heart of the matter. “This book is all about one thing—giving. More specifically, it’s about how the gospel calls Christians to a life of radical generosity.”
It’s important to address the word “radical.” There are some Christians who seem to be called by God to be especially extreme in their generosity, to earn heaps and give away almost all of it. Or to create great ministries and, by refusing to ever solicit donations, to display God as the provider. And as much as I honor such individuals, and as much as they might benefit from this book, I don’t see Harris asking us all to imitate them. Rather, the generosity he calls for is radical compared to our natural tendencies, radical compared to the financial principles of the people around us, radical compared to what might seem naturally intuitive, and radical even when compared to our spiritual forebears in the Old Testament.

Because your head and heart are converted, then even how you view your money changes. What once used to be yours is now for God’s use. As the pocketbook experiences conversion, its aim is to be used to glorify God. A converted life leads to converted thinking about money. A converted pocketbook does not heed the words of the world and fixate itself on saving, but sees its resources as a way to participate in the gospel’s call to generosity. The call to follow Christ means to commit your whole life without reservation or hesitation. Every aspect of your life is given sacrificially to God, which includes your money. Because of God’s mercy, and the new life we find in Christ, Christians should live out their holy call to generosity with joy.

Generosity, then, is an implication of the gospel and a calling of the gospel—a call we are all to heed whatever our means and whatever our circumstances.
As Harris progresses through his short book, he begins by telling how our obsession with money and possessions is an issue of heart, health, and service to God. It’s an issue that reveals the heart’s ultimate trust and loyalty, that serves as an indicator of spiritual health, and that proves who we mean to serve in this world—God or money.
Having shown this, Harris addresses the issue of tithing and does some careful biblical work to show how tithing is no longer a mandate upon Christians. Yet this does not free us from the obligation of giving 10 percent of our income as much as it frees us to give with even greater freedom and generosity. The coming of Jesus Christ and the inauguration of his kingdom completely transform the way we understand and practice our giving.
As the pocketbook experiences conversion, its aim is to be used to glorify God. A converted life leads to converted thinking about money.Nathan W. HarrisShare
The closing chapters consider how giving proclaims the gospel and portrays it to the world around us. As citizens of that kingdom, we are to be humble, selfless, and wholeheartedly committed to Christ’s call and this necessarily impacts the way we give, the quantity we give, and the freedom and joy with which we give it. We also give with a view to Christ’s return, allowing the guarantee of his second coming and eternity in his presence to motivate our generosity now. It allows us to be genuinely cheerful givers, whose joy is not grounded in what we have now, but in what Christ has promised.
“For Christians, generosity is more than just the way we give money, spend our time, and share our abilities with others. As we give, we get to be living examples of what Christ has done in our lives. Giving, above all else, is about the testimony of the gospel.” Giving, then, is a blessing not only for those who receive it, but for all of us who do it. We don’t have to give—we get to give! And as we give, we proclaim what Christ has done for us and proclaim our trust and confidence in him. What a joy then, and what an honor, that God calls us to this sacred task.

Grace and peace to you today, my friends.
Today’s Kindle deals include Jon Nielson’s reader-friendly introduction to systematic theology and Abbey Wedgeworth’s compassionate book for women who have suffered a miscarriage.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Victim of a Grave Injustice)

There is a lot of merit to this—to not making jokes about the ways kids make our lives difficult. And I think the same should be said of husband/wife jokes.

Why is God’s name “hallowed” as we say in the Lord’s Prayer? “Because his fatherly hand touches everything. Because he fathers-forth the entire universe without being seen. Because his wildly creative and loving care is imprinted on mussel shells and magpie nests. God’s holiness is always wrapped up in his fatherly care—a mysterious love that goes before us and beyond us.”

Go beyond knowing Jesus saved you to having a lived experience of him–of enjoying him and being a joy to him, of loving him and being loved by him. Find out more in Tim Chester’s new book, Enjoying Jesus. Get 25% off with code ENJOYJESUS. (Sponsored)

Christianity Today has a long and interesting article about the Gettys and the modern hymn movement they have helped build and steer. (You should be able to read it, though you may need to register for a free account.)

Now that I consider it, it seems to be the case that internet culture is increasingly becoming the culture. “Christian thinkers and writers recognize the power of the internet and have been at the forefront of writing about the dangers of smartphone addiction, excessive social media use, and internet pornography. But where secular internet culture writers often approach their topics from a live-from-the-scene-of-the-crime perspective, Christian writers are frequently on the outside looking in. Both perspectives are important, but if we want to seek and save the lost where they are found, we cannot approach internet culture solely from the safety of the sidelines.”

Marty Machowski expresses how important it is that we teach our children not only to read but to value reading.

Karen considers the slow work of sanctification. “After we accept Christ, he places us on the potter’s wheel. For the rest of our lives, the wheel spins as God shapes us into the best version, the Christ-like version, of ourselves. The version he created us to be. Our hearts and souls are shaped as we live through experiences over time under the guiding hand of God.”

If we live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven—which is to say, if we live like Jesus—we will be out-of-step with the values of the kingdom of this world and people will hate us for it.

Fighting sheep are strange animals, and fighting Christians are self-evident contradictions.
—C.H. Spurgeon

Life brings us many stretches of time that are entirely ordinary. Not much happens in these times and they quickly fade from our memories. But then there is the occasional stretch where all sorts of consequential events take place in rapid succession. And as it happens, my family is heading into one of these right now.

Tomorrow Aileen and I will celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. August 8, 1998, dawned hot and humid and only got more so as the day went on. We had chosen to be married at St. John’s Anglican Church in Ancaster—the beautiful and historic church at the center of our hometown and the church where Aileen’s parents had been married many years before. It was a great building in every way but one—it had no air conditioning. We had chosen to have our reception next door in Ancaster’s historic Old Town Hall—another beautiful building but another one that lacked A/C. It is amusing to look back on our wedding photos now and to see our foreheads progressively glowing over the course of the day, our faces flushing, our hair flopping as time went on and the heat refused to relent. But we had a wonderful day nonetheless and enjoyed celebrating with friends and family. It marked the beginning of something wonderful.
We were just 21 and 22 at the time—so young and so naive. We were barely independent, both of us having lived in our parents’ home until that very day. We were poor as church mice and had no obvious prospects for successful careers. But we loved one another and were committed to joining our lives together. The Lord blessed us on that day and he has blessed us richly ever since. We have endured our share of sorrows, of course, and have passed through a good number of difficulties. But our love for one another has only grown. As we look back we can only be thankful—thankful to God for his grace and thankful to God for providing just the right person for each of us. It has been a blessing to do life together. I think we can each say that there’s no one else with whom we would have wanted to endure the peaks, the valleys, and everything in between.
This anniversary comes at the cusp of a significant life change. On Wednesday we will load up our car and head south to Boyce College where, on Thursday, we will get Michaela set up for her freshman year. By the time we return home, we will be empty-nesters, at least through the school year. And while we are finding some sadness in this transition and the thought of a quieter, emptier house, we are not afraid of it. In fact, we are looking forward to figuring out together how to do this stage well. Since we can’t change it, we plan to embrace it!
Michaela is ready to go! She and Aileen have been busily planning and buying and packing, and it looks like they’ve got everything she needs. She will be living in the residences and sharing a room with a couple of roommates. The three have been chatting online and are already coming to enjoy one another. We are excited for her and are as convinced as we can be that she will be able to thrive there.
After we have gotten Michaela set and made the drive home, Aileen and I are getting away together to celebrate twenty-five years and so many other blessings. We exchanged a bunch of Air Canada points for some flights to New Zealand and are excited to spend a bit of time on the wintery South Island. It will be something of a working vacation, but should be a nice one nonetheless. (In this case, working means writing, not public speaking.)
Abby and Nate continue to live in Louisville while Abby completes her degree at Boyce College. Since one of them is Canadian and the other American, they had to make a decision about which country they would live in. He, after all, has no intrinsic right to live in Canada and she has no intrinsic right to remain in the United States after completing her degree. Something had to give! They decided that Nate would immigrate to Canada and just a few days ago he received his letter of acceptance for permanent residency here. This frees him to move to Canada anytime, to secure a job, and to begin the path to citizenship. They are planning to make the move in May when Abby has wrapped up her studies in biblical counseling. We will be so excited and so thankful to have them back on this side of the border and hopefully living nearby.
Ryn continues to be part of the family too, of course! She is living in Louisville and focusing on work. She recently had the opportunity to do a mission trip to the Middle East, then to share with her church her “Story of Grace” through the loss of her fiancé. From what I have been told, it went well and was a blessing to the congregation.
In other news, I have now completed filming 7 of the 12 episodes of Worship Round the World. The schedule, which has involved crisscrossing the globe and moving through so many time zones, has been nothing less than punishing. Yet things have gone well and the project is slowly, steadily coming together. If all goes according to plan, we will film another three episodes this fall before finishing up in early January. And then, of course, we will need to actually create scripts and produce films and write a book and turn it all into something you may wish to watch and read.
Here’s the tally of countries I’ve visited this year:
🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 🇸🇰 🇨🇿 🇦🇺 🇫🇯 🇹🇴 🇰🇭 🇸🇬 🇩🇰 🇸🇪 🇳🇴 🇨🇱 🇦🇷 🇺🇾 🇧🇷 🇹🇭 🇰🇷
And here are the ones still to come:
🇳🇿 🇿🇦 🇿🇲 🇪🇬 🇵🇹 🇮🇳
As I write all of this—as I look to the past and project into the future—I can’t help but think of James’ words in the fourth chapter of his letter. He means to remind us that all of our times are in the hands of the Lord, for “you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”
We can bear twenty-five years of testimony to God’s care, kindness, and providence—to all that his good will has decreed. As we look to the next few weeks and the next few decades, we have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but we do know who will bring it. And we know that he is good, that he is kind, and that he loves us. We are eager to honor, serve, and praise his name.