From the VCC Newsletter on 3/9/2020: Relating to Money (Part 2)

It is true that tithing is the first subject of shaping our relationship with money, it is called the first fruit, meaning that we begin there. So before we do anything else, we must glorify God by our tithe (10%) which supports the local church and the pastoral staff. But, how else do we mature in our relationship with God through our money management? 

Believe it or not, what we do with the remaining 90% is just as critical as what we do with our first 10%. It is possible to tithe and still run our lives in a very materialistic way. To avoid that, we have to begin with the end in mind. We must ask ourselves, “What does God want to accomplish through me?” It could be that God is asking you to support a missionary, or to give to the poor. It could be that you need to have emergency money lying around just for helping people as God shows you needs around you. It might be to sponsor a child in another country. There are any number of good works that one can participate in, but the goal isn’t good works, as much as it is joining God in what he is doing. You get to play on God’s team. Your management of that 90% should always follow God’s lead, the same way your management of the 10% does. This means you may need to adjust your lifestyle, your wants, etc. But if we want to mature in our relationship with God, we must join Him in what he is doing-  we must be a steward of what God has given us. We have to let God take control of 100% of our money.

You might be thinking this isn’t possible. But, do not be fooled by the fallacy that one must meet a certain standard of living- and from that, base your finances around that standard. Let me say, if you really are on a very tight budget, it may be that you start with the tithe. That is a great place to start! Then, as your income grows or changes, you can ask that same question, “What does God want to accomplish through me?” And you can follow His lead, giving Him authority over that 100%. 

When you begin with the end in mind, you will find great freedom in a world of materialism. You can do it! You can free yourself from the grip of materialism. You can experience the power of God in your finances. You can choose to serve only one master.

Grace and peace,

Hal

From the VCC Newsletter on 1/6/2020: Confidence for the Future

Welcome to the roaring twenties of the twenty-first century. As we enter the third decade of this century, I am reminded that 1999 ended in great fear over the Y2K bug. Then, in 2009, we found ourselves in a global economic crisis. In contrast, we left 2019 somewhat confident that good days are ahead and with cautious optimism for the future. This has caused me to ponder the role of faith in the face of fear. 

Humanly speaking, fear is the fight or flight mechanism that protects us from our enemies and from danger. It is the genetic component in our drive to survive. Despite the bad reputation that fear has in our society, it is actually healthy and the sign of real courage. General Swartzkoph once said that the only person who scares him was a man who was never afraid. Another American icon, John Wayne once said, “courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.”

Likewise, the Bible tells us that fear is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. Only a fool lacks fear. You see, fear is not a lack of faith. Like any other emotion, it warns us of danger. It is meant to trigger a response of prayer, of seeking God’s face for what is ahead of us. Sometimes, God tells us to run and hide- like he did with David, when King Saul sought his life. Sometimes, God calls us to stand- like he did with Gideon, while facing overwhelming odds. It is important that no matter how great the army, or how small, the difference between victory and failure was always following the leading of God. When men felt strong, but broke faith with God, in Joshua 7, the armies of Israel failed, despite being more numerous than the armies of Ai. The issue wasn’t if the odds were in their favor, but whether they were in favor with God. 

So as we look toward this next decade, with a national election looming large, huge cultural shifts having occupied so much of our attention in the past decade, it is important that our confidence is grounded not in our social or cultural norms, or even in our economic strength, but in the living God. Faith is not the absence of fear, nor is it the good vibes we get when things are going our way. It is confidence that God will not abandon us, whatever the circumstances, good or bad. 

With great faith, I am looking forward to 2020 with you- confident that God is at work among us. 

Grace and peace,

Hal   

From the VCC Newsletter on 12/17: The Faithfulness of God- Something to Celebrate

Have you ever considered that Christmas is more about the birth of world missions and less about the birth of a child?The God who gave us his Son did so because he loved the world and wanted that no one would perish but have everlasting life. The first coming of Jesus (Advent) was not just a sweet story about pregnant Mary and her fiancé traveling to Bethlehem, to avoid judgement by the neighbors or even to pay taxes to Cesar. It is the fantastic account of God’s faithfulness to humanity, keeping his word from Genesis 3, and his multiple promises to the people of Israel, the Kings, and the Prophets. It is a story of redemption, not just for a lucky few nor a cover up, but an important chapter in the very long story of redemption, forgiveness, and love.  In one week from today we will be celebrating that God took this mission so personal that he sent no one less than his own Son.

At this time of year I am often asked if celebrating Christmas is something we should do in light of the many non-Christian winter festivities that have become part of Christmas tradition. Actually, I think that is one of the best reasons to celebrate Christmas. Jesus took the extraordinary step of becoming fully man while retaining all of what it meant to be fully God. His incarnation becomes the message itself. The very heart of missions is that we engage the world with the gospel by becoming all things to all men, so that we might save some. And our God takes sinful humanity and makes us Saints. He takes all of our failings and turns them into the message of reconciliation. So then he who redeems all things, redeems our winter festivities,  traditions, and our cold hearts and makes them new. If I can believe in the redemption of the humanity and creation (Revelation 21.1-5) then can anything be too hard for God to make new?

In the spirit of missions, redemption, and Christmas, I hope you will invite your friends, family, and neighbors to hear the Good News on Christmas Eve at one of our two services (4:00 or 6:00 pm).

Merry Christmas!

From the VCC Newsletter on 12/10: Reaching the Unreached

A people group is considered unreached when less than 2% of a population has been evangelized.  In the Matthew 24:14 we read, And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. I have often noted that the word we translate as nations in English is actually the Greek word ethnos, from which we derive our English word, ethnic or ethnicity but the old translation of nations still persists giving us sometimes the wrong impression about global missions.

Consider that there are only 195 nations in the world but there are 6,500 people groups (ethnos) in the world of which 2,500 of those ethnos have no church –Nor is there any work being to establish one. When I worked in northern Mexico we had 13 of these unreached people groups who did not speak Spanish and did not have any church that spoke their language. Working in Juarez Mexico it was ironic to me that on one of the mountains in the city of Juarez were the words: La biblia es la verde., Leela. (the Bible is the truth. Read it.) Sadly, on that mountain top lived a group of Tarahumara indians that did not read or speak Spanish. Every year Christians passed these folks on their way to paint a sign in Spanish, but did not learn to speak the language of the people living under the words. Mexico is considered a Christian nation, but the Tarahumara people are unreached (less than 2% Christian, with no viable church).  Although we made considerable effort on the mountain we were unable to any significant inroads in that community, but I have not forgotten the people. This is why it is important for us to pray differently, for the sake of the mission, to reach every ethnos with the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just every nation.

 

After a great deal of prayer I feel the Lord has put it on my heart for us to change our nation of the month prayer format to praying for unreached people groups by the nations where they reside. Specifically, that we pray for those people groups to be reached and to have a church of their own. I hope you will join me as we focus our global mission attention in both prayer and giving to focus our attention on the unreached people groups. Our goal being to send missionaries to begin a church for every unreached people group, so that the gospel of the Kingdom would be proclaimed to every ethnos under heaven and hasten the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to rule and reign over the new heavens and new earth.

I hope you are as excited as I am to see what God is going to do in reaching these ethnos through our prayers and missions.

Pan Theology

They just released new statistics that our economy was flat for the first quarter of 2014, and that sent the media into a frenzy. Whose fault is it? Is it the president? Is it congress? Should we blame the Republicans or the Democrats? People are wringing their hands and wondering, what is going to happen to us. Maybe you are one of them. It didn’t take long until the questions started about the end times, the end of the world, and what my view is about them. Actually, I am a bit of a “pan” theologian on the end times. I am convinced that it will all “pan-out” at the end. 

You see, even if Jesus does come back tomorrow I do not even know if I am going to make it to tomorrow. My appointment with Jesus could be today. So I have never put much stock in worrying about the end. Matthew 6.34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Worry is like borrowing trouble. So I decided to stop worrying and do what I knew I was supposed to be doing. When Jesus returns I want him to find me doing is being faithful to my wife, faithful to do my job, faithful to share Christ with my neighbors. I want to be found being faithful. So I try everyday to live in such a way that it does not matter if Jesus comes back today, tomorrow, or in twenty years .My responsibility is to be faithful. Then it wont really matter when he returns. Every picture in the Bible of the final judgment depicts a scene where people are measured by what they do, rather than by what they say they believe. Granted what they have done has grown out of a response to what they believed, but the concern is always that they be found faithfully doing what they were told to do. 

My challenge to you this week, is that you can articulate a great faith by living a great faith, so that whenever you live your last day on the earth that the Father might say to you, Well done, good and faithful servant.