Helping Others

^{Matthew 22: 37} Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[c] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[d] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Two weeks ago tonight I started writing a blog that had come from thoughts I had during a previous day's Sunday School class. That night while doing so I found out my wife was in an accident going to get pizza after she wasn't happy with the way her dinner turned out. Before she left I had the feeling I should go and let her stay home, I just didn't feel at rest with her leaving. I did, however, let her go as it was her that wanted the extra food and I felt it would give me time to write down my thoughts. Thinking back that was very ironic since that blog was about helping others and not worrying about your own needs.

There is a lot of passages in the Bible about helping others. It goes so far as to say that if someone steals from you don't bother with trying to get it back:

^{Luke 6:29} If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

The questions that got me thinking in Sunday School that morning was something of the idea of Why is it good to take care of others and not worry so much about yourself? and Why should we give more than we take?

The first question got me thinking of a small community. In my mind I was thinking of five people. If all five people take care of themselves, how many people are taking care of each person? The answer is one, the only person taking care of each person is themselves. On the other hand if each person is taking care of the other four people, then each person has four people taking care of them plus they have themselves helping. This idea is expressed many times in the Bible, most notably in my mind are the times when it talks about the gifts of the Spirit.

^{1Corinthians 12:4} There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. ⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ...¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ...¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

So now when you think of it in these terms it is easier to see why we need to help each other. God clearly did not give us all the gifts/abilities to take care of ourselves. We need the community that God has given to us. Even in the very beginning of the Bible God clearly gives Adam a helper. Sure God could have done everything for Adam, but he made us a communal creature meant to help each other.

Too often I think people feel that God can only help through miracles and that other people are just humans that have absolutely no ability to help no matter how well intentioned they may be. We so often forget that just because I don't have the ability to help myself doesn't mean the community that God made me a part of couldn't help. It is easier to think of getting help from other's in our community when it is an extreme case. For instance when Andrea was in her accident she was going to know that the police, EMTs, my parents, and myself would be there to help. These are even common things she knew before the wreck; the people that she couldn't know would be willing to help was the man who stopped to check on her and the driver of the other car and directed traffic with his own flashlight.

That is how our Christian community is too, we often can think of people for extreme cases in the church. The common ones may be Pastors, Deacons, Sunday School teachers. As important as these roles are, they are just small parts of our Christian community. The more you yourself help with the community, the more you will see the others that help you.

If we found ourselves listening to this advice of helping others given so often by Jesus, then maybe we would find our prayers less of a shopping list of things we need and more as a list of blessings and thankfulness.

So this answers why we need to help each other, but what about the next question? Why is it better to give more than we take? Wouldn't it be good to accumulate what others give us? I think the more we accumulate the less we depend on God. When the Israelites where wandering in the desert they were told to collect only enough food for a single day and enough for two days the day before the sabbath.

^{Exodus 16:17} The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. ¹⁸ And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

¹⁹ Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

²⁰ However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

This made sure they were depending on God for day-to-day provisions. The more we accumulate the less we think we need from others, the less we need the less we tend to think others need. How often do we worry about fixing/replacing the broken 3rd television in our house over making sure that our friends and family can pay their bills? If they can't pay their bills, how often do we think "that is their fault... I wouldn't find myself in that mess."

^{Deuteronomy 8:10} When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ... ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

If we could remember to depend on God more for our daily needs, then we wouldn't mind giving up our excess to provide for our neighbors' daily needs.

My newfound meaning for life(on earth).1

For a few Sunday’s now the sermon series has been about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Today was more specific to the idea that the Israelites constantly lost their faith in God. Going so much as to say they would rather die as slaves in Egypt rather than as a free people in the desert. So the pastor asked “Why would God take what could have been an eleven day trip and instead let them wander in the wilderness for 40 years?” He had us look at Deuteronomy 8:2-5 (I am going to quote 8:2-9):

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

⁶ Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. ⁷ For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. (Copied from NIV biblegateway.com)

I went on to quote 6-9 because I found that this reflected one of my favorite passages out of James. James 1:2:

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (Copied from NIV biblegateway.com)

Notice the similar themes; God will allow us to go through trials but we should rejoice in the fact that God will use the trial so that we will “not lack anything”.

Well the pastor proposed another question at the same time he asked the prior, the corresponding question was “Why does God not take up his believers to heaven at the point of salvation?” It was this question that got me thinking.

Well after looking at those passages we learn that God needs us to go through trials and tests so that we can be conformed to his rules. So could this be the reason we live on earth? So many times I hear people say that when we go to heaven we will no longer sin or have evil temptations. Yet when asked how will we go from sinful creatures to obeying creatures. I hear many answers that revolve around the same idea, and that idea is that when we are in the Lord’s presence we will not want to sin because we will be fully engulfed in His holiness. This does not make sense to me. This doesn’t account for the fall of Satan from heaven, the fall of Adam and eve who walked with Him in the garden, the doubt in the minds of the Israelites in the exodus though accompanied by the Lord, or even all the people that where in Jesus’ presence during his lifetime.

We, as believers, have a saving grace yet this is not an instant change of becoming submissive. This is even displayed in Peter who denied Christ three times. No one questions whether Peter was saved yet even when given the chance to stand up in the name of Jesus he fell short.

I propose that our lives on earth are a series of trials so that God may produce maturity in our Faith. We have to spend time away from Him so that we can understand how much we NEED Him. When I say “away from Him” I am not talking that we don’t have a connection to Him. We do have a connection to Him, that is where Jesus and the Holy Spirit come in. Yet we still are not face-to-face with Him, not like Adam was in the beginning. What good would it do for us to be brought into His presence at the time of salvation if we would turn around and start doubting His sovereignty at the first chance as the Israelites did three days into the wilderness when they had no water?

James 1:12
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Wouldn’t we want to strive for the crown of life? We have to live life to achieve this.

God has to test our hearts to see if we can obey His commands (Deut 8:2) which the inability to obey led to the fall of man. God also needs to humble us (Deut 8:3) to show us that we need Him to provide for us, the failure to recognize this is what lead to the fall of “morning star” (satan) from heaven (Isaiah 14:12-14). When we can reconcile the fact that God is worthy of all obedience and faith and act upon this we are then humble enough to be welcome back into the presence of the Godhead.

Evidence for a Creator. 1

Lately I have found myself diving into the theology and evidence of God. Not just the God of the Christian faith, but just the obvious evidence for an Intelligent Being capable of creating Earth. I had found myself growing more and more frustrated with the hollow, rhetoric, debates by atheists against Christianity. Why are we debating Christian doctrine with people that don’t even look at the evidence and acknowledge that there is a God? If people don’t believe there is a God, how can we argue on the basis of God’s will and his all knowing intelligence?

I have been reading ANSWERING THE NEW ATHEISM (Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker). It also points out the same point that I just did by quoting St. Thomas Aquinas as stating; “There is no sense arguing on the basis of Catholic doctrine or Holy Scripture with someone who accepts neither as true”. The book also backed up my idea that we have to argue solely on the basis of reason alone. This is just found on page 8 of the book. Seeing that they had the same idea I had I knew I would find value in reading the book. I am still in the midst of reading and currently on page 92.

The most compelling case I have found in the book is the fact that our intelligence seems to be enough to encompass the “clues” (or revelations) in nature for there being an intelligent creator. The example given in ANSWERING THE NEW ATHEISM is that of the writings of Euclid. Euclid, a mathematician approximately 300bc, expressed many mathematical elements that at the time of writing had no known correlation to nature. It was purely a human discipline without reason in science. Yet when you compare to Newton’s (17-18^th century AD) writings we see that they very much correlate to the law’s of nature.

So why was human man given the ability to discern the exact mathematics that we found out nearly 2000 years later correlate so directly to the law’s of nature around us? This is not even a question that can be answered by the theory of evolution (this does not discount the entire theory of evolution, just intelligent part of it). A non-theist evolutionist view says that man’s intelligence comes from the idea that creatures need to adapt to survive. This makes sense for the idea of learning to use tools to farm, catch food, build houses, and to travel faster. This however does not answer the questions to why we look at perfect circles, perfect numbers, square roots, etc. These mathematical theories do not help people survive, yet they do help us understand the world we live in, even though we didn’t know this when the ideas started to flourish.

This book has had many other great points but so far this one has captured my interest. Maybe it is because of my natural ability to think abstract. It makes me a natural for sarcastic and cynical quips, but how does this help me (and my following generations) survive? It doesn’t. It does however give me a thirst to learn about the evidence of a Creator. Maybe that is why I have these thoughts, so that I may pursue Him. I don’t know what the Spirit uses to reveal the Truth to everyone, but this is His mode of revealing himself to me.