The Seabourns

Thoughts

Thoughts on the economy

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A friend sent this message. I thought it was worthy of sharing with you also. So, with permission of Bob MacLeod, here is some very appropriate thoughts from God’s word about our economy today.

As I read the newspaper and all of the economic ‘highlights’ every day, I thought of headlines I don’t think we’ll ever see…

  • Fed Adopts Biblical Prinicples; Pays Off National Debt
  • President Leads Nation in Fasting and Prayer / Calls on People To Change Their Wrong Habits
  • IRS Agent Confesses to Bilking Taxpayers / Promises to Pay Back Every Dollar Fourfold.

That may seem humorous at this moment, but all three of those are direct from the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 28, God promised that if the nation followed him, they would be debt free and lend to other nations.

In Jonah 3, the king of Nineveh heard Jonah’s proclamation of doom and immediately fell to his knees in prayer and repentance, calling on all the people to do the same.

And in Luke 19:8, Zaccheus-a tax collector-met Christ personally and promised to restore 4x over anyone he defrauded.

It can be hard to filter out truth from the news, especially because the news media seems to thrive on the bad news more than the good news.

In light of that, here’s another headline:

  • God announces global stimulus package: Follow Me and have all you need.

The great news is that God is still in charge. His portfolio has not changed. The challenge with following God is that He doesn’t always provide what we want, and He doesn’t always provide what we think we need-on our timetable.

In the last week four Campus Crusade staff members have come to me with personal financial questions on debt, budgets, and taxes. Two by-products I have seen of this economic uncertainty are:

1. People are looking to God for answers. People are praying more, like they do in any times of uncertainty. The Bible recommends praying always-but more so when we’re in distress.

2. People are re-evaluating their spending and changing their habits. I love chocolate, and I’d eat a lot of it everyday-if my body would let me. But even when I cut back, I sometimes find myself eating too much. So periodically I have to step back and change my habits… again.

As a financial counselor, I encourage you to re-evaluate your spending and savings. You should do this often, but now especially.

And if you are struggling with economic uncertainty, or worse-actual job loss, I encourage you to bring that before the Lord. Just pour your heart out to Him and wait on Him.

Here’s a final word of encouragement from Habakkuk 3:17-19 regardless of your financial situation:

Though the fig tree should not blossom
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

God is sovereign. His goodness and mercy never goes into recession!

Transformational Leadership

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As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem – the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset.

Wow! A friend sent this link to me. I read this insightful article with deep interest. Having lived 15 of my 57 years in Africa, I have seen the same thing.

Another amazing observation:

We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world – a directness in their dealings with others – that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

In talking about a secular conference about development aid in Africa, he relates a meeting with Zimbabwean aid leaders who were Christians although their development work was secular. He says,

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man’s place in the Universe that Christianity had taught. [emphasis mine]

Understanding that their is a God, he is the author of a grand story, and I have a place in that story changes the way people think. It changes they way they look you in the eye and the way they engage in owning their responsibility to address their problems under God’s divine leadership.

He concludes his article with this acknowledgement of the limitation of simply educating Africans and providing modern tools and technologies and commerce:

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I’m afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

My friend and our Vice President for Africa Dela Adadevoh calls this perspective transformational leadership. Leading in a different way. Leading from the heart. Leading from a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Africa needs transformation. And only Christianity can provide transformation.

Saying “thank you” in all things

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I was ticketed yesterday while driving in South Carolina. “Improper lane change”. The officer said I had changed lanes in an improper manner. I feel like screaming, “Did you not see my traffic indicator blinking before I changed lanes?” And “Did anyone have to swerve or stomp on their brakes to avoid a collision?” He felt that I pulled between two cars with insufficient space.

Part of me has to acknowledge that he is right. It was a little tight. The traffic was heavy and the only way to get around the 18-wheeler I was following in the right lane was to move into a pretty full left lane. I wondered why he didn’t ticket people for not using the left lane for passing-only rather than camping out there.

I also felt like pointing out his own improper driving. I mean, who is he to call my action improper when he had just committed an improper action. When we passed this officer, he was just finishing ticketing someone else. This offender was parked on the right shoulder. The officer pulled around the car on the right, on the grass, and rejoined the highway. He wasn’t chasing anyone, just rejoining. I thought policemen were supposed to stay behind the vehicle as it rejoined traffic, using their flashing lights to make sure cars safely rejoined the highway.

Self-righteousness welled up. Other cars were doing wrong things, why pick me? You, Mr. Officer, are not a paragon of proper driving so how can you pick on me?

Other thoughts swirled.

God is sovereign. Nothing happens to me by chance, it is all part of God’s shaping me into the image of Jesus Christ.

Give thanks in all things. Rejoice always. I even preached on this back in July, calling it 10 Words to Live By.

I remember what long-time friend Don Myers taught me once about the Spirit-filled life, “It only works when you work it.” It doesn’t help to only know to give thanks in all things. It is beneficial in my life when I obey, when I follow God’s principles and actually give thanks in the midst of an unpleasant circumstance.

This morning, I read some thoughts from another friend, Judy Douglass. She wrote yesterday in a private message:

I believe thanking God does many things.  Here are three:

The first is that it expresses my trust that God is God and God is good.  Even when it doesn’t feel like it or look like it.

Second it gives me a more peaceful heart–sometimes just a little, sometime a great deal.

Third, I believe my saying Thank You opens a door for God to work in amazing and unexpected ways.

So, after a long night of laying awake thinking of smart remarks to make to Mr. Officer, I am writing this post as part of my saying to God this morning, “Thank you for the ticket. Thank you for what you want to do in my life through this ticket. Thank you for Mr. Officer who is participating in your plan to mold me into the image of Jesus Christ.”

After all, it is Thanksgiving and Kay and I drove to North Carolina to participate in thanking God with Jennifer, and with Daniel and Michelle and Abby and Lucy. It’s just a part of giving thanks that I was unprepared for, but I’m now getting around this giving of thanks also.

Good things can come out of bad times

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The news is full of horrible economic information. This morning, I was writing to a friend who is in a period of great apprehension and confusion. I wrote a little, but then I started recalling that God is God, all the time. I found this page of the names of God very insightful.

He is El (sovereign, in control), all the time. (250 times in the Bible)
He is El Roi, the God who sees me, all the time. (Gen. 16:13)
He is El Hanne’eman (faithful), all the time. (Deut. 7:9)
He is El-Kanno (lovingly and jealously watching over us), all the time. (Exod. 20:5)
He is El Shaddai (all sufficient), all the time. (Gen. 28:3, and many other places)
He is El Chaiyai, the God of my life, all the time. (Ps. 42:8)
He is El-Channun, the gracious God, all the time. (Jonah 4:2)
He is El Rachum, the God of compassion, all the time. (Deut. 4:31)
And perhaps my very favorite, He is Immanuel, God with us, all the time. (Isa. 7:14)

John Piper wrote a very intriguing post today: Bad times are good for missions. He lists some reasons:

1. During an economic downturn we are more dependent on God. That is the most fertile soil for creating missionaries.
2. During an economic downturn unreached people around the world do not expect you to come, but to look out for yourself. So they may more likely see your risk as love rather than exploitation.
3. During an economic downturn those who need Christ around the world may be less secure in earthly things and more ready to hear about eternal life.
4. During an economic downturn people at home may be wakened to the brevity of life and the fragility of material things, and so may become more generous not less. And when they give under these circumstances, it will make Christ look all the more like the all-satisfying Treasure that he is.

God did not wake up some morning and say, “Look how big a mess these folks are in. I better sort this out.” It’s all part of his plan, even the difficult or confusing circumstances.

He is El (sovereign, in control) and He is Immanuel (God with us), all the time.

My identity

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John-Wesley In my work in technology, we are implementing a global identity tool so that all staff and non-staff affiliated with our organization are known uniquely and individually. It’s a huge project. It’s the foundation of providing greatly-increased participation in helping launch spiritual movements around the world. So, I’ve been thinking about “identity” a lot lately.

Today, Steve Addison introduced me to John Wesely’s Covenant Prayer. Read Wesley’s covenant prayer through the eyes of our identity, of who we are as people.

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you;
let me be full, let me be empty;
let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Talk about an identity exchange! Wesley was empowered by his identity in Christ. Identity with Christ energized him with boldness and perseverance.