Looking at the supernatural instead of the natural

It didn't make me feel very good to get up this morning and read in the USA today of the way the financial markets are going down and the projections.

In the natural, it can be discouraging.

That's why I'm not looking at things from a "natural" point of view, but from what God can do in the "supernatural" as we head into the final laps of our stewardship campaign and attempting to (with God's help) ask for 3 million dollars in pledges and offerings over 3 years.

I have to. It would drive me "bonkers" otherwise.

I believe it will happen. I know it will happen as long as we continue to look to God and his provision.

Some words from Philip Yancey struck me as a help this afternoon, words I want to share with you today. Good words. Challenging words. Words that we can apply to our process here as we relocate.

Let me give you a disclaimer: We really can't, in one sense, compare our relocation process with the turmoil African countries (that Yancey mentions) which are going through horrendous times of turmoil and suffering.

Yet it's the principle that he mentions that does apply - it's as we give of our treasure, ESPECIALLY during difficult financial times that God blesses. God blesses not only those who receive, but those who give as well.

Philip Yancey's words were given during one of the most volatile periods of the current economic crisis—a week in which global stock markets declined by $7 trillion—Philip Yancey received a call from an editor at Time magazine.

The editor's question was simple: "How should a person pray during a crisis like this?" Here is a summary of what Yancey shared in response:

"The first stage is simple, an instinctive cry: "Help!" For someone who faces a job cut or health crisis or watches retirement savings wither away, prayer offers a way to voice fear and anxiety. I have learned to resist the tendency to edit my prayers so that they sound sophisticated and mature. I believe God wants us to come exactly as we are, no matter how childlike we may feel.

A God aware of every sparrow that falls surely knows the impact of scary financial times on frail human beings. …

If I pray with the intent to listen as well as talk, I can enter into a second stage, that of meditation and reflection. Okay, my life savings has virtually disappeared. What can I learn from this seeming catastrophe? …

A time of crisis presents a good opportunity to identify the foundation on which I construct my life. If I place my ultimate trust in financial security or in the government's ability to solve my problems, I will surely watch the basement flood and the walls crumble.

A friend from Chicago, Bill Leslie, used to say that the Bible asks three main questions about money:

(1) How did you get it? (Legally and justly or exploitatively?);
(2) What are you doing with it? (Indulging in luxuries or helping the needy?); and
(3) What is it doing to you?

Some of Jesus' most trenchant parables and sayings go straight to the heart of that last question.

The same week that global wealth shrank by $7 trillion, Zimbabwe's inflation rate hit a record 231 million percent. In other words, if you had saved $1 million Zimbabwean dollars by Monday, on Tuesday it was worth $158.

This sobering fact leads me to the third and most difficult stage of prayer in crisis: I need God's help in taking my eyes off my own problems in order to look with compassion on the truly desperate.

What a testimony it would be if, in 2009, Christians resolved to increase their giving to build houses for the poor, combat AIDS in Africa, and announce kingdom values to a decadent, celebrity-driven culture. Such a response defies all logic and common sense — unless, of course, we take seriously the moral of Jesus' simple tale about building houses on a sure foundation."

Let me add this to our church family: What a testimony it would be if, in 2009, we as a body of believers resolved to increase our giving to relocate our church?

Such a response does defy all logic and common sense unless, and to quote Philip Yancey, "....as we take seriously the moral of Jesus' simple tale about building houses on a sure foundation."