Tag: Value

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God’s favorites.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

”One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.” “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied. And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.” ‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There are those in our society that are in need and should receive special attention and care. These folks existed in ancient days and they still struggle today. They are widows and orphans. Because God’s heart always leans to the least among us, he expects that we will do the same.

In the U.S. from 2022, there were approximately 11.48 million widowed women and 3.7 million widowed men in the United States, the average age is 59! The word “widow” is sited 80 times from the Old and New Testament. Today’s “orphan” would be our children lingering in foster care. In 2022, approximately 368,530 children were in foster care in the United States. Which is down from 400,000 just 10 years ago.

Here in Kings, with the story of the needy widow, Elisha responds to her desperation by walking her and her sons through a miracle rather than just giving her money. In fact, through this miracle, God allowed this widow to become an entrepreneur, with a sustainable income for her future. That’s a compounded interest miracle!

Kings tells us that this widow’s husband was a part of Elisha’s School of the Prophets, and the widow reminds him that her husband feared the Lord! Since Elisha figured out that this widow was willing to speak up and ask, he knew he could put this skillset, this gift to work! He first asks what she has. She responds with, “I’ve only got one flask of oil.” Olive oil, in ancient days was used for just about everything, far more than it is today. If you had a grove of olive trees, you had a sustainable income for life, because oil was a highly needed commodity.

Next, Elisha puts her to work ASKING. “Go and borrow as many empty jars as you can.” Big jars, little jars, used jars and new ones – who knows what her friends and neighbors let her “borrow” knowing they were helping her out.

Elisha then tells her, “go into your house with your sons.” My wife, Robin, points out the highlight of the miracle about to take place is the fact that her sons were able to experience God’s power and provision right alongside their mother. She begins to pour from her only oil jar. She fills up one jar, then another, and another. The tension rises when the mother discovers they are out of jars, “Soon every container was full to the brim! “Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons. “There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.” (4‬:‭6‬) All the jars were now filled!

She tells Elisha what happened, expecting that he would want to know or maybe even receive part of the miraculous oil himself. Elisha tells her to sell the oil to pay the debt and keep the rest to live on! She receives a miracle and an inheritance check from God!

Caring for widows or children of foster care doesn’t mean we just hand over a bunch of money. God could have made it rain coins from the sky if Elisha asked him to. Working with both widows and children formerly in foster care means helping them understand their own gifts and talents and teach them to become self sufficient is incredibly important. Both still need believers to pray and seek God for miracles on their behalf. But helping them see their worth and value after death, abandonment or abuse is critical for their mental and spiritual well being! It’s money leveraged to teach and get them moving in the right direction. Many of the widows that I have known were properly cared for through planning before their husband’s death. Serving both widows and children of foster care requires building trust – love must be earned before it’s honored! Being involved in their lives becomes a great way to redirect and inspire them to keep going, and discovering what God will do through their lives even after a difficult season of loss. It is a joy, privilege and honor to serve the folks that God considers most valuable because of loss. When we serve widows and children of foster care, we are blessing some of God’s favorites!

Prayer

​Dad,
I enjoy seeing what you love and learning to love it as well. And I know you love widows and orphans. You see their great needs and hear their cries for help. Thank you for enlisting us to share in the joy of praying for, blessing and caring for those you deeply love.

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Value people for the win.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“So watch yourselves! “If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.” Luke‬ ‭17:3-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus, in “red letter words” talks openly about sin. He does not do so as often as you might think. But here Luke records Jesus talking about it with some warnings. Seventeen opens with, “There will always be temptations to sin….” Then after reminding us that being a temptER is worse, Jesus lays out the warning, “watch yourselves!” What a thought. We spend a lot more time and energy watching OTHERS do their sin, than we do our own sin. It makes laugh when Jesus says, “IF” another sins. I think it’s more like “when,” right Jesus? 😬

Jesus uses this word that we have all kinds of stereotypes built around – REBUKE. Don’t we rebuke demons and our dogs? Sounds pretty harsh, right? It’s the word itself that fascinates me.

The Greek construction of this word is NOT match the imagery. The word is epitimaó: to honor, to mete out due measure, hence to censure. Properly, assign value as is fitting the situation, building on (Gk epi) the situation to correct (re-direct).

Its fundamental sense is “warning to prevent something from going wrong.” Think about this. The word comes from two words, epi: on, upon and timaó: to fix the value, estimate. We’d recognize the word timaó because it comes from the word “time.” So this often seen as judgmental word is really a deep sense of valuing someone to help point out serious consequences completely in the framework of timing! In my granddaughter’s preschool class, her teacher has a “red choice” vs “green choice” system to help the children understand choices they already made. That they were helpful or not helpful, kind or unkind. But what if they had a “yellow choice” indicator just BEFORE the behavior happened? The timing of the yellow choice warning or “rebuke” would be seen as a helpful, valuable, even a loving action.

It’s not an example of sin, but it would be much like Robin warning me, while driving, when she’s sees a pedestrian coming into the crosswalk as I’m about to make a turn. Her warning, her “rebuke” is a timely and valued moment that prevents me from hitting, thus hurting another.

Notice the order in which Jesus gives us this wisdom of God. If another believer sins (clearly just for Christ followers) – it’s already happened. The timely and valued warning is helpful for breaking a pattern that will absolutely lead to relationship breeches between us and God and us with one another! I think that’s why Jesus chases that truth with this. “Even if it happens seven times a day.” Well, there’s a fine “terrible two’s” scenario! I have to be vigilant and consistent MORE THAN ONCE. Yep. Oh, I hear you. If you were to say, “but what if they (we) don’t WANT those timely and valued warnings when they (we) are in process or planning of SIN! And, you’d be right. The warning, the rebuke, even when spoken in grace, is often taken as controlling or judging or even meddling in our private affairs.

Ah, that’s why we really don’t like the word! There’s a real possibility of someone flashing the yellow choice option, but they (we) REALLY want to ignore it. BTW, when Jesus says, “if” there is repentance, think of it in terms of not just being sorry… sorry would not have helped me or the person I hit in the crosswalk. The best way to look at repentance is exactly what the word means – metanoeó, “change one’s mind.” Thus, changing one’s behavior.

Prayer

Dad,
It seems like this conversation of unity, cooperation, mutual benefit and trust are much more difficult in a divided culture and specifically a community of believers. How can we trust each other to handle our lives, decisions and behaviors with this timely, valued warning? Most of the body of Christ perceives that “judging” anyone or anything is wrong and should be avoided. This makes rebuking almost impossible without massive drama and blowback. Have we, have I, isolated ourselves into a dark corner of self where we are not just alone in our sin, but also alone in seeing the blind spots we all have?This is really a sad situation we’ve gotten into. Will you help us (me) to remember that you know what you’re talking about and trust you in your eternal wisdom? Even when this whole topic feels like we are walking on eggshells, and fearing co-dependent reactions?