After teaching our Orientation For Service class for almost two weeks (two weeks of sweet fellowship and ministry), Sharon and I drove to Iowa from Idaho in order to speak among our friends at Calvary Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant. From that wonderful time of sharing God's Word and experiencing the extraordinary generosity of that fellowship, we traveled, the next day, to Toledo, Ohio to visit one of our sons, his wife, and our two grandchildren whom they parent when we cannot be physically spoiling them. (The family was visiting the States from their Air Force home in Germany and we had to take the opportunity to visit the grandchildren.) The next day I flew to Haiti for a couple of days of ministry business and to visit our two hundred plus children in the Lord who currently reside in the various My Father's Houses. As I was leaving Haiti I was able to greet our youngest son and his wife and our granddaughter as they arrived for a year's stay in My Father's House Haiti. (We had left them in Nampa at the conclusion of the Orientation which they participated in.) I returned to Toledo late Thursday night and Sharon and I drove Saturday to Eastern New York state to preach the Word among the Brethren there. We have returned to the Missionary House at Emmanuel Baptist Church to enjoy their hospitality and to write.
Are you confused yet? I have shared this travel craziness just to give you a little window into our life of service. We are so blessed! Sometimes the generosity of God's people and their hospitality just overwhelm me. Sometimes the demands of travel and the care for the churches and the orphan children that God has entrusted to us is also overwhelming. But most to the time I find that the weight is only heavy if I'm trying to carry it and not casting it on the Lord Jesus, my yokefellow. But this is about handling blessings not burdens. What do you do when everything is abundance and plenty and praise. What do you do with your abundance in a land of peace and safety, and do you keep the Lord fixed firmly in the eye of your heart? What do you do with compliments and good reports and everyone speaking well of you.
I was recently reading about Solomon in Deuteronomy. Solomon in Deuteronomy? Yep, he's there. Oh not by name, by warning. As you read the account of Solomon in 1st Kings you realize quickly that his problems were related to blessings not trials or burdens. He was the richest King in the world. All his drinking vessels were of gold. He sat on gold. He ate off of gold. He made silver as stones in value in Jerusalem. He had seven hundred wives, not to mention the concubines. He had so many horses (forty thousand) that he had to build stable cities to house them. He had peace on all sides. Kings and Queens and Princes came from around the world to listen to his wisdom and to bring him gifts in return for what the learned. He was spoken well of by everyone and all honored him. In twenty years of construction he built the Temple of God and covered it with gold. He built an extraordinary palace, for himself to live in, and decorated it with the finest woods and, of course, more gold. God spoke to Him twice and honored his building. He spoke 3000 Proverbs and wrote two other books of the Bible. He wrote over a thousand songs. 'All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.' (1Kings10:24) You might say Solomon was doing pretty well. No worries.
But Solomon was still a man. As a man he was a sinner. And as a sinner he sinned. He fell short of perfection as an arrow falls short of the target. For all his 'wisdom' and great blessings from God, Solomon ignored God's repeated warnings and put himself above the Word of God.
This brings us to Deuteronomy. To the seventeenth chapter of said book and the fourteenth through twentieth verses. Read them if you will, and you will find that Solomon is here, in Deuteronomy of all paces. Here the future kings of God's people were told to not have many horses, to not have many wives and to not go back to Egypt for anything, including wives or horses. They were told to always keep the Word before them and to not put themselves above the people. As you can see, by this measure Solomon had many problems. Even when God blesses you with physical abundance, you are responsible to act according to Scriptural standards.
For all the wisdom of Solomon, he forgot the Word of God or he just figured that he was above it. It didn't apply to him. He put himself into a place from which to fall and then took a great dive. Perhaps at the end of his life, as some suggest, he returned to the Lord, wrote Ecclesiastes and came to the conclusion that to 'fear God and keep His commandments'... 'applies to every person.' (Ecc12:13) We hope so.
In ignoring the warnings of God and putting himself above the Word he caused a great evil in Israel. He put himself above the people and overworked them. He returned to Egypt for most of his horses and many of his wives, even his first and primary wife. He sacrificed to demons. He built an altar to a god the requires you to pass your son through the fire. He worshiped the gods of the people that the Lord had dispossessed from the land. Worship that was permeated with foul immorality and male & female temple prostitution. He caused the division of Israel and set the stage for Israel's descent into gross idolatry. Though it happened under his son, it was Solomon who lost the united Kingdom of Israel until Jesus reunited it in Himself.
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." (1Cor10:12)
And what about ourselves? Such abundance has seldom been seen since Solomon. Probably never to the degree that Solomon enjoyed. But compared to much of the World, we in the developed world have such abundance. Though we in America are only five percent of the Christian Church, we have over ninety percent of all the money in Christendom. We have ninety-five percent of the Bibles, ninety-five percent of all the Christian books, ninety-nine percent of the buildings and seminary trained pastors. The percentages hold for church furnishings and broadcasting facilities and computers and support staff and any other quantifiable 'thing' relating to the Church. In Europe the majority of Christian buildings are empty or have no Bible believing Jesus serving congregations meeting therein.
While we in the 'developed world' agonize over all our 'choices' for dinner, apparel, coffee drinks, vehicles and recreational diversions, 150 million orphans face starvation, disease, abuse, and no formal education at all. They are poorly clothed and long for clean water and some kind of hope for the future. While we have vast opportunities to hear the Gospel and good teaching, there are billions of people who have never heard and, at this rate, will never hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. To this day more people die from hunger than from all the disease caused deaths combined. I think that's a shame.
What do we do with such abundance and such lack? Do we ignore it? Do we abuse those who have less by polluting the whole world to meet our greedy desires for abundance? (Greed and its attendant destructive practices is by NO means limited to the developed world. Those who are trying to be like us use the same practices.) Do we hoard or hinder or steal from those who don't have? What of ourselves? Are we like Solomon in our God given abundance? We revel in our riches and think we're doing fine because everyone speaks well of us, or wants access to us, or at least envies our success, while putting ourselves above those who have less, or who aren't 'our kind' or don't speak our language, or whatever...and all the time we are ignoring the clear teachings of the Word of God. 'Oh it doesn't apply to us.' 'We are God's chosen ones, aren't we?' 'We have because God has blessed us, let's just be thankful.'
But the Lord has given it to us and therefore we should not boast as if we earned what we have. We should give away and share and, at least, let our abundance meet the needs of those who lack. (2Cor8:13-15) We could cheerfully imitate Jesus who though rich yet for our sakes became poor. We could put our faith into loving action and thereby glorify God. (Gal5:6) We could love not just in words but in actions showing ourselves to be disciples of Jesus. (1Jn3:16-18) We could love more and more. (1Thes4:1-12) We could walk in the good works which God created beforehand for us to walk in and so fulfill our recreated purpose in Christ Jesus. (Eph2:10) We could give ourselves to the hungry and the needs of the afflicted and thus keep the chosen fast of God (Isaiah 58).
We could respond to the needs of the world and to the responsibilities of our abundance by ceasing to live for ourselves and beginning to live Jesus. (2Cor5:14&15) We could do this. His love will enable us. His love demands it.