Soli Deo Gloria!

Being philanthropical is the cool thing to do nowadays.  You have Oprah making an all girl’s school/orphanage in South Africa, you have Bill Gates retiring from Microsoft to head the Gates Foundation, you have the Clinton Foundation, etc.

But, for the Bill Gates, Warren Buffets, and Oprahs of the world, it’s easy to be philanthropical.  If you’re a billionaire, not only do you have money, but you also have the people to get these philanthropic things done.

My intent isn’t to bash the rich, but I’ve been thinking.  I watched Les Miserables last night, which reminded me of the forgiveness and kindness that Christians ought to display.  Because Liam Neeson played Jean Valjean, it also made me think about Schindler’s List.

I wonder though, even with being philanthropical cool, why are the poor and needy ostracized, instead of embraced.  I’ve known for some time that my vision is to help the poor and fight injustice, but I’ve also noticed that it’s easy to get lost along the way.  It’s cool to be philanthropical, so I sponsor a child in Africa.  We sympathize with those who are starving in Africa and those who have been faced with natural disasters, but we are taught to ignore people in the U.S. who ask us for money or food.

I think the philanthropical culture nowadays, while doing much good, has also served to desensitize us.  We give charitably, but we rarely out with compassion.  Whatever happened to helping a brother or sister out?  When someone needy comes to you and asks for money or food, DON’T FREEZE.  If you freeze, it just proves that you have demonstrated an inability to act out in compassion.

1 John 3:17 “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”

15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

- Romans 7:15-25

In my mind, I know certain truths. I know that my two main purposes are to display God’s glory and to enjoy Him forever, yet I do things that don’t fulfill these purposes. The flesh and Satan are so sneaky. I feel like I am the master of equivocation. I can rationalize everything in my head. I can convince myself that masturbating will make everything all better, when I’ve already played that game a thousand times. I can convince myself to stay up late and do some stupid sh*t, when I know I’ll feel like sh*t the next day.

Through my sexual purity course and through reading John Piper’s sermons, I have learned something important. I learned that I need to renew and transform my mind every single day. If I’m spending all my time focusing on working out, nutrition, politics, TV, internet, etc., my mind is obviously going to be influenced by those things.

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

- Romans 12:1-2

Even something as seemingly harmless as reading the news can be sinful. Oftentimes, instead of waking up and renewing and transforming my mind by reading the Word and praying, I find myself chatting online, surfing the internet, etc. It’s during these times that I equivocate the most. I say I will chat for a bit and then read the Word, but those things never work out the way I plan. And the thing is, none of these things satisfy. I am never truly satisfied unless I’ve spent time with the Lord and can “what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Sometimes, I wonder why I fall so often. I wonder if I am destined to be mediocre, but I have to remind myself that everything is going according to His purpose. For example, I resolved that I would never end up like those people who end up living at home after graduating from college, but because I have injured my shin and couldn’t join the Marines and because I couldn’t find a job in San Diego, I am moving back home in two weeks. I have great ambitions and am prideful, so I believe that God is teaching me through my trials, the self-inflicted and the exogenous. I have recently become even more interested in economics, business, and investment banking. I can see myself getting lost in all of that and losing my purpose and heart for the poor and disadvantaged, so I trust that everything is going according to His purpose.

I will end this post with two more passages from the Bible.

3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

-Romans 5:3-5

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

- Hebrew 12:3-17