The Value of a Dollar

On a recent trip to visit the Heinz family, our missionaries in Kazakhstan, it was necessary to move from one airport to another in London. The bus ride from Heathrow to Gatwick cost 19 British pounds. That did not seem all that unreasonable until we calculated it into American dollars. It was $39.00. Ouch! Traveling around the world makes an American citizen realize that the American dollar is not doing all that well in the exchange rate. There are multiple implications of this not immediately noticed by the low spending traveler. One of our missionary candidates making preparations to attend language school in Quebec, Canada is experiencing a significant increase in the required tuition. The missionary couple will pay more as will those who are participating in their outgoing expenses and monthly support.

Fulfilling the Great Commission costs money. It always has and the Lord of the church knows this. There is a way to finance the gospel witness of God’s people. How did this work in the witness nation, Israel? The missionary impact of Israel as God’s covenant people under the Mosaic covenant was financed through the titles and offerings of the twelve tribes (Mal. 3:10). How did this happen? There were required tithes and offerings which were part of a system of taxation God legislated for Israel to fund the theocracy. Levites (tribe of Levi) managed Israel’s worship system. They had to be supported (Lev. 27:30-33; Num. 18:8-28). Israel’s festivals also had to be funded as well as the needs of the poor (Deut. 12:6-17; 14:28, 29). When Israel withheld her taxes God withheld His blessing. The purpose of the temple was to bear witness to the glory and salvation of God. It was a call to all Israel and to the nations to come and worship the Lord God. The failure to pay the priests (representatives of God before the people) had the effect of limiting Israel’s effectiveness as a priest nation.

God built into Israel’s social, economic, and religious life the matter of priorities. He was to be at the center of the life of His people (Prov. 3:9, 10). When Israel offered the “first” of her produce this took in a wide range of possessions; the family’s firstborn (Ex. 13:1, 2 – man and beast), the feast of firstfruits (Lev. 19:23-25, grain, wine, olive oil, sheared wool), coarse meal (Num. 15:20, 21), honey and all produce of the land (2 Chron. 31:5). Think about the implications of all this in terms of the world view Israel compared to the other nations.

In Israel’s thoughts, plans, and possessions God was to rule supreme. All of life belongs to God. Unless a man or woman recognized the claim of the Creator on all that he or she has, including material possessions, there would be a colossal failure in the management of time and money. We, like Israel, are accountable to God for the way we use our money and possessions and must use them in a way that reflects His Lordship. Are you honoring God with the things you own? Are you bringing biblical truth into your thoughts about your finances? It is a fallacy to think that Israel’s tithe created a neatly compartmentalized view of service through giving. Israel was taught that all of life is to be used for the glory of God.

When Jesus stepped onto the stage in the drama of redemption what did He say about possessions and money? He boldly taught that it is more important to lay up treasures in heaven than to accumulate treasure on earth (Matt. 6:19-21). He did not ban material possessions nor did He forbid saving money. He tells kingdom citizens that God must be at the very center of all our thinking about material things. He is concerned about selfishness and misplaced values. We live in a fallen world where everything is subject to decay. For a good reminder of this take a trip to the junk yard or a sanitary land fill. The ferocious appetite of the fires sweeping through southern California is a vivid reminder of what will happen to earthly treasures (I Jn. 2:17). Therefore, we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. What are these “treasures?” They would be everything that believers in Jesus Christ can take with them beyond the grave (i.e., holiness of character, obedience to all of God’s commandments, souls won to Christ, and fellow believers nurtured in the faith). Generosity in giving is one of these treasures in heaven. Laying up treasures, in the words of John Stott, is “to do anything on earth whose effects last for eternity.”

Where does the church of Jesus Christ stand in all of this? Christians must give so as to provide for the costs entailed in equipping the saints, evangelizing the lost, and show mercy to all. This is done by setting aside a certain percentage of our income on a first day of the week basis (1 Cor. 16:1-4). Financing God’s work is not to be carried out by the methods that bring in the most money (i.e., whatever works). It is not on the basis of what many other churches or Christian organizations may be doing. It is not even on the basis of the Old Testament law (God’s plan for Israel). Rather it is giving that is systematic and regular, accepted as an individual responsibility, proportionate, voluntary, and carefully administered by the local church. Our giving on a first day of the week basis is part of our worship life. It is an expression of our love for Christ (2 Cor. 8:8, 9). Are you involved in demonstrating the value of a dollar in the work of God’s kingdom? Have you allowed yourself to become mired in personal debt and to squander your hard-earned money through high interest costs? Dear Christian, we are to commit ourselves to a plan that has an eye on eternity.

The local church is to assume the responsibility of contributing to the support of those who are involved in the work of the Great Commission (Rom. 15:27). Wise money-management is required of the church as it receives financial gifts from the worshiping community of believers. There are overhead costs that have to be paid (e.g., lights, water, insurance, salaries, equipment, materials, maintenance). As church members we should expect wise money management from our leaders. There must be a strategy for participation in global evangelism. The elders and the missions committee have to consider who is best fulfilling the Great Commission. Where are the greatest needs? Who is the most qualified to receive funds? The work of establishing priorities in the support of world missions is a difficult task. We are to be good stewards of what God has given to us. Church, pray for those who have to make these decisions and let us keep ourselves personally involved in the process of accountability and decision making.

Every believer is to excel in the grace of giving consistently, generously, and joyfully (2 Cor. 9:7). Paying for the costs of spreading the gospel and planting churches in every people group in the world is expensive. But it all comes down to where I, as God’s child, am with God. Am I growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? Do I want to please God? Do I love Christ? Am I a good manager of the assets God has placed in my hands? Am I working? Am I saving? Am I avoiding debt? Am I making wise investments? Am I living in such a way as to free-up money for the kingdom’s sake? My giving as an individual worshiper who is delighting in God is to merge with other worshipers bringing their love offerings. Our combined gifts are a sweet offering to God. As we are enabled to give by His grace, so we exalt Him. A dollar is a valuable thing. But its value is determined by its use. Are your dollars flowing into the war chest for the Great Commission campaign? God has ordained our giving as the means by which He calls and gathers His sheep from the ends of the earth (“I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear my voice…” Jn. 10:16).

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Together for World Missions

It takes the entire congregation to make a World Missions Conference happen. The Missions Committee plays a vital role in planning and organizing our annual conference. But it takes all of us pulling together to call our church family to the grand enterprise of spreading the gospel flame to the ends of the earth. I say “enterprise” because world missions is important, difficult, and dangerous. Is there anything that exceeds gospel proclamation in importance? If we take our lead from the media’s attention to societal values we are left with the temporary. World Missions is about what is eternal. This is not arrogance. This is reality. The environment, drought, presidential campaigning, international terrorism, famine in Darfur, the war in Iraq, and local politics are not unimportant. But in the supernatural order of things certain truths are supreme. God is there. He is not an imaginary being. He has made us for fellowship with Himself. We are sinners and there is an infinite gap between us and a holy God. We can’t reach Him on our own. God has made a way to have access to Him both now and forever. It is through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can have the forgiveness of sin and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

What must we do? Many things. But we have an immediate opportunity to invest time, money, and effort into eight days of intense concentration on sending out those who are taking the good news about Jesus Christ around the world. Here are a few ways we can all participate.

1. Commit yourself to praying three times a day for the missions conference; our speakers, Grace Promise for 2008, our attendance, candidates for missionary service.
2. Host a missionary family in your home. Have them to your house for a meal. Spend some time talking with them about what they do.
3. Visit every missionary display in the fellowship hall. Refresh your memory on Berachah’s missionary family.
4. Arrive early enough for the Sunday services so that you can ready your heart to be a hearer and doer of the Word of God. A prepared hearer is a responsive hearer.
5. Determine what should be your part in our Grace Promise commitment for the coming year, 2008. Could it not be more than it was in 2007? Think, talk, and plan with your spouse about your financial involvement in world missions. Are you making any sacrifices so that the gospel can go to those who have never heard about Jesus Christ?
6. Consider the possibility of participating in a missions’ trip in the coming year. Is there a missionary family you could visit at your expense?
7. Set up and plan to pray for a different nation of the world in each week. Get a copy of “Operation World” and pray around the world in 52 weeks.
8. Put a world map up somewhere in home (e.g., a small one on the refrigerator, on the kitchen table) to keep you reminded that the world is bigger than Fayette county and its environs.
9. Adopt a missionary family that you will give special attention to in the coming year; consistent prayer for them, communication through e-mail, attention to special needs they might have, etc.
10. Make up your own list of what you can do to be a team-player in our annual World Missions conference. But let’s not allow these eight days to go by as some form of special entertainment. That will not look good at the judgment seat of Christ.

As I write this I am looking out my window at a squirrel busily digging little holes and packing away acorns for the coming months. Right now his grocery store shelves are full (acorns have been bombarding my roof for two weeks now). That little gray furry creature is focused on the present and the future. Take a lesson from him. Seize the moment and plan for the future. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again for His sheep.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

My Grandchildren and Alcoholic Beverages

I have vivid memories of driving away from the University of Georgia campus in Athens one fall day when my daughter was a student there many years ago. Her mother and I had explicit trust in our daughter that she would make the right choices, but the alcohol culture that surrounded her at that time was not a pretty sight. Alcoholic beverages were everywhere. They appeared to be some kind of status symbol. Every parent, especially Christian parents, has to wonder how their son or daughter will handle the social pressure to drink alcohol. According to the Behavior Risk Surveillance System in 2002, 55 percent of U.S. adults were current drinkers. Forty-five percent of U.S. adults do not drink any alcohol at all. I have six grandchildren and one of the concerns I have for them is what they will decide regarding alcohol. Each of them will have to make a decision just as I had to, as did our two children. What kind of counsel will I give them?

First of all, this is what I will not tell them. I will not tell them that the Bible absolutely prohibits the drinking of alcohol. They expect me to be honest. There is no single verse which absolutely forbids the consumption of a glass of wine. I cannot tell them that the Bible says the drinking of fermented grape juice is a sin in and of itself. It would make my instruction on the subject a whole lot easier if I could point to a place in the Bible where God said not to drink an alcoholic beverage. Furthermore, I will not tell them that wine in the Bible is just grape juice. Each term used for wine and strong drink in the Bible describes a beverage that was capable of intoxication (four different Hebrew words and two Greek words). I will not tell them that Jesus turned water into grape juice. At the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee Jesus miraculously made wine that tasted so good to the guests that they said it was better than the wine they had just drunk. It was called “good wine” (kalon oinon). The same term is used elsewhere in the New Testament for fermented wine.

I will not tell my grandchildren that New Testament communion wine was unfermented (Matt. 26:29). The language and the season of the year at Passover would indicate that it was fermented wine (no fresh grape juice was available at that time of the year). It should also be noted that some in the Corinthian church were drunk at the Lord’s Table (1 Cor. 11:12). Drunkenness, combined with other sinful behaviors, was such an abuse of the communion service that God took the lives of some of the saints at Corinth (1 Cor. 11:30). However, it is not necessary for a church to use wine today in its communion service. The emphasis is not on the symbol but upon what it symbolizes, namely, the atoning death of Jesus Christ. I will not tell them that total abstinence from alcoholic beverages was a New Testament condition for church membership. Nowhere does the New Testament teach this. It is true that I Timothy 3:3, 8 teach that elders and deacons are not to be addicted to wine. God could easily have said that they should drink no wine at all, if He had wished. The exhortations are against strong drink and much wine.

Neither will I tell them that alcoholism is a disease. God holds the drunkard responsible for his behavior (1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10). Deliverance from the life-dominating power of alcohol is possible by God’s grace (1 Cor. 6:10-11). Drunkenness finds its source in one’s sinful nature (Gal. 5:19-21). The disease theory, and that is just what it is, is filled with self-contradictions and avoids the issue of personal responsibility. Alcohol may lead to a variety of physical ills, but the decision to abuse alcohol is a moral choice. Some self-examination is necessary. Why is alcohol important to me?

In summary, I am responsible to tell the truth (Eph. 4:25) and will not reshape the culture of Bible times in order to respond to a social problem in our day. I do not want my grandchildren to grow up and discover that I had been less than honest in my handling of the Scriptures. If they can’t trust me to have integrity in the interpretation of the Bible, then what credibility will I have in other matters? If I give my grandchildren the impression that to merely abstain from alcoholic beverages makes them more holy than those who do drink, then I have failed them. Jesus and His disciples drank wine (with some alcoholic content) as did Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and other strong Christians.

But what will I tell them the Bible does teach about alcoholic beverages? I will tell them that the Bible teaches that drunkenness is a sin. In the Old Testament it was classed with such crimes as murder and rape and could lead to the punishment of death by stoning. Incorrigibility was treated with the utmost seriousness in the Old Testament theocracy (Deut. 21:18-21). The New Testament Scriptures are plentiful in their condemnation of drunkenness (1 Cor. 5:11; 6:9, 10; Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:19-21). As a vice that finds its source in the sinful heart, it can lead to eternal judgment. Drunkenness is no laughing matter.

I will tell my grandchildren that God considers strong drink extremely dangerous. Priests who ministered in the tabernacle in ancient Israel were told to avoid strong drink under the penalty of death (Lev. 10:8, 9). Solomon said that “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise” (Prov. 20:1). He also taught that strong drink is not for kings (those who are responsible for others) lest they become unable to think clearly and, therefore, pervert justice (Prov. 31:4-5). The prophets of the Old Testament trained their theological guns on the self-indulgent within Israel who gave themselves over to the abuse of alcohol (Isa. 5:11; Mic. 2:11). A society that is marked by alcohol dependence is not a healthy society and will reap a harvest of moral ills. God wants them to know that alcohol leads to a slowing of the thinking processes (Prov. 31:4, 5; Isa. 28:7; Hos. 4:11) and the inability to adequately control one’s mental and physical responses (Jer. 25:27; 51:39).

I will tell them that total abstinence, though not required, is extolled in the Bible. The Nazirite vow was a special vow of dedication to the Lord which included the abstaining from wine and strong drink (Num. 6:1-21; Lk. 1:15). The Rechabites distinguished themselves by refusing to drink wine (Jer. 35:6, 19). These voluntary exceptions to the drinking of wine indicate a freedom to take special measures to avoid dangers in the consumption of alcohol.

I will tell them that the wine (and other alcoholic beverages) drunk today is far different from that drunk in New Testament times. Wine itself was light wine, not fortified with extra alcohol. Concentrated alcohol was introduced to Europe by Arabs in the middle ages when it was brought from China where distilled liquors seem to have originated. What is now called liquor and twenty percent fortified wines were unknown in Bible times. The drinking water of the biblical world was often unsafe. It was much more convenient to purify water by wine. It has been observed that one would need to drink twenty-two glasses of New Testament wine in order to consume the amount of alcohol in two martinis today and “in other words, it is possible to become intoxicated from wine mixed with three parts water (New Testament wine), but one’s drinking would probably affect the bladder long before the mind.” The wine used today is not the wine of the New Testament. The alcoholic beverages of today fall into the category of “strong drink” in the Bible.

There is a host of other miseries brought on by the enslavement to alcohol physically, mentally, financially, and relationally. Untold numbers of grieving parents can tell stories of their teenage children slaughtered on the highway by trying to mix alcohol with driving. I will tell them about my friend from high school days, the quarterback on our football team, whose funeral I conducted when he was thirty-nine years of age. It all started with his love for beer as a teenager.

And, finally, I will tell my grandchildren exactly why I have chosen not to drink alcohol. Because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it is my responsibility to take care of it (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). Would some alcohol necessarily harm me physically? Possibly not, but I have chosen to take the safest route and avoid a path filled with unnecessary risks. These are my personal convictions. I can’t impose them on others, but I believe they reflect biblical wisdom. Those who have a contrary view are also obligated to express it through the lens of Scripture.

Secondly, because of the example I set for others, both believer and nonbeliever, total abstinence is the expedient thing for me. It is not in the best interest of other believers (Rom. 14:21). Would my drinking cause anyone else to sin? I do not want to make it easier for someone else to drink. Therefore, I have chosen to restrict my liberty in consideration of Christians with a weak conscience or who might set out on a journey of a life dominated by alcohol. Also, it is not in the best interest of the gospel (1 Cor. 8-10). For the sake of the gospel I am willing to set aside anything that might hinder my witness and effectiveness for Christ. I do not want to encourage anyone who is struggling with alcohol’s rule over their lives. It is my freedom not to drink. Does my love for the taste of alcohol exceed my love for people?

Thirdly, because I must glorify God in everything I do, I have chosen voluntary abstinence from alcohol as a means of bringing honor to Him (1 Cor. 10:31). It is not necessary to turn to a chemical in order to deal with the world’s deficiencies and the pressures of life. Fourthly, because of the possibilities of a personal fall, it is better not to set myself up for such a fall (1 Cor. 9:27). By God’s grace I have never been arrested for a DUI, been drunk, or impaired my judgment with alcohol. This does not make me more holy than someone who drinks and has avoided these failures as well. But I have taken the precaution to avoid the dangers. Fifthly, it is because of the degree of the problem of alcohol abuse in our culture that I exercise my Christian freedom to be a challenge to the culture. Sixthly, because of the availability of many wholesome non-addictive beverages, I can slake my thirst in better ways. And if I am looking for peace and escape I have God whose peace passes all understanding and in whom I find constant refuge.

That is what I will tell my grandchildren. I will love them no matter what choices they make, but I will not be disappointed if they use their freedom in Christ to set alcohol aside. Alcohol has never been a friend. It brought untold pain and suffering to the home in which I grew up and to people I have loved dearly. The Lord knows the battles I have fought against sin in my own life. But, thank God, one struggle I have not had to contend with is addiction to a chemical which could never replace the joy of knowing God’s sufficiency in Jesus Christ. That is what I want for my grandchildren.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church