The Four Seasons

Spring is only a week away. I can't wait as I am not really a winter person and here I am living and ministering in Maine. Go figure. This got me to thinking about seasons. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says that "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." We live in four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. I think of Spring is a season for planting, Summer as a time for harvest, Fall as time for storing or consolidating, and Winter as a time for lifelessness or hibernation.

There are seasons in in the church too. Right now Paradigm, a ministry to twenty-somethings that I am facilitating is in the growth mode (harvest time). There has been a 100% increase in attendance within the last four weeks. This has me and these young adults rejoicing. At the same time it has me thinking about the next season to come and what should be done.

Bill Hybels in his book, axiom, describes the leaders responsibility to know the seasons. He mentions five. Four of them compare with the seasonal changes I have already mentioned. They are (1) season of growth, (2) season of consolidation, (3) season of transition, (4) season of malaise, and (5) season reinvention. We might apply these seasonal changes not only to organizational changes but also to personal changes in our lives.

Your Financial House In Uncertain Times

The Difference Between Prosperity, Recession and Depression:
“During prosperity you are annoyed because the dog and cat won’t eat the expensive canned food you buy for them; In a recession you are delighted that the dog and cat won’t eat the expensive food; and in a depression you begin to look thoughtfully at the dog and cat.” - unknown

The financial crisis we are facing is consuming our thoughts. How can we insulate our ourselves from the recession around us? What should we do when a recession comes to our house? Is there a way out of a personal recession?

Consider the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:7-16). Elijah had said that there would be no rain or dew in the next few years. And there wasn’t. In fact it would be 3 ½ years before it would rain again. The Lord had commanded Elijah to go to the brook at Kerith Ravine and there the ravens would feed him and he could drink from the brook. But now, even the brook has dried up and God directs Elijah to go to Zarephath where a widow also had been commanded of the Lord to supply him food.

The drought was still present. Everyone was suffering. No one (not even God’s servant) was immune from the effects of it. And now he comes into the community and the first person he meets is this widow. What he saw must have been utterly discouraging. He saw a thin, haggard woman with deep lines burrowed into face. Anxiety and suffering had made their mark. Her clothing probably matched her face, faded and threadbare. She tottered and groped as she searched for a few sticks. She and her child faced their last meal. It was beyond their imagination that there might be hope. All her assets were exhausted. There was very little left.

It was a moment of supreme test of faith! For Elijah, it meant depending on this widow who had almost nothing, to be obedient and provide for his need that which she apparently believed she did not have. For the widow of Zeraphath, it meant believing the word of the Lord, “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.”

Ever come to a point where you feel you have reached the bottom of the barrel? There is nothing left to reach for – there is nothing left to give? That’s recession!

Here are three timely principles for us to remember at such a time of financial crisis:

1. Don't Panic.

Don’t give up! I am a New England Patriots fan. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them during them. In their 2004 Super Bowl, with 1 ½ minutes to play and the score tied, 29-29 against the Carolina Panthers, everyone, including the John Madden, commentator for CBS, were talking about the Patriots need to use up the clock and regroup during overtime. I kept shouting at the TV, “No, No, No! Go for it! There is plenty of time.” Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady apparently must have heard me. New England moved the ball down the field and won the game on a field goal during regulation play. There was no panic and there was no need for overtime.

It’s when we are desperate and do not panic that God can engineer our winning moment. The first thing we must do when the recession reaches into our house is not to panic.

2. Trust God.

Sometimes our faith is more like when I was a young boy and was being taught by my father how to swim. Splashing wildly with both arms and kicking with one leg, I cried out, “Look at me, Look at me. I’m swimming!” But all the time I was holding onto the bottom of the lake with my big toe. Many of us are like that in our faith. “I have faith!” we declare, but it is an untested faith. It is a tentative faith. One toe remains on the bottom.

It is an enormous step of faith for some of us to abandon our fears and trust God with our meager resources. Later that same summer, my dad took me out on a row boat far from land and dumped me in some deep water. I quickly learned to swim. Dad was never far from me. (Too often our faith is like Credit card faith.)

Elizabeth Elliot once said, “To know God is to trust God; to trust God is to obey God!”

Proverbs: 3:5-6 NIV

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will direct your path.”

During a financial crisis, the worst thing you can do is stop giving! Don’t stop tithing. Don’t stop helping others. Don’t stop being generous! The promise to the widow was (vv. 14): “The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before God sends rain on the land and ends this drought.” The promise of God to you is “I will supply all your needs according to Christ riches in glory.” (Philippians 4:19)

3. Someone Is Always Watching.

That someone is God! In Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21: 1-4, it was Jesus who watched the widow drop her two small coins in the offering at the Temple. Those coins represented all she had in the world and she was willing to turn them over to God. That’s faith! Jesus commended her faith, for she gave out of her poverty, not out of her riches.

Someone was also watching after the widow of Zeraphath. It was the Lord who directed Elijah to the widow with the solution. Give what you have and God will provide more than enough for your needs. Your jar of flour will not be used up and your jug of oil will not run dry until the day that the Lord gives rain on the land. The way out of your personal recessions is through your continued liberal and faithful giving.

And it was God who was watching out for Elijah! God used a widow who was about to cook her last meal to provide for him. Give what you have and God will provide more than enough for your needs.