The Phil Files

We are so excited. We got our sponsors packet on our little girl from Uganda. We will be her monthly sponsor: it’s only $32 per month and it helps her with nutrition, education, and a chance to know more about Jesus. This precious little girl is named Doreen. She is precious. I hope to get to meet her on the trip to Uganda in a few weeks. This will be our second child to sponsor with Compassion. The other child we sponsor is a boy named Starlin.

With Luke 16 being my daily Bible reading today, I couldn’t help but hear Jesus’ call in this chapter to use our worldly wealth to bless so we will be “welcomed into our eternal dwellings.” Jesus makes clear that how we handle (I handle!) the blessings he gives me hear will determine what God will entrust to me in the future and where my eternal home will be in the future.

//Inspiration“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

//Incarnation:
I have to admit that for many years it was hard for me to be as generous with the work of God as I should have been. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be part of several opportunities to use the blessings I have and share them with others. But, I have to look hard at my heart and how “things,” the “things” I call “my stuff,” seem to be too important to me still. I am still trying to make my first reaction to blessings, first to praise God and second to ask Him how He would have me use those blessings.

//Invitation:
O God of generous grace, open both my eyes and heart to see how You want me to use the blessings you have showered on me. Please help me use what I have in ways that do your work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mark has been a friend since college. He’s spent time in “full time” ministry on staff with churches. Now, he works as a builder, but still does full time ministry with his wife influencing young couples to follow Jesus.

He had called simply to share an affirmation about someone who has a low wage job that serves people, but which is not very respected by most folks. He was bragging on Roy and how amazing he thought it was that Roy could serve in this position for 23 years and still have such a good attitude toward people, many who treat him poorly, or at best, as invisible. Mark was praising Roy for his staying power and faithfulness.

As a minister, I don’t get a lot of calls bragging on someone for doing good things. It’s the unfortunate sign of our times that we focus so much energy on finding negative things and then repeating them to others. We seem to find those negative things more easily and hang on to them more tenaciously. But not Mark. I was thankful to have this good dose of blessing and encouragement in the middle of a busy day.

Then Mark went one step further: he asked to be the first person who prayed with me for my trip “right now” before I left for Uganda with Compassion International. Mark has been a youth minister and a young single adult minister: he knows how important it is for kids to come to know Jesus before they hit their twenties. The words of his intercession washed over me like a shower of grace. What a blessing.

I would love it if you would be in prayer about this upcoming trip as we try to find monthly sponsors for at least 500 children. For just a little more than a dollar a day, you can join in me supporting a child (we actually support two) and help them with the basic necessities of life and do this in the name of Jesus.

I covet your prayers, so if you would be willing to be a part of the prayer team for me while I’m on this trip, please follow this link and leave a response to the information there. Also, you want to read my companion article to this post on Heartlight, called “My Deliverer” from the Rich Mullins’ song. What are some other ways to help us be a deliverer for children in need so they can ultimately find the great Deliverer. Let me hear from you in the response are below!

Thank you and God bless you as you seek to serve the Lord!

Well, back to my devotional post I had to postpone because I fell asleep. My devotional reading Saturday was from Luke 14. Twice, Jesus mentions four groups of people often overlooked in life and in religion — the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (vs. 13 & 21).

This forgotten set of four caught my attention for several reasons. First, I was preaching from John 5 and the story of the paralyzed man that Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda. Second, I have been preparing to go a trip to Uganda to work with those who are often the most forgotten — children of poverty and AIDS orphans.

Jesus’ two points in regard to these struck me powerfully.

First, it is easy for us invite our friends and family into our lives, but to be like Jesus, we must invite those who cannot repay us! Of course, my passion is for children. I serve on a board for Christian Homes and Family Services, trying to help children, birth moms, and adoptive parents find a future. In addition, Donna and I have been involved with supporting a child with Compassion International for several years.

Jesus’ second reference to these forgotten four had to do with the “normal religious folks” being too distracted with the things of life to be ready to accept God’s invitation to a party, so God made sure the forgotten four weren’t forgotten!

One of these references is a challenge and the other is a warning. so what will I do with them? And what will you do with them?

//Inspiration: Luke 14:13-14
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

//Incarnation:
I think the real challenge for me is to not just care for those forgotten from a distance, but also those around me everyday. I know that I can easily begin to not notice those who I see regularly. I know that my human nature makes me wary of messy entanglements. So I’ve got to hear Jesus and follow Jesus into the service of His precious, but often forgotten creations.

//Invitation:

O Lord Jesus, please help me see people as you do. O Father God, stir in me a compassion that values each person as someone you know, love, and made for a purpose. O Holy Spirit, empower me to care when others around refuse to even notice, the forgotten around me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Donna, Megan, and I are in one of those family adjustment periods. It’s not a bad thing, but it sure is a something — I’m not sure exactly what to call it. Megan has done the go off to college and live on her own and get her own stuff and have her own furniture thing. She’s been at it for 4 1/2 years. So she has a lot of stuff she has accumulated. Now she has moved home to save money and get ready to go to physical therapy school in the fall.

We are genuinely excited about her being back and also excited for her plans for the future. The problem is, however, pretty simple. She has a lot more stuff than when she left for college and we have moved into a house that is smaller than the house we were in when she left. We’ve got way more stuff than we have places to put it and time to use it! Megan has been working furiously to go through her stuff and decide what she needs to give away, what she needs to give to Goodwill, and what she needs to keep for the future.

As I was reading back through Luke 13 — my daily Bible reading for today — and discussing it with Donna, one verse really caught my heart. Part of the reason is because this verse is addressed to folks who are leaders among Jesus’ people. So that means I have to pay close attention to it. However, this passage caught my attention for another reason: my upcoming trip to Uganda with Compassion International. Listen to what Jesus said:

//Inspiration: Luke 13:48
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

//Incarnation:
In a few short weeks, I will be around people who will never have as much “stuff” as my daughter will give away or give to those in need as she moves back home. The luxuries I take for granted contrast sharply with the basic necessities that most of the children I visit will never have. Having visited with people in this kind of poverty before, I am directly confronted with one overwhelming and convicting question: WHY? Why have I been given so much when so many in my world have so little.
Jesus reminds me that there is a simple answer to that question: I have been given what I have by God to bless others in His name. He will expect me to be a blessing to others with the “stuff” He has entrusted to me. In fact, the Father requires this of me! I have not been blessed because I’m better or smarter, but because He believes I will be a conduit of His blessings. And, God is deadly serious about me using these blessings properly.
I don’t believe God wants us to feel guilty about the blessings we have; instead, He wants to feel honored. Honored that we are entrusted with things that He has given to us to carry on His work in the world.
We are honored to have so much and we honored to be able to share some of what we have with children in poverty because we believe that is what Jesus expects us to do with our blessings. We sponsor two children each month through Compassion, won’t you sponsor one, too?

//Invitation:
O Father, thank you for the opportunity to share your blessings with others. Please use this upcoming trip to Uganda to help others see that in the name of Jesus, they have a great opportunity to bless children in poverty. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Many of you already know about the upcoming Uganda trip with Compassion International. If you are not aware of the details, check the “Uganda with Compassion!” tab at the bottom of the picture above. It will give you many of the details.

On my heart today is the success of the trip: our hope is to get more than 500 children sponsored each month. So I’m asking anyone the Lord touches with this plea to sign up to be a part of the prayer team. Through the comment feature below, I ask that if you are willing to be a part of the prayer team that you offer a blessing or prayer in the comments you leave. This will be your way of committing to pray for these efforts. Thanks!

For the next several weeks, I am asking you to be in prayer for us with two primary prayer targets:

• Hearts of people to be touched so that we can find at least 500 monthly sponsors for children throughout the world through Compassion International
• Compatibility, good health, safe travel, and redemptive influence for our team going to Uganda and that we are a blessing to the children and Compassion staff with whom we interact
  

The comments were laced with sarcasm and cynicism. “If Jesus loves the children, then why do so many of them suffer in the world today? Did they do something in a former life that made them deserve their suffering? Oh yeah, you aren’t the ones who believe in reincarnation …”

Unjust suffering, especially the suffering of children, is a soul-searching subject and not addressed with trite slogans or easy answers. I wanted to let the guy know, however, that it was our job to bring an end to the unjust suffering of children. My words would have been wasted on him, I’m sure. He wasn’t seeking truth, he was wanting to take a jab at religion, and Christians in particular.

However, I believe the message he triggered in my heart wasn’t meant for him, but for me … and us, those who claim to be followers of Jesus. We have to be different than the religious leaders who walked by the suffering man on the road to Jericho in Jesus’ story about the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). We have to be people who do things God wants of us, but we have to know that the most important things he wants of us are living with “justice and the love of God” (Luke 11:42 — our daily Bible reading today is Luke 11).

I’m not sure why, but we resort so easily to practicing the tenets of our faith while losing the heart of God behind that faith. Our faith becomes a religion, focused more on the rules and regulations than on the will of God. That’s why Jesus confronted the religious host who had invited the Lord over for a meal. The Lord’s host appears to have invited him to check on how well Jesus kept the religious rules. As the religious leader discovered, Jesus didn’t do religious rules very well: the Lord was focused on the needs of people. So to the hosts unspoken criticisms, Jesus replied:

//Inspiration: Luke 11:41
But now as for what is inside of you — be generous to the poor and everything will be clean for you.

//Incarnation:
In this context, Jesus is offering a trio of attitudes to offset the stiff, religious, rule-making he encountered all around Him. Justice, love, and generosity are the three qualities of this trio. But are these three actually priorities in my life as I try to follow Jesus? Am I living these out in the way I spend my money, allocate my team, focus my teaching, work in my community, train my children, or choose a political candidate? How much does this trio command the attention of our church, our ministries, our vision, and our budget?
With the upcoming trip to Uganda with Compassion International to try to find sponsors for children in need, I feel God is giving me an international outlet to continue my growth in these precious three marks of faithfulness to the character and compassion of God. But, how I am going to reflect these priorities at home? This is a question I must answer, and not just intellectually, but in terms of how I live my daily life in my own city, neighborhood, and family!

//Invitation:
O LORD God, use your Holy Spirit to work on my heart and mold it to see people and their needs as you do. Please give me wisdom to know how I should help others in tangible ways and demonstrate your generosity, justice, and love. In Jesus’ name, and for His sake, I pray this prayer. Amen.