Hello and good morning! It’s been a few days since I’ve written, it has been quite the struggle with internet service around here. If you’re an AT & T customer I’m sure your aware that last week they had the single largest service outage ever after their main service center burned which left over a million people without service for about 12 hours. It’s no big deal if your just playing Candy Crush or watching Netflix but if you work from home it can turn into quite the ordeal. Scrambling to retrieve and send emails and host video conference calls is now quite the hurdle. To further complicate things after service was restored the next day our electrician was trenching the 220 for the spa and accidentally cut the fiber optic internet cable that feeds the house…oops. This time we were without internet for 2 days. All of this was an interesting case study on how we and our society today embrace the internet. It seems that our lives pretty much depend upon it more than it should. As I found myself without it, life seemed to grind to a halt. How did we live without it before? When I was 17 there was no internet and I was pretty darn happy. Huh, makes you think, what will be the next technology that ‘we can’t live without.’
So it was a big weekend. A triple topic workshop on Saturday at SMU followed up by another service engagement right after made for a long 14 hour day. I’m so thankful for our new spa. After that type of day, what a comfort to be able to roll in at 10:30pm and soak in hot water before bed. I don’t know why it’s said that being in hot water is a bad thing…seems pretty awesome…I guess it depends how hot the water is.
This morning we’ll pick up where we left off, so we’ll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. In this chapter Paul is dealing with his role in the ministry and his right to be compensated for this role (although he wasn’t.) Paul had started the church at Corinth on one of his 3 missionary journeys and was still ministering to them from afar (hence this letter). He had blessed the church there greatly, but they had never supported him financially in any way. Paul’s statements here regarding this are ones that we can use today on which to base the financial care that we offer those that have surrendered there lives to serve God and give out His Word.
Overall people in the ministry are very meagerly compensated compared to the general secular world. People don’t go into the ministry to get rich, they do it out of obedience to a God that they have pledged to serve with their life. Paul was no different. I’m not sure how our society has come to assign value to its people, but it’s an absolute travesty that our Pastor’s and public teachers are some of the lowest paid in the country while professional athletes are paid millions of dollars per year to play games. It’s an alarming view of the major problems we have in our society today, when we view entertainment with such great value compared to spiritual salvation and fundamental education.
In 1 Corinthians 9:9 Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 25:4, “For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.”
I’ve heard this verse many times, lets look at exactly what it means. In the days of Moses the ox was used to speed up the process of refining the grain. To do that the ox was hitched to a horizontal wheel and he pulled the wheel in a circle over the grain. This separated the grain from the chaff and then the chaff was tossed into the air and the wind would blow it away and the good grain would fall down onto the threshing floor. During this process the ox would eat the good grain, replenish his energy and continue working. In order to maximize yield many business operators would muzzle the ox so that they would not eat the grain. The point of the verse? If an ox is without a muzzle, then it can partake of the fruit of its own labor. Paul is saying that if someone is in the ministry and giving out God’s Word then they should be able to partake of the fruits and be supported in the process. God is saying that we shouldn’t ‘be cheap’ and muzzle the ox but let him eat freely.
Here’s an ironic story about how we are to care for those in our service. In a small little country church in early 1900’s Texas there was a preacher who rode a very fine, healthy horse but himself was very thin and frail. One day one of the church officers decided to ask him about it. “How is it preacher that your horse is so fine looking and you are such a skinny fellow?” The preacher answered, “I feed my horse and you are the ones that feed me.” He was being muzzled, but ironically what he did receive, he used to take good care of the horse that took good care of him. Wow, what story about muzzling the ox.
I’ve heard a saying that you ought to “support the place where you get your blessing.” For most of us this would be our local church, the local body of Christ. There is a pastor and staff there and they have accepted a call from God to dedicate their lives to giving out the Word of God. They are dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the local community as well as the entire world. You should be supporting the local church you attend financially so that these people can eat, pay for their home owner’s insurance, put tires on their car, buy shoes for their kids and maybe even take their wife on a modest vacation every once in a while. Do not muzzle the ox but allow it to eat freely of the fruits of its labor.
This is part of the giving and tithing process. In fact in Malachi 3:10 God correlates the tithe together with grain as he just did with the ox, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Mal 3:10) As we give back to God a portion of that which He gives us first, He will multiply it and use it to bless the giving out of His Gospel to the world. He does this by using people that He has called into his service. His oxen. Do not muzzle them.
I pray that you are spending 5 minutes in God’s Word everyday and that you are overcoming the hurdles, distractions and obstacles that are cropping up and making it seem difficult or some days even impossible. Satan doesn’t want us to spend time in God’s Word, because as we do we become stronger and better able to defend against his ploys and schemes. Fight the good fight and prioritize your day with God’s Word at the top of the list and God promises a blessing in return. It rings true in my life every day and I’m confident it will in yours as well. Go head and try it, I dare you.
Have a blessed day walking with the goodness of God at the center of your journey.
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