Privileged

On June 23, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Malachi 3: 10

[T]est Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Isn’t this what you want to hear God say?  He invites us to hold His feet to the fire.  Did you know about this?  Crazy, right?  Let me put this in context for you.

Recently I was in a small group where one person told another that I am a minister. Well, this person was immediately energized with questions. It was as though he had stored up questions and now he had a minister in a setting where he could get those answers. Here is the question I have, “If you could have a minister’s attention for a time, what question would you ask?” I was surprised by his, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been. He asked me about tithing.

People think of Malachi 3: 10 as being about tithing, but is it? Maybe, instead, it is about the blessing. Look again at today’s text. What do you hear in God’s voice? Is He demanding, stern? I hear a father who is desperate to bless. This is the part of the verse I wanted the gentleman to walk away with, that Yahweh wants to bless us. Some people hear a command. Some hear a blessing. What makes an individual hear it differently? What do you hear?

The man’s follow up question was about the distinction between the New and the Old Testament. How, he asked, is the tithe carried over from the Old to the New? I find this question dumbfounding. The answer is John 1: 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word, the whole Word. That is one of the things my book, Journey Through the Bible, was intended to show. Honestly, who among us is willing to throw out the Psalms or Proverbs? What about the book of Isaiah or Genesis? Even without this epiphany, I think that is an entirely wrong question. Here’s why.

Tithing did not begin in Malachi. Abraham (when he was still called Abram) tithed (Genesis 14: 20). This was before the Old Covenant. It predates the law. Therefore, even though we have been relieved of the curse of the law, the principle of tithing remains. Further, if you will read that passage in Genesis, you will again see a connection between blessing and tithing.

Here is what I think the real question is and what I believe lies at the root of tithing. I think that love is the basis of tithing. Because He loves me, I tithe. Because I love Him, I tithe. It is such a small honorific to give to Him to remind myself of my love for Him and His love for me. My friend, Chuck Goldberg, adds another insight to tithing. Love, he says, is one side of the tithing coin. The other is respect. Wow! Don’t you find that a powerful statement? We tithe out of respect for our God and Father.

God said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house,” (Malachi 3: 10a). That’s enough for me. He said it, that ended any debate for me. However, I want to tithe because of love and respect. That is the real key. Do we tithe because of a law or because we want to? If one tithes out of duty or obligation, then perhaps the burden feels heavy. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11: 30). So, if tithing feels like a burden, you may need to adjust your yoke. Jesus said to go to him and learn of him, so ultimately we all need more of him, his words and his teachings. Then we will receive rest and be free of the burdens we’ve allowed to weigh us down (read Matthew 11: 28 – 30).

Please, don’t allow tithing to be a burden to you. If it is, talk with Jesus. Ask him how to make it a delight. Be blessed!

Do you want coaching? Have questions? Reach out to us, Ivey Ministries Coaching.

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Delightful

On June 16, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 37: 4 – 6

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.

Verse 4 is often quoted but I wanted you to see it in a larger context. First of all, these are the verses which follow June 2nd’s Word of the Day about being jealous of people who seem to be enjoying life’s good things but seem to have done little to earn them. God tells us to pay no attention to evil doers nor be envious of them, but rather to trust in Him. Then He says to delight in Him and He will give you the desires of your heart. So, rather than looking at the prosperity and success of the wrong doers, look to Jesus, delight in Him and He will give you your desires. And yours won’t be fleeting like that of the evil doers.

Secondly, commit your plan to Him. You have things you want, goals you would like to achieve. Well, commit all those ideas and plans to Him. Lay them before Him. He has the strength and wisdom to bring them to pass. What’s more, He just may have a better plan. Trust in Him, lay your hopes and desire before Him and He will bring it to pass.

Now here is the hardest part of it. Once you have committed your way to Him, let trust have its full measure. More often than not, answers do not appear immediately. It is what you do while you are waiting for Him to bring it to pass that has the greatest influence on your outcome. Don’t wait to “see” what God is going to do. Go ahead and start declaring it from the beginning. Do not trust in your eyes. Trust in your God. Your success is going to be so great that it will be as bright as the noon sun. Those people that you once envied will be as nothing. They will envy you. And when you are enjoying the desires of your heart, remember the God of your heart who brought it to pass.

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Love Manifested

On June 9, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 John 3: 17

But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

While this verse is a condemnation of some people’s actions, its converse is a celebration of the love that has been shed abroad in your heart (Romans 5: 5). The apostle John was always talking about love. Here he’s saying, how can we be flush with the love of God and yet not be charitable to our brothers and sisters. The answer, of course, is that we cannot. When the love of God is in you, you begin to have compassion. That compassion motivates charity and giving.

John wants us to give, but it is not for giving’s sake. He expects the love that God has poured into us to rouse us to acts of kindness. When we experience God’s love, we don’t have to motivate ourselves to give. We do not begrudge the necessity of giving. And we most certainly do not give in satisfaction of “Christian works.” Love just compels us. We give because we want to and because it warms our hearts. It celebrates who we are in Christ. Because He first loved, because He first gave, we become full of his love. Then his overflowing love just wants to do for others.

I send this word to you today in celebration of you and the love that has been shed abroad in your hearts. I know many of you never pass a Salvation Army kettle without dropping something in. You have been giving to friends, neighbors, ministries and charities. You have increased your gifts this year although your income has not increased. You are not giving because you must. You give because you want to. I want to say, “Thank you” to you all. You are blessing the heart of God. When you do something even for the least in His kingdom, you do it for Him. When you feed the hungry, clothe the poor, you feed and clothe Him.

I hear plenty of stories of how tough it is for many folks this year. Your nickels and quarters do much more good than you know as God is able to multiply your gifts. May God richly bless you and may you experience the very best of God in all things.

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Doing Good

On June 2, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 37: 1 – 3

Do not fret because of evil-doers, be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass, and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

This is such solid advice. I remember so clearly when I learned this. I saw mean people prospering and living the high life while “good” people had less in the way of material goods and “success.” I thought it so unfair. But this is when I learned the truth of Galatians 6: 7 which says that a person will reap whatever he sows.

So, while God was teaching me that verse, I was watching these people abuse others and enjoy all that life could offer. There was a great reckoning though. And they did reap just what they sowed. It was not pretty. The mighty fell and they fell hard.

God instructs us not to be envious of those people. Don’t worry and fret because of them. You just trust in the Lord and continue doing good like Jesus did. Keep your mind fixed on Jesus. Don’t even pay attention to them and their ways. And definitely don’t be jealous of them because a day will come, and it won’t be long, that you will not want to be in their shoes.

Put all of your trust in God. Don’t walk by sight but by faith. That means don’t pay attention to the way things look. God is at work and even if you don’t see the fruit of it right now, believe me, you will. You just keep up the good work and have your faith and hope firmly fixed on Jesus and his Dad.

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Blessed Memorial Day

On May 26, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

This is the day we pause to remember all our fallen soldiers.  Many thanks, also, to the families of those soldiers.  We sometimes forget the price paid by those who stayed home.  Women, especially, who had to raise children alone; mothers and fathers whose children didn’t come home; and children, some of whom never knew their soldier parent.  We remember them all today with grateful, though mournful, hearts.

For all of you who served and did return, even if today is about remembering our fallen heros, we are thinking of you and the choices you made.  Some of you returned injured.  We haven’t forgotten.

I pray for all our service people and their families.  May you be blessed and receive the thanks of a grateful nation.  The blessing of the Lord be with you.

Ivey Ministries

 

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Hang in There

On May 19, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 6: 66 – 67

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

Verse sixty-six tells us that many ceased to follow Jesus because of a difficult teaching. Do you realize which teaching it was that caused many to fall away? It was the one  in which the Lord declared that he is the bread of life and that those who follow him must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood (John 6: 48 – 58).

Jesus had many followers. His disciples were considerably more than just the twelve apostles. We think so often of just the twelve but that was only his executive cabinet, if you will. People followed him everywhere he went trying to get in on all his teachings. Then he taught something difficult, something they didn’t want to hear, and they fell away. It is just as 2 Timothy 4: 3 – 4 warns, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Jesus, knowing that people were choking on his words, turned also to the twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave as well. Peter answered wisely though. He had actually listened to and heard the word that Jesus had just spoken. Jesus had just told all of those people that his words were spirit and life and they immediately began to spit them out. Jesus’ preaching did not tickle their ears. Furthermore, he began to teach them the deeper things and they couldn’t handle it. They could only handle the milk when he was endeavoring to give them a little bread and meat.

But Peter and the twelve were wise. They had just heard Jesus say that his words were life. Even if they couldn’t understand the depth of all that Jesus was teaching, even if they couldn’t swallow it at that time, they had the good sense to just hang on until such a time that they could.

Many of us do the same thing that some of Jesus’ disciples did in this passage. When things get tough, when the Pastor steps on our toes, we leave. We might think the Pastor is wrong in what he is teaching but the reality is probably that we just aren’t mature enough to understand it yet. As more of our layers are peeled off and we become deeper people, we will have the ability to understand.

If nothing else, don’t be a quitter. Don’t be the modern version of these people who walked away from Jesus. Can you imagine such a thing? They had the opportunity that we would love to have; to sit at the feet of the master and yet they abandoned it because it got a little tough. For goodness sake! I don’t want to be one of those people and I hope you don’t either. Can you imagine what those folks will say when they face Christ one day? What would you say to him? I know what I want to be able to say, “For all my faults and short comings, I hung in there. I am still with you Jesus.”

Jesus said, “Blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me” (Matthew 11: 6). He was warning people that it wouldn’t always be easy following him. But he said that we would be blessed if we didn’t allow ourselves to fall away. So, let us not be tripped up by him or his word. Do not forsake Jesus or his teaching. That means you keep on pursuing him. You keep on partaking of his word. It doesn’t mean just showing up in church and warming a pew for an hour while all along not listening to a word that Jesus is ministering. Remember, God is sending alarm clocks into the body of Christ. They are going to shake up some folks. Just hang on. Pray for enlightenment and trust Jesus. You are his disciples, his beloved. Don’t withdraw from him.

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Over My Head

On May 12, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Judges 7: 2

“The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’”

Imagine yourself in Gideon’s position. One day you are a farm boy, the least of the least, and the next day you are called to free your nation from an army that has successfully oppressed your people for seven years. Once you finally wrap your head around that idea, and it took Gideon awhile to accept it, then God says, “Wait a minute, you have too many people with you.” Gideon began with 32,000 men. At that you can imagine he was plenty worried, but before he went against the Midianites God stopped him. God said Gideon had too many men with him to go against an army that was able to keep Israel enslaved for 7 years. How can you have too many men?

Before Yahweh let Gideon go up against the Midianites, He reduced Gideon’s army to 300 men. We don’t know how many men the Midianites had but the text says they were as numerous as locust. Why did God reduce Israel’s army to so few people to go up against so many?
Sometimes I think the only things worth doing are those which are impossible. That was certainly Gideon’s position. There is no way a group of 300 men can rout a full army. In fact, there were two armies for the Amalekites were with the Midianites. Yahweh knew that if Gideon went up against the two armies with 32,000, he might begin to think he prevailed by his own might rather than that of the Lord. That is a dangerous way to think.

Jesus said he could do nothing without his Father (John 5: 19). How much more true is this of us? There is, however, a larger idea here, I believe. This story makes me think that where we should desire to live is in water over our heads. We should live with impossibilities so that we require the power and presence of the Lord.

Father God wants us to rely on Him. Gideon could not win the battle against the Midianites and the Amalekites on his own. He had to have God on site, or he and his measly 300 men would have been obliterated. Father wants us to live out on the edge like that too! If you can do your project in your own strength and wisdom, then maybe it really isn’t the task for you. Delegate it to someone else and get a project that is bigger than you. If it scares you at night and makes you want to pray, then you are likely in the right spot. Father wants you in a situation where you must partner with Him. He wants to scare the problems away so that your energy is only needed for raking in the spoils.

Gideon is called a great and valiant warrior, but the truth is that he didn’t even have to unsheathe his sword. Our Father did all the work, yet Gideon ended up with a reputation as a brave warrior. That is God’s business plan. When we rely on Him, He promotes us. It is the craziest thing!

Look at your horizon. What do you have coming up? What is out there which is impossible? That is your goal. Find the impossible, ask Father if that is what He has in mind for you and then put the partnership into gear. If you aren’t in over your head, you’re cheating.

Do you know why God picked Gideon, a young boy instead of a seasoned fighter? I believe it is because Gideon’s only hope was in the Lord. A seasoned soldier may have tried to prevail in his might rather than the Lord’s. So, the moral of the story is, we don’t have to be too smart, too experienced, too clever or wise. We only need one skill. That is the ability to believe God and put that belief into action.

Oh, mighty and valiant warrior, go slay your dragon!

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