Tyranny of Possessions

A friend told me that he listened to an interview with Bruce Springsteen recently. The question was asked: How different is your life now that you have gone from making $50 a concert to $500,000 a concert? Bruce replied, "When I was making $50, I had $50 problems. Now that I make $500,000, I have $500,000 problems."

There is a lot of wisdom in that answer. I often reflect that if only I could live as frugal as I did in college... I would be able to give and save a lot more. I have a love/hate relationship with possessions. I am fond of how some of them make my life easier and more convenient- microwaves, air conditioning, computers to name a few. But I don't like how unwise purchases have consumed money, time and energy.

I watched a dvd tonight on a fellow financial planner's- Bill Robertson- recommendation. It was a sermon delivered by John Piper to Campus Crusade for Christ students a couple of years ago called Don't Waste Your Life. There is a book by the same title- both are excellent. The dvd was a powerful reminder to reject the system of thought in our society to accumulate things and to instead live a strategic life that seeks to maximize my ability to be used by God through giving time and money to spread the gospel.

I heard a preacher deliver a sermon recently that emphasized the 80-10-10 rule. Save 10%, give 10% to the local church and then enjoy the other 80%. Most people don't come close to giving 10% of income or saving 10%. But what terrible advice to those who are blessed with abundance... to consume 80%. This is anti-scriptural. The Bible promotes simple lifestyles with an emphasis of generosity to others.

Possessions are dangerous things. They want our soul. They are like leeches- eager to suck the life out of us. We need to war against desires to accumulate things we don't need. Possessions will become our master if we don't fight and strive against them- Jesus told us this (Matt 6:24; Luke 12:15).

Having nice things isn't wrong by itself. It often is a better financial decision to buy quality and quality is not cheap. It is usually a quantity issue that destroys the soul. We must continually ask ourselves: How much is enough? Those who desire to serve and glorify Christ must be careful not to allow possessions to distract our focus from Him and the mission that He has given us.

2 Timothy 2:3-4, "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the One who enlisted him."

May God grant us the grace to realize and practice this spiritual truth.

Ashley Hodge

Health Goal Accomplished

On November 27, 2005 I set a goal to decrease my weight from 207 lbs to 190lbs and my waist from 36 to 33. I did not set a time limit as to how long it would take to accomplish this goal. I committed the goal to daily prayer. My desire in sharing progress is not to impress you with my results. Everything I accomplish in life, I owe fully to God's sustaining power to work in me and through me.

I do hope that it provides some encouragement to those that are struggling to lose weight and/or become better stewards of their health. This truth has been reinforced many times in my life: prayer and focus work. The things that you measure tend to improve especially when they are consistently bathed in prayer.

Food and drink have always been huge issues for me. I have been able to hide my addiction to them because I am relatively tall- 6'3"- and I have frequently exercised the last 12 years. Gluttony will be a battle I will most likely have to fight on a daily basis along with other sins. It is one of the crosses that I have to carry. My personality is compulsive by nature.

Fully aware of the physical and spiritual struggle, I set out to make progress towards my goal at a very difficult time of year to do so- Christmas. I measured seven areas:

1. Waist size
2. Weight
3. Estimated daily calorie intake
4. Daily water intake
5. Daily diet soda intake
6. Daily regular soda intake
7. Average calories burned from exercise daily

I had read that in order to lose weight, it is a good idea to consume less than 10 times your body weight in daily calories. For me that number was somewhere less than 2000 calories per day. I used www.thecaloriecounter.com to help me estimate/track my calorie intake daily. My goal was to eat five small meals per day and to just say "no" to second helpings.

I also have read that you should consume 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day. This number for me was 100 ounces of daily water. I measured soda intake because I was averaging nearly 48 oz of diet coke per day and wanting to cut that significantly.

Finally, I measured the amount of calories that I burned each time I exercised. There is a useful website that helped me track this: www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc. In the nearly three months that I tracked my results- which I will continue to do as I seek to maintain and make further improvements in the stewardship of health, I recorded the following results:

1. Waist size: From 36 inches to 32 1/2 inches
2. Weight: From 207 lbs to 190 lbs
3. Estimated daily calorie intake: 1845 (average closer to 2400 calories previous)
4. Daily water intake: 109oz (average closer to 70oz daily previous)
5. Daily diet soda intake: 33oz (average closer to 48oz previous)
6. Daily regular soda intake: 4oz (average closer to 12oz previous)
7. Average calories burned from exercise daily: 408 (225 daily average previous)

I am happy with the physical results. But the greater benefit has come spiritually. My next goal is to take the diet soda intake from 33oz to less than 12oz average daily. God is good. He is faithful to honor the desires of our heart that have His ultimate glory in mind. I hope that my struggles and small successes in this area will inspire you to reach for excellence in the stewardship of health.

I am reminded by a verse in I Timothy 4:8, "Bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds the promise for the present life and also for the life to come." But until the day believers inherit resurrected, glorified bodies, I urge you to take care of the earthly body. When it wears out, we have nowhere else to live until the resurrection of the dead.

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge

Glimpse of Heaven

I am not a great skier. I am not a big fan of cold weather. But I had an opportunity to catch a glimpse of what is beautiful in creation when I traveled with eight friends to Beaver Creek, Colorado this past weekend.

Several months ago I read Heaven by Randy Alcorn and the Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis. I have not stopped thinking about their descriptions and imagery of Heaven since.

I feel fortunate to have friends that are brothers in Christ to discuss things that actually matter such as our eternal destiny. But vacations always seem too short. Time and financial pressures crowd out the lasting joy that servants of Christ will experience in a restored paradise. What tremendous glory awaits the Christian!

Every Colorado mountain, West Texas sunset, Florida panhandle beach and pristine river is just a glimpse of what God has in store for His chosen people. The hope of Heaven is the motivation for the Christian to enjoy pleasures. But only as a pilgrim traveling to a better place. Places like Colorado give us a foretaste of God's endless creative power. We can taste some of them, but they are not to be our life's pursuit. Heaven can wait- and it will be more spectacular than we can ever visualize.

Imagine skiing in a resurrected, glorified body. God has prepared a place for us- Heaven. He has prepared a Person for us- Christ. But for now, we live under a paradise that has been subject to the curse. Decay, corruption and death are the natural results of sin. We have a disease that only Christ can cure.

My reflection every time I visit a place like Beaver Creek, Colorado is that God is good. My heart gets excited to marinate on the beauty that awaits the invisible church of Christ. But I also reflect on how much I hate sin. I hate its source. I hate its effect on my mind and heart. I look forward to the day when sin will be removed from my life forever.

Creation. Fall. Redemption. Glorification. This is the story of history. It is the story clearly revealed in the pages of the Bible. Endure for a little longer, Christian. Fight for righteousness while there is time. Fight against sin and evil. Remember the hope of Heaven- a resurrected body in a resurrected earth. Meditate on Paul's words in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge

Minister of Defense

A good friend- Chris- sent me an article about Reggie White's search for truth. Reggie was one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history and will likely be voted into the Hall of Fame today. He died unexpectedly at age 43 from a heart arrhythmia.

During his playing days he was an outspoken ambassador for Christ. After his NFL career was over, he began a quest for truth that lead him to question his beliefs about the Bible and organized religion.

I can relate to some of White's concerns. I would consider myself somewhat cynical of organized religion by nature. John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, "In order to hold men's minds in greater subjection, clever men have devised very many things in religion by which to inspire the common folk with reverence and to strike them with terror."

The article about Reggie White and his search for truth is here: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-white020306&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I admire White's search for truth and his desire to learn Hebrew and the ancient Near-Eastern mindset to comprehend the words of the Bible. White grew up being taught that the Bible was the infallible, inerrant Word of God. His Pentecostal roots instructed him that the King James version was the word for word accurate translation of God's Word. What he learned when he started to study how the Bible came to be rocked his belief system.

Similar questions led me to take classes at Westminster Theological Seminary in Dallas. From the time that I trusted Christ in faith, I have had questions. Anyone who has entered seminary- at least an intellectually honest seminary- will tell you that some of those questions may get answered but that hundreds of other questions spring up. I believe along with John Calvin that the Bible is the only reliable path towards a relationship with God. Without this revelation, we would be blind.

John Calvin writes in the Institutes that God has put us in a glorious theater- earth- to witness the glory of His creation. This alone is enough evidence to require worship from every creature. But since mankind is easily led into error and is a continual factory of false idols/gods, God found it necessary to reveal Himself through the written Word. The Bible according to Calvin is the spectacles through which we see God clearly. But the truth of the Bible will not find acceptance in men's hearts unless it is sealed by the inward testimony of God's Spirit.

One of the most helpful things that I have learned in seminary in relation to the problems that arise from a study of the Bible is the Incarnational Analogy- God condescending to become man in Christ. I learned this in an Old Testament Introduction class taught by Peter Enns. The analogy is this:

The Bible is messy. It claims to be 100% the Word of God- therefore reliable, inspired by God, authoritative and necessary for daily living. But the Bible also claims to be 100% the word of man. God chose to reveal himself through the personalities, language and messiness of humans. It is due to this messiness that many questions arise- problems with translations, historical data, etc... It is the most scrutinized book ever written. The accuracy is amazing and can only be attributed to God. Yet, some of the issues of the Bible cause men like Reggie White to question everything they have ever been taught.

At the end of the day, we must admit that the Bible is a great mystery. We are humbled by it. It is not always as neat and tidy as some preachers want us to believe. It can never be mastered by the finite human mind. In the same way, Christ is a mystery. He claims to be 100% God- therefore the eternal Creator, All-Knowing, All-Powerful Judge of man. But Christ claims also to be 100% human- subject to the messiness of human existence (yet without sin).

This analogy has helped me deal with the conflict. There are some things too mysterious for us to comprehend. I don't know how I was created- but I trust that God did it. I don't know why God created beings capable of falling from their original glory- but I see evidence everywhere that this universe is in bondage to decay. I don't understand why God chose to redeem humans through Christ- but I trust that this is His plan. I don't know what the afterlife is going to be like- but I have faith that the God who raised Christ from the dead will resurrect my lifeless form and will restore the earth to its original magnificence.

The Bible reveals Christ. It reveals God through Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. It shows humans that they are sinful and far from God's original glory. It reveals Christ as our only hope of restoration to that original glory. It clearly lights a path for salvation through persevering faith in Christ alone. It teaches us to go to war daily against sin. It holds out the hope of Heaven for all who submit to Christ.

I am comfortable with not fully understanding secondary issues. I hope to see Reggie White in a restored paradise and discuss some of these things with him. Until then I will continue to learn and grow in understanding of God's revelation. But I must confess with Augustine, "The more I learn, the less I know."

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge