Courage – Part 4

Someone recently made a comment to me as she was reading Courage – Part 3. The comment was this:

God would not ask the vast majority of Christians to “risk it all” because He knows they would not do it.

There are a lot of things in the Christian culture being taught that go against risk, and particularly those risks when God asks you to risk it all. Dave Ramsey followers would not risk it all, because the basis for his teaching is to provide for yourself financially, save money, set yourself up for retirement. Unfortunately, many people end up making this their god. Then they feel they can not give financially to God’s purposes until they have all their finances in order. Ultimately, this becomes a trap of the devil because most people will never feel as if they have all their finances in order and as a result, they end up never attending to God’s work.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

We do not have a steady income because we depend on the contributions of supporters. We do not have a salary, a set amount of income that we can depend on every month. So it is not practical for us to try to follow the teachings of Dave Ramsey. If you don’t have a steady salary coming in every month, everything Dave Ramsey teaches is meaningless, because you don’t have anything to work with  . . .  and Ramsey’s teaching ends right there. Lorraine and I have decided our obedience to the Lord is more important because we want to help our Lord accomplish His will for His kingdom.

. . . And why is that? Because throughout history, those people who God calls to do great exploits for Him are risk takers . . . and usually He calls them to risk it all.

Lakita Wright, a former runner-up to Miss Black America and at one time the most requested abstinence speaker in America, once said a very profound thing. She said,

“It is never the masses that change the world. It is the committed few.”

Think about it. The statement is entirely true.

I was one of those committed few. When God asked me to produce evangelistic outreach events across the Midwest, I did so at the risk of losing everything. In the five years between the year 2000 and the year 2005, my events reached over 40,000 people and thousands of salvations. As a result of obeying God, I lost everything. I ended up losing my family farmland, my house, and was sitting with a personal debt of $180,000. My wife left me and after that I was homeless for seven and a half months. I lost everything.

Consequently, I am now 74 years old and have no retirement.

Gideon followed a similar course. God asked him to risk it all. When God asked him to tear down the idol Baal on his father’s property, Gideon knew he was risking his life, that the people would seek to kill him . . . and they did.

So, is it a wise thing to provide financial security for yourself and your family. The thought in America is that a wise person stores up money for a rainy day. You first have your steady income, then you establish savings, then retirement fund, and on it goes.

But what if God calls you to risk it all? What if God asks you to trust Him for your daily provision like He asked of the Israelites in the desert when they had to gather manna every day? Is there scripture to back such a lifestyle?

Yes. The Israelites gathering manna daily is one. Jesus’ prayer included the words, “Give us this day our daily bread.” When Jesus sent the disciples out to minister, he told them not to take any money with them on their journey.

So, what do we make of such scriptures that go against the entire financial thinking of the American way of life?

Well, if God tells you not to store up money, that’s called risking it all.

Lorraine and I have been called to live by faith. That means trusting God for our daily financial provision. Many Christian heroes of the faith were called to live that way. George Mueller and his staff prayed daily for their food supplies in the five orphanages he operated most of his life. He said once that for eight years the orphanages never had more than two days supply of food.

There are many others. God asked Rees Howells to quit his job and trust God for his daily provision. Then he told him to buy a large English estate to use as a Bible college where Rees was to train young men in the art of intercessioin. Rees didn’t have any money but the money came in right befiore the closing date. Rees bought two other estates in the same manner.

Oswald Chambers author of the great devotional, My Utmost For His Highest, often gave his last coin to a beggar who asked.

I will be so bold to say that from all I have learned from those great Christians who have gone before that, “If 100 percent of Christians planned followed the teachings of Dave Ramsay and they didn’t have the courage to be radically obedient to the Lord with their finances, great things wouldn’t get accomplished in the kingdom.“

Just two days ago, Lorraine and I found our bank accounts empty. Lorraine had found at our local grocery store a large amount of meat that was reduced for quick sale. We did not have the needed money to buy several portions of meat that were on sale. Then the mail came for the day and there was $130 in the mailbox. We experience this kind of risk often.

Risking it all daily requires courage, the courage to trust God for provision without reservation. 

Photograph designed and taken by Lorraine

A special thank you to our friend Peg who loaned us the military hat and boots in the photograph. They were worn by a solider in Desert Storm.