The steps to a great marriage. You see a lot of titles like this if you spend any time on social media. Everyone is giving you three steps to this and four steps to that. In fact, the experts tell social media writers that these are the types of headlines that get the most clicks.
For example, I received an email the other day from an organization that I follow. The email listed 6 of their most recent post. Four of the posts started like this…
Maybe you’ve heard someone use the term “Indian Giver.” Though not politically correct, the title refers to someone who gives something away only to take it back.
I suppose the opposite of an “Indian Giver” would be an “Indian Getter.” This would be someone who is given something only to give it away. You don’t hear too much about “Indian Getters.” If they’re out there, they are few and far between.
God’s character is that of an “Indian Getter.” In Numbers chapters 7 and 8, we see God receiving many things from His people. They give Him carts, oxen, gold, silver, lambs, rams, even a whole tribe of people known as the Levites. But then God takes all the things the people give Him and gives all of it back to them! His reason for doing this is so that his people will thrive and prosper…thus being able to give to Him further. (2 Cor. 9:11) What a deal! (Matt. 10:8) (Luke 6:38)
I believe God wants to show Himself to the world by infiltrating the world with “Indian Getters.” God’s children should more and more be taking on the nature of giving away what’s been given to them. This would not only make for some very powerful public relations for God…it would radically change our world for the better.
May God increasingly make us into “Indian Getters” for His glory and our good.
Numbers chapter 6 talks about a Nazarite vow. This is a vow in which a person separates themselves to God by separating themselves from certain things like: drinking wine or strong drink, having their hair cut, and being near a dead body…even if it’s a family member.
A Nazarite vow?! Who would do that, and what’s that got to do with me?
Not only is the ritual of a Nazarite vow foreign to us, the concept of a Nazarite vow is antithetical to the culture in which we live.
The idea of devotion through denial is not appealing to us. We are much more familiar with devotion through indulgence. Even in the Christian life, it’s so easy to assume that being devoted to Christ is about getting all of His goodness and resources we can get.
We have lost the idea that being devoted to Christ also involves denying ourselves…whether that denial is related to the pleasures of life we think we need, or the rights of life we think we deserve.
Even as I type this, my flesh cries out in opposition to denying myself pleasures or rights. But maybe that resistance itself highlights the importance of self-denial.
You can only be devoted to one thing at a time. (Matthew 6:24) At times, devotion to Christ requires denial of self, just as Jesus’ devotion to His Father required His own denial of self. (Matt. 4:1-11) (Phil. 2:6-8)
Perhaps we all need our own little Nazarite vow once in a while. Where is it you need to practice self-denial to better follow Christ?
As a Teaching and Counseling Pastor, I come across marriages of all shapes, sizes, ages, and stages.
There are those in the very beginning of their marriage. They have no kids, all the time in the world, and life is just one long extended date. But then there are those who’s marriage is down the road a bit. They are in the throes of raising children, battling time demands, and often living more like like room mates than spouses.
I see some who are deeply in love, while others are so distant they’re thinking of getting out. Some started their relationship officially with an elaborate and well coordinated wedding ceremony, while others had no wedding ceremony at all. They just began living together and have continued down that same ambiguous track.
In the face of all of this diversity, I find myself asking questions like…