Giving from Your Abundance is Rewarding – Especially If Giving Lemons!

Right off the bat, let’s dispense with the old adage, “If life gives you lemons… make lemonade”. Lemons aren’t bad things. And they’re not a consolation prize. Everyone I know LOVES lemons! Okay, now that we’ve gotten that straightened out….

Paul's lemon tree nov 2008

I have a lemon tree in my yard. It’s not a big tree, but it produces 250-300 lemons every year. Big, sweet, Meyer lemons, all ripening at the same time – the first half of December. There’s no way I can consume so many lemons at one time. So, all through the Christmas holiday season, I get to give away these awesome lemons to friends, neighbors, people at church and people at work. I’ve made new friends through giving away these lemons, and I’ve seen how rewarding it is to give what I have to others.

It’s kind of funny, really, to see the way someone smiles so brightly simply because I gave them a small fruit that I possess. And, days or weeks later, someone will come up and say, “Hey, those lemons sure are good. Thanks for sharing that with me”. It took me a while, but I eventually noticed that these lemons are like marked currency, or like banded wild birds or animals with radio tags. That is, I can trace the effect of giving them away, because the results of the gifts come back to me in words from the recipients, telling me that the gift was appreciated, or that it got used in a special way – lemon pie, lemonade, etc….

Are you seeing the analogy, yet? Yes, that’s it. God give us gifts, he grows His fruit in us, and He loves it when we catch hold of the “It is more blessed to give than to receive” concept and begin giving out of our abundance of His fruit. We don’t always see the result of our sharing those gifts with others, though. They don’t usually have bands, or radio tags, or even the bright, distinguishable color of a yellow lemon. Sooooo, we have to tune in a bit more to the Holy Spirit if we want to trace the results of our giving. Or, simply trust that God is using every gift we give to grow His fruit in someone, and they will, in turn, give from their abundance. It’s a beautiful cycle of growing, giving, growing, giving that spreads far and wide.

The tangible lemon giveaway experience has been helpful for me to see that sharing good things produces more love, and I can naturally trust that it gets shared with still others beyond our own circles of influence. I pray that God will do something so obvious and tangible as this for you, too, in some garden patch of spiritual watering and growth in which He is working with you.

Appreciation Unexpected – I Appreciate That!

Late one night recently, I began to doze off while watching that last bit of a Netflix movie I could squeeze in before drifting hopelessly off to dreamland. I opened my eyes, looked up and saw my maroon-bellied conure parrot, Beetu, sitting on the outside of his cage, facing me. He was kind of “hissing” at me with his tongue out, simply behaving like a baby bird looking for attention from its parent. As soon as he saw I was waking and beginning to get up from my chair Beetu knew it was our official bed time. He quickly climbed around to the front of his cage, through the door and up to a nice high spot at the front, clinging to the bars – and waiting expectantly for me to do the next part of our nightly routine. Yes, he was eager for me to “tuck him in”. This is a time when I drop everything else and lavish praises on him – “Good baby, Beetu. You’re such a good, good bird, etc…” for at a minute or more. He responded with his usual “happy baby bird” gestures like a bobbing head, fluffed up feathers, and lightly fluttering wings. I’m convinced I could do this for an hour and he would keep eating up the attention. The little parrot really lives to hear these things from me, and to hear them said in a gentle, encouraging way.

So, my pet parrot was fully expecting the nightly praise ritual he knew was coming his way, and it meant so much to him. After ending this and covering his cage for the night, I was walking into my bedroom so I could turn in. Just then it occurred to me that, each day for the past three days, an unexpected praise had been lavished upon me, by someone different on each of those occasions.

Day One – On Wednesday evening I received a Christmas card from a man for whom I have great respect. In the card, he pointed out how wonderful it has been for him to see me grow as a Christian in the past year or so, and his appreciation for the way in which I use God’s Word in our discussions. Day Two – on Thursday a co-worker surprised me by describing how impressed he is with the body of work I’ve done in the years at my job. Day Three – on Friday evening when I entered the front door of a coffeehouse where some friends were playing their songs, I was surprised to be greeted with cheers by lots of former church friends who were already there, and whom I don’t see as often these days. Their “praise” toward me was humbling, yet welcome, and both unexpected and exuberant!

I pondered this and noticed an interesting contrast. My pet parrot was living for the praise that he fully expected would come from me. It is a part of his routine. But even though he knows it’s coming, he totally thrives on the praises. He simply devours them. I, on the other hand, had been completely surprised three days in a row by unexpected praise. I noticed that I had to consciously let my guard down a bit on each occasion, enough to fully appreciate what was being said to me, so that I could enjoy the moment and “soak it in”.

I almost missed it that night – I almost missed putting it all together and noticing that God had arranged this gift for me – three days in a row of praise and encouragement. But still, I do think it’s healthier to not expect people to lavish words of kindness on me, and simply enjoy the pleasant surprise when it does happen. I think I can appreciate the praise more this way than if I were to expect a daily ritual of attention and sweet, encouraging words from some key person, the way my pet bird expects it. What if that key person lets me down one day, and fails to fulfill my cravings for those kind words? Hmm. No problem, as long as that key person is God Himself. I know that He loves me, and I know He is right there, even on those days when I don’t seem to hear anything from Him. After all, I do believe that God meant it when he said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU” as we are reminded in Hebrews 13:5-6, and, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (Romans 8:35-37). That knowledge, deep in my heart, of God’s steadfast love, is all I really need. But it certainly is nice when He lavishes good words of His love and encouragement on me like He did three days in a row recently, through unexpected ways and unexpected people.

What is the lesson here? I don’t want to presume you’ll find something of value to take away from this. But for me, I think it means I should probably start paying a little more attention, and hopefully I’ll notice when God is at work encouraging me and building me up. If I could only get a clue of how much He loves me, Wow! That could be life-changing, couldn’t it?

What I Believe – My Christian Faith in a Nutshell

I realize by using “in a Nutshell” in the title, some readers will jump on the chance to label me as the nut in the shell. That’s okay. At least you’re reading this!

This is a succinct description of the Christian faith, as I understand it. It’s sometimes good to get a picture of a big idea from just a few paragraphs. I hope this helps someone. Here we go.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve broke the only law that God had given them (“Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”), and the consequence was that all of creation fell from grace with God. In the ages that followed, God knew some (but not most) people who loved Him and wanted to follow Him. Eventually, because of the faith of Abraham, God blessed him with the beginnings of a new nation of people who would be destined to become “God’s chosen people”, Israel. They were rebellious, even after being miraculously freed from captivity in Egypt. Their hearts were “hardened” against God and His love for them. They needed guidance, and to be shown in what ways they were not following God. So, He gave Moses a list of 10 Commandments. Some of the commandments reflected how people should regard God, and the rest showed them how to treat other people. Over the next hundreds of years, the religious leaders of Israel felt they should add even more laws that people must follow (“Don’t do this” kinds of laws, mostly).

Hundreds of years later, when only God Himself knew the time was right, He, in the form of Jesus (one of the three in the Godhead, who were distinct persons, yet the same), came into the world, grew up as a human being, lived a totally sinless life (enabled to do so because he was God, yet He was capable of sinning if He chose to give in to temptation), identified with our struggles personally, taught us much about relating to God, and finally died in our place as an atoning sacrifice to reconcile us to God, the Father. Death could not hold him, though, because He personally had never sinned. He was free to return to the Father on our behalf, and so he did. Many saw him resurrected, and we look forward to the day when we, too, will have resurrected bodies for all eternity. That is, we who have accepted the free gift Jesus procured for us, of eternal life with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Now, notice I said “accepted the free gift Jesus procured for us”. This is the way of our salvation, our acceptance of His free gift, “not by works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:9)  To step back one verse to Eph 2:8, we read, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” This is what I believe – that our salvation comes as a gift of God’s grace, a favor we don’t deserve, a gift we can only obtain through faith in Jesus as the redeeming Messiah. And this is ALL that is needed for someone to be saved. Baptism is not essential. Works are not essential. I believe that baptism is, for us, an “outward and physical sign of an inward and spiritual grace”. And I believe that good works will naturally flow from those who are grateful for God’s salvation.

Now, as to God’s laws, let me share my view. Jesus taught (in Matthew 22) that all the commandments are fulfilled if we will practice two things:

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’c ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This, also, I believe. It is only by my relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, sustained by His Holy Spirit dwelling in me, that I can follow these two commandments. I sometimes fail, because I am totally human. The sinful nature is in my DNA. But I also have a new nature living in me, through Christ. There is a war in my body, but ultimately God will prevail. I know that my only hope to perfectly please God is to stay connected to him every day. But I know that He loves me unconditionally – that means I know He will love me even when I fail to do right. Do I always love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength? No. Do I always love my neighbor? No. But God’s Holy Spirit corrects me when I’ve done wrong, until I get things right. I am not perfect, and I never expect to achieve a perfect life while living here in this mortal body.

Whew! I don’t think I’ve ever explained my beliefs so briefly as that, but I think that sums it up pretty well. Thank you for reading this and carefully thinking it over, because truly the words above explain the essence of the faith by which I live.

Whose Freedom? And Just What is This Guy Sharing?

Okay, this is the first post in this entire blog. If you’ve landed here, you’re at the beginning! So, let us begin. I’ll use this moment to break down the name, PaulSharesHisFreedom, one part at a time. That should explain the purpose of this blog.

Paul – I’m Paul Simpson, an American in Texas, with a common English name (just google my name and you’ll see scores of British citizens, including a famous soccer, er, I mean “football” player in the UK). My geneology is mostly folks from the British Isles, although at least 4 generations back were born in America, as far as I know. I’ve also got a little of this and that nationality mixed in, including a Cherokee from Oklahoma (post Trail of Tears march, so she was obviously hardy). I’m an American mutt, like the majority of Americans are.

That’s who I am by birth. But because of my re-birth way back at age 22, I’m also a follower of Jesus Christ. At this point in time (December 2009), I’ve been walking (sometimes stumbling) this Christian walk for almost 28 years. I’m very thankful to have found my place as a member of God’s family. Some believe that ALL people are God’s children. Well, yes, He did create all things. But the Bible clearly says we need to be adopted into his family, through belief in Jesus, His son, if we are to truly call God by the name of “Father”. Pretty simple to follow, really, even for those who don’t agree. Stop fighting it, and join His family. It’s what He really wants for you, so why not do it? (send me an email if you are on the fence about this and are open to coming on over – I’ll be glad to help).

Shares - In this case, “Shares” is used as a verb, both to inform and to give something to others.

His Freedom – Whose freedom? Both mine and God’s, actually.  Although I’ve been a Christian for a long time, that didn’t mean I was truly “free” for that whole time. Some people have dramatic conversion experiences, having been at the end of their rope, or at the bottom of their own pit. They know how bad life can become when we choose to wallow in our own hog trough of various kinds of sins (for a list, see Galatians 5:19-21).

But many, like myself, thought they were already “good” people, who could find freedom by merely assenting to Jesus being their savior. That, my friends, is only the beginning of freedom. After enough exposure to the Bible and solid Christian teachers, I had to admit that some areas of my life were not yet truly freed from old ways of thinking and doing. Was that God’s fault? No. He definitely saved me into His family. I was able to call on Him for help to resist new temptations (if I so chose). But what about the old temptations, the secret things I didn’t want to let go of? The things I couldn’t imagine not being a part of my life, things I “needed” for my comfort? What about the ways I treated people I knew, the drivers on the road I didn’t know? Old habits are hard to break.

I’m so thankful that I discovered a group of Christians who are working through a program called “Celebrate Recovery”. It’s a 12-step, Christ-centered, weekly get-together where men and women meet in a large group for worship and teaching (like a church service, except that people feel free to take off their Sunday morning “masks” and let their guards down), then separate into men’s and women’s small groups to get even more real with each other about healing and recovery from their own “hurts, habits and hangups”.  I have experienced firsthand that people can become more free than they ever thought possible. I have no idea how much more free I will become as I continue life’s journey in Christ, and as I continue to get more real with God and with myself. If you are interested in exploring this, perhaps there is already a Celebrate Recovery group near you.

Final thought: So, I plan to use this blog to share with you, dear reader, God’s freedom that He offers to all of us. And, whenever I think of some useful examples or observations in how God has helped me become more free in some way, I’ll share that, too.

My prayer, from right here on this web page, is that God will intervene in some small way in your life today (or tomorrow, if you’re reading this late at night) and show you something He’s always wanted you to know about Him or about yourself. Be open to Him, because His quiet little surprises can have big effects in your life!

Paul