Insights

Reverend Dr. William H. Curtis

Latest Blog Entries

It’s Enough 

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51:17 (NKJV)

Many people are negatively impacted by their inability to make large offerings in life.

I'm not talking about money. I’m talking about time and attitude and emotionality and effort and behavior and mindset. I’m talking about life’s demands and the expectations that others have placed on them. So many feel that they just aren’t giving enough. Many are demotivated by the fragility of their own effort. They are deflated by their slow pace of progress in the battle that goes on in the mind and in the flesh and in the spirit.

So often we stand before the Lord knowing we have so little to give. “Lord, I wish I had more energy. I wish I had more excitement. I wish I had more optimism. I wish I had more capacity. I wish I had more ability. I intended to give You more effort. I thought I could last longer. I just knew I could hold out far more, and for extended periods of time. I thought I had the stamina. I thought I was at a place where I could do better than I did.”

And yet, when we stand before God with only small offerings—tiny, incremental, progressive steps—I’m here to tell you it’s enough. If all you have to give is miniscule, yet freely given with a contrite heart, Jesus says, “Bring it to Me.”  He will not refuse, disregard, or discredit your offering because of its size.

Give what you have to the Lord, and He will bless it.

 

 

 

 

People Matter

“So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

In your pursuit of all things holy and your determined push to live happy, you might be accomplishing your goals and achieving your successes in life. But don’t let any of the chase, the urgency, the drive, or the compulsion make you forget that people must matter to you.

In your push to grab success and to be elevated and to accomplish, ascend, and progress, please don’t forget that while you’re pushing obstacles out of the way and climbing and achieving and sprinting your marathon, people have to matter to you.

People matter because they are made in the image of God.

People shouldn’t simply be tolerated. People must be loved, because God put brilliance and gifting and spirit and purpose and destiny in their lives.

You can’t love Jesus and then walk over people.

People matter. And God expects us to live our lives in a way that demonstrates that truth.

 

 

 

 

The High Value of Small Offerings

 “Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:43–44 (NIV)

Jesus positions Himself opposite where people are giving at the temple, and He’s watching people cast their coins into the containers—both rich and poor alike, giving their gifts to God.

And then she walks in.

She was a widow who, when she lost her husband, she lost her income and essentially she lost everything. And yet living in dire poverty could not diminish the depth of her faith. No matter what has happened to her—the severe loss, the mistreatment, the brutality that comes with aging—she didn’t let any of these realities diminish her hope in God.

She is there that day giving her offering to make a statement: God is the only protector I have left in life.

That day, while Jesus is observing, all she had on her were two small copper coins, the smallest coins in circulation at the time. They amounted to virtually nothing in the eyes of the rich, and to most others for that matter. All she had were these two coins and that’s what she gave, placing them in the offering as a demonstration of her hope in God.

She gave her all and expected that before the day ended God would provide her needs.

What a faith. What a hope. What belief in God.

Jesus explains to His disciples that while many rich people had given that day out of their wealth, this poor widow had given all because she gave out of her need. She effectively laid her life down in front of a sovereign God and made the clear statement, “God, You sustain me. God, You keep me. God, You provide for me. You be my defense. You be my sustainer.”

And Jesus blesses her.

What a high value Jesus puts on small offerings.

What small offering can you lay before the Lord today?

 

 

 

 

Steward Your Authority

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” 
John 8:11 (NIV)

In an attempt to trap Jesus, some men brought to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery, and they asked Him if she should be stoned. Jesus told them that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone, and one by one, they left her alone with Jesus.

Asking her where her accusers had gone and if no one was left to condemn her, she answered “No one, sir.”

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

What did Jesus decide to do with His authority? He decided to pardon her. He gifted her with a chance to live past that moment and to push her life in a different direction. He blessed her to turn the page on the past chapters of her narrative and write something new.

Jesus stewarded His own authority by deciding to give mercy.

Are you stewarding the spiritual authority in your own life so that you’re not making decisions based on the intimidating, encircling presence of influence and pressures?

Authority must be stewarded intentionally. You can respond to life in any way you want, but this text teaches us that God expects that the Spirit living in you would have such an impact on you that it will guard your tongue and your behavior. It will change and alter and transform your actions.  

Learn to be a faithful steward of the authority that the Lord has given to you.

 

Be a Blessing

Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
Proverbs 11:25 (NIV)

If you really want to be blessed, be a blessing to somebody else. If you really want to be helped, help somebody else. If you want to get over your issues, step into the issues that somebody else is facing. If you want to win your battle, take your weapon and stand beside somebody else and fight the good fight.

When you jump into the lived experience of others with the purpose of bringing joy, you will also leave with joy. That’s because you can’t bless somebody else without getting blessed yourself. 

The key is to stop focusing only on self—my hurt, my pain, my shame, my struggle. Don’t be so insular that the entire content of your life is about you. That’s not what makes for a good Christian.

What makes for good Christian discipleship is bearing one another’s burdens, walking in fellowship one with another, letting the strong bear the infirmity of the weak, gathering together for prayer, fellowship, and the breaking of bread, and going out into this world together to make disciples.

We are living in an excessively insular world. People are so focused on themselves that they miss blessings that others possess for them.

Turn your attention outward, and then go be a blessing to someone today.