And I thought I was having a rough week...

Personally, I had a bit of a rough week as we had a child in the children's hospital in Charleston along with some some SermonAudio issues we were wrestling through. It turns out that this was a crazy week for these two donors as well. One of them is involved in shipping goods around the world. He said that the entire crew of one of his vessels decided to go AWOL when they arrived at the destination country. This caused quite a bit of disruption and actually made it to the national news of that country. He had to scramble to fly an entire replacement crew out to the vessel and is still trying to deal with the situation. If that weren't enough, in a completely different part of the world, another vessel was caught in an unusually bad storm with 24-foot swells where they ended up losing a large amount of cargo at sea. The other donor mentioned how this week's recent cyberattack on the US pipeline caused some consternation in the line of work he's in. This attack had the potential to severely disrupt the fuel supply to the entire East Coast of the USA and is reportedly one of the most disruptive digital ransom operations ever reported. Thankfully, this donor said that they were able to minimize the financial risk but it was definitely a point of concern.

Why are you doing this?

As I mentioned, we were all in this lengthy Zoom call together discussing not only the construction of the SermonAudio Center at BJU but also how to move forward long-term into the future. As the conversation went on and I listened to the various ideas of this brainstorming session, I became more and more humbled at the realization that these men are giving significantly of their time, skills, and resources with no expectation of anything in return. I stopped the conversation and felt the need to just ask them point blank, "Why are you doing this? What is your motivation?" What they said next was gold. They replied, "In many parts of the world there is zero Gospel witness. You get out of the southeast United States and the rest of the world is very very different. I'm not a preacher and I'm not a church leader. My gifts are in finance and in the markets. This is something I can do. I'm not looking for any self-promotion. I look at this as an excellent way to fulfil the Great Commission."

The right spirit. The right motivation.

I was so encouraged by that response and it is precisely the kind of spirit that I am hoping to instill in the students at Bob Jones University as God gives us opportunity. Students should not be spending four years of their life getting a college degree simply to secure a high-paying job with no thought of anything else. The education, the degree, the job itself are all means to an end. And the great end is the glory of God, is it not? The first question of the Westminster Catechism is "What is man's chief end?" Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Young people have so much life, strength, zeal, and potential in front of them. These are gifts given by God to the youth. They are removed as we get older, but the youth have it in great supply. Just imagine for a moment if even a fraction of that energy, strength, and creativity could be channeled to the work of the kingdom of God!

A lesson from Malachi.

I was reading in Malachi to the family last night during Bible Time and we see that the Lord was raising a complaint. What was the complaint? God's people were bringing the lame, the sick, and the blind as their sacrifice to the Lord. Basically, they were bringing their leftovers, their scraps, their throw-aways to God. "Is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?" Mal 1:8. This is so often what we do. We give our best energies and devote the bulk of our time to our own personal interests. But we give our leftovers to God. He gets the last 5 minutes of our day before we doze off to sleep. Or, He gets the few remaining dollars after we take care of our own more important matters first. He always gets the scraps. But what impressed me about these donors is that they are bringing their best to the table. They are taking the best of their skills and their resources and using it for the kingdom. And it's costly. It's a sacrifice in the truest sense of the word. And I thank God for them.

May it be instructive to us all. There's a hymn that says:

Give of your best to the Master;
Give Him first place in your heart;
Give Him first place in your service;
Consecrate every part.
Give, and to you will be given;
God His beloved Son gave;
Gratefully seeking to serve Him,
Give Him the best that you have.

Give of your best to the Master;
Naught else is worthy His love;
He gave Himself for your ransom,
Gave up His glory above.
Laid down His life without murmur,
You from sin’s ruin to save;
Give Him your heart’s adoration,
Give Him the best that you have.

This VLOG is documenting our journey on a bold new project with BJU where we will be constructing an almost 4000-sqft SermonAudio Center on the school campus.

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