WHEN GOD REWARDS OUR GIVING
It has often been debated as to IF and WHEN God rewards us for our good deeds. In the Bible, Jesus discusses three pharisaic practices of piety that all us can fall into if not careful and the consequence of handling those practices rightly or uprightly. They include: 1) GIVING 2) PRAYER and 3) FASTING. Today, we are going to look at the first of these, which is “GIVING” and I will show you where and when God rewards us-and when He doesn’t. Let’s get started.

In the Book of Matthew, chapter 6, Jesus tells His followers how they (and we today) are to “Practice living out the Kingdom Life” which ultimately results in our receiving a REWARD from God our Father as opposed to other human beings. It's all about doing things God's way as opposed to our own way.

When we fail to keep God’s ways and carnally follow our own, we end up worshipping or drawing attention to ourselves. As a result, we receive an ARTIFICIAL REWARD in place of the authentic reward from the Father. This, then, is the beginning of a three part series covering the subject of God’s Rewards in relation to GIVING, PRAYER and FASTING. Today, we are going to address the FIRST, which addresses GIVING-how we are to give and the rewards given to us by God the Father.

REWARDS FLOW FROM A GIVING HEART
Jumping right in, Jesus opens Matthew, chapter six, speaking about practicing our righteousness or righteous acts “before other people” (v.1). Why would one act righteously in front of others, you might ask? The answer is “ …in order to be seen by them” (v.1). It wasn't too long ago when giving was something done modestly and in private-and to do so publicly was rare outside of political figures. Today, sadly, it's considered the "right" thing for everyone to self-promote themselves above others.

GOD'S WAY-THE RIGHT WAY TO GIVE
Jesus goes on in verse two to speak to the PROPER way to give so that we are to avoid our good deed(s) being seen by others in verse 2, saying: “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.” In other words, there is a real consequence for or taking God's praise as our own. 

THE CONSEQUENCE: Jesus goes onto explain the consequence of letting others deliberately know that you have given to others in verse one, saying: “…for then you will have NO REWARD from your Father who is in heaven.” WHY would God NOT REWARD a good deed? Because, as Jesus explains in verse 2, we are not to be like the religious leaders who were hypocrites in that they did what they did in terms of giving for personal attention, as opposed to giving praise, honor and credit to God. 

Better yet, WHY would anyone take the credit for what God has given them to begin with? The ANSWER IS: “…that they may be praised by others” (v.2). In our carnal nature, we want to be known by others for our generosity in giving to others. By parading this openly or simply making our good deeds known among others, we put OURSELVES in a positive light among others within the Christian community. It might even put us in a positive light within the secular community depending on what the good deed is or what the giving opportunity. For example, if we help a person in the inner city and tell everyone what we did, even non-Christians might praise us for doing such a thing in the name of charity, social justice or works that are faith related.

END RESULT
Jesus makes abundantly clear in verse 2 that such giving negates the Father's reward, saying: “Truly, I say to you, they HAVE RECEIVED their reward.”

When we make our good deeds and generosity seen before others, our reward ends up being given to us carnally. This is as opposed to our true reward if given by God. Carnally means we are seeking adoration or fake glory through the praise of other human beings. As a result, we forfeit the reward(s) of God our Father. We can’t have both. If someone happens to find out about our good deeds or act of giving by some way other than our own, we should not entertain discussing it, but change the subject and move on. By donig so, we will gain God’s reward in that it is God and not ourselves who provides and gives all good things; we are simply a steward of them.

Jesus goes onto say in verse 3, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And our Father who sees in secret WILL REWARD YOU” (v.4).  This is WHEN God dispenses His reward. 

The bottom line is that when we give of ourselves, as best as we can, we are not to make it known to others. Letting others know “THAT WE GAVE," and "HOW MUCH” or “WHEN” we give of ourselves gains us credit before others, especially within the church. As such, our reward is given to us through  the acknowledgement and praise of others. According to God, a truly selfless heart gives unconditionally and is kept between the giver and the receiving party of the gift.

By being humble and giving selflessly in the NAME of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give all honor, glory and credit to God who owns and gives it all to us as stewards of His blessings and resources. And when we do that, we invite the blessings and reward(s) of God the Father upon us. This is when God blesses us for GIVING to others. To GOD be ALL the Glory. Have Peace in the New Year.

While the country of Turkey is legally set up as a "Secular Nation", the truth is that 98 percent of the Turkish Population is Muslim, but call themselves a “SECULAR” nation. TODAY, I am going to give you my thoughts from a Christian perspective on the flourishing country we call Turkey. Let’s get started.

While 98 percent of the population are Muslims, the obvious is that Christians are a minority religion in Turkey. Turkey is the only Muslim country in the world that has no State religion as the Constitution guarantees religious freedom, and tolerance is the "stated" rule. 

In truth, the bottom line is that there is no real “freedom of religion” in this Islamic country of Turkey as Turkish authorities are branding Christians with so-called “N-82” or “G-87” security codes, which are used to label a person as a “THREAT TO PUBLIC ORDER AND SECURITY”. These effectively function as “ENTRY or RE-ENTRY” BANS into the country. Once Turkish government is wielding these codes to prevent missionary activity in the country. 

On the contrary, I was unable to find any instances of legal action taken AGAINST MUSLIMS for sharing the Islamic faith by the Turkish government. Hence, NO, turkey has no freedom of religion and is an Islamic country. The good news is that Turkey is a flourishing country economically speaking. The good news is that the younger generation(s) in Turkey don’t particularly care for a forceful, Islamic cultural regime running things in the present. 

This should bode interesting for the world as Turkish manufacturing their economy grows, it is most likely that Turkey will continue to become more moderate in years go come-much like Saudi Arabia. 

WHAT CAN YOU AND I DO? FIRST: We can pray for the country of Turkey. SECOND: We can pray for their leaders of Turkey to be more accepting of Christians peoples to exist and live out their faith freely. THIRD: We can pray for the Christian church and for the remaining remnant of Christians left in Turkey. FOURTH AND LASTLY: We can speak up for Christians in Turkey and support Turkish missionaries who are taking the real risks.

IN CONCLUSION: Turkey is a rising economic star which usually leads to greater freedom. Let’s pray that God would bless Turkey with a heart for as much religious freedom for Christians as they have economic success. And with that—May God bless Turkish Christians and all Turkish peoples to their rightful, historic place, and restore them to their rightful land in Turkey.

I typically do not post an article I did not write myself-but today is different. I am in a Bible study with men in Europe and my friend Tom wrote such an excelllent article, I wanted to share it with all of you. It challenged and blessed me, and I hope it does the same for you as we wrap up the year and head into the New Year. Blessings-Steven

GOD PREPARES HIS PEOPLE FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD  Acts 10:9-16

About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven._

*BACKGROUND*

Following Jesus three years of His ministry life, Peter was one of Jesus' closest disciples, and the clear leader of the apostles (although James, the half-brother of Jesus, served as the leader of the church in Jerusalem). Following Jesus' example, Peter and the early church had active prayer lives (Acts 2:42), a spiritual discipline critical to looking at the many challenges from God's perspective, and enriching the development of mature disciples of Christ. Just as Jesus frequently _"would withdraw to desolate places and pray"_ (Luke 5:16), Peter ascended onto the rooftop of Simon, the tanner´s house to escape the lively activity associated with meal preparation and instead commune with God. As we studied in Acts 6:4 when the apostles realized they needed to delegate practical tasks so that they could _"devote [themselves] to prayer and to the ministry of the word,"_ this time of prayer was especially important as Peter was yet unaware that Cornelius' trusted servants and a devout soldier were enroute to his location with a mission to fulfill the command the angel provided him to fetch Peter from Joppa and bring him (back) to Caesarea Maritima.

*TAKE THE TIME TO COMMUNE WITH GOD*

_About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance._

At around the noon hour, Peter went to the rooftop to pray to communicate with God despite the impending lunch hour. On this particular occasion, God used his hunger to teach him about Gentiles. Although he became hungry, he sat quietly and fell into a trance, a state where one's vision becomes hyper focused on a particular issue/thing while awake (as with Paul, in Acts 22:17–18), whereas a "dream" happens when the person is asleep.

*SMALLER CHALLENGES PREPARE US FOR BIGGER DECISIONS*

_He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”_

Although God is present everywhere in His creation (John 4:24) and He doesn't live in the sky (like some sort of satellite), He often uses the image of clouds parting and the sky opening as a metaphor for revealing something previously hidden/obscure to mankind on earth (as in Ezekiel 1:1; Matthew 3:16; Acts 7:56). At other times, God gathers clouds to hide His presence from His fragile creation (as in Exodus 19:16; Mark 9:7). In this case, the skies open to reveal God's message.

The four corners of the sheet may represent the "four corners" of the world. In the sheet are _"all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds"_ representing the full array of animals described in Deuteronomy 14 as food fit to eat (like sheep, goat, ox, deer, antelope, gazelle, and finfish) and those restricted in the Mosaic Law, such as birds of prey, reptiles, camels, rabbits, pigs, scavangers, and winged insects. A voice tells Peter to kill and eat the animals, an action which would contravene the Mosaic law. Unaware that the animals represented the people of the world who have been elected by God — some devout Jews and some Gentiles, Peter would have been confronted by such a strange order but once he understood what God was telling him metaphorically, it would make sense when Cornelius' messengers finally arrived.

*RECOGNIZING WHEN IT IS GOD WHO SPEAKS*

_“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven._

Peter may be a Jesus-follower, but he was also a devout Jew. He was not going to eat animals forbidden by the Mosaic law without a major realignment of his understanding even though Jesus had already declared all foods clean in Mark 7:15, saying, _"Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean'  by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean' "_ explaining in verse 19, _"For it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (in saying this, Jesus declared all foods 'clean')._ Yet Peter failed to internalize His explanation that what makes people defiled is when something unclean resides in their heart, like evil thoughts that lead to sin (Mark 7:16–23). It's not the literal, physical touch of certain foods that's a problem, it's when someone knows God has told them not to eat it and they do so, anyway (Matthew 15:10–11).

But as a Jew, Peter understood the animals on the restricted list as "unclean food".This concept of "clean" and "unclean" is a little confusing. If something is "unclean," it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad or sinful. In some cases, it means it's not fit for the worship of God — like a sacrificial animal with a blemish or a person with a particular type of wound. The differentiation existed to remind the Jews to separate themselves from the pagan nations around them; if they could do so with the foods they ate, they'd remember to do so with the gods they worshipped.

Ironically, Peter was staying with a man who was perennially unclean for the tanner, Simon, would regularly touch the carcasses of unclean animals in order to treat the leather.God was teaching Peter about people. Because Gentiles were considered unclean because they did not follow the Mosaic law, eating with them would be to tacitly approving of their non-Jewish lifestyle. This flew in the face of what Jesus had already explained in Peter's hearing: that the purpose for unclean food laws had been fulfilled and the literal substance was not the issue, but the heart of the person eating (Matthew 15:10–11).

Mark´s line of logic in Mark 7:1–23 went from unclean hands, to unclean hearts, to an understanding that the kosher dietary laws were fulfilled and no longer in force. Peter's vision and application goes from unclean foods, to unclean dinner mates, to salvation to the Gentiles. The food the Jews ate was part of the deeply cultural tradition of the meal and to share a meal with someone was to publicly declare your allegiance with them. This is why the Pharisees were so offended when Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:13–17).

The kosher laws were designed to show the neighboring nations that the Israelites were different. The worship of Yahweh was largely hidden from Gentile eyes, but eating was more obvious. If someone tried to sell a Jew pork, the Jew could refuse, explaining his God forbade it. As time went on, this prohibition grew into a general rule against eating with anyone who wasn't Jewish, including Gentiles who worshiped the Jewish God but were not circumcised and proselytes, such as Cornelius.

The number of times Peter saw the vision of the animals descending on the sheet and heard God's words (three) were especially significant for Peter because that it helped him recognize the vision was a message from Jesus. While Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin, Peter denied knowing Him three times (Mark 14:66–72). After Jesus had risen from the dead, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, and told Peter to take care of Jesus' followers (John 21:15–17). It certainly allowed him to link the vision of the animals on the sheet and assertion not to call anything God made clean as impure with Peter's responsibility to proclaim Jesus' message and care for His followers to the three messengers coming to bring Peter to a Roman centurion to share the gospel with the Gentiles!

*APPLICATION*

Brothers, today's passage provides us assurance that God continues to equip those who follow Him for the challenges, decisions and opportunities ahead. As children of God, we can expect Him to discipline, guide, and lovingly hear our heart's concerns. It also reminds us that not only do we have access to His “throne of grace” through prayer -- at any time and from any place, it is critical that we make the time each day (and frequently) to hear what God has to say to us. When we meditate on His Word and listen, we will realize His promise that _“we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”_ (Hebrews 4:16), no matter what situation comes our way. God is faithful and He knows exactly what we need for what He knows is coming ahead. The question we have today, is: "Are we listening to Him?"

We can trust our Heavenly Father to supply all our needs (not wants!!!) _“according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19) and we can be confident that our _“Father in Heaven [will] give good gifts to those who ask Him!  (Matthew 7:11). Oftentimes we fail to see how the Holy Spirit has transformed (is transforming) us to develop the sufficient character, spiritual backbone, and hone our discernment to respond in a way that our testimony points the way for non-believers to Christ.

Our eternity in Heaven is guaranteed by God (Ephesians 1:13–14; John 3:16–18) for Jesus has already paid the entry fee for every person who trusts in His death and resurrection. And as we go about our lives, eager to do good works (Titus 2:14) may we fulfill His purpose for us in the hope of seeing Jesus face to face and worshipping God as one, united as a family from _“every nation, tribe, and tongue”_ (Revelation 7:9; 14:6) when God finally calls us to our eternal home. But until then may we wisely commune with God in prayer and recognize the good work the Holy Spirit is doing in us as we apply what God has told us to do!