Sky’s the Limit
Learning about God through Rice and Oil
By Pastor Adam Fox
Sometimes in life there are truly wonderful, incredible and amazing movies. Movies that capture our all and enthrall us for every minute, that move us to tears or joy or both. We could spend hours debating these remarkable movies and why they are so perfect for us as individual and as a collective.
However, the Punisher is not one of them.
In 2004, Thomas Jane became the crime fighting vigilante anti-hero known as The Punisher or Frank Castle. Castle becomes the Vigilanty to avenge his murdered family and since the comic has been around for decades so it is a viable story to make a movie from. But this movie was terrible without debate. Do not believe me? The villain was played by John Travolta.
In this terrible movie, The Punisher wages war against the Saint Crime family led by Howard Saint (Trivolta). In in this pile of poo there was a line that stuck with me, "Pray for Peace, Prepare for War".
What an odd sentiment but it did stick with me. Should we live our lives hoping for greatness but knowing that there are limits in place to control us? An attitude in which we do not limit ourselves, we allow people or structures to dictate what we cannot do. Or should we not be so optimistic and more guarded?
Society has built in limitations for us, we cannot deny this. Our jobs have requirements for what is needed to work there in education and physical requirements. When we drive our cars, there are limits of in how we drive and the speed to operate them. It is not like we can get on State St. and blow through the red lights at a speed of 87 mph. That is illegal and dangerous.
Limits are there and limits are everywhere in life, the most obvious being our spending. Every human being on the face of this Earth has a budget. We get amount of money and are forced to pay what is needed first before spending or saving the rest. An example is the government (just kidding, they spend money like they print it - WAIT!)
Limitations are there in life for us so that we can grow and live safely. But what about limitations in our faith as Christians? Should we limit God? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
For arguments sake, let ask a rhetorical question to help us learn this important point about our God. "If you had unlimited resources - what would you try to accomplish?" How would your life be different if you had no limitations?
Would you still be at the same desk or position at work? Same house? Same car? Same bank account?... If it were me, there would be subtle changes that only Andrea and I could notice but there would be changes.
If we would make these hypothetical changes, whatever they are - then why aren't we chasing after them? Why are we letting these dreams stay dreams? Shouldn’t we be making them our goal and try instead of telling ourselves and God no? Why are we dictating to our God what we cannot do or what He is not allowed or able to do in and through us?
We serve the Almighty God in that knows us well and created us. Our God is so amazingly powerful in that He created the seasons, time itself, the smallest atoms to the largest giraffes. There is no limits to our God - just the ones we have for Him.
And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power:
The day when He redeemed them from the enemy, Psalm 78:40-42
Two great examples of serving a God without our self-made limits are oil and rice.
In 2 Kings 4, we have the story of Elisha and the Widow's Oil. This is a perfect example of having great faith in God, a faith without limitations.
1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
We have the prophet Elisha meeting a wife of one of the other prophets in Israel and her coming to our man Elisha with a specific problem. Her husband the prophet is dead, her family now is with no income and we all know that things in life need money. If she did not come up with some money quickly, she would lose her children as well.
This is a problem that we can all relate to, not having enough money as well as Bills and debtors. This widows only possible source of income was selling a lone jar of oil. Could she have sold this single bit of oil for money and then scramble for the next fix? Yes but Elisha has a different idea.
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.
She is commanded by Elisha to go house to house, neighbor to neighbor and collect empty vessels and get as many as possible. If this were you how many would you get? How many is enough? Would 20 be enough? When would you stop? 40? 100?
4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
Elisha told her that she is take her lone jar of oil and use it to go and fill up the borrowed vessels. And so she does – all without a questioning of God or the prophet as to how this will work.
5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”
And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
God provided a miracle. Each one of those vessels were miraculously filled so that she can sell them and not have to lose her children to slavery. PRAISE GOD!
Cool story but it shows us the limitations we set-up for God. "Notice that the abundance of the miracle the widow and her sons experienced was in direct proportion to the number of jars they were willing to gather. The number of jars they were willing to gather was a reflection of their faith." Gina McClain from Don’t Quit.
We are that widow. We may not be in the same place, having the same needs as her but we end up doing the same things to God. Detailing to Him what we can and cannot do and what we allow Him to do for us. Just like Israel of Old.
How often they provoked Him in the wilderness,
And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power:
The day when He redeemed them from the enemy, Psalm 78:40-42
Israel like us, had a history of frustrating God and telling Him what He is allowed to do. Think about it. We as believers, tell the Creator of Everything, the Author and Sustainer of the faith what He is allowed to do. The One who knows every detail about us and our lives and we have the gumption to tell God what He would not be able to do.
What fools we are.
Why do we set limits for God? God knows what is best and is in control of all things. We need to trust Him for that. Trust Him like the Widow and her last jar of oil or like Hudson Taylor and his last bag of rice.
James Hudson Taylor was a legendary missionary to the country of China. He was one of the first and did many great and wonderful things by faith – one of which was overtaking a hospital ministry without a regular source of funding for it.
Taylor took over this ministry “relying solely on the faithfulness of a prayer-hearing God to furnish means for its support.” Taylor decided to write a letter asking for help in showing the need because Taylor realized that “Had not God said that whatever we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus shall be done? And are we not told to seek first the kingdom of God.” A letter of this magnitude to his supporters would take months to arrive – 10 at the earliest.
With supplies for this hospital running low, Taylor redoubled his prayers. It was then that he was informed that the last bag of rice was opened and is disappearing rapidly.
With an attitude of great faith in our God, Taylor believed that the Lord’s time for helping us must be close at hand. Taylor knew that god as a loving Father, always responds to his children’s needs. While He seldom shows up early, He is never too late. ( a sentiment copied by author J.R.R. Tolkien)
Before the last of the rice was eaten, a check had arrived for 50 pounds or around $3600. Boom. God worked in the heart of a man who wanted to help this ministry EVEN BEFORE he knew of the great need.
Unlimited. Not letting our own ideas of what God could do for us limit in how or what we ask God for. Look at Hudson Taylor as the what-if example. If Taylor let his own presumptions dictate what God could do, would he have ever taken over this hospital? Would he have sacrificed another part of his ministry to help the sick?
Live without Limiting God, trusting that God knows best and will act at the right and perfect time. As Hudson Taylor said, “as a loving Father, always responds to his children’s needs. While He seldom shows up early, He is never too late.”
God will do great things, we just cannot let our own concepts and ideas limit how God will work in our lives. C.H. Spurgeon summed it up perfectly, “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”
Limitations are a part of life and there to help us but limitations on our God are a stupid thing. Limitations of God our like the Widow who only collects 5 jars and says good enough.
Let us do more than good enough and let our faith in God guide us. Trusting God without abandon, without limits can be challenging to us. It means opening yourself up and that is not always easy for us to do – even to God. But IF we do, it means we can grow closer to the God who created us and loves us. Like a man and his rice or a widow and her oil. Sky’s the Limit y’all.
Cheers and Excelsior!
Pastor Adam