This is a rather long post…but it might be worth a look anyway.

There are two parts to this post: First, I received a very well thought out and gentle email from a person with a great heart and obvious love for Papa.  The questions raised are important.  The second part of this post is my response.  First the email:

Please, if you have time bro, I would love to hear your insights on this matter.  I know you get a lot of mail and the last thing you probably want to have to deal with is someone picking you apart.  Please bro, that really is not my heart here at all.  I simply wish to understand and hear your side on this.  It will help me to process some of the questions I have as to why some believers in Jesus feel the need to charge for the things God gives them to share.  For all I know, your response may be the one that helps me to see another side to the issue than what I have seen generally.                              Thanks so much and God bless you man!!!

Did you get the sense of what this dear person wrote?  Great question and one that will surely come up again (and actually has already).  So here is my response back, for your consideration:

"I am not offended in the least by your questions and I appreciate that you would take the time to drop me an email about the things that concern you.  I don’t sense anything negative or judgmental in your inquiry and I think this is a very important conversation.

There are many ways to approach this discussion, so I will throw a bunch of them at you.  First some background, some of which you may already know.  I am the husband of one, the father of 6, live in Gresham, OR in a small rented house, where each small bedroom is shared by two and we have one bathroom.  My office is in the unfinished basement barely visible between hanging laundry and shelves for pantry and boxes of storage.  Kim and I have ( had until one of them just quit this week and cannot be resurrected) two vehicles, the one that is working is one given to us by friends; it was fixed after a major accident.  I am currently borrowing a vehicle from one of my sons and his wife to commute to my work, which is an 8-5 job running a one man office for a manufacturer’s rep (I do everything from inside sales, to inventory management to cleaning the bathroom).  Kim works during the school year in the bakery of the large High School two blocks away from where we live.  I wrote the story for my kids, with no thought of publishing at all and when the opportunity presented itself through a number of unique and God-involved situations, and after prayer and counsel, we (and two friends) borrowed money for the first printing.  At this point I have not received anything financially from the project.  I buy the books, usually by the case, so that I can give them away or charge $10 each, which covers my costs.  I then send the money back to the publisher to buy more books.  If this book takes off like it looks like it will, then there will be lots of new issues that we have to face, but that is just speculation and imagination right now, and if that happens I know God will walk an eventuality out one day at a time.

The presence of the Spirit and the leading of God from the first day of all this has been undeniable.  I am not driven by the money, nor by any sense of worth or identity that might be derived from all this.  I simply live one day at a time listening to Him and watching in amazement at everything that He is doing.  The direction to put this in a printed format (when we had no guarantee that we would re-coup our costs to the printer, the designers, the editors) was at the direction of the Jesus that dwells in us.  We talked about all the things you brought up…using the internet, free downloads etc but that is not how we have been led.  How can that be, you ask?  Frankly, I don’t know.  And that is the first major point about all this.

Life is not about coming up with an ‘ethic’ or set of principles that govern our behavior…not in the Kingdom…it is about a union relationship with an indwelling living person who sees and understands a much bigger picture than our ethics or principles.  As soon as an ethic (of money, for example) is administered, you flirt with legalism.  There is nothing easier than being able to justify a particular legalism based on ‘principle’ or ‘proof-text’ or ‘examples from experience’.  This you can do, apart from God.  The big question that legalism asks constantly is, "How much is enough?"  Where do you draw the line?  God gives you the gift of a healthy body, why do you charge a wage for using it in a job?  Why don’t you simply work for free and trust God to supply all your needs?  Why did Paul not give away the tents instead of selling them?  Do we really see life separated into secular activities (that we can charge a price for) and spiritual activities (that we must not charge a price for)?  So at what point does an ability move from one sphere to another?  So an architect can sell his abilities but the artist cannot?  So we can pay to support the ‘teacher’ (laborer is worthy of his hire) and put that in an ‘okay’ category, but he must not write a song and get paid for that?  Who decides how much to pay to support him?  And who decides what level of pay is proper and spiritual?  Just ask anyone paid for ‘ministry’ about the tyranny of living under the constant judgment of those who pay him or her (what is it okay to spend that money on?).  How much is enough?  When does work become valuable enough to pay for or be compensated?  When does art (that ’should’ be free) become Commercial Art (that ’should’ be paid for)?  How does a intellectual or creative skill differ from a physical one?  Who decides where to draw the line?

Besides creating a huge gulf between ’secular’ and ’spiritual’, legalism (the creation of an ethic that is external based on principles or perceived truths) also give everyone a basis for judging not only the intent and motivation of others, but of oneself, and let me tell you…this is a dead end trap.  I believe you do ‘not’ want to do this (judge others), but you will.  It can’t be helped.  The way you are thinking makes it unavoidable.  Paul, the apostle, understood this better than anyone (I think).  Twice he writes, "I do not judge any man according to the flesh…I do not even judge myself."  He is saying that the thoughts and intents of the heart of so inscrutable and impossible for us to fathom and understand that we will almost always be wrong.  There is no ethic of principle, or ethic of experience that is sufficient to plumb the depths of human motivation and intention.

Let me also say that this plays directly into the personalities and histories of individuals who have a poor sense of their worth or value (I am not intimating any such about you, as I don’t know you).  They may actually be susceptible to the very same trap or bog as the world is; that somehow money equals value.  Jesus never attacked money, but the ‘love’ of it, and both the rich and the poor are susceptible to that, actually anyone that centers the activities of their life around it, whether they have any or have none.  Let me tell you, an ethic of poverty is much more easily justified than an ethic of wealth, but both will lead you to error and divide relationships in the body of Christ.  Job’s issue was never wealth (which God gave him). 

Life is about being filled and led by the Spirit ‘today’…not a system of ethics, rules, principles etc.  God has the ability to speak to my heart and say, "Take your first born son and go to Mt Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to me" or "Take all that you have, sell it, and give it to the poor" or "Here is your inheritance, go an spend it on whatever you will…I’ll be here with all my wealth waiting for you when you are finished." 

You see, it is not about ethics, not about principles…it is about the Life who indwells us and is leading us ‘today’.  If you or your friends choose to give away certain things that you do or create, and if that leading is because it is what Jesus is saying to you…great!  If not (if it is because of an ethic, or religious persuasion, or you would feel guilty if someone paid you), then it is sin.  If I am a poor brother looking askance at the rich brother next to me, whether I feel superior in my poverty or am wondering why he isn’t helping me out…I do not understand the kingdom that I am part of.  I am no one’s master. 

What does this mean…huge freedom for me.  I am not at the mercy of someone else’s ethic (or especially, of my own), but I can trust the leading of God in my life to participate with him in whatever he is doing.  If today his leading is to give something or everything away, I will give it away, and if when I get to tomorrow his leading is to charge for something, I will charge for it.  Neither action is assumed to be better or more spiritual, but both are obedience.

I hope this makes some sense to you…it is my first attempt at trying to put such a response onto ‘paper’ - as you probably would also, I prefer an on-going conversation.  I would recommend a book by Jacques Ellul called ‘Money and Power’ that was very helpful to me.  It is small but weighty.

In this ‘freedom’ that I live within, will I make mistakes?  Might I mistake the voice of the Spirit for my own subtle need for security (that money seems to promise)?  Will there be people who will make all sorts of judgments about my intent and motives?  Might they be right sometimes?  Is it possible that I could be hearing wrong?  The answer to every on of these questions is ‘of course’.  But that is the wonder of this journey…God and I will work it out one day at a time, with no guilt or condemnation.  I will say this, the mistakes I will experience inside a life of freedom pale in comparison to the mistakes I would make in a life of legalism.

Brother, again I so appreciate you taking the time, but even more the attitude of love and inquiry that permeates your words.  We are in this together, for his glory and his purposes…whatever those might be."