THE NEW MATH

The New Math

LESS >MORE

 

When I was in elementary school, I had a reputation of being a better than average student. Getting A’s and B’s were common.  The only subject that threatened an otherwise stellar record was MATH. Math or Arithmetic as it was also called, was the bane of my existence.  I rarely got more than a C’ in math. I was able to get by from kindergarten to second grade and then came the third grade. I was then beset by the dreaded “Division” and the formidable “Fractions”.  Fourth and fifth grade got even worse with the introduction of “Decimals”.  To make matters worse, these war criminals disguised as teachers decided to mix them altogether.  They actually wanted me to combine and translate Fractions into Decimals and Divide six digit numbers and then multiply them back into their original form and then translate that into decimals.  Where was the Department of Children and Family Services when you needed them?! 

It gets worse.  In the eighth grade (circa 1966-67), some mad scientist came up with “The New Math”.  It wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t handle real numbers, but now we were asked to interpret “Integers”.  Integers were not real numbers.  They merely represented real numbers. To me they merely represented my very first “F” in nine years of an otherwise unblemished scholastic career.  I imagine there are some reading this now who are experiencing flash backs.  Years of therapy out of the window. I apologize.

 

It wasn’t until my first year in college that any of this stuff made any sense.  It just all of a sudden cleared up.  It’s amazing what paying college tuition can do to the powers of understanding.  I imagine maturity and not caring what my fellow students thought of my grades made a difference.  Also, the instructors in college would demonstrate practical applications of math such as a 50% off sale or 10% deduction from your pay check. Ding, Ding, Ding a winner!  I see the light Hallelujah!  Math became abundantly clear. 

The Kingdom of God operates by a New Math that worldly perception or elementary school maturity is unable to grasp.  The world’s math says that adding to oneself produces more and subtracting from ones possessions produces less. The world’s math says that the more you have the better off you are and the less you have, the less you are able to do.  However, God’s “New Math” is somewhat different. Let us examine the scriptures for a college level math course in the Kingdom of God .

 

It is written: “Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead .' “So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go." So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place."  So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.” (Judges 7:1-8) 

God is more interested in your godly character than your worldly acquisitions.  God knows the sin nature of mankind. He knows the pride that is always hovering in their hearts.  Therefore, God had Gideon create a situation that would undeniably point to God for the victory.  God subtracted to add glory to Himself.  This very valuable math lesson would help to establish a motis operandi for every challenge that would come to Gideon and God’s people.  You can do more with less when God is with you. This is also a very valuable lesson to those in leadership.  You must be honest with yourself and do an inventory of your assets to determine what you really have that will work for you. While large numbers may be encouraging, they can be deceitful.

 

That’s why it is so important that those called to speak the inerrant word of God speak it without leaven or add mixture.  People pleasing may fill up your pews, but the glory of God is not there and you will deceive yourself into thinking you have a large number of Godly soldiers ready to do battle with the enemy, but when the pressure comes (and it will) the multitudes will scatter and may even turn against you. Jesus did not come to please people, but to please His Father.  It is written:“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." (Luke 12:49-53)  The Kingdom of God is multiplied by division. This is “The New Math”.

 

The New Math in the Kingdom of God requires one to die to live. It is written: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)  It requires one to give to receive. It is written: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38)  This mathematical equation applies to any life situation, positive or negative.  You can stick any “integer” you want in the equation and the results will be the same.  Give love, you receive love.  Give hate, you receive hate multiplied, press down, running over will men give unto you. Selah. 

 

It is impossible to out give God because of the mathematical certainty of His New Math. Now I am not talking about some kind of give to get, spiritual hustle.  God is not stupid nor is He a doddering old grandfather sitting on the porch doling out sweets indiscriminately.  Nor can His system be hacked.  It is written: “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:1-3)  God knows our hearts better than we do. 

Do all as unto the Lord. It is written: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1^st John 5:14-15)

 

Selfless servants of God be encouraged.  Your efforts are not in vain. The sacrifices that you have made for the Kingdom of God that the world system has categorized as loss is the most significant investment you have ever made and according to God’s New Math, you will reap a return above and beyond anything you can imagine. It is written: "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or  father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first." (Mark 10:29-31)  Selah.


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 Allen D. Edge is an actor, comedian, professional speaker, performance coach, ordained minister, and author of The Levite Today, The Levite Today uncovers the power of the arts in biblical communications in the past and the present. Allen blogs regularly at his blog site, http://tepinc.blogspot.com/ 

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