A Peculiar Person

by Michael Dante Aprile

I received a very unusual complement from a dear elder man at our church the other day.  He called me a “peculiar” person. At first I was set aside by the comment, wondering if by certain connotations he meant that I was kind of odd. But, knowing that this person was an earnest and kind man of God; a preacher, I realized he was making a Biblical reference to me.

There are several references in Scripture to “peculiar” people. Perhaps the most popular is when Peter addressed a Christian audience, those followers of Jesus Christ, telling them, in 1 Peter 2:9 that they “…are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people….” Now Peter was not insulting his brethren. The word “peculiar” he used meant someone who was made for such a time as this and who might, for that purpose, rub against the flow or stand out from it. Another way it is stated is one that is set apart for God’s purpose.

Other meanings of this word “peculiar” refer to that which is one’s own, belonging to one’s possessions such as in Titus 2:14 where the reference is about a people selected by God from the other nations for his own possession. Peter confers this reference on people (Christians) who are also selected by God to be His own possession. What an honor and a complement to be called this.

Ecclesiastes 2:8 makes reference to people as “peculiar treasures” of kings. These were considered treasures that kings would keep shut up within their treasuries to be enjoyed by them but not shown to others, because of the great value they had to them. Another meaning for this term is “special.” This variation of the term peculiar is mentioned also in Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2; 26:18; and Psalm 135:4.

The reason this gentleman called me “peculiar” was because I had been telling him about my decision to trust in God for all my needs. I had been trying for some time to get free of the bondage that so many of even my Christian brothers have been, and still are, under today. Like them, I bought into the idea that we can give mental ascent to trusting God, but we dare not go all the way with it, because somehow God may not be able to handle all that it entails or perhaps would not. We develop this idea that we can trust God, but we must retain this big Plan B in our back pocket – just in case God is not able to hold up Plan A. Plan A is what God has planned for us and Plan B is the ideas and securities we have learned to trust in this life. Somehow, we believe that God only “helps those who help themselves.” Some people believe this is actually a quote from the Bible, but it is not. It is, in fact, a quote from another human being named Benjamin Franklin.

Sometime back, I got infatuated with a passage from Jesus in Scripture. It was the passage in Matthew 6:33 “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” “All these things” was, of course, your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, your body, what you shall put on, or thought for raiment, and all those many worldly things God knows we need. I asked my wife, who does calligraphy, to write it for me to put up on the wall so I could see it and meditate on it. It became such a great comfort to me. I did not know at the time how it could be possible, but it grew more and more real to me. This was not just an idle saying of Jesus Christ, but an actual prescription for life. Jesus also said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He came to die for us, but he also came to give us life more abundantly. He came to give us abundant life, not just in heaven, but also, if we want it, right here in this world.

It became my joy to daily discover some of the many things that Christians turn down, which Christ came to this life to offer us. When we find these treasures, we tend to willingly sell all that we have in this world to buy the field they are in (Matthew 13:44).

We do not see many of these treasures even though they are staring us right in the face, because we tend to put our trust in the wrong things.

God blessed us, after I worked almost 30 years in four different industries, to be able to pay a large amount of money down on a beautiful custom home in Plano Texas. This blessing was not from money we had saved ourselves, all that was gone to bills and the usual. It was from money that came from the death of parents. Many of the neighbors, in our Plano neighborhood, built large wooden fences around their backyard to keep would be vandals and thieves out of their backyard and home on the alley side. We had begun to trust the Lord more and made the decision not to put up a fence. We had a picket fence that started to get old and we took it down. We not only did not put up another fence, but we did not buy a security system for our doors and windows, such as many of our neighbors did. We felt very safe in that house, both day and night, because we had begun to simply pray to the Lord each day and ask, as did Job, that the Lord put a hedge of protection around us. This was just taking God at His Word (Job 1:10; Psalm 91:2).

We just let God be or protector. He could do a much better job than we. We also felt that if we did not do these things, we would both doubt that God could do these things, in a hypocritical way, and would be demonstrating little faith in Him and His ability to protect us (Matthew 14:28-31).

When we left Plano and a $70,000 a year job to live in Palestine, we began making a move toward abandoning our faith in what we could do for us and our family and began deciding to trust in God. We had a sizable amount of money put away for the first time in more years than we could remember, with a family of six children, and fostered what turned out to be false security in that money. We paid off the home we moved to yet we did not count on some large expenses. The money dwindled quicker than we had expected. We did keep our faith in God, but had not given over all our Plan Bs as yet.

We tried to make many of our side businesses work, but things seemed to be getting worse on the financial side. I attempted what turned out to be my final Plan B effort with a job, just before Christmas time, at the local Wal-Mart. It only made things worse, in that God did not let me be satisfied in my spirit about it.

Sometime around the end of January, I walked in on my day off and resigned from that job. God had told my heart that if I was going to be a genuine Christian who trusted in Him with all my heart, I would need to give up my Plan Bs all-together and “step out on the water” (Matthew 14:29). As I walked out of Wal-Mart that day, with no money and no job and several bills to pay, I told God “It is totally up to You now. I am going to trust in you for all my needs. I cannot do it myself.” It turns out that this was what God was waiting for. I have been tempted many times, almost daily, since then with Plan Bs, but have turn them all down flat. For the first time, I truly am following verses such as, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). “…my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

The Scripture says “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). I have discovered that the high minded that the Apostle Paul speaks of here does not necessarily need to be “rich.” They can be friends who are Christians that have what they believe are secure and trustworthy jobs or even businesses.

They are able to go and do as they please, eat out, drink up, be merry (for the present). They too need to do what God wants them to do and give evidence of the same. They too need to trust in the living God for rich things, instead of becoming dependent on their ability to produce them their selves or rely on provision from others. Without knowing it, we tend to make gods and idols of those resources. They most always become wells that dry up and water that does not quench our real desire for life (John 4:10).

It is no coincidence that the verses in Matthew 6, leading up to “…seek ye first” are about money – warning not to make it a god that we have chosen over God Almighty. It was precisely because the rich man (Mark 10:21-22) could not sell all that he had to have the riches that Christ offered Him that he had to go away sad. He had all that he needed for security and fine things and perhaps the high life, but he did not have what he really needed. That is why he went away sad.

I came to truly believe that God’s riches are much more abundant than everything on this earth. God made it real to me that He knows where all the gold is that men strive to find. He is an unlimited resource for the believer, who gives freely of Himself. Every month, I would ask God for His provision. I always admitted to Him that I was not able to provide and asked Him to do this. Most of the time, He miraculously orchestrated people and events of my ordinary life to provide what we needed. A bill would come in for $150 and I would say to God, “I cannot wait to see how you pay this bill.” I did not know how or when He would do it, but I believed He really could and would. Invariably, He would bring me the money through one or another either ordinary (someone would ask us to do some work that paid that amount or a little more) or extraordinary (someone would send us some money anonymously) circumstance. No matter how it happened, I was amazed and in awe of Him – and very thankful. When I said thanks for our food, I was really thankful, because I knew it was absolutely not through any plan of my own.

Month after month this had gone on. I had read stories about George Mueller, but they were stories we loved and believed from afar. We had not been so close to them and a life of living by trust and faith in God. It was truly exciting, seeing what God could do first hand. But, I was learning more about God on a weekly, sometimes daily, manner. He confirmed for me that what we need is different than what we sometimes perceive.

When I began this venture, I prayed that God would provide all our needs, meaning what we need on a day-to-day need basis. I found that He would bring us what we needed, almost to a tee. This was confirming, because when you ask for $122 and God brings you $122 then you know it was from what you trusted Him for and He provided. This is one of the ways God uses to show Himself strong. It proves His presence and is a testimony to others.

However, one day, I thought I would like to have some extra money, for a change, than the near amount of what I needed. Some of the family was not pleased with the financial closeness. So, I got down on my knees and gratefully asked God to provide a bit more than we needed. The only thing was that God put it on my heart to ask Him about a concern I had for my tithe. If I received money it took to pay off a bill and some extra for groceries, with which we were being very frugal, it seemed I did not have money enough to pay my tithe. This was very bothersome to me, in that I had always paid my tithe faithfully and felt strongly about doing this. So my prayer for extra income included money to pay my tithe. It turned out that God answered my prayer for extra money that time. We had well over $200 more than it took to pay the bills that month. Around a week later after I had bought a few groceries and was heading for church on a Wednesday night, I decided to figure up my back tithes that I had missed, when I had not anything with which to pay Him. The amount of the tithes came to an amount that left us $27 more than what I owed God. So, I made out the check for the full amount. Once again, God had provided a bit more than the exact amount for which I had prayed. Now I was beginning to see that God was showing me that He was listening to my requests and doing what He promised when He said, “…ask and it shall be given you” (Matthew 7:7).

But, be that as it may, it tells us in John 16:24, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Well, our joy has definitely been full. We have a genuine peace about what God is showing and doing for us.

I do not profess to know how this all works. What is more, I do not care to know. All I know is that it is wrapped up in the idea that God loves us dearly and will do what He says He will do faithfully and perfectly. You can trust Him with your life, if in fact, you trust Him with your life. He is faithful in all things to provide. In fact, God wants to provide for His faithful. Looking back to Genesis, He originally provided fully for the man and woman He created perfect in the garden. They had need of nothing. God still lives in the garden and desires to have many join Him for whom He may provide. God is both a Creator and a Provider. He provided a sacrifice, an earth, a universe, and heaven, so what makes us think He won’t provide those essential things we need?

I sometimes think there may be little hope of an abundant life for those Christians who listen to the “prosperity preachers” on television. They have developed a mindset that becomes a stumbling block for those who would participate in the “abundant life” that Jesus tried to offer those who had ears to hear. I am speaking of those few “peculiar people” who would dare trust God for everything. What strange interpretation has been lent to Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it?” The Christian who says, “God wants me to have this great job that I hold dear and trust in, while I say I trust in Him” is most deceived about how he “save[s] his life” and just how he “shall lose it” in time. Life does not even begin; in the way that Jesus offers it to us here on earth, until we give up these idols (things we depend upon instead of Him), such as trust in the job, trust in our business, the idea that our children have to go to college to be successful, trust in life insurance or fire insurance, trust in a regular pay check, trust in savings accounts, trust in pensions or retirement funds, and the list is endless. If you doubt this, just look at every reference where Jesus exclaimed the words, “…of little faith.” The devil has dreamed up an endless list of things for Christians to think about and trust in other than God. This is an abomination to God and He sent His Son to tell us so.

Funny, yet kind of sad, thing about these Christians who depend on these idols with which they have become so comfortable is that they look at the faithful, who are trusting God and say, “They sure are ‘peculiar’ people.” They are right, but they don’t realize that this is a complement. It is funny how misery really does “love company.” They not only go the way of this world and think like them, but they try to persuade others to do the same (so they will not feel lonely). Somewhere along the road, the “peculiar people” were the only ones that became Bible readers. They are the only ones (the few), who love to study their Bibles instead of watching television, going to movies, or listening to teaching tapes of every Joe Blow preacher and teacher that comes down the pike. On the latter, they forget the admonitions in the Bible about those false teachers that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible (Mark 13:22). Saddest perhaps is that these Christians believe that they are happy and comfortable and therefore they are living the abundant life, but when their security gets shaken up, they find it something strange.  They just can’t understand what went wrong.

I have found that there is no real security in anything that is not absolute in this world. The only thing in this world that is absolute is the Word of God. We cannot, as Christians, put our hope in anything else. Christians will tell you that they don’t do this, but they are just denying the facts. Sometimes it is because their understanding has been seared by little compromises they have made over their lifetime. However, there are some who have told me that they just can’t bring their selves to make the leap from those temporal things they have learned to trust to fully trusting in God. That’s how bad is has gotten. This is like staying in a crashing plane to avoid parachuting. People put their faith in the strangest things. And they call those who trust God “peculiar.”

When it comes to following God, mere logic will not do it. We are talking about a God who had the smallest weakest army defeat the largest strongest, the few defeat the many, the least likely win the most to Christ, the humblest be the greatest, one who stutters to speak for the people, women who are old and barren to have children, and the Sun to stand still in the sky. So, I ask you, “What is so unusual about thinking God’s way will work best, just because it does not fly with your limited understanding?” In the same mind frame, many Christians do not believe, for one second, that God will provide their every need if they do not earn it, yet they rightly believe that salvation comes that way.

Now who is being illogical? God has promised He would do it and that He wants to do it and He does not lie (Numbers 23:19). The problem is that we listen to too many others, in this world, besides Christ (Colossians 2:8). The perspective of a peculiar person is that God gave him the multi-thousand dollar a year job, kept it around as he failed at it, made up for the monetary short-comings when the budget didn’t quite make it, so he is not that important to the perfect equation. That is, he doesn’t believe that everything depends on what he does and on him.

David said loud and clear, after God’s own heart, in Psalms 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” So one could only conclude that if a Christian truly believes in Christ that God will not forsake him or leave him go hungry. You might believe that, if you do not have life insurance your wife and children will go hungry, but this is not true and shows little faith in the God in Whom you believe. This comes from not reading Scripture enough. For the Word says that God will be “a father of the fatherless” in Psalm 68:5. Also Isaiah 54:4-5 reveals that the widow has nothing to fear for in her “…widowhood ...[her] Maker is [her] husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and [her] Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called.” When God is a husband to your widow and a father to your children, I have news for you; they won’t need your insurance money.

A peculiar person is one who has come to terms with the reality that a Christian is not one who is supposed to be comfortable. Getting right at it, one could just say that believing that one should be comfortable as a Christian is just plain selfishness. It is neither Christlike nor Spiritual to be selfish (Galatians 5:16-17). Take another look at the life of Christ and tell me one thing that was comfortable about it. To the contrary, Jesus said, in Matthew 16:24, “…unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Is that comfortable? Christ also said to “go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:21). It is not comfortable to do these things and that is why many Christians cannot live the abundant life. A peculiar person has learned to hold nothing either too close or too tightly. Whatever is theirs genuinely belongs to God, from whom they got it. Most important, they have learned not to put what they desire and want for their life over what God wants or desires.

They deny their selves the privilege of having all the things they want or could buy or could do, in order to be available to Him. They are aware of the fact that they were not created for their purpose but for His purpose and pleasure.

If you are not a peculiar person, you are missing out on the best and most abundant things that Jesus Christ came to offer in this life. To be “peculiar” has the meaning of being ones own personal possession. The Christian who is peculiar is God’s own possession.

God is very faithful to take care of His own. May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you NOW and always.