 |
 |
Our Senior Pastor welcomes you to our weekly Friday Blessings update! In This Issue Giving to God Sermon Series continues this week with "Giving to God: An Act of Worship" based on Romans 14:1-12. Preaching Join
us for worship this
weekend. Pastor Wells will be preaching at Saturday evening worship
( For More Information St. John's Website |
|
|
Giving to God -- An Act of
Worship In the first chapter of his book,
Giving to God, Mark Allan Powell suggests that in the worship liturgy, the
time of the Offering is a very special act of
worship. It is an instance in which we are invited to give up
something that we value - our money - as a sacrifice to God. In many
ways it is the Powell writes, "We sing hymns of praise to God: "How
Great Thou Art”, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”, "Beautiful
Savior". When I sing those hymns, I do try to take the words to
heart and really mean them as an expression of my devotion and
thanksgiving to the Lord, who is so good to me. But words can come
easily, and the Bible speaks of people who honor God with their lips
while their hearts are far from God. (Isaiah 29:13: Mark 7:6) The
connection between hearts and treasures is more secure. "Where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21) I
find that this is true: on a simple, practical level, I find that it
is easier to sing hymns and not really mean them than it is to part
with my money and not really mean it. We are invited to put money in
the offering plate on Sunday morning, not because the church needs
our money but because we want and need to give it. We have a
spiritual need to worship God, and through our offerings we are able
to express our love and devotion for God in a way that is simple and
sincere. The motivation of the giver is what counts most, not the
size of the gift or degree of benefit to the recipient (see Mark
ON THE LIGHTER
Our 7-year old daughter had just won $2
for her memory work in Sunday school. After the morning service, the
pastor's wife congratulated her. Our daughter proudly announced,
"And I put it all in the
morning's offering." "My how wonderful!" the pastor's
wife exclaimed. "I'm sure God
will be pleased." "Yes," the child replied, "now maybe God will let me do some of
the things I want to do!" My
7-year old daughter wanted to take violin lessons, so I took her to
a music store to rent an instrument. Hoping she would understand the
importance of making a commitment to practice, I explained to her
that the lessons were expensive. I was willing to make the financial
sacrifices if she promised to work hard. “There may be times you'll feel like
giving up," I said, "but I want you to hang in there and keep
on trying." She nodded in understanding and then in her
most serious voice said, "It
will be just like marriage, right
Mom?"  For Prayer and Reflection We give thee but thine own, whate'er the gift may be; all that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee. May we thy bounties thus as stewards true receive, and gladly, as thou blessest us, to thee our first fruits give. The captive to release, to God the lost to bring; to teach the way of life and peace - it is a Christ-like thing. And we believe thy word,
though dim our faith may be: whate'er we do for thine, O Lord, we do
it unto thee."
Alive in Christ, |
|
|
|
|