Olive Branch Newsletter For December, 2001
Stewardship
By Reverend Richard L. Burgess, Stewardship Chair
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength" was an anthem the choir sang recently. What a wonderful affirmation of the Christian faith. It is not our own strength that will carry us through all the experiences of life with assurance and confidence, but the inner knowledge that our relationship with God is one of trust and love. Yes, bad things will happen to good people. Yes, the unexpected will happen. After all, accidents are never expected. They happen. But in the midst of any experience we can still know that God is there with us, we are not alone.
One of the signs of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is JOY. God's love in us brings with it echoes of the Glory of God. The angels in heaven sing songs of glory and praise. We hear not their songs, but the joy that they offer in praise to God. We begin to sense that the greatest thing that we could do with our lives would be to express glory to God in our living; to show to God that our love for God is real enough to affect the choices that we choose to make; that our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior means that our lives are now different. We can no longer live with ourselves at the center of our life; but now that we are Christians: "Christ in us is our hope of glory."
Paul gave witness to the Christian faith before King Agrippa who responded by saying: "Almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian." John Wesley preached a sermon on the "Almost Christian." Surely we realize that there is no such thing as an "Almost Christian." John Wesley called people to be an "Altogether Christian." And this is what we all want to be. Not lukewarm, but on fire for Christ.
And so, in our daily living we want to make those choices that Christ would make. Where physically possible we want to gather in the house of the Lord to worship God. We want to strengthen our communication with God by prayer. This is not an option. To refuse to pray is to bring into question our commitment to Christ--have we slipped back into the patterns of life that place our self at the center of our life. Prayer is the practice of Christians. If you need help in developing a pattern of prayer in your life, ask for help. That's what the church is here for, to help grow the body of Christ. There are mature Christians in every church that would love to pray for you, and to help share with you their pilgrimage in the prayer life. No one style or pattern fits all people, but the need to be in communication with God is as essential to development in the Christian life as breathing is to the continuation of life in our physical bodies.
Of course we know that reading the Bible, and participating in Bible study groups is part of the process.
And I would be negligent in my responsibility to you as Stewardship Chairman if I didn't remind you that growing as a Christian also involves the stewardship of money. And so we come back to the issue of making choices. Do those choices show that we are altogether Christians?
When we put Christ first in our life; when we truly love Him, we will find that "The Joy Of The Lord is our strength."
May God bless you, and fill your life with His presence and Joy. It is the assurance of the Christian faith that God Loves You. Jesus asked His disciples, and He asks us: "Do you love me?"
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