Friday, October 25, 2013

"Living Stewardship" Malachi 3: 7-12; Luke 19: 1-10

The notion that stewardship rightly focuses on the Christian's need to give rather than the church need to receive is not simply a money-raising strategy but a spiritually driven truth."  Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Robert Schnase (112)

Dave Ramsay notes that "We buy things we don't even need with money we don't even have to impress people don't even know."  As quoted by Robert Schnase in  Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (113)

We need an attitude of generosity to propel us out of the world of self-absorption.

I was drawn to the Zaccheus story because of his generous response to meeting Jesus.  He decides to give half of his possessions to the poor and give back four times what he had defrauded someone.  His generosity far exceeds what he might have been expected to do.

The prophet Malachi describes how happy the land of the Israelites will be when they give back their tithe to God.

The idea of living stewardship take a holistic approach to life that pushes us to live generous lives, not just in our monetary giving, but as our overall approach to how we live.

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