Did You Know? (Part 4)
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- Written by The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry
- Created: November 27 2010 November 27 2010
Continued from “Did You Know (Part 3).”
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod adopted eight Stewardship principles at its 1998 national convention. These principles reflect a definition of stewardship commonly used throughout the LCMS. Each principle stands alone as an important guide for the church, yet all eight principles stand together as a summary of how we live our lives of stewardship.
Principle Seven—God’s Stewards are Served and Serving
God’s stewards recognize that their stewardship involves a Gospel-powered style of life which is demonstrated by servanthood within every arena of life.
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:26b–28
Principle Eight—God’s Stewards Live With an Awareness of the Present and the Future, of Time and Eternity
God’s stewards live intentionally in the light of the Lord’s eternal purpose while being firmly committed to His rule in the here and now.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19–21
Saint John’s Stewardship Board promotes the development of good stewardship and giving patterns among the members of Saint John’s.
Giving and Receiving
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- Written by The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry
- Created: November 27 2010 November 27 2010
December is a month of giving and receiving. It all started with God’s greatest gift of sending His only-begotten Son on that first Christmas to be our Savior and Lord. John 3:16 says it so clearly: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The Apostle John states in his first letter: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
As the Holy Spirit helps us to grow each day as the children of God, we also grow in our loving and giving, because loving and giving are two important characteristics of our God. Just like children imitate their parents, so we also are to imitate God. God delights in loving and giving. The Old and New Testaments give overwhelming evidence of this truth. Jesus taught that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” During this season of giving and receiving, take some time to reflect on theses words of Jesus and pray for the Holy Spirit’s power to grow in the grace of giving. And may that giving be more than just selecting gifts for those you love. May that giving extend to supporting the work of the Lord through Saint John’s and other charitable organizations as you give generously of your time, abilities and financial resources to bring the love of Jesus into the lives of others.
Merry Christmas! May this Christmas be a time of joy as you reflect on the greatest gift of all—God’s only begotten Son to be your Savior. In appreciation of and in response to that best gift of all, may you also experience the truth that it really is more blessed to give than to receive.
Quick Note: Victory Sunday (also known as Pledge Sunday) will be January 30. Once again we will have the opportunity to grow in our understanding of what it means to be God’s Stewards during Bible study. It should be exciting—hope to see you there!
Saint John’s Stewardship Board promotes the development of good stewardship and giving patterns among the members of Saint John’s.
O Give Thanks
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- Written by The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry
- Created: November 01 2010 November 01 2010
Many of us learned to return thanks to God after a good meal with the word “O, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good and His mercy endures forever.” Giving thanks is something that our nation will be encouraged to do on the National Day of Thanksgiving in our country. It is good that we join with millions of others on this day to give thanks unto our God for all His bounty and blessing on us and our nation.
But Jesus reminds us that we are to be thankful every day, not just on Thanksgiving. In the Lord’s Prayer, He taught us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Martin Luther explained the meaning of this petition in this way: “God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked, but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”
Luther defined “daily bread” as “everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” It is good for us to pause more than occasionally in our busy lives and reflect on what we are really saying when we pray those simple words, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
We are God’s stewards who daily receive countless blessings from His gracious hand. The greatest blessing we have received is the gift of salvation through faith in His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. But God does not stop there. He knows that we also have physical needs and so He provides for them, and He provides lavishly.
Our appropriate response is to receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving and use them as He intends. May this National Day of Thanksgiving be a reminder to be thankful daily for all the blessings God gives to us and to use them in a way that honors Him and blesses those around us.
Saint John’s Stewardship Board promotes the development of good stewardship and giving patterns among the members of Saint John’s.
Did You Know? (Part 3)
- Details
- Written by The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry
- Created: November 01 2010 November 01 2010
Continued from “Did You Know? (Part 2).”
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod adopted eight Stewardship principles at its 1998 national convention. These principles reflect a definition of stewardship commonly used throughout the LCMS. Each principle stands alone as an important guide for the church, yet all eight principles stand together as a summary of how we live our lives of stewardship.
Principle Five—God’s Stewards are in the World, Not of the World
God’s stewards recognize that the Lord sets them apart from the world and, by the transforming power of the Gospel, sends them into the world to live out the Gospel.
My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. John 17:15–18
Principle Six—God’s Stewards are Loved and Loving
God’s stewards recognize that their stewardship flows out of God’s act of love for them in Christ, which empowers them, in turn, to love others in acts of Christ-like love.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34–35
Continued in “Did You Know? (Part 4).”
Saint John’s Stewardship Board promotes the development of good stewardship and giving patterns among the members of Saint John’s.
Did You Know? (Part 2)
- Details
- Written by The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry The LCMS Office of National Mission, Stewardship Ministry
- Created: September 23 2010 September 23 2010
Continued from “Did You Know? (Part 1).”
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod adopted eight Stewardship principles at its 1998 national convention. These principles reflect a definition of stewardship commonly used throughout the LCMS. Each principle stands alone as an important guide for the church, yet all eight principles stand together as a summary of how we live our lives of stewardship.
Principle Three—God's Stewards are Saints and Sinners
God’s stewards rejoice in and live out what the Lord has declared them to be through the cross. At the same time His stewards recognize they are sinners who fight sin and its consequences each day.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. … What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21–25
Principle Four—God's Stewards are Uniquely Singular, Yet Profoundly Plural
God’s stewards recognize that their lives of stewardship are not solo performances but are personal responses to God, lived out within the community of faith to benefit the whole world.
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:4–5
Next in this series: “Did You Know? (Part 3).”
Saint John’s Stewardship Board promotes the development of good stewardship and giving patterns among the members of Saint John’s.