Judas: desire at the door
Whenever I meet new people I tend to get a little over excited, talk too loud, too fast and too much. So when I attended my first home fellowship group at the new church, I took plenty of deep breaths and told myself to listen.
“Are you settled in yet? How are you and Priscilla settling in? Are you sorting things out?“
Following our move to the United Kingdom from New York City, kindly Brits have asked this ‘settling’ question of me more then a few times. (This is one of the key differences between a Brit and a NYC native: the seasoned New Yorker never asks if you are settled in. It is understood that isn’t happening till the end of a lifetime).
I used to have really strong views on tithing. It used to really wind me up that I was obeying the law and paying my church taxes while others had signed up unfairly to the equivalent of the ‘church dole’, resulting in church ministries suffering and modern day Levites (those who lead us in our worship at church) struggling to get by on measly salaries…
“Where are the boots?”
“Excuse me?”
“Where are the boots?”
As a department head in an inner city school, I wasn’t used to seeing a parent show up at 7am, let alone this particular mother, who had never even shown up at school before. But it was 7am and here she was, right in front of my desk.
“A steward is both a ruler and servant, one who exists to please his master.”
What makes a good steward? How strong are the links between service and stewardship? And why do such ancient terms matter more than ever today? Can a steward move from good to bad and back again? Or is their destiny fixed from the start?
When was the last time you geniunely felt concern for the state of the world? Was it the last time you watched the news? Perhaps it was a few days ago, when you realised just how different the world has become compared with the one you remember just a decade ago? In this week's 'going deeper', we see how the book of Jonah reveals God's heart for our wider concern.
This week over on 40acts, we've been making stuff, switching off our screens and plugging in to our creative resources within. In this edition of Going Deeper, Charlie looks at the source of our generosity and what we can learn from the ultimate Creator.
This week's theme for 40acts is 'go global': a reminder that our generosity should extend beyond our immediate communities out into the wider world around us. Whether that means checking the labels and ethical policies behind our clothing, celebrating cultural diversity or taking a different perspective on asylum seekers, this week we've sought to explore generosity on a truly global scale.
For the next seven weeks we will look deeper at seven specific ways you can pause and reflect on your generosity journey as you go through 40acts this Lenten season. These suggested actions will range from prayer to reflecting personally, to purposely stepping in and helping others. Each of these going deeper studies will focus on a specific biblical character at a crisis/telling point in their lives, starting with Daniel.
What can it possibly mean to live simply and generously in the 21st Century? One holiday a year instead of two? Susannah Clark explores the Jesus who called us to deny ourselves and follow him.
blogs by the Stewardship team and selected guest writers.
Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited. Established in 1906.
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