Giving is costly – but it is also a great blessing. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says that we should give what we have decided in our hearts to give, ‘not reluctantly, or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’ I love the promise, earlier in that verse, that we will reap what we sow. By the end of 40acts, I felt that I had reaped more than enough already.
The novel Covid19 virus is now touching all our lives in a myriad of ways. Our church’s trip to Israel has been cancelled, conferences have been postponed, my 18 year old daughter is worrying about her A Levels, the need for skype lessons and logistics around her exams. My 87-year-old father in hospital is being fast-tracked to get an operation scheduled for 9 months to be done now. Emergency plans at work, keeping our distance from one another and every surface springing a hand gel are constant reminders of an unknown, disruptive threat.
Since his cancer diagnosis seven years ago, Jeremy Marshall has discovered his own wonder drug. It’s not a treatment plan, nor a mental attitude. It is simply and wholly this: generosity.
We know the good we’re capable of, we know we have it in us to act as Jesus would, to respond with thanks and generosity to all we have… Yet how do we square that desire to be open-hearted and open-handed with the need to tighten our belts knowing that January’s post includes the credit cards bills and bank statements showing our Christmas spending?
15 years ago, the third Monday of January was dubbed ‘the most depressing day of the year’. Ever since, people across the globe (or at least the internet) became aware of the phrase ‘Blue Monday’.
A New Year brings new excitement, expectation and opportunity; it can also be a pretty difficult time.
Stewardship share with A Rocha International and their many many friends around the world the deep sadness and loss of losing such fine leaders and pioneers in the Christian conservation world.
No less a person than William Wordsworth once said that poetry is emotion recollected in tranquillity. This has certainly been the experience of Paul Bebbington, part time civil servant and poet. Twelve years ago, his friend Mark Darvell invited him to be his travel companion on a church trip to Romania. Neither traveller had any inkling of the changes that would come as a result of their journey.
With four children, three of whom are at secondary and our youngest in her final year of primary, I’m aware that I’ve made a fair few parenting mistakes over the years. My wife, thankfully, is the level-headed, wise, sensible one in our family. I get to bring the fun, but looking back there’s a clear and unifying theme that runs through many of my greatest Dad-fails, as my enthusiasm overpowers my common sense.
As articles go, it was never going to be the most popular piece on the New York Times site that day.
But the tale of a primary school kid’s victory at a chess tournament had something special about it.
Support comes in many forms. Armed with a basket of rainbow-coloured wool and apparently bionic knitting needles, this is the story of a retired granny in West Yorkshire who’s touching the lives of young girls and their babies thousands of miles away in Kenya.
blogs by the Stewardship team and selected guest writers.
Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited. Established in 1906.
Registered charity no. 234714, and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England no. 90305.
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