Happy Monday!

Back to school tomorrow. By God’s good grace I am beginning my final year at Brite.  This semester I am taking an ethics class on Religion and Violence, a globalization class on immigration and my last semester of supervised ministry.  I’m going to need lots of prayers, please.  There will be some distractions with the wedding coming up and whatever else God puts in our path, but I pray I can stay focused and healthy.  After reading the prospectuses on these classes I have found that they are requiring a great deal of work.

Prayer:  Gracious and generous heavenly Father, I am rich in You. Whatever measure of earthly wealth I have—great or small, much or little—it is a blessing from your hand. How should one so blessed live?  I ask You to instruct me today. In Jesus’ name, Amen

“Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

1 Timothy 6: 18, 19

Tonight dinner was interesting.  The meal was a simple roast with potatoes, carrots, onions, celery cooked in the oven.  The house smelled as Bruce said, “like Sunday lunch.”  The meal began with just Bruce and I. Then he left for BSF. A bit later Travis came in and ate and then Geni called and asked if she and a friend of hers could come for dinner. There was plenty for all with leftovers for someone’s lunch tomorrow. This meal was not just a blessing of the Sermon on the Mount type, but a blessing to the ones I expected and the ones I had not expected. The blessing for me was the time I got to spend with each of these precious people.

When we serve God by sharing with others out of what we have we are not (in my case) just filling a hungry tummy, but we are serving as a conduit of God’s blessings to others.  Sometimes the most outward way we can serve is by sharing the things we have in our earthly life. I read or heard somewhere that you don’t miss what you give away. 

In Paul’s writing we are instructed to “give” and to “share” in order to “do good.” The challenge for us is to be as generous and gracious to others as God has been to us. 

There are a number of Biblical characters who demonstrate generosity and servanthood flowing through them. Zacchaeus gave generously, Mary the sister of Martha, gave extravagantly and the unnamed widow who gave sacrificially all she had.  Let us pray for the blessings of servanthood to flow through each of us in this life remembering the One who gave His all for each of us.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, throw an extra blanket on the bed and get some sleep. Count your blessings and say your prayers.  Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni, Travis and Sarah.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com     

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.