Stewardship message for the week of December 24, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you, your friends, your family, and all those whom you love. Grace and peace be with you.
As I ponder what to write this week, I realize most all has been said about stewardship and most all has been written. It would be foolish and unwise not to contemplate the greatest gift God could ever give, the gift of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus gave us such an enormous gift, the gift of eternal life. Christ came so he might die on the Cross so we would be offered the gift of knowing death no more.
Wow! Eternal life! We should be thankful for traditional store-bought Christmas gifts, but they pale in comparison to eternal life. These gifts do not compare to every one of us giving the gift of ourselves to everyone else around us. Again, wow! I am so thankful for all of you.
Let us be still and quiet. Let us pray, meditate, and offer our eternal worship, gratitude, thanksgiving, and adoration for the Son of God, born into humanity.
On Good Friday we remove our shoes to appropriately revere the Cross. Maybe we should remove our shoes this Advent season to best adore our God-made flesh.
Amen.
As little children we would dream of Christmas morn
Of all the gifts and toys we knew we’d find
But we never realized a baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives
We were the reason that He gave His life
We were the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost, He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live
As the years went by we learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves and what that means
On a dark and cloudy day, a man hung crying in the rain
All because of love, all because of love
Oh and we were the reason that He gave His life
We were the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost, He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live
I’ve finally found the reason for living
It’s in giving every part of my heart to Him
In all that I do, every word that I say
I’ll be giving my all just for Him, for Him
And we are the reason that He gave His life
We are the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost, He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live
He is our reason to live
Don’t You know that you are the reason
That He came oh, He came to save us
When He gave His life for us, He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave
Everything that He had He gave (everything)
To show us the reason to live.
- We Are The Reason, song by Avalon
Wishing You God’s Peace That Passeth All Human Understanding,