I had the privilege of teaching at ALC this past weekend, and I made a statement that has been on my mind all week. You see, we're taking about the journey of the Wise Men throughout the month of December, and today was all about their decision to go.
As I was writing and thinking and studying this week for the teaching, I became aware of something: the Bible speaks more about the gifts of wise men than their net worth.
Yeah. Let that sink in. In fact, I would argue that most of the New Testament is centered on what the church (us) does with her gifts, rather than how affluent she becomes. The reality is simple: God created us all with specific gifts, and what we do with these gifts (stewardship) is a pretty big deal. So much so, that the coming of Christ to earth was affected by very affluent world influences (wise men).
So, the question is, am I more concerned with what I am giving while on this journey, or on what I can get? Am I humbled by the gifts and opportunities God has placed before me to transform the world? I hope so.
This Christmas, our church is doing a couple of things to live this out:
1. A special Christmas offering for community transformation (select the Christmas Offering drop down when giving online).
2. Providing Christmas for impoverished families in our community.
If you want to be a part of something like this (giving of yourself to transform our world and make God's Kingdom more of a reality), then you can click the links above to participate.
To be completely honest, it was stuff like this that attracted Shauna and me to ALC in the first place. Instead of investing in Christmas concerts, musicals, banquets... ALC invests in community transformation. How refreshing.
