Stewardship, Chapter 9

Hi Awesome Parents!

I wish my parents had taught me to consistently sent aside an offering for the Lord. They taught me how to be a good person and they raised me in such a way that I loved God and always wanted to please Him. But I never learned stewardship until I was in my last year of high school. And since then I have learned that God not only deserves a portion of my possessions, it is in fact ALL HIS! Everything I have is His. And as I walk this path He has me on with cancer, I am learning that He owns my time and He owns me. An even better way to say this is that I need to gladly give Him everything...my house, my income, my pets, my wife. None of this actually belongs to me. He has blessed me by allowing me to have these things and so much more. I need to be a good steward of all these things. That means I need to take care of them so they last a long time, or grow in value. It also means I need to invest these things in things that are valuable to God, the things He wants me to invest in. For me, I know he wants me supporting the work at DBC, my church.

In one of our stories this week a widow gives her last coins in the offering. She held nothing back for herself. That is a good lesson for all of us. Instead of figuring out the very least I can give to satisfy my expectations of myself, I need to figure out the most I can give to serve God. That can be money, it can be time, it can be both.

I pray as you read chapter 9 with your children and talk about the lesson with them, that God will bless you and allow heart felt conversations. Bless you for raising your children to follow and serve Him.

CHALLENGE: It is my understanding that it will be a few weeks yet before we study chapter 9 in church. Each of you is able to subscribe to Right Now Media. There is a video series by Chip Ingram titled The Genius of Generosity.  I thought he did a great job talking about this subject and he included a couple of the stories covered in our lesson. This series is only 4 chapters plus the introduction. These videos are part of a study that includes a book which is not available through Right Now Video, but the videos alone are very informative. SO HERE IS THE CHALLENGE: Watch these videos with your older kids/teens and discuss what Chip is teaching. Then try to apply the principles to your life by asking God to help you make any changes needed.

Mr. Chuck