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How
do you share your Time, Talent and Treasure?
The Gift of
Time
Service to our
church and community consists of offering our
time in activities such as serving the poor,
volunteering at school, lecturing and taking
communion to the home bound. The gift of time
spent in prayer is just as important.
The Gift of
Talent
God blesses us
each with unique talents that can serve our
church and community. By offering back those
God-given talents to the church and one another,
we are able to bless Him in return.
The Gift of
Treasure
Though this is
often the most difficult gift to offer back,
experience shows that giving of your financial
resources often produces the most fruit in the
lives of those who make the sacrifice. |
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Sharing God's Gifts
In the Bible, Jesus tells a story about a sower and his
seed. The sower went to sow the seed. Some seed fell on the path and was trampled. Some seed fell on rocky
ground and didn't grow. Some seed fell among thorns and were choked.
But some seed fell on good soil, grew and it produced fruit
one hundredfold.
Jesus tells his friends what the story means. The seed is
the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but are distracted and do not believe.
Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word of
God
with joy, but they believe only for a time and fall away in a time of trial.
The seed that fell among the thorns is about the people who
have heard the word of God,
but as they go along are choked by the anxieties and riches of life.
They fail to produce mature fruit.
But, the seed that fell on rich soil is about those who have
heard the word of God and embrace it with a generous and good heart and bear fruit through perseverance.
(adapted
from Luke 8:4-15).
As Christians, we are all on a journey with God. At
different points in the journey,
we hear and accept the word of God in various ways.
Sometimes, what God has given us is not fully realized,
nurtured or developed. Things like fear,
doubt, anxiety, false values, and injustice can be like thorns that choke what
God does in us.
We can become less than that which God calls us to be - less alive, passionate,
and joy-filled.
But as people who believe in God and follow Jesus, we have
hope - and we persevere, God's Holy Spirit is with us!
Christian stewards are called to be the rich soil described in
Jesus' parable, so that what God
has planted in us may grow and bear fruit. When we respond to what God
does in and for us with a good,
generous and prayful heart, we will bear much fruit!
Each of us receives gifts from God that provide all we need to
live life to the full and to bear good
fruit on the journey. These are the gifts that each of us receives
from God.
As Christian stewards, our task is to discover, celebrate,
develop and use our gifts responsibly,
and share them in love and in justice with others.
Stewardship is about God's gifts and how we respond to those
gifts in our lives.
Created in the image and likeness of God, we too, are like the
sower in Jesus' parable when
we witness to God's word in us and share what we have with others.
By sharing God's gifts, we have an opportunity to help others
along the journey.
We become what God calls us to be, and we work as faith-filled
Christian stewards to help promote and realize God's kingdom.
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