Greetings my dear sisters and brothers.
May Grace and peace be with you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the blessed Holy Spirit.
I am delighted to share with you further thoughts about missions and stewardship as we journey together during this season of the Church year, coping with the challenges of the Coronavirus, COVID- 19 pandemic. Let us keep in view missions and stewardship.
Note well that with all the activities we engage in for Missions, none is as important as seeking the salvation of souls or leading persons to give their lives to Jesus Christ. Since Missions is about sharing the good news of the Gospel of Christ for persons to respond by accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour, then we as believers have the responsibility to be His ambassadors.
Christ, in His last commands to the apostles, makes the responsibility of discipling persons for Christ crystal clear. He says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…,” (Matt. 28: 19); “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16: 15); “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24: 47); “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20: 21), and “… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”(Acts 1: 8).
We must be obedient to Christ’ Commission to go tell “Christ” so persons will accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour. But you who share Him must first know Him as your own Savior and Lord.
Do you know Jesus Christ this intimately? I pray that we all do.
In terms of stewardship, if we are to link two aspects of stewardship - life and time with the evangelistic the activity of making disciples, we would understand that we are not our own. We did not make ourselves. It is God who made us and owns us. Thus, we are His treasured possession. The Psalmist declares, “It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Ps. 100: 3). He states further, we were made for a purpose; that is, to honor and glorify God. The Word declares, “Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing…. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name” (Ps. 100: 2, 4).
Therefore, in our living, no matter what other engagements we may have, we are to set quality time aside for serving God and to be involved in the life of the church where we are placed, to live out our faith-commitment in the service of the Lord. The hymn writer depicts it marvelously by stating, “My talents, gifts, and graces, Lord, Into thy blessed hands receive; And let live to preach thy word, And let me to thy glory live; My every sacred moment spend in publishing the sinners’ friend” (#221 [VIP], Charles Wesley, 1707 – 1788).
God, by sending His Son Jesus Christ into the world for our salvation salvation, provides the means for all of us to know Him as Saviour and Lord, and live to honour and glorify Him all our days.
God bless you wonderfully.
Yours In The Master’s Business,
Telford D. Matthew (Rev.)
Circuit Presbyter