Be the Body

Yesterday, I noted in humble gratitude that God gave us such a large gift due only to His grace, not our worthiness.  That was the first lesson God has been teaching me through His good gifting.  The second lesson I will write about here. 

2.  We must then be faithful stewards of that gift.  The first reaction to this statement probably has something to do with saying, “Well, yeah, the church had better use that money properly.”  To this I agree and assure all who might read this blog, that we will do everything we can to make this gift go to the proper place, ethically and wisely.  But that is not what I mean by being a good steward.  Many organizations have lots of money and many generous donors give large sums to favored charities, shelters, orphanages, and other worthy causes; but there is something different about a church that receives gifts of this nature.  God has enabled us to continue to minister and reach out to a lost and dying world, to hurting families and marriages, and to struggling Christians needing discipleship through this physical blessing.  We have an opportunity to turn this physical blessing into a great spiritual blessing for many souls in this city and around the world.   To be a spiritual blessing, we must not sit back and pride ourselves in the blessing of God on our church and ministry; but we must truly be the body of Jesus Christ.  We must be diligently reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We must be tirelessly proclaiming the message of hope that only comes through faith in Christ.  We must be ministering and mending lives broken by sin and wickedness.  We must be a lighthouse that proclaims to our community, our city, our state, our nation, and our world that there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.  We are the mouth of God proclaiming his world.  We are the arms of the Savior embracing the lost.  We are the feet of the Lord going with the Gospel of Jesus Christ-the power of God unto salvation.  We must not sit, idly basking in glory of this physical gift; but using this gift as motivation to preach the Gospel of peace to and make disciples of the multitude of souls before us.  May we be faithful to be the body of Christ, seeing we have been blessed so greatly.