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Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

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months to the harvest: and I caused it torain upon one city, and caused it not torain upon another city: one piece wasrained upon, and the piece whereupon itrained not withered. So two or three citieswandered unto one city, to drink water;but they were not satisfied: yet have ye notreturned unto me, saith the Lord. I havesmitten you with blasting and mildew: . . .yet have ye not returned unto me saith theLord. ... I have overthrown some of you,as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, .. . yet have ye not returned unto me, saiththe Lord. Therefore thus will I do untoyou, O Israel: and because I will do thisunto thee, prepare to meet they God, OIsrael."God has spoken to the people ofAmerica in much the same way as he spoketo Israel. Local disasters have occurred invarious places such as the earthquake inLos Angeles county, the tornado in theMississippi delta, and storms of snow but itcan be said of America as Amos said ofIsrael, "Yet have ye not returned unto me,saith the Lord. Therefore, . . . prepare tomeet thy God." America has not yetlearned from local disasters that her greatduty is to acknowledge Christ the King."Lesson based on International Sunday SchoolLessons: the International Bible Lessons forChristian Teaching, copyrighted 1967 by the Divisionof Christian Education, National Council of Churchesof Christ in the U.S.A."Junior TopicFor April 25,1971Unit: Our Public Worshipand SacramentsTHE OFFERING(Tithes and Stewardship)Mrs. John Russell"God loveth a cheerful giver" (II Cor.9:10). God is a giving God and Christianityis a giving religion. Christians must be agiving people. All we possess we receivedfrom God. He has made us stewards of allwe possess. "It is required in stewards thata man be found faithful" (I Cor. 4:2). Thetime will come when we will be called togive an account of our stewardship. (Luke16:2)Covetousness, to want more than wehave or what someone else has, is a deadlysin. "The love of money is the root of allevil" (I Tim. 6:10). God doesn't want stingychildren. That is what we are if we havenever learned to give. We need to give forour own sakes, because it will not reallyhurt God if He doesn't receive our littletithe. It will hurt us if we keep everythingfor ourselves. (Elliott — "Handbook forYoung Christians") We may become less12thankful to God and selfish, and will f<strong>org</strong>etwho made us and gives us everything thatwe are and have. "Bring ye all the tithesinto the storehouse, that there may bemeat in mine house, and prove Me nowherewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I willnot open you the windows of heaven andpour you out a blessing, that there shall notbe room enough to receive it" (Mai. 3:10).What does the word steward orstewardship mean? This means a way oflife in which we understand that all wehave really belongs to God, and then weshow that we understand this by regularlygiving a part of it back to Him for the workof bringing others into God's Kingdom. Agood steward uses all his abilities and anyspecial talents in service for God'swork, too. We should give our whole self toGod. If we are God's children, we say toGod, "I belong to You, dear Father." Thatis the gift God loves best.And, because we love God, we wantto give to others. We give to the poorbecause Jesus loves them. We give to helpmissionaries tell the story of Jesuseverywhere. This we do when we give ourmoney in the offering in the church services.This, too, is an important part of ourpublic worship of God. We can give kindwords and do kind deeds to people aroundus, as Jesus did. Jesus says that when wegive something to someone else becausewe love Jesus, we are really giving to JesusHimself.Isn't it wonderful that we really givesomething to Jesus, just as Mary in theBible gave her precious ointment orperfume? This giving will make us happy.(Review story of Mary and Jesus — John11:2, 12:1-8)Here's another Bible story aboutgiving. One day, long ago, when theIsraelites were God's special people, Godtold them to build Him a tabernacle — abig tent where they could worship Him. Hetold Moses, their leader, just how to makeit. And He said, "Everybody who wants tomay bring things for the tabernacle. Youmay bring gold and silver, wood, beautifulcloth, and animal skins; you may bringjewelry and sweet incense." Do you thinkmany people wanted to bring gifts to Godfor the tabernacle? Oh, yes! All who lovedthe Lord were glad to bring their gifts.They brought their best and many, manythings, so much, that at last Moses saidthey should stop! The people had shownhow much they loved God. He had done somuch for them, and that is the reason thatthey were so glad to bring gifts to Him.When your birthday comes, it's ahappy day, isn't it? Maybe you get presentsand it's fun to get presents. Gettingpresents makes you happy, but do youknow what will make you even morehappy? Giving something makes us morehappy than getting something. We givepresents to people because we love them.Next time you give something, see howhappy you yourself will be!What does it mean when the ministertalks about "tithing"? The practice of"tithing," or giving one tenth of the netincome of money to God's Kingdom, is asystem which many Christians have foundto be a good method of stewardship. Youmay wonder how you can tithe or give anoffering in church when you are a youngboy or girl. God doesn't think of theamount of money given, but of the attitude(cheerfully or stubbornly) and of thesacrifice (giving most to God or beingselfish with money). In the Bible is thestory of a poor widow who came toworship and gave only two mites (less thana penny) and yet Jesus gave her great creditfor this because He knew this was all shehad and she would have faith that Godwould help her get more money for foodand things she needed. Stewardship includesfour parts of life: self, service, time,and money. 1) Self — He wants our loyaland loving hearts and lives. 2) Service —He wants our physical and spiritualabilities used in His service. 3) Time —In one sense all time is special, becauseGod gives us life here, but especially oneday, the Sabbath, is to be special for Him.(Ex. 20:8-11). 4) Money — He wants usto return to Him a portion of what we haveto show Him we understand He really ownsit all.So we see that giving to the Lord is anact of worship. It also helps us grow inunselfishness, sympathy, and generositytoward those who are in need. And manywho give the tithe regularly say that Godblesses, and the nine tenths of money goesfarther than the ten tenths did before!(Tweed — "The Communicants' Class)To Leader:(1) Catechism questions — 39, 50.(2) Memory Psalms for Unit: 95, p. 231;122, p. 316. Review.(3) Sing in meeting: Ps. 96:3, p. 232; Ps.27:4,5,8, p. 62; Ps. 66:10,12,13, p. 158; Ps.116:8,9,11,12, p. 282.(4) Worship Verse — Acts 20:35 (write innotebook).(5) "Worship Notebook" — Label thispage, "Giving Money to Jesus." Have childbring picture of church and collectionplate and money. Make a heading, "Offerings"with two columns marked,"Pleasing to God" and "Not Pleasing toGod." List Bible characters on each side,such as Cain, Abel, widow and two mites,giving for tabernacle, etc. List also what ispleasing today from us: selves, time,COVENANATER WITNESS

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