Dear Family at Christ Community,

    This Sunday we will conclude our “Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus” series with 2 Corinthians 8:1-9: A Wealth Worth Sharing: The Call to Deny Greed and Take Up the Cross of Joyful Generosity. We will have the opportunity to come to the Lord’s Table to be reminded of how Jesus willingly became poor so that we might be rich in redemption. The broken bread will serve to nourish us to deny our greed and scarcity mindset; the overflowing cup will fill us with God’s bountiful grace and joyful generosity to tangibly reflect Christ’s image in the world. Consider how our culture views wealth and material things. Even more, consider how our generosity, especially when joyful, provides a contrasting incarnated example of Jesus’s loving sacrifice. Harold L. Senkbeil in The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart beautifully captures this dynamic exemplified first in Christ and then offered to us as His ambassadors:

“…Jesus found joy in doing his Father’s will because it was love in action…. Love and joy are inseparably bound together in the inscrutable will of God. The Father’s love in action sent Jesus through first suffering and shame, and only then to glory. The Father’s love brought him pain and death, but both were joy for Jesus because he confidently knew he was doing the Father’s loving will. First the cross and then the crown; that’s the way it works in God’s economy. And that’s the way it will work for you. Your joy will come as you see God’s love in action through you….”

    Pray for the Holy Spirit to convict you of where you are greedy with what has been entrusted to you or where you live with a scarcity mindset that limits your joy and generosity. Ask the Spirit to help you take up the cross of joyful generosity not out of compulsion but because of what Jesus has done for you to become so rich in eternity!

In Christ,
Cameron