What does it mean to live generously?
What about the stuff we have? Do we view those things as our own or do we have the mindset that we are only caretakers of what we have been blessed with?
Are we defined by what we have or don’t have?
Do we, as Mennonites practice simplicity?
As we continue with our Anabaptist History series we will hear a story about simplicity and practical stewardship as another opportunity to live out our Anabaptist theology.
I invite you to sit with these verses this week…
Proverbs 11:24
24 One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
I am hesitant to only provide a single verse out of a passage because it can be too easy to take a single verse out of context. However, one of the Bible reading plans I participated in broke down daily readings into an Old Testament scripture, a New testament scripture and one verse from Proverbs. The creator of this Bible reading plan explained that Proverbs is meant to be read in small doses because there is so much in every single verse in Proverbs. I have come to appreciate Proverbs in these very small parts.
Acts 20:33-35
I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
1 John 3:16-18
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
As we think this week about living simply and living generously these thoughts almost always involve how we handle our money. This is an important part of simplicity and living generously but in what other ways can be live simply and generously?
What examples of living simply and generously do we find in the Bible?
Let’s talk about it on Sunday.
~ Pastor Dustin