An Offertory Devotional video for Sabbath, July 31, 2022, in your @adventistchurch: vimeo.com/701782622. Putting God first can be difficult. What can we learn from this video that will help us put God first in our lives today?
Also available in #Spanish and #Portuguese.
Put #GodFirst
#StewardshipMinistries
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For more information on the Stewardship Ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, you can head over to stewardship.adventist.org/ ______________________________________________
We worship with our offerings and donations because Jesus invites us to care for others as He does. One day, the crowd noticed the movement of Jesus and His disciples and came to meet them. Full of compassion, Jesus spent the entire day teaching, blessing, and healing. It was a spiritual feast. As the sun was lowering in the sky, the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd away to seek food (Mark 6:36). The crowd would soon get hungry, and there was no bakery in the desert. But instead of attending to their quite sensible request, Jesus invited the disciples to “give them something to eat” (Mark 6:37). This unexpected answer reveals Jesus’ concern for both the spiritual and the temporal needs of people. This is also our mission: “When we see human beings in distress, whether through affliction or through sin, we shall never say, this does not concern me” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 504).
The story of Emilienne from Madagascar reminds us that we can put back a smile on people’s faces. Before 2015, Emilienne was always frowning. She was a single mother whose children were always hungry, and she could not afford to send them to school. Then she joined the ADRA food security project in a town called Bikily. There she received training, access to farm tools, and drought-resistant seeds. As a result, she started her farm. She planted sorghum, sweet potatoes, cassava, and pumpkin. Now she has enough to feed and clothe her family, pay their school fees, and invest in the future. Above all, she also has a huge smile on her face.
Would you like to do mission in the footsteps of Jesus and draw smiles on people’s faces? Giving is one means established by God to alleviate sufferings, express His love, and bring back hope. This week we can practice Christ’s ministry method by worshipping with our tithe and regular and systematic offerings, called Promise.