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You are perhaps familiar with the Greek legend which tells about King Midas who asked and received what he wanted the most, which was the power to turn everything that he touched into gold.  For a moment, we might be envious of that ability.  However, when the things that we touched, such as our children, food, and drink turned to gold, we would quickly discover, as Midas did, that the Midas touch is a curse.  In much the same way, Jesus tells us that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).  With an improper attitude toward money, money, rather than being a blessing for good, is a curse.  For more information about stewardship, please contact Max Buban.

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If you are currently worshiping at Holy Trinity in person, or looking for added incentive to do so, we are currently looking for people interested in helping serve as ushers, lay readers, hymn leaders, and/or assisting ministers.  Whether you’ve served in this way previously or not, we’d love to have you join the team.  Any necessary training will be provided.  Please contact Laura Hudson at laura.hudson@engagedbygrace.org to find out more.

As we gather anew at church, we are reorganizing our care of the building and property.  For the sake of deep and thorough cleaning and disinfecting, we have hired CleanTurn to perform our regular cleaning of ministry areas within the building.  In terms of the building and property care, we are expanding Doug Myser’s role as Director of Operations to include coordination of all our contractor services like cleaning supplies, fire inspections, and heating and cooling.  He will also convene a new Property Volunteer Corps which will meet monthly to review a punchlist of property and maintenance projects in order to determine which they want to address themselves and which should be hired out to a contract handyman.  If you would like to learn more about this ministry, please contact Doug Roberts, Council Partner for Property, or Doug Myser directly.

What brings you contentment?  A glowing fireplace and a good book?  Maybe it’s a career with opportunity for advancement and a large balance in your checking account.  Maybe it’s a devoted spouse and loving, obedient children.  These are all blessings from God, but Paul tells us that the secret of contentment is not found in things.  “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,” he writes in Philippians 4;12-13.  “I can do everything through Him Who gives me strength.”  For more information about stewardship, please contact Max Buban.

A Daily Dose of Good News

 Tuesday, August 4, 2020

This devotional is offered online at https://youtu.be/NEdr8uak9nQ
and will remain available throughout the day and the week.

A printer-friendly version of this devotion is available at DDGN 20200804

Good morning everybody!  It is August 4- I feel like that’s a pop quiz… (laughs)  It’s time for our Daily Dose of Good News which is from Deuteronomy 26:1-15.

When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.  When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns, 13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments: 14 I have not eaten of it while in mourning; I have not removed any of it while I was unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God, doing just as you commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey.”

 Here ends the reading.

I read this today and I was struck by the thankfulness that is offered in this passage, and the idea that we offer praise and thanksgiving.  In this case, they bring this bundle of apples, this basket, and set it down before the Lord.  Maybe it doesn’t say apples exactly, but I was picturing apples.  (Laughs).  Anyway, I wanted to kind of remind us, that we are in a land of milk and honey, as much as it might not seem like it right now. And we do have much to be thankful for. Anybody watching this can be thankful that they don’t have Covid, or that they are recovered from Covid and it hasn’t killed them- this virus which is deadly.  That is something to be thankful for.

In this text, they recount the story of their oppression and their affliction and how painful it was. And certainly, many of us feel afflicted now.  But God brings them out of that, brings them to a land flowing with milk and honey, and they stop and appreciate it, they stop and notice it.  I wonder how much is around us right now, which is like a land flowing with milk and honey that we’re not noticing, and that we’re not looking at- with all the stress and drama and strife around us. That we’re not focusing on at all.  So, today, I encourage you to find something to offer to God, as a way to say:  ‘Thanks for being with me through this, even though it’s been hard.  (And the pandemic has been hard). ‘But, thank you that I’m still here. Thank you for whatever is in front of me that I can be appreciative about. Help me find the things to be thankful for and to notice them’.

So, some of that can apply to me here.  So, we’re going to take a small, little field trip.  I noticed yesterday when I was mowing my yard, that there are a group of flowers.. (if I can get my gate open!  Hold on… there we go…).  There are a group of flowers on the other side of my fence- and I didn’t know that. So look at this!  Look how beautiful this is!  It’s this whole big bush of these beautiful little, or big, flowers.  There are like- I don’t know- a hundred of them, maybe here.  I didn’t even know they were here.  They’re on the other side of my house.  (My fence is here- can you see my fence?  So, this is my house).  I was mowing along this side, and suddenly, saw this huge bush of beautiful flowers.  So, I’m going to be sort of like the people who went and brought things to the altar. I’m going to clip some of these flowers. I’ve got two here now, but I’m going to come back and clip a whole bunch of them and just be thankful for it. Just be thankful for something that God gave me that I didn’t even create.  I didn’t plant that flower bush.  I don’t even know what kind of flowers they are- but they’re beautiful!  I can appreciate it and I can be thankful for that today.  I can welcome that and say ‘God, what else?  What else do you have in front of me that I haven’t noticed, and I’ve overlooked? And I’m not even looking in that direction to be thankful, so just turn my head and help me see it, and help me appreciate it’.  So, I encourage you, in your space, whatever that looks like today, to go find something- maybe that’s flowers out of your yard, maybe it’s something that is your favorite dish in the house, and you have breakfast on that dish, and you thank God for it.  I don’t know what it is. But I ask that you ask God to help you see it, know it, remember it, and be thankful for it.  Amen. Have a great day everybody. Bye-bye.