Matthew 19:23 (stewardship)

* Welcome God every morning before work by taking ~5 min to read this Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group devotion (life-devotions.blogspot.com), which has snippets from Living Faith (livingfaith.com). All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Col. 3:17

Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:23

Living Faith snippets: "God generously bestows blessings upon us so that we, in turn, may be transformed into blessings for others. From a Christian perspective, money confers upon its recipients the obligation to acknowledge the blessing of wealth as principled stewards. We need to remember that the doorway of heaven narrows whenever we act as though our wealth represents power to be wielded over others." by Phillis Harris-Brooks

Rich's comments: Stan Lee, the writer for Spider-man comics, wrote "With great power comes great responsibility." You might not have been blessed with Spider-man's web throwing abilities, but if you have been blessed with wealth, you might understand the difficulty in sharing what you believe you have worked very hard for. One way of looking at it is that everything belongs to God including our wealth. God gave you the abilities to earn that money. You might have heard the story about the man who offered his money to God by throwing it up into the air. The point that the man probably missed in his gravitational exercise was that God wanted him to take the responsibility of enriching other's lives. Lord, help me to understand my responsibilities as a steward of Your gifts. Help me choose to use them in a way that builds Your kingdom. Amen.

ProLife news: http://www.lifenews.com/.

Our Prayers: Abortion, chastity, our enemies/our troops, natural disasters, depression/ despair, dementia, cancer, prisoners, Liz Curry (Drew, 2 yr old, kidney tumor surgery recovery)

Faith Quote: "Live simply so that others may simply live." by Mother Theresa

Through Christ Our Lord,

Rich

Romans 12:12

* Today's Bible readings at www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml. Reflection on readings at http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html
* Prayer: Prayer connects us with God's will & His miracles, thereby changing us & helping others. Wayne Watson lyrics, “When God's people pray, there is hope reborn, there is sin forgiven, and miracles you can't explain await!” "If you pray that God will move a mountain and He doesn’t, assume Christ wants you to climb it instead & see Him."
* Defend the unborn: 'Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die' (Prov 24:11). 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you' (Jer 1:5). 'It is a great poverty that a child must die that you might live as you wish' Blessed Mother Teresa. Prayer to End Abortion. Ask Blessed Margaret of Castello for her prayers to end abortion.
* Evangelization: Let's make room for non-believers (be a friend, make a friend, lead friend to Christ) and perpetual re-evangelization of self and those near us, by way of daily prayer (relationship) and following Christ's example of selfless love, mercy, and service.
Let's joyfully live out the Good News and gladly tell others about it (Mark 16:15)!