Written by: John Sernaque
Stewardship
CCh - Counsels for the Church (1991) Chapter 48—Counsels on Stewardship
Offerings of Thanksgiving to Be Set Aside for the Poor
In every church there should be established a treasury for the poor. Then let each member present a thank offering to God once a week or once a month, as is most convenient. This offering will express our gratitude for the gifts of health, of food, and of comfortable clothing. And according as God has blessed us with these comforts will we lay by for the poor, the suffering, and the distressed. I would call the attention of our brethren especially to this point. Remember the poor. Forego some of your luxuries, yea, even comforts, and help those who can obtain only the most meager food and clothing. In doing for them you are doing for Jesus in the person of His saints. He identifies Himself with suffering humanity. Do not wait until your imaginary wants are all satisfied. Do not trust to your feelings and give when you feel like it and withhold when you do not feel like it. Give regularly, ... as you would like to see upon the heavenly record in the day of God. {CCh 280.4}
Christians who walk by the homeless without stopping to help them in some way need to ask themselves if that is proper behavior for a Christian. Jesus did not have a place to lay His head, yet He went out of His way to help the needy. Yet there are churches and leaders of churches who do not care to help the needy, but instead spend an enormous amount of money to sustain their lifestyles of the rich and famous. They use the funds that members willingly give to support the needy and further the work of the gospel for their own purpose, but that is of no matter to the greedy and selfish robbers of God’s treasury. They choose to serve themselves and in so doing are choosing to serve Satan. Choose ye whom you will serve. For me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Our kind and heavenly Father,
We humbly come before You to thank You and praise You for being so good to us. For providing for all our needs in abundance, that we may be able to help others in need. As You did not shun the poor and went out of Your way to help them, we pray that we may receive Your traits of character to do as You would, and not walk by our less fortunate brethren in need. We are sorry and repent of our sins, and we ask for the forgiveness of our sins. We pray for strength that we may labor to acquire means to continue supporting the work that You have appointed for us to do. All the Glory be to You dear Lord. These things we ask and pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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