I found out this week that I have to change the name of these weekly e-mail reflections. Apparently eReflections is already taken by someone on the web, and he owns the copyright to that name. I'm not sure how he got it, but possession, as they say, is nine-tenths of the law. The expression first appears in the English language in 1833, according the exhaustive Oxford English Dictionary, originally in the form of "possession is nine points of the law." Apparently the saying can be traced to an ancient Roman law about possessions, but I suspect it's a mind set that is rooted in our fallen sinful nature.

Back when the wandering tribes of Israel were about to enter the promised land around 1200 B.C.E, "land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper" (Deut. 8:9), God warns his chosen people, "When you have eaten your fill...do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth; But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today" (Deut. 8:12a, 17-18).

God is simply reminding Israel and us of what one Christian writer calls "life's fundamental reality, that God is the owner of all things, and we are simply his stewards." (Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions, and Eternity: 172)

This Sunday is what we call "Commitment Sunday," which usually caps our "Stewardship Season." That's a strange term we use for the few brief weeks each year that we remind ourselves of our financial responsibility to the church, and are asked to make our pledges of money, time and service for the coming year.  (By the way, if you don't have a Commitment Card when you come on Sunday, don't worry, we've got you covered.)  But I pray that our stewardship emphasis can be more than a yearly excuse to ask for your support. I hope it can be a reminder to all of us that possession really is in no way nine-tenths of God's law. Rather, everything we have really does belong God. Stewardship is simply what we do with God's stuff... and it's all God's stuff.

The story is told of a distraught man who furiously rode his horse up to John Wesley, shouting, "Mr. Wesley, Mr. Wesley, something terrible has happened. Your house burned to the ground!" Weighing the news for a moment, Wesley calmly replied, "No, the Lord's house burned to the ground. That means one less responsibility for me."  (Alcorn:171)

That's the mind set of a Fully Devoted Follower of Christ. Over the next three Sundays, I'm going to explore some aspects of what it means to take this "fundamental reality" of our lives seriously. Hope you can be there with me.

Following Christ with you,

Pastor Erwin

OTHER NOTES:
We now have a new shorter URL for our website: www.northpresbyterian.org Check it out.
I'd love to have you join me for the special city-wide service for prayer for the Billy Graham
  Mission, this Sunday, 4:00-6:30 PM, at Paul Brown Stadium.