VALLEY VINE Valley Presbyterian Church
November 2015
Volume 60, Number 10
Dear friends, Within the human story there are special places and particular moments where reputations are won, where fortunes are made and where lives are enabled. Prizes are given in Stockholm for discoveries in science that forever identify the winners as Nobel Laureates. On baseball diamonds, legends are created in October. Football heroes are identified in January under the glare of Super Bowl lights. It is when plays sell on Broadway, when critics applaud at Carnegie Hall, when paintings are unveiled at the Getty, that artistic endeavors acquire the patina of greatness. Fortunes are created and success acknowledged when the bell is rung on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
So does the Kingdom Story unfolding all around us. Each of us plays a different part in that story, a unique role, determined by our particular talents and opportunities. But all of us can advance the plot by being generous. Generosity is the great equalizer in Christian endeavor. For generosity is proportionate and not absolute. No matter what we own or how much we earn, whether rich or poor, we can be generous in proportion to our income and capacity. Generosity is a shared task, because through generosity, the other kinds of work are made possible. Without generosity, there is no witness offered, no justice sought, no love embodied, no comfort given. Generosity is the footnote in every Kingdom sentence. God celebrates, and will reward, all we do and say in His name – especially our generosity. I hope you can attend November 22 and celebrate the reality of this generosity. If you come and listen carefully, you will hear the applause of heaven. Yours faithfully,
In every area of human endeavor, there are stars and pioneers. I will never be among them. Most of us never experience these rarified moments of recognition and acclaim. We will never lead a fourth quarter drive to win a championship, close out a seventh game, grace the front of the Wall Street Journal, push the frontier of science back, or captivate a crowd whose paid eagerly for the privilege of experiencing our creative talents. Yet within the Kingdom Story, within the everlasting story of grace and redemption, you and I can earth the applause of the citizens of heaven, and the grateful regard of our Creator God. Heaven values our acts of faithful kindness, our triumphs over temptation, our fruitful witness, our hard-won integrity — these too are marks of greatness. The earthly story has its heroes with their dazzling talents.
Valley Presbyterian Church
6947 E. McDonald Drive ▪ Paradise Valley, AZ 85253-5342 Phone: 480-991-6424 ▪ Fax: 480-991-6427 Email: church@myvalleychurch.org ▪ Website: myvalleychurch.org
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