October 31, 2023
Dear Friends,
One more word about Stewardship as we head into Stewardship Sunday (catch up on where we’ve here, here, and here)!
If you haven’t picked up a worksheet, you can still grab one at church. You can drop your pledge in the offering basket on Sunday, or you can leave it with me in the office anytime and I’ll get it to the Financial Secretary.
I pray that the exercise of thinking about your giving has been fruitful for you. As with other spiritual disciplines, like fasting, it pinches. Sometimes it’s excruciating. What’s painful about it, however, is the reaction of our sinful flesh. The Old Adam must daily be put to death, and he does not like it one bit. All discipline hurts for a time, but in the long run it yields “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” That’s my hope for you — that in this exercise of faith, you’ll trust more and more all the time in your Savior. He loves you, has made magnificent promises to you, and rejoices when you commend yourself entirely to his care.
In other news, the St. Cloud Circuit is exceptional. I’m exceedingly thankful for the pastors and congregations who are walking together with us in the Christian faith – Concordia is in great company! We’ve been working together on a lot of things, and one is a bi-monthly newsletter. Here’s the second issue:
You can grab a printed copy on the table outside Heidi’s office at church. Also, check out our new Circuit web-site: https://www.lcmscloud.org/ Thanks to Pr. Reber for getting the ball rolling on all of this!
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs
COMING EVENTS:
Wednesday, Nov. 1 @ 6pm – Small Catechism Bible Class