Taking care of ourself is good advice! Cold Spring Presbyterian Church provides resources for you to experience the abundant life through Christ, and all of us invest a great deal of our time, energy, and attention in accomplishing our whole-life wellness, which we can call our standard of living. We pay attention to all aspects of our life, our mind, body, and spirit, too, because our time, energy, and talents are exchangeable for the resources we need to maintain or 
improve our standard of living. The Bible speaks a lot about our standard of living, the standards we adhere to that show our love for God and others, and how we measure the standard of living we achieve.
This week, we will consider an often overlooked and misunderstood parable of Jesus about a business manager and how he traded his time, energy, and attention to achieve his standard of living, but forgetting its relationship to his standard of giving. (Fun Fact: Did you know that 38 parables deal directly with money? Yes! And in the Bible, more than 2,000 verses are about money and possessions!)
Pastor Kevin’s message, Standard of Giving, Standard of Living about a dishonest manager will help us all learn how to make the best, even shrewd, decisions, and teach our families to do the same, as we spend, save, and give, each according to our own unique life experience.
Hear the word. Internalize the word. Share the word! Catch up on recent messages at www.coldspringchurch.com/sermons.
Everyone is welcomed to attend our Fall Harvest Supper in Price Hall, Sat., Oct. 5 at 5 PM. Please invite your friends for wonderful food with a surprise or two planned for your enjoyment as we begin the Fall season.
You may use it to give you peace of mind, and to locate a missing item. There are several companies like TrackR that offer a super tiny electronic tracking device you register to your smart phone and attach to a item of value, like your key ring. Should you misplace your keys, “Beep. Beep. Beep.” You not only hear the signal, but you can open your smart phone and locate the missing item on a map. TrackR’s tagline: Find more. Search less.
Hi. I can’t find my iPhone. Will you help me? Thanks. Press the AppleWatch face here… great. Hear that beep? Where is my phone? Will you search for it with me? Yeah, you found it!
We sometimes overlook, or misunderstand, the revolutionary character of Jesus’ message. This week’s text from Luke 14:1, 7-14, is worth taking a closer look. Jesus’ advice was to, “not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors to your luncheons, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.” Instead Jesus declares that his followers (that’s us!) should invite those who have no hope of ever repaying their host— those he so-called “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” In other words, those so-called outcasts who can never promote their hosts’ status, and whose presence at table will most likely pull down their host’s standing in the community social structure. Wow. Hospitality occurs when the stranger and neighbor and the excluded are intentionally invited and included! All are welcome means, well, ALL are welcomed (and intentionally invited, sought out, and brought!).