Lutheran Witness: August 2018

Meet Lutherans past and present whose faith has profoundly shaped both their lifestyles and their financial decisions in our August issue on wealth and poverty, money, possessions and generosity.

Contents:

From the President: You shall not steal

Features:

Trial by wilderness —  Mark A. Loest

Remember the poor — Matthew C. Harrison

When you see a panhandler — Steven D. Schave

Traveling light — Rachel Bomberger

A Lutheran view of Dave Ramsey — Jonathan Conner

God and money

Moving to the mission field — Monica Naumann

Trusting God in war and peace — Megan K. Mertz
This article first appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of Lutherans Engage the World magazine)

Departments:

world views: A monthly news column from Gene Edward Veith

searching scriptures: Praying for our daily bread — Anthony Oliphant

bene+diction: What did you expect? — Kevin Armbrust

From the editor

There are some passages in the Bible that make me more uncomfortable than others. Anything dealing with the Sabbath, for example. Or persecution. Or submission. Or hell.

Or money.

As a native-born citizen of one of the wealthiest societies in human history, I can’t help but squirm sometimes when I read what the Scriptures have to say about wealth and poverty: “Go, sell what you possess and give to the poor” (Matt. 19:21). Surely Jesus is using hyperbole, right? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24). He’s got to be talking about
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, right? Not me. I’m not that rich.

And on and on it goes.

But just because a topic makes me squirm doesn’t mean I shouldn’t face it and wrestle with it head on. I certainly should — and all the more if it hits me close to home. That’s exactly what our contributors have done in this issue of The Lutheran Witness, with a range of articles on generosity and money management, panhandling, downsizing, stewardship, daily bread and more.

May you be blessed and challenged by what you read here.

Rachel Bomberger
Managing Editor, The Lutheran Witness
lutheran.witness@lcms.org