Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
What Stewardship Really Is
December 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It seems to me there’s a misconception about the word stewardship among Christians. We tend to only think of it as the management of finances according to the Bible. The truth is finances are really just one area of stewardship. Money happens to be the area of stewardship that gets the most attention in our culture, and unfortunately we haven’t improved much if any. Many of us have developed a negative connotation for the word stewardship because we associate it only with giving, or more specifically being asked for something. But this post isn’t about financial stewardship specifically. I’ve talked a lot about how financial stewardship is balancing giving, saving, and spending according to God’s word and God’s will for each of us in our relationship with Him. For this particular post I want to open our minds to the idea that stewardship is about a lot more than just finances – it’s about our total devotion to following Jesus.
First let’s take a look at the definition of the word stewardship. On dictionary.com the first definition of the word stewardship is:
“the position and duties of a steward, a person who acts as the surrogate of another or others, especially by managing property,financial affairs, an estate, etc.”.
This speaks to why we consider stewardship all about finances or things very directly related to finances. What I like best about this definition is the clear explanation that a steward is a person “who acts as a surrogate of another or others”. In other words a steward is a person who manages stuff that belongs to others and does it for others not self. Nothing in this definition suggests that there is anything in it for the self of the steward. A steward manages for the benefit of others above self, period. It’s their duty.
Let’s look at the second definition on dictionary.com:
“the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving”
This definition also speaks to the duty, or responsibility, and then adds the word protection. So a steward manages what belongs to someone else responsibly and even protects it. Now notice the next part of the definition that says, “something considered worth caring for and preserving.” This is the part of both definitions that struck me. A steward manages things worth caring for and preserving. What are things “considered worth caring for and preserving?” This is why I don’t believe Godly stewardship is all about money, because God is so much more and blesses us with so much more than just money that we should steward for Him responsibly and protectively.
Time is one resource God blesses us with. James 4:14-15 warns us to use our time wisely for God’s will. We only have so much time in this life. We should be making the best use of our time every day.
Talent is another resource God blesses us with. Romans 12:4-8 speaks of the abilities God gifts to us and encourages us to use them for Him.
Relationships are also a blessing from God. Our stewardship of relationships should begin with the family. Ephesians 5:22-25 speaks to how married couples should steward their relationship. Ephesians 6:1-4 speaks to how parents and children should treat their relationship. Then there’s all other relationships we are to steward – our friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. James 2:8 love your neighbor as yourself. John 13:34 love one another just as I (God) have loved you. 1 Peter 3:8 love one another, be compassionate and humble.
Influence is another gift God bestows on us to steward for his glory. Matthew 5:13-16 says we’re the salt of the earth and light to the world to be used for God’s glory. That’s influence! I hope you’re starting to see how our thoughts and attitudes about these different areas of stewardship are meant to be interwoven into how we steward our entire life for Christ.
Money of course is the resource we think of most that we all know is intended to be stewarded for God, but it seems we struggle with it the most. Matthew 6:21 & 24 teach us where our treasure is our heart will follow and we cannot serve both God and money. Doesn’t it stand to reason that if we value (with our heart) how we’re stewarding the other areas of our life (the non-financial ones listed above) that our treasure (how we manage money) will demonstrate that? Does it not stand to reason that if we’re struggling to keep this focus in our heart that we might be serving money rather than God?
Let’s talk a little more about how the different areas of stewardship are interwoven…
Time is money – right? We have to invest time in doing work in order to earn money. Any time spent serving (working for free – from the goodness of our heart) is a sacrifice of money that could have been earned with that time. (However, that time is NOT a substitute for giving money. Far too many Christians are using their sacrifice of time as an excuse to not be obedient and faithful to God’s call to give.)
Time is also invested in developing talent. Whether it’s going to school or being coached or practicing or all of the above, developing our talent costs us something – usually both time and money. That talent is then used in the work we do to earn money (or at least it could be).
To build relationships we have to invest time, talent, and money. It takes time to serve others, talent to perform that service, and the money it costs to sacrifice the time, develop the talent, and bless others through generosity. 1 Timothy 5:8 and 1 John 3:17 challenge us to take care of not only our own family but for anyone we see in need. In both passages the challenge is presented in the form of questioning whether or not we’re even believers in Christ unless we steward our resources for others.
All three – time, talent, and money – should also be used for the purpose of being a good influence – key word GOOD. There are way too many stories of resourcefulness being used for selfish, evil, or otherwise bad influence rather than good. Despite all that bad, God has provided all of us the resources to overshadow all the darkness in the world by doing truly selfless acts of service and generosity.
As more of us steward our influence for good, we naturally develop more and better relationships with those around us. As more of our relationships are guided by good influence, we become more united – of like-mindedness that is mentioned in 1 Peter 3:8. As more and more people experience God’s goodness working through us, an exponential multiplication of our collective salt and light floods the darkness of this world until no one can ignore or deny the glory of God.
It all starts with each of us stewarding everything we’ve been blessed with for the purpose of spreading the love of Jesus. All these different areas of stewardship have to work together to make up how we’re stewarding our life. They’re like cogs in a wheel, and weakness in any one of them is a compromise to all of them.
My prayer for us all is that we’re seeking God’s prompting in any one or more of these areas to know what we need to be doing to serve Him better. Stewardship is not a way of money alone. It’s a way of life – following Jesus.
Ambition Fueled by God
November 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
One of my favorite authors of all time, Zig Ziglar, says, “ambition, fueled by compassion, wisdom, and integrity, is a powerful force for good. It will turn the wheels of industry and open the door of opportunity for you and countless thousands of other people. But fueled by greed and the lust for power, ambition is a destructive force that ultimately does irreparable damage to the individual in its grasp and to the people within its reach.”
Why do we want that promotion or raise? Do we want the added authority or income for greedy ambition or is our motivation truly for good ambition?
Where does such compassion, wisdom, and integrity come from? For me it comes from following Jesus.
The bible teaches us that whatever work we set out to do to do it as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23-24). It also teaches us not to be greedy and power hungry (Pilippians 2:3) and that we can’t serve both God and money at the same time (Matthew 6:24).
Any work we do might be because we need money. But it doesn’t have to be fueled by that. If we’re truly doing it as unto the Lord then it can be fueled by compassion, wisdom, and integrity while simultaneously providing income. But if it is fueled by money alone it can lead to greed and power struggle which leads to the destruction mentioned earlier.
So one lesson in this is to remind ourselves to constantly consider – how do we keep the proper perspective in whatever we’re doing to make sure our posture is that we’re doing it as unto the Lord rather than as unto selfish desires?
Sometimes we hate the work we’re doing and this can be a good reminding word of encouragement that we’re not doing it for our happiness. We’re doing it in pursuit of Gods holiness and His purpose for our lives. When we truly do that and believe God to guide our direction we can be used in unexpected ways or even see unexpected opportunities come our way. Open your eyes to see how God uses you right where you’re at. How can you do that well one day at a time, starting today?
Rejoicing
June 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Natural inclinations – weak, short sighted, selfish, human. In moments when situations and circumstances are great we rejoice, and maybe give some credit where it’s due (thanks to God). In seasons of difficulty, when the proverbial poop is hitting the fan, we tend to be angry, confused, and fearful.
Emotion clouds our judgement and leads to thoughts and actions that are far from the rejoicing we’re taught about in 1 Thessalonians. It isn’t unreasonable to believe that the further we are from rejoicing the further we are from God’s will.
As I reflect on the circumstances of the difficult season my family has been through recently I realize the fruit of going against the natural inclination, the fruit of rejoicing instead of worrying, questioning, or being frustrated. We’ve experienced an outpouring of support spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially. God has worked through everyone around us to prove faithful to His promises to never leave us and never forsake us, to be our source of strength, and to provide our every need. For all those things we are humbly and overwhelmingly grateful.
None of those things are the fruit of rejoicing though. What if we didn’t experience all those wonderful things, or if none of it happened in our expectation of time, or if we didn’t have the wisdom to recognize or acknowledge them when they happened? Would we rejoice anyway? The fruit of rejoicing is not what we’re getting or experiencing when things are good, and it’s not whatever we’re hoping to eventually have or experience when things are bad. The fruit of rejoicing is… Joy. Do you have it?
Everyone Is a Leader
February 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In basically every corner of culture there’s talk of ‘leadership’ this and ‘leader’ that, which can be a good or bad thing depending on the context, motives, and attitude. I think I’ve hinted around my thoughts about ‘leadership’ on here before, but in this post I want to make one thing perfectly clear. EVERYONE is a leader.
We’ve all heard some form of the phrase “the life he/she is leading”. There you go – we’re all LEADING a life. In my opinion the greatest authority on the subject of leadership is John C. Maxwell. He says that the most difficult person to lead is yourself. That principle makes all of us a leader of at least one – self.
The greatest lesson my parents taught me about leadership is “lead by example”. They took every opportunity they got to tell me, “remember who you are”, and, “lead by example”. I always took that from them to mean, “follow God’s word and be who he’s prompting you to be; and follow the example we’ve set for you, and set that example for others no matter what others are doing”. My parents aren’t perfect, but they’re darn good people. I feel the same way about my wife’s parents. Of course we have our differences from our parents, but generally speaking they are some amazing examples to follow.
If you’re a terrible leader of yourself it doesn’t matter what your position is, who you know, who else is following you, what you know, or what you’re doing. People might be following what you’re doing regardless of whether or not they truly know you, but your leadership is limited to how much people trust that the image you portray is truly the example you live for those who do really know you. I pray every single day for wisdom and discernment with that trust, and that I steward well any trust others have in me.
Everyone has a self to lead, and how well we lead that self is the greatest indicator of our strength (aka character) as a leader (aka person). Are you an example worth following?
Deflated Balls & Church Nonsense
January 22, 2015 by 1 Comment
The major question dominating sports world at the moment is, “Did the New England Patriots deflate their balls”? First of all – Eww! Second of all – who gives a rip?
Ok – so maybe deflated balls give you some sort of advantage in some way on the field. I played ball enough to know there’s only a few instances where it matters if the ball is a little softer, and I can’t imagine how it’s a game changer in most of those instances. But ok – there are rules. For every normal person upset about this I have one question – will it prevent you from watching the Super Bowl? I sense the answer is a resounding “NO”.
Here’s the thing – we’re crazy about the Super Bowl. Of course, we want to see our team in it, but the fact of the matter is we don’t care who is in it – we’re still gonna watch. It’s a great night for anyone who can appreciate the game and for the rest who just watch for the commercials and will eventually appreciate the game if they keep watching. I could care less if Tom Brady was in on it – he’s always been a too much of a pretty boy to me anyway. I’ll be watching the Super Bowl.
This whole discussion reminds me a little bit of drama my pastor is going through lately. You might have heard of him – he’s the guy under a lot of fire right now for “changing” the 10 commandments. He’s Perry Noble.
I don’t “know” him on a personal level. I think he might just maybe know me by name if he saw me in public, but that’s only because of mutual friends and 11 yrs of faithful attendance. But I still call him pastor.
I don’t “know” his heart beyond what I see from a distance on a stage, but I do believe there is good in him beyond what he gets credit for in situations like he’s in right now.
I’ll be among the first to say the man isn’t perfect. There are times I want to stand up in church and say “shut up Perry – you ain’t as tough as you think you are” or “think about what you’re saying” – you know, in those times when he comes across very arrogant. But that would be incredibly inappropriate in church, wouldn’t help anything, would misrepresent my own character (as if some people aren’t reading this and judging me anyway), and ultimately would do nothing to advance the kingdom. Perry isn’t perfect. Shocker! None of us are. But I can’t say I’ve ever disagreed with the biblical basis of messages I believe Perry is trying to teach regardless of whatever attitude he sometimes clouds it with.
The whole scandal of the 10 commandments message is another one of those cases, and it’s being blown way out of proportion – IMHO (in my humble opinion for you acronym-less peeps). I was in that service and I thought it was a fantastic way of presenting the 10 commandments as promises to those who need hope rather than a checklist for those who think they’re keeping all 10 of them. So he mistakenly stated there is no such thing as the word “commandment” in the original translation. Who really cares, and why? That’s a detail. He apologized like a real man – accept that and move on. The point of the message was this – Don’t let your inability to keep “10 commandments” keep you from walking into a relationship with Jesus, because quite frankly none of us can keep those commandments – Instead think of them as promises, which might be a better translation of the original text anyway. It was a great message – I left feeling very encouraged in my own walk with Christ.
Put on top of that the whole “N” word nonsense (don’t get me started) and goodness gracious Perry has taken a real beating lately. You might say his balls are deflated. You might even say it’s discouraging and makes you not even want to go to church. My question would be this. If something stupid like deflated balls doesn’t stop you from watching football why would it stop you from going to church?
Skip the super bowl of church (NewSpring) if you want (I personally sometimes find the hype of all the “branding” a bit distasteful too), but don’t skip out on church just because you don’t like a player. Find somewhere to do regular season church.
Standing Up to Bullies
January 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It seems bullying is getting a lot of attention these days. We’ve experienced it a little with our kids. The whole idea of bullying wasn’t getting so much attention wayyy back when I was a youngster, but it’s not like bullying is a new thing.
I think the biggest problem is kids aren’t being taught to stand up for what is right. We’re teaching our kids tolerance of everything and then wondering why no one stands up to the bullies of the world. We model for our kids an unwillingness to stand up for ourselves or someone else because of the fear of what our actions might cost us.
The root of this problem, and many other problems in life, is selfishness. The bully is a selfish person, obviously, and I don’t want to get in to all the possible reasons why. The bottom line is bullies, and lots of other types of narcissist behaviors, all boil down to being selfish.
But isn’t it just as selfish to be aware of bullying and fail to address it? The right thing to do would be to try and stop the bullying. But we’re more concerned about what doing the right thing might cost us than we are about doing the right thing. We’re willing to sacrifice a lifetime of building the character and integrity it takes to do the right thing more than we are willing to sacrifice whatever temporary consequences another person can inflict upon us. This self-preserving mentality is passed on to our kids and they either get bullied or ignore someone else getting bullied, so bullying continues.
There’s a saying, “Nice guys finish last”, and I believe the reason that proves true is because there aren’t enough generally good and nice people willing to stand up for what is right and get back up when a bully knocks them down. What do we have to be afraid of? I’d rather die a torturous death and still have some character and integrity intact than watch bullies beat everyone down my whole life and do nothing about it.
I hope I’m teaching my kids to do what is right no matter the cost.