Pastor’s Corner

Stewards of God 
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. 1 Peter 4:10 

This time of year, it is very common for people to be “thankful.” Even the unbelieving world around us can pause and appreciate all the stuff they have. But Christians do something unbelievers never can and never will do. We go further. We realize EVERYTHING we have not only comes from God, but everything also belongs to God. We are simply “using” those gifts from God for a while in this life. God is essentially “loaning” everything to us, just for a time. 

For example, think of the food we give thanks for. We did not create this food, God did. And God has loaned that food to you so you may eat. You have become a steward of that food. And after you eat that food which God has created it gives you energy to do . . . what? That could certainly vary. You could use the energy from that food and go out and shoplift, or shoot someone, or have a sexual affair. You could use the energy from that food to sin. That would mean we were a very poor steward of what God had entrusted to us. 

But we don’t have to sin. We could use the energy from food to speak God’s Word to others, to do good works God has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). You could use the energy from that food and sing praises to God. In short, you could be a good steward of what God has entrusted to you. 

On November 9th, we are going to celebrate “Stewardship Sunday” at Zion. For just this one Sunday all of our readings, hymnody, sermon and adult Bible study will focus upon “stewardship.” I know you may cringe when you hear that word thinking it is all about money, but I assure you money will not be our focus. Our focus will be very simple and yet profound: God has entrusted (loaned) everything to us for a time. Because of that, we are now all stewards (a person entrusted with managing something on behalf of God, with the understanding we are merely caretakers, not owners of those things.) 

After a while of entrusting everything to us, it will all return back to God. The question is this: how did we steward what God had entrusted to us? Were we poor stewards, hoarding God’s gifts for ourselves? Or were we faithful stewards realizing we own nothing in this life, and all of it has been entrusted to us, loaned to us, by God for a time. Stewardship is far more than something simple like “money.” Stewardship is about you, and you realizing everything you have, everything you are, is a gift to you from Christ. I hope you can join us on Nov. 9th!