CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP

My home assembly, Bethlehem Community Church, has a new member class, which is called “Christian Stewardship.” In this class, a threefold commitment is taught on the premise that it is the responsibility of believers to share their time, talent, and possessions in the service of God.

Our first commitment is to God. Before anyone, and anything He comes first. Our behavior often reflects that in our mind, and world He is not important and we commune and fellowship with Him when it suits our convenience; however, this is a false notion. God affords us the privilege of having an intimate relationship with Him, the creator of the universe, the beginning and the end, the One who is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and the judge of the whole earth; yet, we treat Him like He is a mere acquaintance. He allows us to choose whether we will serve Him, whether we will obey His word and adhere to His principals. If we love Him and are committed to Him, we will keep His commandments.

Our second commitment is to serve. All believers are called to be a servant, but unfortunately, a large percentage of believers are just pew sitters. They get involved as little as possible, come late, leave early and have a lot to say about how their church is run.

In several of His parables, Jesus uses percentages to describe the actions of believers, and unfortunately, it is never the 100% that are producing or having a positive result. For those in leadership positions, I believe He was trying to alert them to the productivity of believers; thus, they would not be disheartened when they experienced the apathy that is found in their local assemblies.

In the New Testament, Paul in a number of his writings shares that God has placed each believer in the body as it pleases Him and has given each of us gifts to use for the edifying of the body. No one is better than another, each has a specific part to play, and when a believer is missing in action, the body is not functioning up to its full capacity. Sadly, I can honestly say we have many malfunctioning bodies.

Our third and final commitment is to give. This giving is tithes and offering. I find offerings are usually not an issue because that is left up to the giver’s discretion, but I am amazed continually by believers who are non-tithers; yet, they request prayer for God to provide them with material things. They either do not know the Word, or they think they are exempt from tithing. Before I join people in their prayer request my question to them has become, “Are you a faithful tither” If their answer is, “sometimes” or “no” I share scriptures on tithing, and then my prayer becomes God help them to do what they supposed to do to reverse the curse that is existing in their life.

In my lifetime, I have numerous testimonies on how God blessed me financially, and I believe in accordance with His Word, He is blessing me because of the monies that I have willingly given. I believe and experience the song, “You can’t beat God giving, no matter how you try. The more you give, the more He gives to you.”

In closing, it is my hope and prayer that from this blog, you realize Christian stewardship is vitally important. As we are about to start the last quarter of this year, I encourage you to take a self-inventory in these three areas of commitment and either make the necessary changes or keep up the good work, so that you can hear the words of Christ, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”