"A GOOD STEWARD"

Good day everyone and I want to welcome you back to another devotion. Today we want to look at the topic of stewardship as mentioned in the Bible. First, let us define the word from two different perspectives. First from the worldly view;

"Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given household servants to bring food and drinks to a big castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something one does not own." "One employed in a large household or estate to manage domestic concerns (as the supervision of servants, collection of rents, and keeping of accounts)."

From a biblical perspective it is similar in many ways but with greater importance. One of the Greek words used is, "oikonomov, oikonomos, oy-kon-om'-os; which means a house-distributor (i.e. manager), or overseer, i.e. an employee in that capacity; by extension, a fiscal agent (treasurer); figuratively, a preacher (of the Gospel):--chamberlain, governor, steward."

From either definition it is the idea of one person taking care of the belongings of another. The idea from God's Word seems to show, first, Christ as a steward of the things of God. He was to do only the Will of God in His dealings while on earth, and He did. Then prior to His ascension into heaven He left His disciples with the same idea of being stewards of those things they, and we, are to do faithfully until His return. Peter was given what was called "THE KEYS" to the Kingdom, The Church, in Acts 2 and he was a good steward of those things given him and the rest of the Apostles as he preached on The Day Of Pentecost.

Those keys are the same keys we are to use as good stewards of God's kingdom and without changing any one of them to accommodate man. A good steward of the things of God means we are to deliver them as HE has stated and not how we might think best for our world or culture at the time. Looking at many congregations today, it seems that the ideas of "intelligent men"(?) have over-ridden the things of God's Word. Man, then, becomes not the steward, but the one who makes the rules and laws by which others will follow.

Paul, as he is inspired of God's Holy Spirit, tells us in 1 Corinthians 4:1, "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. (2) Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy." (RSV)

So, I want to encourage each of us not to treat God's Word as a smorgasbord and pick and choose what we want and do not want. Let's take it all as He has delivered it to us and "DIMINISH NOT A WORD" (Jeremiah 26:2).