Stewardship and Responsibility

by Pastor Jess Foglesong (paraphrasing Pastor Roger Patzer)

God created human beings and placed them on this earth, and gave them the responsibilty of Stewardship. And why should we be responsible to God and why should we function as stewards rather than as owners? It seems that in today's progressive world, it is assumed that we are owners of this world, as well as every aspect of our physical enviroment. God is the Creator! God is the Owner!

Isaiah 41:5.6: Thus speaks the Lord who is God. He who created the skies and stretched them out, who fashioned the earth and all that grows in it. Who gave breath to its people, the breath of life to all that walk upon it. I the Lord have called you with a righteous purpose and taken you by the hand. I have formed you and appointed you to be a light to all peoples; a beacon to the nations ...

Isaiah 40.26: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, consider who created it all ...

Because God is Creator, He is owner of all.

Psalm 50:10,12: All the beast of the forest are mine and the cattle in thousands upon my hills. I know every bird on those hills, the teeming life of the fields is in my care. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it are mine.

Haggai 2:8: Mine is the silver and mine the gold, says the Lord of host.

The creatorship and the sovereignty of God become the basis of our role and response as stewards. The word responsibilty implies that responsible actions are in response to something. As stewards we are responding to the fact of God's ownership, acknowledging His soverereignty as Creator. This acknowledgement implies that we are creatures, subject to the lordship of God. Those who rebel against this notion are in effect challenging the very sovereignty of God, refusing to acknowlege Him as Creator, owner and Lord. A believer (a christian), on the other hand, is no longer a rebel, no longer seeking to be the center of everything, but instead acnowledges that God is the center.The believer responds to God is not only based on the sheer might or power of God as Creator. More is involved. We can respond to raw power purely out of terror. But God does not wish the service of fear. A believer responds out of reverance, certainly, but of equal importance is his response out of love and gratitude for the goodness of God. When God created the world and its inhabitants, He pronounced them good. The environment God created for humanity was good and He gives good gifts.

James 1:17: All good giving, every perfect gift, comes from above, from the Father of the lights of heaven.

All gifts from God are an indication of his love for us, as is the supreme gift of God to this world: His only Son: the Christ, Jesus: who brings salvation and eternal life. In our worship of God we are responding to His inestimable, priceless gift of redemption in the Christ.

1 Corinthians6:9: You do not belong to yourselves, you were bought at a price.

God's love, justice, mercy and righteousness were all revealed and disclosed by His Son -- culminating at Calvary. Giving us the freedom to become responsible and responsive to Him. God gave us the responsibility as stewards of the world, and the gifts imbedded within, for us to enjoy and utilize, as we wish. And the knowledge that we are the caretakers only, and not the owner. For God alone, is the Creator!

God's best is always for you -- today!