Today’s ONE THING: “Step into Stewardship”

Currently I am reading a great book: “Simple Life”, by Thom S. Rainer & Art Rainer.  In their chapter on finances they wrote, “Odds are that the monthly interest you are paying on your credit cards could give a kid in Uganda a chance of surviving her childhood.  Maybe one in the Ukraine as well.  But our potential impact on that life is negated because in our abundance we choose not to be God’s stewards.”

I guess I’ve still got yesterday’s message on my heart but let me give you a hint on how to step into being God’s stewards – for I truly believe most of God’s people do want to do this.

Using the example given in the book “Simple Life”: most people grasp the concept of saving money by paying off debt and not giving away their hard-earned to their credit card company in the form of interest.  However, where we often stumble is that we are not intentional in taking that money and leveraging it for the cause of Christ.   That “saved” money sorta goes into the black hole of our checking book and we never bridge the gap between saving money and then putting it to work for the cause of justice and relieving pain and poverty in the world.

Take coffee for example…

If you choose to stop buying that 5.00-cup of coffee each day and instead go to a place where you can get a good cup of coffee for 3.00 or less.  What you have done is save $2.00…that’s good but that does not make you a good steward, that just makes you a good saver or wise shopper.  What makes you a good steward is taking the 2.00 you’ve freed up and leveraging it for the cause of Christ somewhere in the world.

And when I say “leveraging” I mean:

• Taking that 2.00 per day, per work week, per month, per year and putting 520.00 to work for Christ
• Also, taking that 2.00 per day and teaming up with hundreds of other Christians and caring people and making a major impact somewhere in the world.
• For example if 73 people move from Starbucks to McDonald’s coffee and save 2.00 per day five days a week – in a year they could underwrite the entire budget of our Panama orphanage.
• And that is how you become a good steward and hear our Savior say, “Well done!”