Stewardship - Time and Money

Time and money, checkbook and calendar. Can there be any more difficult things to get right than how we allocate the precious resources of time and money? As I have thought about about how good stewardship is a habit, I had to review my week to see where the fault lines in my life were. I’ll give you the travel log Sunday but most of the things that cause me stress, anxiety, and worry center around time and money!So what do we do about this? Is money evil? Does redeeming the time mean we are always in Bible studies? Hardly. One look at Jesus (the living image of obedience to God) and you see him not leaving the culture around him or retreating from the demands of everyday life; no - he dove in. Jesus loved to throw lavish feasts and participate in lavish gatherings around food and drink, and he does this without censure or condemnation. In fact, it was the religious crowd that tried to throttle Jesus. Jesus hallowed marriage, and thus sexual desire, as a human good. Jesus wasted time in long conversations at people’s houses and put people off while he could hang around with children. Jesus never condemned money, in fact he told us to make friends with it. However, Jesus was very realistic about money. He called it “mammon.” In other words, money is so powerful, it has almost the power of deity.So what is the solution to the tensions we live in with money, time, and desire? Stewardship. Jesus never condemned “things and stuff,” he condemned the inordinate love of them. God, in fact, gives us physical things that answer the deep desires he also gave us. Stewardship is the habit of grace that helps us not make “good things,” like money, sex, time, children, marriage, or status, into “ultimate things.” None of these can save us, only Jesus can do that.So join me Sunday as we talk about the wonder of a God who would loan us all this good stuff to use for his glory and to be a blessing to others!Blessings,James M. Holland