Pastors Ponderings and February Newsletter
PASTOR'S PONDERING
Pastor’s Ponderings –
So what does it mean to be a steward of the grace of God? Paul calls himself a servant of the Gospel. He talks about the administration of God’s grace. These are references made in Ephesians 3. Paul was a steward of the grace of God; a caretaker, an overseer. He knew his calling was to make all people see what the stewardship of this grace was all about.
I know it sounds kind of wordy, or confusing. I’ll cut right to the chase, because it is very important. To be a steward of the grace of God, is to accurately handle the Word of God. To be a servant of the Gospel, as Paul talks about, is to live your life in such a way that you correctly handle, correctly teach, and correctly live out the Word of truth; every day. Listen; to be a recipient of God’s amazing grace, and to be a steward of that same grace, are two different things. To be sure; you cannot be a steward of the grace of God until you have first been a recipient of it. But we are called to be a servant of the Gospel, just as much as we are to be saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. This is the “administration of God’s grace,” that Paul is referring to.
Far too many Christians are content to be saved by God’s grace and leave it at that. To be a steward of that grace is too great of a commitment. It means I have to live out, every day, what I say I believe on Sunday mornings. “I don’t know if I want to go that far.” It means correctly living out the Word of truth all week long; in public and at home when nobody can see me. “I don’t know if I want to make that kind of a commitment.” “Can’t I just be saved by God’s grace and leave it at that?” Well, it’s not what we’re called to do, we are called to do more.
Listen. We live in a day that may very well be the final days of the last days. How we live out our lives in these last days is so crucial. The call upon Christians and the call upon the church is to be very involved in the wonderful administration of God’s grace. What if there was one more great revival, one more great awakening to come before the end, one more great and mighty move of the Spirit of God that would sweep across this land, and perhaps across the world, before the return of Christ? How could you not want to be involved in that, playing whatever part God had for you to play in what could be the last great awakening? Too many people pour their energy into things that won’t last for eternity. But we’ve got bigger fish to fry, spiritually speaking.
