Discipleship - stewardship

Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Shortly before his death, the legendary film producer Cecil B DeMille wrote this beautiful meditation:

One day as I was lying in a canoe, a big black beetle came out of the water and climbed up into the canoe. I watched it idly for some time. Under the heat of the sun, the beetle proceeded to die. Then a strange thing happened. His glistening black shell cracked all the way down his back. Out of it came a shapeless mass, quickly transformed into beautiful, brilliantly coloured life. As I watched in fascination, there gradually unfolded iridescent wings from which the sunlight flashed a thousand colours. The wings spread wide, as if in worship of the sun. The blue-green body took shape. Before my eyes had occurred a metamorphosis--the transformation of a hideous beetle into a gorgeous dragonfly, which started dipping and soaring over the water. But the body it had left behind still clung to my canoe.

"I had witnessed what seemed to me a miracle. Out of the mud had come a beautiful new life. And the thought came to me, that if the Creator works such wonders with the lowliest of creatures, what may not be in store for the human spirit?" 

This week a we consider our response to God’s gift to us, we too may well ask “what may be in store for us” as we take our stewardship of his bounty seriously.

John Wesley said, :”Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?” 

Lord, giver of life and source of freedom, I know that all I have received is from your hand.
Gracious and Loving Father, You call us to be stewards of Your abundance, the caretakers of all.
You have entrusted to us. Help us to always use Your gifts wisely and teach us to share them generously.

Send the Holy Spirit to work through us, bringing Your message to those we serve.
May our faithful stewardship bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our lives. We pray with grateful hearts, in Jesus’ name. Amen