A. Grace Wenger: Every area of a Christian’s being belongs to God

“No one can buy his way out of responsibility by giving money, no matter how generously he gives. Every area of a Christian’s being belongs to God as surely as every part of a slave’s person belonged to the master who had purchased him in the marketplace. Not only the fraction a Christian gives, but every cent that he keeps, is God’s. The Creator owns not one day of the week, but seven. A Christian’s worship, certainly, but also his work and recreation, his getting and spending, his visiting and entertaining, must be done as unto the Lord.”

A. Grace Wenger in Stewards of the Gospel (Herald Press, 1964) 12 (ed).

“Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself, it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.”

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest entry on January 6.

“One of the universal principles of stewardship is that I can hold on too tightly and lose everything, but it is possible to give away and become richer. The spirit of selfishness and hoarding trumps wisdom and blocks me from the subtle insights as to what and when I should let go. The tighter I grasp on to something, the more I squeeze it right through my fingers and it is gone…What I hoard I lose… What I grasp too tightly, I squeeze right through my fingers and it is gone. But what I give away and plant in the lives of others returns to me in multiplied measure.”

James W. Jackson in All That is Not Given is Lost blogpost for August 21, 2012 by Winston-Crown Publishing House, Ltd.

Are you envious because I am generous? Matthew 20:15b

“The story is as clear as it is unexpected. Whereas we take it for granted that harder work deserves greater payment, this employer operates on a less conventional basis. The reader instinctively sympathizes with the aggrieved workers in vv. 11-12: it doesn’t seem fair. The retort of the landowner is of course technically correct: no one has been cheated; the agreement has be scrupulously observed. Why then do we still feel that there is something wrong? Because we cannot detach ourselves from the ruling convention that rewards should be commensurate to the services rendered…But the kingdom of heaven does not operate on the basis of commercial convention. God rules by grace, not by desert…The God who is generous far beyond what could be expected is never less than just.”

R.T. France in The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007) 748, 751.

“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics (2002) 177.

“Material increase is a gift of God to his children. Such goods are to be used wisely and sparingly for oneself and one’s family. Any excess earned is to be shared with those in need, first with those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10), and then with others in need.”

Menno Simons (1496-1561) founder of the Mennonite movement, as quoted in an essay by Jacob a Loewen in Anabaptist/Mennonite Faith and Economics, ed. Calvin Redekop, Victor A. Krahn, and Samuel Steiner (University Press of America, 1990) 42.

“Employ your riches with kindly devotion, and thus root out evil from your hearts. All that has value in your lives you must concentrate in the persons of the poor, and so anoint your heads with devoted giving.”

Paulinus of Nola (354-431) Roman Senator whose family had great wealth. He gave it away after his conversion. In 394 he became Bishop of Nola, in Ancient Christian Writers, vol. 40 (Newman, 1975) 326.

“Our use of possessions demonstrates materially where we are spiritually.”

Wesley K. Willmer in God & Your Stuff (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2003) 9.

“If we view ourselves as owners, we will live with a certain set of values. If we view ourselves as stewards, we will likely live with another set of values…

Owners value taking possession of, holding title to, and having control over. And the more possessions one amasses, the more property one takes title to, and the more things one maintains control over, the more powerful an owner one becomes.

Stewards, on the other hand, value a different set of things. For instance, stewards take joy not in what they possess, but in what they have been entrusted with; not in how much they lay title to, but in what they have access to use; and not in what they control, but in what they have available at any one time to manage most effectively on the owner’s behalf and in the owner’s best interests…

Ownership is a tremendous value in the society we live in as Americans. In fact, it is part of our American dream. Interestingly, however, it’s not particularly a value for people in the Kingdom of God. Know why? Because in the Kingdom, ownership is the sole privilege of the King. It all belongs to Him.”

Denny and Leesa Bellesi in The Kingdom Assignment: What Will You Do With the Talents God has Given You? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) 69-70.

“Anything that is not given is lost.”

Mother Teresa as recounted by David R. McCurry in Called to Give: Stewardship and the Christian Faith (2010) 105.