Stewardship

The Biblical Basis for Living

By Ben Gill
Summit Publishing Group, $19.95

ISBN 1565302087

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Every Moment is God's Moment

Review by Clay Stafford

The dedication of our lives in the service of God can be boundless, but it is ours alone. Our responsibilities cannot be absently deferred to others, purchased by money, transferred thoughtlessly to missionaries or clergy, or reserved for weekly Sunday morning collection in a basket. Our life is to be a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1) moment to precious moment. As lowly stewards purchased by God, we have been bought to serve. These are the ideas behind Stewardship: The Biblical Basis for Living.

"Over the years we have raised up laypeople, clergy, and educators who have no understanding of the biblical basis for stewardship. They believe stewardship is about money. They do not understand that it is about life."

The words stewardship and Christianity are virtually interchangeable in Ben Gill's presentation. "One in every six verses in the Gospels treat some aspect of stewardship," he writes. Servitude is vital, crucial, and the very lifeblood of our creation by God.

"The Christian cannot be satisfied as part of the new creation to limit stewardship to sporadic episodes of giving at the appointed times and places. . . All of life becomes a temple, every act the act of a priest, and each moment a shining possibility of stewardship." So much so, the Apostle Paul calls the human ability to give to others a gift given by God (Rom. 12:6 8).

"God is always calling out to us to be His trustees, and we must always in grace be responding to that call." Our lives are never complete nor do we ever find our place. We are constantly evolving, forever searching, continually adapting, and endlessly answering the subtle call and needs of God to serve. "God in His goodness thinks so highly of the human being that He trusts him to administer that which belongs to God."

Only the Bible mixed with one's own personal circumstances can provide a complete list of the many ways a Christian may give to God, as Gill observes, but the scholarly author does offer many contemporary examples with suggestions pertaining to the economy, education, environmentalism, genetic technology, health care, leisure activities, money, parenting, peace, personal thoughts and time, and even stewardship in death.

Wherever there is a human experience, there is an opportunity to transform it in His name. Most of Gill's suggestions are referenced as to how similar problems were handled in biblical times and are explained in the historical conditions and practices of the Israelites.

The first chapter may be a bit too self-congratulatory to Christians (and even insulting to non-Christians) and may require an unabridged dictionary, but the rest of the book is easy to understand. If one cannot make it through the first chapter without frustration, skip it. The second chapter begins with no beats missed.

We are now trustees of a world "which God entered and redeemed." This entrance by Christ "has rent the veil and made the entire world the holy of holies." God sacrificed His Son for us not only for the purpose of redemption, but also as an example of Christian sacrifice.

"Stewardship begins with the comment: 'I'll give me.' All else follows as sunrise follows night." Stewardship: The Biblical Basis for Living will help readers experience the act of giving in a new light, a Christian brilliance, a continual obligation and privilege to serve, an imperative earthly mirror of eternal illumination.