Everything means EVERYTHING!

For those of you who have been checking out my weekly blog I apologize for not posting the last two weeks. One of those weeks I was on vacation, but last week I just kept forgetting to get it done. Hope I didn't discourage too many of you from visiting. Here are my thoughts for this week.

Does everything really mean every thing? A few weeks ago in my men's Sunday school class we were talking about finding balance in our financial life (the preachers favorite subject don't you know). In our discussion the scripture of 1 Chronicles 29:10-14 came up. Let me just give it to you here.

David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

"Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
¹¹ Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
¹² Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
¹³ Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.

¹⁴ "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

One of the things I always communicate to my congregation about bible study is to always look for things that are repeated. I think it ought to be obvious to us that if God felt it necessary to repeat something in His word to us then this is obviously something that is important to us, or at least it should be. Do you see any words repeated in these verses? Here it is "Yours or Your". Those words are repeated six times (according to my count) in the NIV translation. It certainly seems that God wanted to understand something about this life. I think it is clear God wanted us to understand that EVERYTHING was from Him and we are merely stewards or borrowers of His things!

As I look at those verses it seems almost audacious for me to talk about "my job" "my house" my money" "my time". If I truly believe the words God gave me then these are not "mine" they are HIS and I am to use them for HIS glory.

Maybe these are some verses we need to tack up on our refrigerators to help us remember that ALL we have belongs to God and we are stewards of HIS resources. Are we being good stewards or are we misusing or abusing His resources?

Have a Great week!

Pastor Sheldon