Fundamental Doctrines And Practices Of Stewardship

By Daniel O. Ogweno

Stewardship is a very central matter for everyone, not just believers but, yes, everyone. On the surface, it shouldn't be difficult to pay attention to big things, but we are bound to miss the big things when they are still at their initial stages. The reason is that the cumulative effect of the small things we tend to ignore will soon make a small deal a big deal. This book takes you through doctrinal and practical facets of stewardship that you haven't probably thought about before. You are almost guaranteed to be steered away from the popular thoughts about stewardship into something insightful and refreshing.

In this book, I intend to interact with the reader to show the importance of the departments of stewardship and how they point out at what can correctly be described as 'the object of the first assignment at the beginning and the subject of accounting at the end. In the process of interacting, I pray that the reader’s eyes will see the fundamentality of stewardship in the management of life generally. What we do on daily basis as far as life and resource managements are concerned gives us opportunities to do intermediate accountings. The latter is important as both rehearsal and reappraisal for the ultimate accounting before God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel O. Ogweno
• Release date: Sep 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310571671

Daniel O. Ogweno

Ogweno holds Bachelor of Education (Moi University, Kenya) and M.Phil. in Mass Communication and Media Studies (University of Bergen, Norway).He is the founder of Christ is Lord Ministries—Worldwide (Cilmin—Worldwide).He has a call in conflict resolution based on the virtues of Christ. He summarises his call as follows: “Mine is to bridge the gap between doctrines/theology and practice both for leaders and individual Christians."Ogweno ministers internationally in conferences, seminars, workshops and church settings. He is available for itineraries.Married to Laura Caroline Ogweno, they are blessed with three kids: Victor, Jim-Jif and Baraka. He and his family reside in Norway where they are active in a local church (Christian Fellowship—Skien).

Book preview

FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES

AND PRACTICES OF

STEWARDSHIP

Stewardship: The Object of The Initial Assignment;

The Ultimate Subject of Accounting

Daniel O. Ogweno

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Smashwords Edition

Published by Daniel O. Ogweno at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 by Daniel O. Ogweno

All rights reserved.

Fundamental Doctrines and Practices of Stewardship

By Daniel Owino Ogweno

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work.

Thank you for downloading this e-book. I am very much willing to let my readers share, reproduce, copy and distribute this book to friends and acquaintances, etc. for non-commercial purposes, this, however, is technically minimized because I have engaged commercial distributors. They may not be keen to distribute a book that after being bought by one person, is redistributed near and far for free. If you feel this book is worth reading, recommend it to your networks that they may get a copy of their own. We rely on the book proceeds or offerings to fund the ministry and to give alms. But if for one reason or another they are not in a position to get their own copy, you are free to share with them your copy. There is no price to touching someone’s life. I value touching lives more than making money.

One more request: Write a short (or long if you like) review if you can and post it where you purchased the book, or elsewhere where the book is displayed. This is a very important source of feedback to me as an author. Your review will also help other readers decide whether to read the book or not. With that, may the Holy Spirit guide you in your actions. Thank you for your support.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Authorized Version (King James Version) of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org).

When a scripture reference is marked with a specific version, e.g. NIV, etc. it shows the recommended version in relation to what is being discussed.

Unless otherwise stated, all italicized portions of Bible quotations are author’s emphasis.

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To My Readers,

May the pricelessness of your integrity,

Manifest in a life of accountability,

To prove the gist of Christianity,

Preparing you for eternity.

May you play in the league of selflessness

As you frustrate and defeat selfishness.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgement

Preface

Part 1:

Branches of Stewardship:

Identify; Produce; Manage; Distribute

Chapter 1—INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF STEWARDSHIP:

You and the Things You Own Are Owned

Stewardship: The Initial Assignment

God’s Copyrighted Property

Here to Glorify Christ

The Stewardship of Time

Talents and Abilities

Stewardship Over Information

Memorial Stones and Landmarks

Stewards of the Word

The Vertical Word Puzzle

Putting Things into Perspective

Summary of the Scope of Stewardship

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 2—FOR YOUR CONSUMPTION:

Things Meant For Personal Use

In the Beginning

This is For You to Eat

Kicking Stones With New Nice Shoes?

When We Have More and When We Have Less

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 3—FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:

Things Meant Only To Be Seen

Don’t Even Think About It!

Curiosity Killed Mankind Before it Killed the Cat

Stewards Over People

Respect What Belongs to Others

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 4—FOR YOU TO SHARE OR DISTRIBUTE:

Things For You to Pass Along

Something Miraculous About Sharing

Sharing Necessitates and Sustains Multiplication

The Difference Between Contribution and Distribution

Two Types of Contributions

Share Even if You Have Good Reasons Not to

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 5—FOR YOU TO INVEST:

Things Meant For Production And Re-Production

God Gives Resources to Invest

Investment is Not Only for Businessmen

The Most Demanding Form of Stewardship

Mobilized By Attitude or Magnitude?

The Means of Production and the Capital

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 6—FOR THE RAINY DAY:

Things To Save For Hard Times, Expected And Unexpected

Cows Eating Cows

Lessons from Scarcity and Abundance

Depleting the Source

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 7—TO LEND OUT:

Things That You Lend Out to People Who Seek to Borrow From You

Impatient Generation

The S.W.O.P Ministry

Lending Or Giving?

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 8—FOR YOU TO LOSE:

Things That Will Be Stolen From You

The Thief is More Lost Than What He Has Stolen

Radical and Paradoxical

It Costs to Test Honesty

Will You Let Go?

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 9—FOR YOU TO…:

i)… Keep For Others

The Integrity of a Custodian

ii)… Offer For God’s Work

A Pleasant Offering Unto God

Your Discretion Reflects Your Devotion

iii)… Separate As Tithe

Tithe Belongs to God

The Law of the First Appearance

Have We Fallen Away?

Justification for Tithing in the Dispensation of Grace

Scrutinising the Motive

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Part 2:

Challenges to Stewardship:

Distractions; Aberrations, And Shrewdness

Chapter 10—MISAPPROPRIATION AND ABUSE OF AUTHORITY:

Using Things For What They Were Not Initially Meant

A Noble Venture to Justify Misappropriation

The Snare of the Intervening Opportunities

The Shrewd Manager

Defrauding Others in Order to Preach the Gospel?

It is Easy Invoking God’s Name

What Did You Do With Ten Thousand Bags of Gold?

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 11—TEMPTATIONS, EXTORTIONS AND HOARDING:

Giving In To Temptations Because You Have Genuine Excuses

Borrowing Temporarily

Extreme Temptation

Are You Rich?

Rich According to the Scripture?

The Savings of a Miser

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 12—COMPARISON AND COMPETITION:

Using Possession or Lack of it to Position Self or Others in the Scale of Significance

A Teacher is Better than a Farmer

Belittling What You Have and What You Are

Thinking Big or Thinking Small

Different People, Different Abilities, Different Assignments

Talents and Abilities Put to Competitions

Giving Put to Competitions

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 13—COVETOUSNESS AND ENVY:

Wanting to Have Things that Belong to Others

The Boundary is Thin

Covetousness: The Mother of Bigger Sins

Envying the Prosperity of the Wicked

God’s Favour Translates Work Into Success

When Weights and Measures Aren’t Standardized

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 14—GREED AND SELFISHNESS:

Wanting to Have Everything for Self

Jesus Refuses to Arbitrate Between Feuding Brothers

Greed Knows No Rest

Corruption: A Perfect Recipe for Troubled Life

What is Your Price Tag?

Greed Doesn’t Give Back Change

Mr. Hare and Mr. Eagle: A Story of the Wages of Greed

Greed Eliminates Common Sense

Greedy at the Top, Generous at the Bottom

The Good Samaritan: An Exception or a Rule?

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 15—CONSUMER CULTURE:

Buying in Conformity to Social and Psychological Dictates

Mass Production and Mass Consumption

Buying Things Because They Are On Sale

Buying Things Because They Are Trending

Buying Things Because of Status and Image

Buying Things Because of Their Utility and Necessity

Buying Things Because of Their Aesthetic Value

Other Small Scale Influencers

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

Chapter 16—PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND WASTAGE:

Missing God’s Intention of the Interdependence of Humanity

Earth Can Feed Her Inhabitants

Murmuring About Strangers?

Global Trends

Reflections and Questions to Ponder

NOTES

EPILOGUE

Appendix

About the Author

Other Books By The Same Author

Acknowledgements

My sincere indebtedness first and foremost to You my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Unto You I owe my very life. You gave Your life that I may live; You made way for the Holy Spirit to make an abode in my body, making it a temple of God. Thank You Lord Jesus, I truly love You!

I am forever indebted to my wife Laura Caroline Ogweno. I sincerely love you. To my sons: Victor Ogweno, Jim-Jif Okinyi (deceased) and my daughter Baraka-Norine Awuor, I must say that you are my most precious gifts from God.

Esther Nduta, I acknowledge your being an encouragement and a true friend in the ministry. Like an athlete, I know the value of drawing strength from a ‘cheering voice.’ Thanks also for the anecdotes you shared with me. Last but not least, I am grateful for the material support to the ministry God has given me.

My gratitude to Everline N. Owiti and Godfrey Nalianga for the warm refuge I usually get in your house whenever I’m in town (Nairobi). Thanks Eve for proof-reading the manuscript despite your busy day-to-day commitments.

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Preface

If there are things we would really want to manage, they are time and money. That is where the test and the weight of stewardship bears heavily. On reflection, I realized that sometimes we don’t take note of the little things we spend money and time on. They are little but they are significant—not only cumulatively but even otherwise. Spending time just relaxing may be as important and sometimes more important than working on something.

It is difficult to keep record of little things. I think these might be the things Christ will use to judge our vigilance. In Matthew 25 for example, Christ talks about things that were done by those who loved Him and these people are not even aware they did those things. They must not have kept record. If they were big things, they surely would have remembered so that when Christ says, I was hungry and you fed Me, they would respond: Yes, we remember, we did it!

As the reader goes through the introduction below, it is possible to get the impression that this book is scolding material prosperity. It is not. I have done the scolding elsewhere—in so far as it warrants its scope to be released from the confines of materialism.

This book is about, yes, stewardship. The reason prosperity is mentioned is to call the reader’s attention away from prosperity to stewardship. A steward is one who manages another’s property, finances, or other affairs. There has been an overemphasis on prosperity, but prosperity is not what we do, it is what results from what we do. What we do is stewardship. In fact, prosperity is a guaranteed natural product of good management. If this is appreciated, things will fall into place as I have noted in the introduction below.

In this book, I intend to interact with the reader to show the importance of the departments of stewardship and how they point out at what can correctly be described as the object of the first assignment at the beginning and the subject of accounting at the end. In the process of interacting, I pray that the reader’s eyes will see the fundamentality of stewardship in the management of life generally.

What we do on daily basis as far as life and resource managements are concerned gives us opportunities to do intermediate accountings. The latter is important as both rehearsal and reappraisal for the ultimate accounting before God. This book challenges the reader to be conscious about the fact that everything we do calls for a sense of responsibility and accountability.

In stewardship, we have a blueprint in what is expected of us in our relationship with God, one another, time and the environment of resources around us. In stewardship we have the-what we are expected to do; the-how we are supposed to do it; the-when we are supposed to do it, and lastly the-why we do what we do. The whats, the hows, the whens, and the whys can be so pliable that it is not possible to come up with a standard description of each. Their influence vary from person to person, time to time, and situation to situation, etc.

When I saw the significance of stewardship, I wondered why there is not as much enthusiasm in this matter as its primacy demands. I have since become an ardent believer in teaching stewardship. In it we learn not to be idle; we learn to manage the resources and account for them, including the very little things. If one is to prosper, it will come as a by-product of being a good steward.

We are perpetually surrounded by many demands to the extent that we feel bombarded. This means that we need to have a clear understanding of the weight of the concerns around us. If we correctly understand this, we will be in a position to prioritize accordingly and appropriately.

The assignment God gave us at the beginning remains. We only get fulfilled if we accomplish or remain in the right course of accomplishing the purpose of our life.

It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will quicken the Word of God and illuminate the insights shared in this book so that the reader will have a moment of inspiration. May the said inspiration not only inform but also transform the reader’s life accordingly. It is also my prayer that the said moment of inspiration will not be a momentary inspiration but one that will become part of the reader’s everyday life until the life is fully lived; the purpose wholly fulfilled, and eternity devotedly secured. May the grace be abundant for this. Amen!

I wish you a blessed reading and a practical living.

Ogweno D.O.

Skien, Norway

August, 2015

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Part 1:

Branches of Stewardship:

Identify; Produce; Consume; Manage,

and Distribute

Introduction to Part 1:

In this section we are going to look at the importance of identifying who we are; the talents and resources that God has given us. This process starts with the acknowledging the fact that we ourselves belong to God. It should also be a matter of immanence that all we have belongs to God.

If we successfully keep ourselves aware of the fact that we belong to God and that He also owns everything we have, it will be clear that we will ultimately give an account about our stewardship. We are going to stress the importance of producing what should be produced; utilize what is meant to be utilized; save what is meant to be saved; distribute what is meant for distribution and generally manage everything in a way that glorifies God.

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—Chapter 1—

INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE

OF STEWARDSHIP:

You and the Things You Own

Are Owned

"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine."

—Isaiah 43:1.

Your life is not exclusively yours; you are only its steward. Your life belongs to God, and you will give an account about what you did with it.

Stewardship: The Initial Assignment

The doctrine and practice of stewardship is one of the most ignored aspects of Christianity today. The story of creation shows God’s preparation for man’s arrival. The Creator started by creating resources, defining the framework of time and availing space for man.

As man drew his first breath and became aware of himself; aware of God and aware of his environment, he must have known by intuition; by instruction and by interaction Who placed him there and Whose environment he was inhabiting. He would take instructions of life from the Life-Giver.

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

—Acts 17:28.

The above scripture was the apostle Paul’s quotation to men of Athens of their own ‘pagan’ philosophers and poets (Cretan philosopher Epimenides and Cilician Stoic philosopher, Aratus). Their God-consciousness had left them with superstitions and belief in an unknown God. The most important thing here is that even the pagans know there is a God.

Let us consider the very first statement God made to the first couple after He created them:

… Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

—Genesis 1:28.

That was the introductory statement God made to man! That statement remains true today as it was then. In that introduction was packaged a work that would be intensive; a supervision that would be extensive and a fruition that would be impressive. In it is embodied an enormous power; a laborious assignment and a wondrous wisdom. But what word can capture the whole essence of the magnificence of the above statement other than stewardship! God had availed the initial resources. Man would take over in order to manage them. This is why he was created. In the process, if he took the due responsibility; embraced an unassailable integrity and engaged in daily accountability, the result would be multiplicity, sustainability and authority over the realm that had been given to him. And the bigger picture of his allegiance to God would constitute the worship of the Creator.

Things went so wrong when man’s integrity and responsibility were compromised. As a result, accountability was a disaster and a desperate attempt to take refuge in a blame-game started in earnest. Ever since, man has tried in vain to get things to work as was originally intended. But thank God: the coming of Jesus ushered a new era with an offer of a second chance to rectify the original error. It was only through a divine initiative that restoration could be achieved.

If we listen to the Holy Spirit and refuse to listen to the flesh and the devil, we can get it right again because the instruction is out there. If we are willing, we can appropriate this instruction so that it can indwell us. The Spirit that used to call from behind saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left (Is. 30:21) can now call us from within because He lives in us (1 Cor. 6:19).

God’s Copyrighted Property

I heard about a story of a young man who was not a good son to his father. At the father’s deathbed, he called for his son in order to speak his last words to him. Unfortunately, his last word was bad news to the young man.

Because the father was about to die, he wanted to give out inheritance. Because the son had not been good to him, he told him to choose only one thing amongst all he had, the rest he would give to the servant-slave who had faithfully served him over the years. The son was devastated. He thought he would inherit his father’s estate, but he was shocked to hear that he could only inherit one thing. What to choose became an extremely difficult decision.

The work would be intensive; the supervision would be extensive and the fruition would be impressive. The statement embodied an enormous power; a laborious assignment and a wondrous wisdom.

He didn’t have much time to decide. The condition of the father deteriorated with each passing minute, he could pass on any minute. In an inspired moment, a thought dropped in the son’s mind: Choose the servant! That did the deal. By choosing the servant-slave who was to inherit everything, the son ended up owning the servant and everything he (the servant) had. The point is that the person who owns you, owns everything else you have.

While the son owned what he owned by inheritance, God owns us and everything we have by authorship. We are, in other words, copyrighted property of God. Even after man sold himself to the devil, God paid the infinite ransom to get man back. The coming of Jesus to our world was precisely a demonstration that God was determined to get us back. But we have to be willing to accept the invitation and honour the reconciliation by receiving Christ into our life.

For those that have heeded the call. The Bible says:

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

—1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

—1 Corinthians 7:22-23.

From the above, it is clear that we are not just going to account for material things, but also for our own bodies and everything that constitute our being. Elsewhere, for example, the Bible says that a man is a slave to whatever masters him (2 Peter 2:19). Any kind of addiction means that the addicted person is ‘mastered’ by the stuff of his addiction. If we destroy the body with cigarettes, for example, we are not being good stewards of the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is categorical enough to warn: If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1 Cor. 3:17).

Knowing that we belong to God, taking care of ourselves is honouring the Owner of the house.

Managing the body is therefore an act of stewardship. In marriage, for example, a lady takes good care of her body to make herself beautiful and attractive for her husband; a man shaves off his beards because the wife doesn’t like them. The wife’s body is for the husband and the husband’s body is for the wife (1 Cor. 7:4). It is like God saying to the wife: Woman, I give you this body for your husband, go and give it to him! And to the husband: Man, I give you this body for your wife, go and give it to her!

When a woman honours her husband with her body, she glorifies God. Likewise, when a man honours his wife with his body, he brings glory to God. Honouring God and glorifying Him is using whatever He has given us according to the instructions He gave us.

When a man is good to his wife, she will thank God for giving her the husband. When a wife is good to her husband, he will also thank God for the wife. Anyone who mistreats his/her spouse is depriving God of gratitude that the partner would have given Him. It is like being given something to deliver and failing to deliver it. The person who was supposed to receive the consignment cannot thank the sender because he hasn’t received what was sent.

The reader has probably heard somebody say: it is my body, I can do whatever I like with it! Or, It is my life, I am free to do whatever I like with it! What a lie! The question is: where did we get our body, and where did we get our life? As we have seen above, our body and life belongs to God. We get fulfilled not by self-preoccupation but by serving God through serving others within the divinely prescribed values and virtues.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others…. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

—Philippians 2:4,21.

Recently, I told my son that although he had turned 18 and according to the law of the land, he is now a grown-up, free to make his own decisions, I still ‘own’ him. He doesn’t cease to be my son and I don’t cease to be his father. I don’t stop being responsible to advise and guide him because now he is an adult.

If somebody’s life is his own and he can decide whatever he wants to do with it, why do people close to him (relatives and friends) lose sleep whenever his bad decisions boomerang? Why do they have to dig deep into their pockets to sort the person out if his bad decisions result into financial woes?

When somebody suffers because of misbehaving or making wrong decisions, we may say that we don’t want to have anything to do with his suffering but the truth is that we will be emotionally pained. This means that if we fail to be good stewards of our life, we will not only cause problems to ourselves but also to people around us. In the same way, God is not pleased whenever our rebellion leads us to sufferings.

Here to Glorify Christ

Jesus died our death that we may live His life. We belonged to God by authorship but even after we sold ourselves to Satan, Jesus came and purchased us back to Himself. This is why the Bible says:

… [Jesus] died for all, that they