This title came to me several nights ago when I got out of bed to pray. I am sure it was given to me by the Holy Spirit, but I’ve been slow to write the piece because I’m not sure I have a complete understanding of the definition in the application. Nevertheless, I will now try to flush out my thoughts, as God has strongly encouraged me to do so. The application is the statement that Christians are the stewards of salvation, in the sense that by our lives and actions, we prove up the availability as well as the validity of the great salvation we’ve been given.
When I was fourteen years old, my father gave me a .22 rifle for my birthday. In my generation, fathers giving their sons their first rifle was an unspoken rite of passage, just as their fathers had done for them. Upon receiving the gift, my father could see in my eyes that my whole world had instantly changed, and it triggered his fatherly “responsibility” speech, which I am sure he placated my mother with by promising her he would give it. As I sought the Lord about what I was to write in this piece, the Lord reminded me of my father’s speech and gave me two points I needed to bring out. As the Lord said to me, the first point is this: every gift comes with responsibilities, especially the gifts of God. Our received gift of salvation comes with responsibilities, and we need to be aware of it.
God left us in the world and immersed us in the world’s systems for reasons He considers important. As Israel’s biblical history was to serve as an example to the rest of the world, we Christians are to serve in the same capacity, not only to other Gentiles, but also as examples to modern Israel. The unchristian world of both Jews and Gentiles needs to see through us, the real God of the Bible. They are not interested in Christian doctrine, per se, as much as they are desperately needing to see something “real.” Stated simply, “If God is real, as you say He is, then show it.” If we do anything else, we are, in effect, only trying to sell unbelievers an eternal insurance policy, available through varying kinds of religious club memberships.
The second point I was shown is simply that every life on earth has a unique rhythm that is readily discernable to God. Every animal, every plant, every human being, and every life exudes a unique rhythm, and God makes this rhythm discernible to the chosen elect as they encounter true believers, and at a predetermined time, what we say and how we live our lives finds fertile soil in their souls. God is the only person who always knows the perfect, right time.
Another point of our stewardship is that we were purposely left on this earth after our salvation, in order for us to interact with the world – at God’s direction. There simply can be no other cogent reason. We have been left here for a divine purpose, which does not include hiding inside the walls of our chosen religious clubs we call denominations. We are the Church; the denomination we attend is not. Can you grasp that, in its depth? Many good Christians that I know cannot! If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, you are the church, and you gather together with other believers in order to help each other grow up in God. God gave us the downpayment of the Holy Spirit in order to lead us into the (unique) maturity we each should be living in.
This is so critically important that just before His crucifixion (Acts 1:4-8) Jesus told the disciples to go nowhere until they had received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and only then could they be the power-filled witnesses He called them to be – to the whole world. How many of our denominations have completely, totally, and ruthlessly missed this command? It is anything but difficult to understand. It is right there in black ink on the white pages of our Bibles – read Acts 1: 4-8 and try to grasp the awesome simplicity of it. There should be no mystery at all why our modern churches are losing members, but they wouldn’t have to search for how to be relevant in our generations if only they had taken God at His Word instead of redacting His Word with their particular doctrines.
We believers are responsible before God for how we live out His Word in our lives by our words and actions before a spiritually starving world. He will have His Church; the question is, will we be a part of it?
John Miltenberger
Photo: Grok AI
To read more articles by John Miltenberger, click here.
Read More About: Bible Answers
