10/18/19, Stewardship: Doing what is right with what is entrusted to us.

Hey PIU Students, this is the latest edition of the . . . President to Students (Pr to Ss) News.   Students Alumni, & Others who are listening in, The young lady in the picture is my youngest granddaughter, Ava. The dog is Lucy. They live in South Carolina. I should get to see all of my grandkids and both dogs, the other dog, Booker, lives in Texas. I just talked to my oldest grandchild, Christopher. I'll meet him and his sister, Carrington, for dinner on Monday evening in Louisiana. I'll get to see all my grandchildren, and speak at my home church while I'm on this big trip I'm taking. I leave in the morning. While I will get to see loved ones on my trip, it's not a vacation. Pray as I am involved in meetings, etc. related to PIU. I often hear that "PIU is a family." I agree. It is one of our virtues. I guess I'm kind of like the grandfather of the family, so I'm expecting all of you to take care of things while I'm gone. Victor Billy, Scott, and Mama Cel. will take charge of Clean and Green. C&G is one of the ways we exercise good stewardship. The principle of stewardship is closely linked to the concept of *grace: everything comes from God as a gift and is to be administered faithfully on his behalf. There is thus both stewardship of the earth and stewardship of the gospel; stewardship of personal resources of time, money and talents, and stewardship of the resources of church and society. Along with questions of mission strategy and support there are issues of personal and corporate lifestyle, just wages and fair prices, *poverty and wealth, all related to explicit or implicit theologies of the *kingdom of God, *work and *nature. Hillyer, P. N. (2016). Stewardship. In M. Davie, T. Grass, S. R. Holmes, J. McDowell, & T. A. Noble (Eds.), New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic (Second Edition, p. 869). London; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press; InterVarsity Press. I highlighted a couple of words that capture much of the essence of stewardship. Technically, when I use, or take care of something, that doesn't belong to me, I am a steward. Our Board is called the "PIU Board of Trustees." It could be the Board of Stewards. PIU doesn't belong to them, but they are responsible to care for it. In the New Testament the word "stewardship" comes from a Greek word that means to manage a house. In a wealthy home the slave who managed a house didn't own it, but he was to take care of it. He had to make sure it was administered faithfully. All of us are stewards. “. . . it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2, ESV) “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2, ESV) Stewardship of our bodies: High on the list of that which has been entrusted to us are our bodies. Those of us who follow the Lord know that our bodies are not ours (1 Corinthians 6:19), yet we have the responsibility to care for them. A friend of mine, a missionary, will say when he is going to do exercise, "I'm going to do some temple maintenance." Round is a shape, but it's probably not the shape the Lord wants us to be in. Stewardship of opportunity: Ephesians 5:16 says that we should make the most of the time; the NIV translates it "opportunity." Right now I'm trying to be a good steward of the opportunity the Lord has entrusted to me. Through you PIU students I have the opportunity to influence Micronesia and the world, for the rest of this century. What is the best exercise of stewardship? Doing my reading for class, or playing video games? Studying, or watching 5 hours of TV? Buying snacks and ice cream I don't need (see above) or buying my textbook for class? We may say we'll do what we need to do later, but too often later is too late. Stewardship of my surroundings: I'll go back to that family concept. Simple things like picking up trash or controlling aircon use can make a great difference. We are to manage our house faithfully. I'll be back just before Thanksgiving. I look forward to celebrating this holiday with you. Stewardship has a direct link to Thanksgiving. We are living our lives right now so that in the future we will either have more for which to give thanks, or more to regret. You figure it out.   C&G starts at 10:00 am. Excellence is the word: Vince Lombardi was one of the most successful NFL coaches of all time.  The pursuit of excellence is rewarding. We enjoy success. We can make the point, however, that it is better to not pursue excellence, because if we fail to achieve it, we feel the pain. Personally I think it is worth the risk, but rather than argue about that, let me simply point out that ultimately excellence is not a personal matter. Remember we pursue excellence for God's glory. Do good work.           Live for Jesus! "exert every effort" for excellence because through our excellence we show forth the excellencies of our great God (2 Peter 1:3&5 & 1 Peter 2:9). Don't forget to let others know about DDOMF. HM   By His Grace,     The Prez.