28
Dec '21
Seize the Moment – Day 651
28
Dec '21
Good Stewardship!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, December 28.
Some people treat their animals better than they treat people. Not so with the people of God! We are to treat our animals well and people even better!
Deuteronomy 25:4 demonstrates God’s love for all His creation and how His people are to practically partner with Him:
“You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” The farmer must allow the ox to benefit from its labors and eat grain while it worked.
This was not only a stewardship practice, but part of a larger stewardship principle that God’s people were supposed to live as His partners in caring for the creation. As image bearers of God, we are fellow stewards of creation (Genesis 1:27-29; 9:1-3). We read in Proverbs 12:10a, “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal.” Loving care of animals is an important part of being a good steward of God’s creation!
In the same way that God desires for His people to steward His creation by acting with kindness to animals, He commands His people to treat one another with even greater kindness and fairness. Paul said in Galatians 6:10,
“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”
Yoking these concepts, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 25:4 in 1 Corinthians 9:9. In doing so, he emphasized the stewardship practice of financially providing for the laborers in God’s harvest (Luke 10:2), with how the farmers were to care for their oxen as they worked to thresh the harvest. Then, with finality, Paul referenced Jesus’ words from Luke 10:7 (“the laborer is worthy of his wages”) in 1 Corinthians 9:14,
“So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.”
Seize the moment and be a good steward of what God has entrusted to you! Care for God’s people and the household of faith.
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.