Chapter 10

Managing Our

God-given Life

It does? How?

We've already learned how that God created the earth and everything in it. And we discovered that because He made it, He owns it.

God knew we couldn't be happy unless we understood how we related to our divine Landlord. So, as we've seen, He reserved one tree for Himself (Gen 2:16, 17). God didn't need the tree. But only the Owner could restrict the tenant's use of the garden and God wanted to teach our first parents their position before God.

Adam and Eve enjoyed working for God . . . until an alien ventriloquist/serpent-duo brain-washed them to believe that God claimed too much authority. After they revolted and ate God's fruit, He evicted them from His Edenic flat.

God could have abandoned our race at that point. He could have allowed His now-fallen creatures to sink into the quagmire of sin until it drowned them in agony. Sin would eventually leave God's world an uninhabited chunk of rock revolving about the sun forever. The Earth would have become one vast graveyard—without any tombstones.

But God loved his naughty children. He wanted us to live. So by an act of unimaginable love, He assumed our debt, and died the death of chaos in our place. That's how God bought back the planet that we stole from Him. And that act gave Him the rights to our planet on two counts: He created it . . . and then He bought it back again.

God Owns . . . Me!

If God created this world we live on, and then purchased it by paying the full price—His own life—then He owns everything: "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;" (Ps. 24:1) He owns "the cattle on a thousand hills," (Ps. 50:10) "the silver . . . . and the gold . . . ." (Hag. 2:8)

Most people agree—verbally at least—that God owns everything. But what about people? Does He own ME?

Yes!

Shocked? Remember, God made us and then bought us back from sin. "You are not your own; You were bought at a price. . . ." (1 Cor. 6:19, 20)

Our body, our mind—even the air we breathe—belong to God. He loaned them as a sacred trust. He lets us use flesh and bones and hair—even our thoughts—permitting us to decide what to do with them. He lets us choose whom we serve. Yet our body can't exist without His life, and so we must never forget: we belong to Him! We live God's life!

What About Death?

Since our bodies and the life within us belong to God, He has a vested interest in what happens to us. He's promised that nothing can separate us from Him—as long as we preserve our Owner/manger association with Him.

Sounds good—until we face death. The acid sting of finality creates anxiety, and the passage from life to death often includes physical pain and separation from our loved ones. Unbiblical ideas can also compound our fears.

Dread of death comes naturally. But our minds often rehearse Satan's insinuations, and the "what happens after" questions threaten to destroy our trust in God.

Understanding the stewardship of life changes our attitude towards death and makes life more meaningful. We belong to God. He protects us from dangers that could jeopardize our eternal fellowship with Him.

Everyone faces suffering, sickness, and death as we know it. No one escapes—not even God's people. These woes are a part of life, and God never promised to remove them within the framework of our sinful world. But He did promise grace to ease our stormy passage through life. And as our Friend, He stays with us all the way to the end . . . even into the grave.

That's the joy of stewardship. As stewards we know that life is more than just enjoying sin's garbage. We've surrendered our lives to our heavenly Owner and have committed ourselves to cooperate with Him.

Even so we will eventually die (barring the return of Christ). But beyond the grave Jesus will give us life again—to be recreated beings on a sinless planet without all the hassles we suffer now.

In God's paradise there'll be no more homelessness and no more unemployment, for God has a home and an unending position of trust for every faithful steward.

Though parting this life may seem painful, we know that the grave is but a boarding-house on heaven's road. "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; . . . Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death." (Isa. 57:1, 2 NIV)

When death wraps its velvet robes about us, our thoughts cease and time stands still. One moment we lie in a chaotic world—dying. It seems we're losing everything. But when the next thought comes (as the dying see it) the voice of God sounds, and we see Jesus coming in the clouds. Our bodies are new; immortality swallows death forever, and all fears disappear. From a shattered earth we shout, ". . . this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. . . ." (Isa 25:9)

Praise God! He continues to live His Life in us . . . as part in His eternal plan.

Chapter 11