Pastor Ritter ~ August
The Creators Financial Plan
Part One: Let’s Start at the Beginning
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! As I alluded to in my article last month, I intend to spend the next several months speaking on an important topic that is in line with the Strategic Goal set by you as members of Immanuel which is to have in place a creative financial plan here at Immanuel. Since Immanuel is 100% member supported, having a creative financial plan to fully support the present and future needs of our ministries requires all of its members to be doing their part to financially support the work. Rather than focusing these newsletters on financial matters, the dollars and cents, I instead want to approach this topic from the perspective of the Creator – God the Father.
The Bible actually speaks to the topic of finances, more than any other topic in the Bible. God indeed has a plan for us on how we should be managing our finances. To better understand that, I want to point you to the beginning … to Genesis. Genesis chapter one starts out, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God is the creator of everything. EVERYTHING! Since God is the creator of everything, and since God gives us everything, then who is the owner of everything? You guessed it; it’s God!
At the end of chapter one of Genesis, following God creating both man and woman, he gives the very first command to man: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
The very first thing that God commanded the very first people to do was to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. What does it mean to subdue? The Hebrew word used here that is translated into English as subdue means that we are to “bring under control, manage or steward” the earth. In order to do that for God, we must have things to manage or steward. So we read on: “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.’” This verse as well as the very next verse speaks of God’s provisions. It is what God provides that we are steward or manage for the care of God’s creation.
God is the creator of all things, He is the provider of all things … we are the managers or stewards of the gifts of God. Next month we will explore deeper this topic about stewardship. (Hint, it is not about giving money or anything else!)