FAITHFUL STEWARDS

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. I Corinthians 4:2. We are all thrilled when we see and hear of men and women, boys and girls, apparently yielding to the Lord. We like to see results from our ministry and personal testimony and thereby forget that So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. I Corinthians 3:7 It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful! FAITHFUL to plant the imperishable seed. FAITHFUL to water the imperishable seed. FAITHFUL to leave the harvest to the Lord of the Harvest: to Him who is the Lord of Life and the Giver of Life.

We were in an outback township many years ago. It was mid-summer with temperatures around 100 degrees and exhaustingly hot winds. No one seemed to show the slightest interest in the Gospel. We knocked at every door in the township and the surrounding district without a single door being opened. We preached the Gospel day and night in the open air but it seemed as though we were getting nowhere. If there had just been another Christian to have a little fellowship with the way would have been a little brighter but, alas, we were devoid of human company. There was the temptation to shake the dust from off our feet, but that seemed wrong because we were certain that the Lord had directed us to that place. We realized that there must be a lesson to learn, so we continued to preach the Word in the open air and engage in conversation with any who would stop for a moment. We prayed without ceasing and diligently sought guidance from the Word, then one night 1st Corinthians Chapter 4 seemed to flood my soul: To be found FAITHFUL! “I know nothing against myself" V4. “Judge nothing before the time” V5. "We are fools for Christ’s sake” V10. “I” had been trying to get the increase and was very upset because “I” could not save a soul. “I” was playing “make believe” because “I” knew that only the Lord could save a soul, but “I” was insisting on saving that soul and all for the sake of "Self". The battle with self went on through the night and it was not until the break of day that “I” was crucified to "saving souls”. After that the way was not any easier, but it was much brighter because “it was required that we be found faithful”. We could afford to be fools for Christ's sake, for it pleased the Lord by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So, we continued there until the Lord made it clear that we should move on.

A few miles further on there was another township but in this one we had only a few hours in which we could stop. The day was a roaster, and it seemed as though no one had ventured out. Then we saw a woman weighed down with bags. She staggered up the street and seemed as though she would drop at any moment from exhaustion. We went to her and offered to carry her bags but she summoned enough strength to say, “I am not that kind of woman.” My Bible was out in a flash, "Madam, I am a Christian, and it is my desire to help you.” But she didn’t appear to relent. “I want nothing from you, and I have nothing to give” was her answer. "Madam you can't walk another step with these bags” was my reply, and thus we took her bags from her and continued on to say: “Lead the way and I will leave the bags at your doorstep.” So, when we arrived at her house, before she opened her door she pointed to the ground and said, "Put them there, and get.” We put the bags down with great pleasure and placed the little tract "Four things God wants you to know” into one of them. Then we were off. The whole trip seemed to be empty. However, not only was it required of man to be found faithful in sowing but he had also to be found faithful in watering the seed, and in this many of us fail. But, the Word of the Lord had found an entrance into my own heart and so we were compelled to pray. We prayed day and night for years.

 A few years later we were in a country town about two hundred miles from the towns mentioned. There we had the joy of telling of the unsearchable riches of Christ. A woman came into the meeting one night but instead of sitting down she stood inside the doorway. Her eyes were fixed on the platform and her face beamed with joy. At the close of the meeting she came to the front and asked if we knew her. We confessed that we didn’t. She then asked, "Can you remember being in…?” We remembered well, and told her that we had spoken to only one person in that town. We recounted the story of the woman with the bags and when we had finished she said, “I am that woman with the bags.” Then she told of the awful licentiousness of' the town at that time. This had been the cause of her antagonism, but she had wondered why we had carried her bags without any hope of being invited into the house. As she emptied her bags she found the tract which she had seen me put in a bag. She read and reread it, The words burned into her soul. She bought a Bible and compared one with the other. She found herself praying that she might understand. Then one evening the glorious Light of the Lord of Light illuminated her soul. God HIMSELF had given the increase. She said, “I tremble to think what could have happened had you not persisted”. IT IS REQUIRED THAT A MAN BE FOUND FAITHFUL. The woman was in happy fellowship with the Lord and His people. Now she was born of the Spirit and not of man.

Then years later, at an Agricultural Show in one of the country towns, as we preached the Gospel a man and wife and their children drew near and called to us. They asked if we would go and speak to them. "Can you remember being in… many years ago?" the woman asked. Yes, we could remember and we recounted our experiences that not one person opened a door to us. Our preaching in the open air and personal testimony did not seem to get anywhere. The man asked, “Were you disappointed?" We told of the great lesson which the Lord had taught us at that place. It was then that he told us how he had yielded his life to the Lord when he came under the sound of the Word in the open air. The woman told of her experience also. She did not know her husband at that time but she had been convicted of sin during the preaching of the Word in the open air. From a distance she listened to the Word of the Lord and was gloriously saved. "Like my husband” she said, “I wanted to prove new life first, before I went around telling others.” Then they both told of much individual prayer and Bible study and how they had been drawn together through their love of the Lord. They had married and now they had a Christian fellowship in their home. FAITHFULNESS is what the Lord requires of us. The Word is His. It can never return unto Him void but it shall accomplish that to which it pleases Him: and it pleases Him to save precious souls.

All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise stated.   

Taken from THE WAY OF LIFE POSTAL BIBLE SCHOOL magazine November 1964