Have you wondered what Ellen White thought about stewardship? Watch as Dwain Esmond, associate director of the Ellen G. White® Estate, Inc. gives an example of stewardship from Ellen White’s life.
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When you talk about stewardship you’re talking about life. You’re talking about really caring for the life that God has given us as well as all the talents and the gifts and our resources all of that is stewardship.
Stewardship is life. That’s a concept that really comes very strongly out in Ellen White’s writings. There wasn’t in Ellen White’s mind any part of our spiritual life that was off-limits to God. God had access to and needed access to every part of us. And in fact, He could only use us to the degree that we had completely surrendered our lives to Him. Including our pocketbooks. And including our talents and our gifts. So, when we talk about stewardship Ellen White believed in this concept, taught this concept, and lived this concept.
Let me give you an example.
There was a point in time when Ellen White went to visit the Pacific Press Publishing Association which was then in Oakland, California. She came through the Press touring the Press. And she noticed that they had discarded a bunch of ads. They were hat ads that had somehow gotten marred on the presses and so they were throwing them out.
Ellen White says “I’ll tell you what. Make me some pads that I can use to write on with the back of these ads.” Which were clear. They made those pads. And it was on those pads that Ellen Wrote an edition of The Great Controversy.
What was she saying? This material is still valuable, and we should be good stewards of it. Even though it can’t be used for one purpose it can be used for another purpose.
And so when we talk about stewardship—stewardship is life. It is the creation God has given us. We ought to be good stewards of that. The animals and the flora and the fauna. We ought to be good stewards of that. We ought to be good stewards of our bodies. The eight laws of health that flow out of Ellen White’s visions and writings we are good stewards of that. But certainly also our pocketbook—our resources–that which we expend for God is multiplied and given back to us by God.
So when we talk about Ellen White—stewardship is life. It is what she believed, and it is what she taught.
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