Chapter Founder: Charles De Andrade

Charles De Andrade lives in the Summerfield, Florida area, and after meeting several authors locally, decided to open a chapter that he could enjoy close to home.

About Charles:
Charles de Andrade is the founding member of Scribblers, a Christian writers club based in Norcross Georgia. As an author he has four books published with two more planned to be released in late 2018 and early 2019. His works are Christian Historical Fiction where he draws on his many life experiences to share his stories of faith and life. Charles has served in the business world in many senior positions, including being president of a software company based in Atlanta, GA, owning and operating a restaurant, and serving as a business consultant focusing on sales, operations and finance.

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The Steward Series by Charles de Andrade

About the Steward Series

The background on the Series

• I took a seminary class in the 1980’s on the attributes of God. As part of that course, we were assigned to write a story looking at those attributes. I chose to write about the outworking of those attributes in the creation, and the fundamental background for this series was born.
• Man was created in the image of God, and we were created with purpose. Our lives have meaning because the creation was a sovereign act by a purposeful creator. We are not random accidents, or grown up germs, as neither of these views would allow for purpose; hence the dilemma of so many who try to hold to those views of our existence. Life is without meaning without God the creator.
• What was the purpose for the creation of man?
  • Genesis holds all of the clues, and it is there for all to discover. I believe the title Steward, describes the primary reason for the creation of man. There is something amazingly grand in the simple words found in Genesis. We were assigned a role, and we were given a template to follow. God started the process, planting the first garden, organizing it, and placing our first parent in it. God brought all of the animals to Adam, and Adam named the animals. Adam was fulfilling with this, his first activity, the role he had been given. The animals understood the unique role and position given to the one who named them.
• Amazingly the only “bad” thing found in the creation, was that man lacked a helper. Of all of the animals, there was none that was “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh”. God cured that need as well. Creating the singularly most beautiful and perfect helper for man. God completed our first parents, and they together were the co-stewards assigned the care of the rest the creation.
• But man fell under the siren lies of the master deceiver. There is a great mystery in the fall of man. There is even greater mystery in the fall of the master deceiver and his fellow angels. That mystery is only partially solved by the understanding of God’s purpose before there ever was a man, to display His attributes of mercy and of a love so great, that the angels that remained faithful long to see what God is doing with man.
• The fall though, did not fundamentally change the Steward role for man. What changed were the conditions under which that role would now be played out. Now the ground would fight man, producing weeds and thistles, rocks and dry soil, and the necessity of hard work. The animals that once came to man freely and willingly to be named would now fear man and with good reason. Stewards care for their charges and the newly fallen man would still care, but the man now was conflicted. His nature was now bent, and the creation would experience the outworking of the Steward’s bentness.
• The creation was subjected to futility, waiting for the revealing of the Son’s of God. The scripture says the creation “groans” in anticipation of that unveiling. God so loved mankind,(and by extension the rest of the created realm they were the stewards of), that He did something, he would not do for the fallen angels. He would provide an escape for man, unavailable to the heavenly host that rebelled. But that provision came with unprecedented and unparalleled cost. In order not to violate the very character of God, this provision would instead provide insight into facets of God’s character hereto before not experienced.
• A battle that predated the fall of man, took on new and heightened focus. And now, this battle is joined on the field of our lives.
• “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. “ Ephesians 6:12 has defined the real battlefield and the war that rages around and in us.
• That is what the series is all about.
• We are called to be stewards, with all that this means.
• God’s stewards are Chosen by God, and God’s Intervention in our lives draws us back to him and our original purpose. In that process we come to understand that we are Damaged Goods, but despite the depth of our own sin, God still reaches out to us, calling us to our Homecoming, where we embrace both our history and our destiny. Finally, with loud Exclamation we rejoice as we understand, in part, the great redemption provided for us, and join in the battle for the lives and souls of those yet held captive.