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"Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever." -Paul

27 August 2008

Keep a Weather Eye

by Ben

I read Luke 11-12.

"Blessed ...are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

It sounds simple enough. Yet it seems that everyday we lose our track. Sometimes many times in one day. Too often, it is because we aren't paying attention.

In Chapter 12, Jesus speaks of watchfulness and the need to be ready at all times. But ready for what?

His talk of watchfulness comes right after the Parable of the Rich Fool: essentially a rich farmer raised a good-sized crop and decided to build bigger barns so that he could house all of it, intending to take it easy for a while (since he'd done some hard work).

Who hasn't felt that way? "Oh, I deserve some R&R because I've been working my butt off."

Unfortunately, we often feel as though we deserve quite a bit.

God calls us to more. God calls us to always be ready to serve. In the case of the rich fool, there is no thought or mention of the hungry or other needy peoples. Instead of planning a vacation for himself, the man could have saved lives by his good fortune.

We need to watch for opportunities like this in our own lives. Be it spending some free time we have at a soup kitchen or giving some extra money to a worthy cause, we need to remember that nothing we possess truly belongs to us.

As a note:
It is good to practice the Sabbath, but giving back to God's people when we have a surplus is not merely something good to do. It is what the bridegroom expects.

1 Comments:

At 10:24 AM, Blogger Matt Wiggins said...

Good stuff. I just noticed how conspicuously absent this parable was from a Christian financial program I took last year. They advertised how much money you could be making by following this guy's 5 steps to building wealth and talked about making giving a priority. But it's more than giving your tithe or your double tithe, it's keeping what you need and being generous with the rest. And that's pretty challenging. Luckily we're youth pastors :)

 

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