September 13, 2012
Jesus tells the story of a rich man who had a manager take care of his business. The rich man accused the manager of cheating him. "Give me a report of what you have done with my money, because you can't be my manager anymore." So the manager has to decide what he is going to do. He has spent this life "acting" like he himself was wealthy when he was actually using another person's money as his own.
So now what? He wasn't strong enough (or so he thought) to actually work, and he was too ashamed to beg. It was all about him. What am "I" going to do? So he comes up with a plan. He calls in the people who owe the rich man money and he substantially reduces the amount they owe thereby causing them to feel grateful to him for his help and more likely to help him when he becomes jobless. The rich man/owner finds out about it and he "praised the dishonest manager." Obviously the rich man had gained his wealth in less than honest ways himself and he was impressed with the crafty, ingenious plan his manager came up with. Luke 16:8 - "Yes, worldly people are smarter (NIV - shrewd) with their own kind than spiritual people are." He probably would have been invited to be part of the "inner sanctum" of gurus planning get-rich-quick schemes.
"God did not give us wealth to raise our standard of living but to raise our standard of giving." (A quote from one of our Pastors.)
Jesus said, "What you do for the least of these you do for me." (Matthew 25:40)
Next Entry: Luke 16:1–31 (Continued)
Jesus tells the story of a rich man who had a manager take care of his business. The rich man accused the manager of cheating him. "Give me a report of what you have done with my money, because you can't be my manager anymore." So the manager has to decide what he is going to do. He has spent this life "acting" like he himself was wealthy when he was actually using another person's money as his own.
So now what? He wasn't strong enough (or so he thought) to actually work, and he was too ashamed to beg. It was all about him. What am "I" going to do? So he comes up with a plan. He calls in the people who owe the rich man money and he substantially reduces the amount they owe thereby causing them to feel grateful to him for his help and more likely to help him when he becomes jobless. The rich man/owner finds out about it and he "praised the dishonest manager." Obviously the rich man had gained his wealth in less than honest ways himself and he was impressed with the crafty, ingenious plan his manager came up with. Luke 16:8 - "Yes, worldly people are smarter (NIV - shrewd) with their own kind than spiritual people are." He probably would have been invited to be part of the "inner sanctum" of gurus planning get-rich-quick schemes.
"God did not give us wealth to raise our standard of living but to raise our standard of giving." (A quote from one of our Pastors.)
Jesus said, "What you do for the least of these you do for me." (Matthew 25:40)
Next Entry: Luke 16:1–31 (Continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment