Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Leviticus 1-3
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus: This is how it will be. It will be like a landowner who is going on a trip. He instructed his slaves about caring for his property. He gave five talents to one slave, two to the next, and then one talent to the last slave—each according to his ability. Then the man left.
Promptly the man who had been given five talents went out and bartered and sold and turned his five talents into ten. And the one who had received two talents went to the market and turned his two into four. And the slave who had received just one talent? He dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money there.
Eventually the master came back from his travels, found his slaves, and settled up with them. The slave who had been given five talents came forward and told his master how he’d turned five into ten; then he handed the whole lot over to his master.
Master: Excellent. You’ve proved yourself not only clever but loyal. You’ve executed a rather small task masterfully, so now I am going to put you in charge of something larger. But before you go back to work, come join my great feast and celebration.
Then the slave who had been given two talents came forward and told his master how he’d turned two into four, and he handed all four talents to his master.
Master: Excellent. You’ve proved yourself not only clever but loyal. You’ve executed a rather small task masterfully, so now I am going to put you in charge of something larger. But before you go back to work, come join my great feast and celebration.
Finally the man who had been given one talent came forward.
Servant: Master, I know you are a hard man, difficult in every way. You can make a healthy sum when others would fail. You profit when other people are doing the work. You grow rich on the backs of others. So I was afraid, dug a hole, and hid the talent in the ground. Here it is. You can have it.
The master was furious.
Master: You are a pathetic excuse for a servant! You have disproved my trust in you and squandered my generosity. You know I always make a profit! You could have at least put this talent in the bank; then I could have earned a little interest on it! Take that one talent away, and give it to the servant who doubled my money from five to ten.
You see, everything was taken away from the man who had nothing, but the man who had something got even more. And as for the slave who made no profit but buried his talent in the ground? His master ordered his slaves to tie him up and throw him outside into the utter darkness where there is miserable mourning and great fear.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
The story Jesus tells us about heaven in today’s lesson fits our society much better than some of the previous stories He’s told the crowd around Him. In our capitalistic, materialistic world, we understand using money to make money. We understand in our country how much easier it is to get the second million once you get the first million. You’ve learned the rules. You know the ropes. After the first million, you know how to use the right people and how to avoid others so that money multiplies.
The world’s economy makes it easy to multiply riches once you have them. We see it around us everywhere. The old euphemism that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer really happens in a lot of places. And it is at least relatively true in most of the world today. Those with wealth know how they got that way and they know how to continue to build on it.
So the master comes home from his trip and rewards those who doubled the funds he entrusted to them and punished the one who did not use the funds entrusted to him. How should we interpret that in our spiritual lives and in terms of the end times Jesus has been talking to His disciples about?
God gives each of us gifts, talents, skills, experiences that He expects us to use in service to Him and others. What talents, gifts has He given you to serve and edify His church? Is it preaching, teaching, hospitality? Is it one in the long list of spiritual gifts that Paul gives us in his writings? Maybe it’s the gift of math that you can use to help the treasurer of your church or to help others understand budgeting to help them out of or to avoid the stranglehold of debt. Maybe you are gifted as a mechanic and can serve some that need transportation but cannot afford to get their car fixed right because of their current situation.
What talents, gifts, skills, experiences has God given you that you can share with someone around you that can help them see the love of God. Can you use those gifts and multiple the disciples in His kingdom? That’s our task, after all, to make disciples in every nation. Are you using the gifts God has given you to double the disciples in your neighborhood? It’s an interesting question to ponder. How many disciples would that be?
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.