Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Zechariah 8-14
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 12:35-40
Jesus: I’m not just talking theory. There is urgency in all this. If you’re apathetic and complacent, then you’ll miss the moment of opportunity. You should be wide awake and on your toes like servants who are waiting for their master to return from a big wedding reception. They’ll have their shoes on and their lamps lit so they can open the door for him as soon as he arrives home. How fortunate those servants will be when the master knocks and they open the door immediately! You know what the master will do? He’ll put on an apron, sit them down at the kitchen table, and he’ll serve them a midnight snack. The later he comes home—whether it’s at midnight or even later, just before dawn—the more fortunate the alert servants will be.
In contrast, imagine a complacent, apathetic household manager whose house gets robbed. If he had been aware that thieves were waiting in the bushes and what hour they were coming, he would have watched and he never would have left the house! I’m trying to tell you that these are times for alertness, times requiring a sense of urgency and intensity, because like the master in the first story or the thief in the second, the Son of Man shows up by surprise.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
I do a lot of my shopping online. I admit it. It’s not that I’m an online shopping junky. I’m not. It’s just that I don’t like crowds much and I don’t particularly like walking all over stores and malls trying to find what I’m looking for when I can sit in my comfortable recliner and find the same thing for the same price and have it delivered to my door, often with no shipping cost. So I save gas, I save the frustration of rude people in stores, I save my aversion to large crowded places, I save my sanity and shop online.
One of the downsides of shopping online, though, is I sometimes forget to order things through a private browser so those companies get a hook into my email. Then I get the endless junk mail ads that tell me the next thing I obviously must have to make my life perfect. And always I need to buy it in the next four hours to get the best price or to ensure it is still in stock because the item is going fast. If I don’t get it now, it might not be available tomorrow.
The same thing happens on television. Get it now while they last. Call in the next hour for this special price. Of course, the same ad runs five times a day, every day for six months, so I think the one hour time limit is probably a little bogus. And the hook I really like, but can’t even remember the product, our phone lines are very busy so, if your name starts with A through N call today, if your name starts with O through Z, call tomorrow. But the next day, the same commercial runs with the same instructions. I guess if you’re name starts with O through Z, you’re just out of luck and can never buy the product or you ignore the instructions and call whenever you want.
Urgency. Jesus talks about urgency. But it’s not about gaining material things here. He doesn’t care much about the material things. He knows we need certain things to survive and wants more than that for us. I think He wants us to live above a subsistence level and lets us enjoy some of the comforts of life, but to chase material things just to chase material things is not in His game plan. We are to be caretakers, not owners of the stuff He lets us use. When we forget our position and begin to think we are owners of all the stuff around us, we are in trouble.
Remember, we are not citizens of this world. We won’t take any of it with us. It belongs here, but we do not. We are only stewards of the assets God puts in our hands and He wants us to use those assets for His glory and the good of others. So when He returns as the true owner of everything He created, He’ll want to see how we did in the use of His resources.
Just like 401Ks, the early you invest His resources in His work, which means making yourself available to Him, the better the return on His investments. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Besides, we don’t know when He might come back. It could be tonight or tomorrow or next week or on Inauguration Day or in another 2,000 years. We just don’t know when Jesus will return to check out what we’ve done in His physical absence. But a day of reckoning is coming and we will all be held to account for how we used His resources.
So, are you ready for His return? Have you been investing the assets He has put at your disposal? Not just the material things, but your talents, your experiences, your opportunities? You? He’s coming soon. Be ready.
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.