Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Acts 17-18
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 12:42-48
Jesus: Imagine the stories of two household managers, and decide for yourself which one is faithful and smart. Each household manager is told by his master to take good care of all his possessions and to oversee the other employees—the butlers, cooks, gardeners, and so on. One servant immediately busies himself in doing just what he was told. His master eventually comes to check on him and rewards him with a major promotion and with more responsibility and trust. The other household manager thinks, “Look, my boss is going to be gone for a long time. I can be complacent; there’s no urgency here.” So he beats the other employees—the women as well as the men. He sits around like a slob, eating and getting drunk. Then the boss comes home unexpectedly and catches him by surprise. One household manager will be fortunate indeed, and the other will be cut into pieces and thrown out.
Now if a servant who is given clear instructions by his master doesn’t follow those instructions but instead is complacent and apathetic, then he will be punished severely. But if a servant doesn’t know what his master expects and behaves badly, then he will receive a lighter punishment. If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
What should we think about God’s instructions and how much He has given to us? Some might want to claim ignorance because they haven’t heard about Him and don’t know His rules. How could they be expected to follow Him if they haven’t read His word or been exposed to the gospel? How can God hold them accountable if they have never darkened the door of a church or heard a sermon from a pulpit? Will God really hold them accountable for not following the things He put in that dusty old book that sits on their grandmother’s shelf? Surely most of the world now fits into that category of not knowing means a light punishment, right?
I’m not so sure that’s true. It’s a nice thought, but who has not heard the name of Jesus? We get blasted by the controversy every time the Christmas holiday comes around. We hear the world’s anger rise about Easter and why do we need to celebrate and raise the name of Jesus in public. ISIS has certainly heard about Jesus. Everyone they meet that mentions His name they execute. We push to take His name out of schools and courts and every other public place. So His name is certainly known around the world.
So the next question is how hard is it to find out what Jesus wants from us? Well, how hard is it to type His name into the search engine of your favorite browser along with some terms like salvation, Christian, or faith. In the first nanosecond, yahoo delivered four and a half million results. It would probably take some time to read through all of those, but I expect in the first page or so of results you would find information about the Christian faith, the simple sinners prayer, and the tenets of the Christian faith.
How hard is it to find a lot of information about what Jesus wants from us? It takes another nanosecond of search to figure out the Bible is the book Christians use to guide their faith. And to make it fair to all the other books published in the world, the Bible is never listed as a best seller. I’ve always wondered why it’s not included, because if you do a simple search of published works, you’ll find the Bible tops the lists of titles sold by a wide margin every year.
So all it takes to have the knowledge you need to follow Him is to pick up a Bible and read it or go to a website and download the Bible or read it from the web or use an audio app. There are dozens of churches with lots of empty seats every week. Of course, just going to church doesn’t mean you’re following the things Jesus said we must do. So, now how hard is it get the information you need to follow Him? Not very hard. It’s pretty easy, in fact. With our communication abilities today and the knowledge network we brag about, there is no excuse for not knowing about Jesus and what He wants from us.
If everything I’ve said in the last few minutes is true, then listen again to Jesus’ warning. “If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.”
Much is entrusted to you whether you use it or not. It’s available. We have no excuse for not using the tools God has given us. None. I don’t think He will accept, “I didn’t read your book.” or “I didn’t hear those sermons.” or “I didn’t know.” as an excuse. There is no reason we can’t know today. It’s all at our fingertips, we just need to pick it up, read it, and follow it.
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.