Tag Archives: material things

Invest His assets (Luke 12:35-40) November 18, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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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.

What should awe us? (Mark 13:2) September 5, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Numbers 13-16

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 13:2
Jesus: Look closely at these magnificent buildings. Someday there won’t be one of these great stones left on another. Everything will be thrown down.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The disciples, like us, grew up in the world. They couldn’t get away from its influences. Just like us. They heard all the talk about the importance of money and material things. They heard it from the businessmen in the marketplace they visited for all the goods they required to survive. They heard it from the boat builders and net makers who vied for better equipment so they could improve their catch. They heard it from the construction workers who offered to build better homes for their families.

The disciples heard about the importance of grandeur and how it showed status in this world. Money and material worlds must be important. Everyone said so. They even heard it from the priests who talked about the money they needed for funding various projects to restore utensils or to gild altars or add extra rooms onto the temple or build a new synagogue somewhere. Everyone talked about money.

It’s no wonder they looked at the massive walls of the temple that towered over the city and marveled at its beauty. This was a masterpiece from the artisans’ hearts who put their souls into its construction. This was the house of God in Jerusalem. They were notably impressed. They gawked at the structure. They’d seen it before, but every time the temple came into site, the gleaming white limestone with its gold ornamentation caught the shine of the sun and created a new stunning view for the pilgrims who journeyed to it.

But we do the same, don’t we? Have you been to New York City lately and just stood in the middle of the business district in Manhattan and looked up at all those sky-rises? Granted, they don’t gleam like the temple did, but they are pretty impressive. When most of the buildings in the world are limited in height to the number of stories its inhabitants are willing to walk up, those hundred story structures take your breath away.

And in all the store windows, the merchants taunt with advertisements that tell you that life will be so much better if you have whatever it is they sell. You just must have the latest which-a-ma-jig. Everyone is getting them and you’ll just not survive without one. In fact, even if you have one, you better get another one because there are sure to be updates to the one they sell and you don’t want to get behind.

The world is very good and trying to teach us the wrong things. It works hard at convincing us that what we see and what we can put our hands on is what’s important in life. The world works really hard at making us think material things are the answer to all of life’s problems. But the world lies. Satan operates here and he is a liar and the father of lies. Just check on the lives of the wealthiest people in the world and see how satisfied they are with their wealth. All of them, almost without exception will tell you it’s not enough. They need more. They need more security, they’re afraid something will happen and they’ll lose what they have. They worry about what will happen to all their assets when they die. What will happen to all those companies and holdings and houses and coffers that store their treasures?

Jesus knows the difficulty all of us have because of the influence we grow up with. He grew up in the middle of it, too. He heard those same stories from the businessmen and merchants and builders. He heard the same stories from the priests and neighbors and all those people who took stock in material things instead of heavenly things. He knows how easy it is to get our eyes off of the heavenly and get awed by the size and splendor of the things men build. But they are just things. They have no permanence. Just think about the seven wonders of the world. Only one of the seven remains, the pyramids in Egypt. But even those have been looted and are crumbling into the sands of the desert. All the others are gone.

The same will happen to all the material things we think we last forever. They won’t. Nothing will last except our eternal soul and the things we store up for ourselves in heaven. And what are those things? The good things we do for other people and the praise we give to God. That’s it. No more. Everything else will be gone. Jesus reminded His disciples and us of the transitory nature of all the marvels the world throws at us to tempt us. As beautiful and magnificent as even the temple, the house of God, it would soon come crashing down. Be awed by the right things. That’s nothing the world has to offer. 

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.