Are You Ready to Reevaluate Your Priority Spending?
Good Morning Friends,
I am always looking for opportunities to nudge others to experience new ways to serve God. Sometimes I will prompt others to experience the multiplying effect of God’s love by giving a specific person a $20 bill with the contingency that they must give it away within the next week and tell me about the experience later. The whole exercise is very practical and most always includes the process of analyzing what has been blocking them from giving more…from seeing more. The hope is that in the process they discover a thinking that prompts them to consider the importance of recognizing the humanity of others. So today we ask, Are You Ready to Reevaluate Your Priority Spending?
Scripture: “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30 (NRSV)
“There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores. “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’ “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’ “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’ “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’ “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'”
Luke 16:19-31 The Message (MSG)
Message: One day, when Vice-President Calvin Coolidge was presiding over the Senate, one senator angrily told another to go “straight to hell.” The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as presiding officer, and Coolidge looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate and wittily replied. “I’ve looked through the rule book,” he said, “You don’t have to go.” Indeed we do have a choice. With that in mind today we look at two Parables of Jesus on the subject. One is comforting for truly helpless people in the story about Lazarus and the Rich Man, and one I think of as the most practical ones Jesus ever told. It applies more to how we live our lives today and how God acts and reacts to us and how we act and react to Him with the joy we have been given. At the core of the Parables Jesus understood that we have a lot of hang-ups about money and emotions….that worldliness clouds our ability to see the poor. Jesus understood that the poor become invisible for the wealthy. Here we hopefully realize the tragedy of never fully unpacking the gifts we have been given. Here we hopefully face the reality that we too often hide money as we hide our gifts instead of investing them in kingdom service.
Here we hopefully realize that the poor are not to be invisible to us.
The $20 exercise in regifting is to make clear the fact that we are responsible for what we have been given to experience. Friends, throughout the scriptures Jesus challenges us to invest and reinvest in the Kingdom. He honors those who do but does not honor those who are afraid and bury their talents in the ground. If one is faithful, God entrust us with more. God always honors when we invest for the right reasons. Today learn the joy of reinvesting what He has invested in us. Today we open our eyes to the poor.
Pray for those who are afraid to share what they have been given. Pray we realize that Jesus is the Master. Pray we realize we are His servants. Pray we realize He owns everything. Pray we realize we ultimately own nothing. Pray we realize we depend upon Him. Pray we realize that if He were not generous and gracious we would not be able to live. Pray we realize there is an accounting. Pray we realize that if we have been blessed with five talent but only use three we have explaining to do as well. Pray we experience the abundant life. Pray we are able to see the poor who live next to us. Pray we roll up our sleeves and get busy. Pray we are not so attached to the world that we lose our way. Pray we never lose our names.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 