Scripture
One day, Abraham called in his most trusted servant and said to him, “Solemnly promise me in the name of the Lord that you won’t choose a wife for my son Isaac from the people here in the land of Canaan. Instead, go back to the land where I was born and find a wife for him from among my relatives.”
~Genesis 24:2-4, CEV
Quote
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
~Stephen Covey
For most of his adult life, Abraham was childless. At one time he thought that all of his possession would go to his most trusted slave, a man by the name of Eliezer who came from Damascus. Of course God did give Abraham eight sons in his old age. The second and the child of promise was Isaac. When Sarah died, Isaac went into a grief mode and Abraham knew it was time to get him a wife but he did not want him to marry a Canaanite so he dispatches Eliezer to go back to Syria and get Isaac a wife from his own relatives. Genesis 24 relates these events and there are some things about this story that are noteworthy. First of all, Eliezer’s name is not mentioned: he is known in Chapter 24 as “Abraham’s servant.” You will see this is verse 34, 52 and 59. Wow, what a distinction and what an tribute to Eliezer that he was content to to be known merely as Abraham’s servant. There are two other outstanding things to be said about Eliezer other than his rare humility. He put his master’s business first. Abraham’s gives him an assignment and he cannot rest until the assignment is completed. He does not allow anything to distract him from his master’s business. The third thing I really like about this slave was his habit of prayer. There are no less than seven references to prayer in this chapter and most of the time it is Eliezer doing the praying.
The word ‘slave’ vibrates with negative connotations these days. This is due to our ignorance of history. Slavery was common in both the Old and New Testament. Joseph was a slave and he became one by injustice. What we fail to understand is that others became slaves because they were irresponsible. In ancient time, you had to pay your debts. When people got deeply in debt, they lost their freedom. Irresponsibility is still causes slavery today. It creates economic slaves. One of the characteristics of the slave mentality is to march to the beat of the same drum. They stay in step, let someone else think for them, let someone else take responsibility for their life. Eliezer was not that kind of slave. He loved Abraham and was delighted to serve him. He could have easily skipped the country when Abraham sent him on this mission. That was not going to happen because Eliezer was loyal to a fault. The man would have died to please his master. Its okay to be a slave if you have the right master.
There are three major decisions is life: finding our Master, our Mate and our Mission. Our first responsibility in life is to find our MASTER. Eliezer knew who he master was; he loved him and served him with all his heart. Our LORD and Master is Jesus Christ and we are to faithfully serve Him the same way Eliezer served father Abraham.
I came across something interesting yesterday: maybe you’ve seen it. The TOP TEN wealthiest preachers. I was appalled and a little disturbed though not totally shocked. All but one are HEALTH and WEALTH preachers and the 10th is just as bad.
TOP TEN WEALTHIEST PREACHERS
- Kenneth Copeland–760 million
- David Oyedepo–150 million
- Pat Robertson–100 million
- Chris Oyakhilome–50 million
- Benny Hinn–42 million
- Joel Osteen– 40 million
- A. E. Adeboye–39 million
- Creflo Dollar–27 million
- Rich Warren–25 million
- T.D. Jakes–18 million
In the top ten, all are males, five black and five whites. Most of them are more tele-evangelist than pastors but Warren is a SB pastor who made his fortune raping LifeWay and Southern Baptist with his PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE. Warren is a great administrator and plagiarist. I’m surprised that Charles Stanley didn’t sue him. I’m sorry folks but a wealthy preacher is an oxymoron of sorts. We have yet to get the gospel to the world so how can you justify a professed man of God sitting on 760 million dollars. Our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal for 2018 was only 160 million. Copeland has three times that amount. As Keith would say, “Unbelievable.”
There were some women in the top 20: Paula White is worth 5 million Joyce Meyer is worth 8 million and Juanita Bynum’s net worth is 10 million. I can promise you one thing, there will be a judgment for all of them. Luke 12:20-21…
But God said to him, “You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up? This is what happens to people who store up everything for themselves, but are poor in the sight of God.”