Scripture
Who are faithful and wise servants? Who are the ones the master will put in charge of giving the other servants their food supplies at the proper time?
~Matthew 24:45
Quote
Every believer should live with the constant expectation of the LORD’s return.
~J.T. Draper
Jesus was a great story teller and most of his stories related to stewardship. In Matthew 24 He tells the story of the unfaithful servant. His master took a long trip and the servant took advantage of his masters absence. Everything the servant had belonged to his master but since his master was out of sight, he made the mistake of putting him out of mind. His flawed thinking must have sounded something like this: Since the master is away, he doesn’t know what I’m doing so why should I spend all my time trying to please him, he isn’t even here to hold me accountable and besides that, who knows when he will return. So he began to take liberties with his masters resources. He spent his master’s money on things that he knew his master would not approve of and he became self-indulgent and even prodigal. He began spending his masters money on entertainment by frequenting the bars and taverns. In this spree of indulgence, he totally forgot about his master until his master showed up unexpectedly. Guess what? He got a severe beating and then his master threw him out with nothing. All the man had was his drinking buddies. He spent the rest of his miserable life crying over the milk he spilled.
How many professed Christians do you know who take stewardship seriously. They laugh and crack jokes about tithing. They treat their money and resources as if they were their’s. Some waste more than they give and others make foolish investments. I suppose they thought Jesus told this story to exercise His vocal chords: surely, He was not serious about stewardship. You think? If so, you better think again. It is not your time, not your money, and not your talents: Every thing belongs to HIM. Even the breath in your lungs belongs to HIM. The only thing you own is your freedom to obey HIM or to ignore HIM. If you want a bright future; you better live to please HIM even though he is away at the time. Any way you look at it, this life is brief and we must give an account of our stewardship when it comes to a close.
I saw lakes yesterday where there are supposed to be fields. All the creeks are over their banks and they say more is coming. I could put in right below our house and go to the Tennessee river without any trouble. If I was younger, I might try it. When I was a boy I loved floating flooded creeks. The only problem is low limbs and cattle gaps: they can get you hurt.
The young folks were discussing sit-coms yesterday over lunch and on the way home. I’ve never seen any of the shows they talked about and I am not disappointed. Joe David did mention Sanford and Son which I did watch years ago. Then later, I was in DG and the little girl behind the counter had on an interesting T-Shirt. When I told her I liked the shirt she said it was from some movie that I had never heard of either. I guess there is a generational gap! I’ll take Andy Griffith and the Beverly Hill Billies over all this new stuff.