Devotional Guide
For the week of June 27, 2004
ARE WE OUR OWN?
The life we have been lent
To Read: 2 Kings 10-12
To Know:
"He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I
knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering
where you did not winnow; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent
in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'" (Matt.25: 24,25)
A newly appointed professor at a Christian school confronted the president
of the college with the fact that his first paycheck was less than the
agreed upon salary. The president asked, "Do you have that in writing?" The
professor did not. This rookie teacher had relocated his family and signed
a contract that did not include salary figures. His pay had been settled by
a handshake. This bitter pill resulted in the school eventually losing one
of the best Christian teachers of the twentieth century.
Jesus showed us the fatal flaw that doomed the condemned servant. The
servant said he knew the character of his master. The point is not that God
created the world with a profit margin in mind. The point is that we ought
to know the motives of the king of heaven at least as well as this servant
knew the will of his lord. Our Lord glories in being gracious. Should we
not live the life we have been lent in order to show off God's great grace?
To Do:
When we were utterly undeserving, God the Father chose us for his own. God
the Son paid the price of our sin by shedding his life's blood. God the
Holy Spirit entered our heart in order that our union with Christ would not
be merely doctrinal, but a dynamic way of life. All is of grace. We had
earned death as the wages of our sin. Our redemption is all of grace. If we
are to invest the life God has bestowed upon us in Christ, then we ought to
live to praise the glory of his grace.
To Ask:
Father, make me expert in being gracious.
07014$-07014
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