Luke 16:13-15

Luke 16:13-15 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight."

A master requires complete subservience, a hundred percent commitment from his servant to the success of the household. The master provides housing, food, clothing, and amenities for the servant's service. Therefore, he requires the servant to give his strength and time to him. Jesus rightly says, No servant can serve two masters, for a servant's obligation is to give his all to the master who provides for him. Consequently, the servant has to commit to one master because he does not have strength or time to serve two masters. Serving two masters would result in the servant neglecting one; this lack care would signify hatred toward the master he failed to satisfy.

Jesus tells the people, You cannot serve both God and Money. You cannot live your life for the accumulation of wealth and live for God too. Jesus' words on accumulating wealth seem very direct and impossible for us to follow. Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33) Living for this world and living for Jesus Christ are contrary existences. You cannot have a foot in both worlds; it cannot be done. You must either hate one and live for the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. I think most of us try to live in the two different worlds. We rationalize our behavior by saying we don't really love money, but is that true? I hope it is with me. But I wonder whether our biggest shouts of joy in life would be for winning a multi-million dollar lotto or because we are in the household of the Lord or another lost sinner has come home. I wonder?

Are we more happy with a new toy we purchased than with the Lord's presence? Do we spend our time exercising our bodies and providing security for ourselves or we do we seek to do the Master's work? Who do we serve? If we are really honest with ourselves, we might find ourselves enjoying our accumulated wealth and leisure activities more than serving God. I believe most Americans are culpable in this area of loving money, self, material things, and even vacations more than God. Jesus told the Pharisees who loved money, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men." They were the ones who told men how holy they were, setting the right tone between money and serving God. They substantiated their service to God by telling others how they used what they had for God, but Jesus rebuked them by saying, God knows your hearts. He knows where our hearts are; He knows what we really think and what we actually do with our money. A recent poll of Christians indicated that over 90% of Christians don't even tithe. I don't believe we should tithe as a law, but it is a worthy discipline, and our lack of generous giving indicates the state of our hearts.

Jesus says, what is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. If we highly value money and possessions, if we store up treasures on Earth, if we strive to gain worldly security, we are doing what God detests because He knows we cannot serve two masters. We will love the one and hate the other. Love requires devotion, takes time and effort. Which master do we love and serve? I don't believe there is an easy answer. We sometimes love God immensely, but do we spend time with him in good times and in bad or do we seek him with all our strength and heart during trials and not when things go well. Others evidence a consistent walk in the good times but reject God when troubles come. Are we consistent in our love and service towards God, as committed as we are to gaining prosperity? We get up every day and go to work to earn money. We perform our jobs whether we feel good or not. Do we give God the same service or is He neglected on the shelf when we feel depressed or grumpy? Is He relegated to the back corners of our lives when we desire entertainment and self gratification? Is Christ the first one we think about in the morning and the last one we acknowledge before going to sleep? Is God our master or not? A servant cannot serve two masters! May we serve the One who gave his all for us.

Luke 16:8-12

Luke 16:8-12 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

Jesus is talking about God in these parables. He is the master, the one who gives true riches, the one who gives us property. After all, He is the Creator of all that is, and He is the distributor of everything that is. In the parable of the dishonest manager, the profligate repented of his dishonorable and reckless lifestyle by making his wrongs right. Of course, he did that for purely selfish reasons, but he did it. The master commended him for acting wisely. He did not lie about his situation or blame his wrongdoings on others or aberrant conditions; he just made things right. In today's scriptures we see Jesus saying that the untrustworthy who live their lives dishonestly cannot be given more because they will continue to live their lives in the same way. These people cannot be trusted with any more. Sadly, the master cannot give them property of their own, real property, that which lasts for eternity.

In our finiteness with our inability to look into the celestial, when we look at the words riches and property, we have an anemic understanding of Jesus' meaning as He uses these words. Jesus speaks of riches and property because the concepts approximate what exists in heaven. But the realities of the heavenlies are quite different from the earthly concepts governing us. Paul said that the man who was caught up into the third heaven could not even talk about what he saw. That man (Paul) did not even have words or concepts to express what he saw because what he saw was far beyond his reality, beyond his imagination, beyond his ability to describe. That is where God is and where true reality exists. When Jesus talks to us, it is like talking to blind animals, existing in the center of the earth or to blind fish, swimming in pools in dark caves. Concepts of the heavenlies and eternal life go beyond the realities of life we experience. On Earth, we deal with the shadows of reality, not reality. We deal with faith, not with the full understanding of the realities of all things.

What are the true riches, the property Christians receive? Through his presence, the Holy Spirit brings true riches to us. He is the reflection of God himself. He inhabits the land given to the body of Christ. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We who are in Christ are the land and from his fruit in us, we display God to the world. We display the Promised Land, God's plan of reconciling the world to himself. As part of the trinity, the Holy Spirit is the giver of all things. In the above passage, Jesus says if you cannot be trusted with little, He will not give you more. If you are a liar about your life, continuing on with your own will, you cannot be trusted with more. But if you repent of your life, realizing you are wasting your life by living for yourself, you will receive true riches, real property. You will be part of HIS BODY, filled with the Holy Spirit, the earnest of heaven. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; our lives are God's possessions. In this finite existence He has given to us, if we cannot be trusted with the property we have, how can we be trusted with eternal property, eternal existence? With our profligate, sinful lives and terrors such as nuclear bombs that can wipe out all existence on Earth, how can God trust us or promise us anything else? In our sinful state, we cannot be trusted with his riches and property.

What about us? What is our hope of God's presence, his eternal life, his property? Outside of repentance, we are without hope! We do not merely add Christ to our lives, we repent of ourselves: our lack of stewardship, our lack of responsibility, and our resulting poor choices. We repent of the sins we allow to permeate our thinking, our attitudes. We repent of self, of being a god to ourselves. Then we accept Jesus Christ as Savior (the Way out), and He gives us real property, true riches, even himself. We become his body. He alone gives eternal life; He alone opens the riches of heaven to us. IN HIM God welcomes us into eternal dwellings. As Christians, are we new creatures right now? The Bible says, yes, but we probably do not comprehend fully what that means. Someday we will understand our inheritance in its fulness. Someday each of us will look at that old man that gripped our souls and say, "How did that fleshly, sinful person inhabit my soul?" Then with full knowledge, we will understand the realities of our new LIFE in Christ. We will understand our heavenly beings shine like translucent jewels, reflecting the light and glory of God. The temple of God that we represent is a beautiful place of many different hues that will express the image of God throughout all existence. If not today, SOMEDAY, WE WILL ALL UNDERSTAND!

Luke 16:1-9

Luke 16:1-9 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg — I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Out of fear for his own security, the dishonest manager displayed grace and mercy to others, using his own wealth to get out of trouble with the rich man. He allowed the debtors who owed the master to pay less than they owed. He, the wasteful manager, made up for the rest. Of course, this pretentious goodness was for his own benefit, for his own security. Because he gave these debtors a break, he felt they probably would reciprocate by providing him a home if he lost his job and residency. The dishonest manager was looking out for number one, himself.

Jesus relates this story to reveal that the people of the world are many times more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light. The sinners use their wealth to gain friends and reciprocation. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. The dishonest manager knew when his wealth was gone, if he did not have any friends who owed him, he was doomed. He would not have a home, he would have no means of survival, for he was not strong enough to dig, and he was ashamed to beg. We know, however, that none of what this dishonest manager did would lead to eternal dwellings, so Jesus was really telling his followers how they should live their lives. When their lives are gone, when they have used up their wealth, their ability to survive, what will happen to them if their lives have been lived for themselves, in a profligate manner with no plan for the future?

The first aspect of this story is that this man was a profligate. The rich man put him in charge of his possessions, but instead of being respectful of this responsibility, the man cavalierly managed the rich man's property. As humans, we have been put in charge of God's creation, the earth. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Are we doing likewise, wasting what God has given us? The rich man asked the man to give an account of his management. Are we respectful of what God has given us? Are we respectful of the earth and its bounty? Are we respectful of the bodies He has given us? Are we taking care of the earth and our bodies? Are we taking care of our surroundings, our health, our lives? We can be disrespectful, we can be profligates.

Secondly, in this story, Jesus highlights grace and mercy. This dishonest manager gave grace and mercy for his own benefit. He did not ask the debtors to pay their full debt, writing some off for his own purposes. In this account Jesus asks us to do likewise, to give grace and mercy rather than judgment and harsh treatment to people who transgress against us. Giving grace and mercy to others leads to eternal life. The Bible says we will be judged as we judge others. If we fail to give grace and mercy, God will not give us grace and mercy. If we truly desire eternal life, an eternal dwelling, we need to treat others as we would want to be treated. We need to forgive others, for none of us can stand before a righteous God with sin in our lives, with hatred permeating our souls.

Jesus asks us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hurt us, to go the extra mile with our oppressors. He asks us to settle quickly with the sinner who opposes us. This of course is for our good, not for the oppressors of our souls. Actually, by doing this, by forgiving them, the Bible says we are heaping coals of judgment on those who would do us harm. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” (Romans 12:20) Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. In the above passage, Jesus tells his disciples to be at least as wise as the world. They make friends for their own purposes, but we should give grace and mercy for eternal purposes. Jesus gave his love, grace, and mercy to us when we were yet sinners; we should give the same to the world. We should expend our wealth, our strength, our lives, revealing God to the world. This is our reasonable sacrifice and service. We will then be known as good stewards, deserving of an eternal dwelling place with our Lord because we followed Christ's example.

Luke 15:25-32

Luke 15:25-32 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

What is the elder son all about? He probably believed in paying your way. If you do what is right, the payoff should come to you. If you are a good person, a responsible person, you should receive the reward. Logic says, the father should have killed the fattened calf for the good son, not the irresponsible one. Isn't that exactly what the parables on the talents are all about? Shouldn't those who work the hardest gain the biggest rewards? Those who don't work should receive little or nothing. Isn't this the way we in America think about our society? Good people, disciplined people, those who work hard, should get the payoff, not the irresponsible, the shiftless. This son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ We understand the elder son's anger. After all, he was the "good son," the profitable son, who obeyed his father without hesitation. Yet the father in the parable did not give his son even a young goat to celebrate with his friends. Of course, the eldest felt slighted, unappreciated. To him the world was turned upside down. But the father reminded him, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

Likewise, we who are Christians have already received the grace and mercy of the Lord; we are in the kingdom. We are the ninety-nine sheep, the nine coins, the eldest son. We are already experiencing the blessings of God and have received the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. At this very moment, we are sons and daughters of the Lord, possessing the full inheritance of the Father: eternal life. Fortunately, we do not need to find our way back to the Father, for we are already in him, and He in us. With such great blessings, we should readily welcome any wayward person to God's fold, even those who slip in at the last moment, those who never paid a tithe or carried the load of being a Christian in a dark and desperate world.

We should reject an elder son's attitude, for he did not really know or understand the goodness of the father, the depth of his grace and mercy. God is no respecter of persons; He loves sinners as much as He loves those in the fold. He loves the murderer, the rapist, and the Hitlers as much as He loves those in his household. God gave his beloved Son, the SONG AND JOY OF HEAVEN, FOR US including the worst among us. Paul said he was chief of sinners, for he persecuted the body of Christ, killed God's chosen ones. Nevertheless, God loved Paul with an everlasting love.

Therefore, we should put away our prejudices against the mass murderer who comes to Christ on Death Row. We should reject our resentful spirits when we see a formerly wicked person rejoicing because they experience the mercy of the Lord. We should rejoice with the guilty, with sinners who come home. We should rejoice with them because God rejoices over their redemption. God gave us the fruit of the Spirit, his talents, to serve him. Let those talents of love, mercy, goodness, and the like be multiplied in our lives, so the lost might find God. Let our God-given talents reveal the Father to sinners, leading them to repentance and the path towards home. As children of the kingdom, let us rejoice with the Father as He receives the lost into his presence. Definitely, let us throw off the elder brother's spirit as we praise God for his many blessings.

Luke 15:11-24

Luke 15:11-24 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate."

Let’s have a feast and celebrate: a wonderful statement that should thrill our hearts. That is what God said when each of us came to him: "Angels, let's celebrate!" As with the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, this story illustrates how much love the Lord God has for us. He loves us with an everlasting love. The father in the parable did not give up hope that his lost son would come home, and when he discovered his lost son coming down the road, he ran to him and helped him the rest of the way home. Even today, God is in the business of receiving lost sons and daughters back to him. He is in the business of running out and greeting them. He is in the business of having a feast for each one of them. They were lost in the pigpen of life, but now they are found; now they have come home.

The son thought the world was more attractive than home. He asked for his inheritance or the blessings of God. God gave them to him; he had strength, intelligence and breath to live the life he wanted to live. The son went out and squandered this wealth, participating in everything the world offered. This parable reminds me of Elvis Presley. He started singing in the church and ended up performing in casinos, bloated and polluted by drugs. He squandered what God gave him. Hopefully, in the last few minutes of his life, his Father saw him a long way off and ran to greet him. I believe that probably happened. The criminal on the cross asked Jesus to remember him and the Father in heaven ran out to greet him: Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43 God reads the intent of the heart, not merely words. We do not need a lot of words, just a heartfelt sorrow and a need for God. I wonder how many heart attack victims, how many stroke victims, how many overdosed people, how many in their last breath said, "Oh God, help me?"

In all of the parables we have studied, we see how much God loves people, how much He loves the wayward ones who have squandered their wealth. He constantly looks down the road to see if anyone is coming from a long ways off. He sees them when they fall to the ground in the hands of death. He sees them when fear creeps across their faces because of their imminent demise. He sees those who are alone and crying, struggling with their last breaths. He sees the soldier on the field of battle writhing in the throes of death. He sees all those who earnestly say, "Oh God, help me." God loves people.

Is this an easy gospel? No, but it is the gospel of the Lord, a gospel of grace. All who seek him will find him. He is tender towards us. God is not like us. We make people earn their way to our acceptance; God just asks us to turn towards home. Just turn! He will be there. What about God and Jesus? What about salvation? Salvation comes through accepting Christ's work on the cross. I'll let the Triune God determine how he wants to clean up the son who has been wallowing in the pigsty, the place for an animal so dirty that God did not want the Jewish people to eat it or sacrifice it. I'll let God determine how the criminal who desired to be in his presence should enter his presence. I'll let God be God. But I believe emphatically, the Bible says the blood of Jesus has to be the cleansing agent for all mankind. The blood alone renews, cleanses and creates, satisfying the wrath of God on all waywardness and sin. Our part is to turn and to accept.

Let’s have a feast and celebrate is God's call to the heavenly occupants. Let's rejoice, For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ The elder son was unhappy with the father for allowing the younger son to enter back into the family so easily. He wanted a long prayer of repentance and maybe a sin sacrifice from the youngest. He wanted the father to make his brother earn back his position as a full-fledged member of the family. He did not want the youngest to receive the full blessings of his father, but the father says, Let's have a feast. He did not consider his returning son as the least in the family; he was accepted as a full-blown member of the family with all the rights and privileges of a son, deserving a feast. The father totally accepted him as if he never had sinned. Is this possible in the kingdom of God? Yes, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. The least shall be the greatest, the greatest the least. God accepts a repentant heart, a cry for help, a returning cry, "Oh God, help me," for He loves us with an everlasting love and He made a way home through the blood of his beloved Son.

Luke 15:8-10

Luke 15:8-10 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

These are extremely challenging verses as with most of what Jesus ministers. Do we see sinners as God sees them? Do we desire for them to be found as much as this woman desired to find her lost silver coin? Does a soul for us have more value than the treasures we so busily secure on Earth? Is searching for sinners indispensable in our daily walk? What do we really think about these important matters?

In this passage, a woman searches for a valuable silver coin she once had in her possession. She stops her normal life activities to find this lost coin. As with the previous lost sheep parable, this story depicts God's concern for finding the lost, those who were once in his possession, those made in his image. These two beautiful parables comfort us, for they reveal how much God loves the lost. Today, we see the woman lighting the lamp, sweeping the house, and searching carefully to find her lost coin in the same way God seeks the lost. He sent his son Jesus, the light of the world, to search for the lost, to call them out of darkness. We see Jesus as God's hands extended. He sweeps the room carefully, searching under the sofa, behind the refrigerator, under the chair for the lost. He does everything, fully expending himself to recover his children. The Bible says Jesus endured the cross to save the lost from their darkness: for the joy set before him endured the cross. (Hebrew 12:2) Through his actions, He finds the lost and restores them to God. He brings great joy to God by rescuing people from the darkness of their souls. As with the woman and her neighbors, God rejoices in the presence of angels over one sinner who repents of his or her wayward ways.

Notice, the sinner repents: repents of their lostness, their waywardness, their sinfulness. Real repentance brings joy to God's heart. We sometimes ask for commitment to the name of Christ without repentance. However, joy comes to God's heart when the sinner says, "I don't want or like my life, I turn to you God, I want your life and your ways. This is when joy comes to God's heart. Sometimes we seek a shallow commitment from people. We ask them to add God to their lives, not replace their former lives. Salvation represents new life, not just a rehabilitated life. Salvation requires repentance, if a born again experience is to take place. This is our message to the world: repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you will receive the gift of eternal life.

As Christians, members of the body of Christ, a primary concern in our lives should be to seek the lost, to bring salvation and hope to them. Therefore, we must always be in the process of lighting the lamp, sweeping the house, and searching carefully for the lost. But for us to be so purposeful, we have to view the lost as a treasure. Finding the lost must be a vital part of our lives. If the unsaved are incidental in our lives, we will not arrange our activities to bring salvation to them. The coin passage challenges me and probably all of us, for in the parable, we see how much God rejoices in finding the lost, how much He loves them. Do we rejoice as heartily, as joyfully, when a sinner comes to God? If not, we probably need to move a lot closer to God's heart. As we take up the cross and follow him, we will rejoice to see his plans fulfilled in our lives.

Luke 15:1-7

Luke 15:1-7 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Jesus welcomed tax collectors and sinners into his midst. He did not reject their presence; He welcomed them. Do we do the same or are we like the self-righteous religious leaders of Jesus' time who rejected the presence of sinners at the dinner table? They strongly criticized Jesus for affiliating with these people, the outcasts of respectable society. Jesus associated with lawbreakers, people who did not obey the strictures of the Jewish society. These "sinners" along with the tax collectors were viewed as outcasts, traitors to their people, lackeys of the Romans. As far as the Jewish elite were concerned, they were definitely a despicable lot. But just as Jesus previously revealed how we should treat the poor, lame, blind, and crippled, He now states how we should treat people who are spiritually infirm. In today's passage, Jesus faults the religious community for their lack of compassion, their unwillingness to love the unlovely, even those who might be their enemies. For sure, the religious elite would not invite these people to their banquets.

Jesus reiterates a consistent theme of his ministry: how can the weak find help if the strong do not help them? How can the physically maimed find healing unless the strong help them? How will the spiritually bankrupt find their way back to God unless the spiritually strong show them the way? Someone must pay a price to help people who are lost and without hope. God sent Jesus to Earth to pay that price, to reveal that kind of love. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed. (Luke 4:18) Jesus reveals his commission in the above parable. He tells about a shepherd using his strength and time to go out and rescue a lost sheep. The shepherd could have sat in his home, saying, "Oh well, at least I have the ninety-nine." But Jesus says, out of love for the lost sheep, the shepherd goes after the lost one to secure that sheep into the fold. He uses his strength and abilities to find the lost one and bring him home. This is the shepherd's heart, the servant's heart. This should be our heart as well.

In the above scenario, salvation came to a wayward sheep, and heaven rejoices over its redemption. We also should rejoice over a lost one that is found. But how can they be found if we don't put our energy and talents into finding them? How can they be found if we don't associate with them? How will they enter into the kingdom of God if we don't help them, minister to them? Again, Jesus castigates the religious elite by telling them they are better at judging people than helping them. They are better at putting roadblocks in front of sinners than opening a door for them so they might find hope and deliverance.

Notice, they were all the shepherd's sheep; they were all his. The Bible says all people were made in God's image--we are all his. But some of us are lost, and we do not know the way home. What are Christians to do with this situation? Well, through the blood of Jesus, God has made us new creatures, born again creatures, people capable of finding and helping the wandering sheep. Christ called us to become fishers of men. We have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit abiding in us; therefore, we are equipped to rescue the lost. But if we don't associate with them, how can we rescue them? Are we asking gay people to leave his gayness before we love them, the alcoholics to leave their alcoholism before we invite them to our banquets? Are we asking the troubled and angry to forsake their ways before we comfort them or offer healing? Are we asking our enemies to change their attitudes towards us before we reach out to them?

The Jewish elite grumbled at Jesus, dismissed him because He associated with the lost. But Jesus said, this is why I am here, to save the lost household of Israel, to bring in the wanderers who have chosen their own way rather than God's way. The account of the shepherd seeking the lost sheep reveals Jesus' heart. Is this your heart? Is this the image of love and reconciliation that God portrays through you? Or are you outside of the banquet, looking in, dressed in your own robes of righteousness and criticizing the scene: the poor, the unlovely, the sinners seated at the table? Are you telling Jesus He shouldn't associate with those gays, those abortionists, the lost sinners? No, Jesus says, I will even associate with the hated tax-collectors, the traitors to our country, that I might save some. Are we outside spewing hatred and condemnation or are we inside the banquet hall, revealing God's love to the forsaken and forgotten ones? We have a choice. The Bible even asks us to love our wayward, hateful masters who beat us every day. Jesus tells us to love as He loved: even while we were yet sinners He loved us and died for us. HE IS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. As his body, we are good shepherds to the people of our day. Will you do as Christ did, fully extend your love to the unlovely? Today there are lost sheep for us to find.

Luke 14:34-35

Luke 14:34-35 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

Jesus likens his followers to salt in today's verses. In the pure sense, salt is a seasoning, a preservative. In a literary sense, salt represents zest, spirit, vitality, sparkle. We even use the word salt to describe someone who uses strong language as one who is salty in their speech. The ability to discern the presence of salt is one of our basic tastes along with the ability to detect sweet, sour, and bitter. Jesus may have been thinking of all these things in his use of the word. Certainly, Christians should bring flavor to life, and we should be agents who protect and preserve the gospel. Likewise as we shine for the Lord, we bring a healthy new spirit into every room we enter; we bring energy, joy, and excitement for life as we show forth the person of Jesus. When we meet such a believer, we feel more alive, more on fire as their spirit seems contagious and inspires us to go deeper into Christ's love.

So how do we lose our saltiness? In our busy modern world, many activities, thoughts, and ideas contend for our interest. One of Satan's most effective tools is distraction, getting us off track. If we lose sight of our true purpose as believers to grow in our faith and to share the "good news," we can easily become spiritually dull and tasteless without the life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit directing and teaching us. We can become like the church at Laodicea described in Revelation. Because these people were lukewarm in their faith, the Lord said He would spew them out of his mouth. In Psalm 34, we read, Taste and see that the Lord is good. That same goodness should emanate from our lives as God brings forth a harvest of the fruit of the Spirit to feed hungry souls. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control help make up our saltiness, our essence, our testimony of life and growth in Jesus.

Salt is essential to all living creatures including humans because it not only adds flavor and zest to life but it regulates the fluid content in a living being. Jesus surely had this in mind when He called us the salt of the earth. As salt and life, we have an important role in God's kingdom, so vital that if we lose that element of our being, we are no longer effective in the body of Christ. Jesus says if we lose our saltiness we are no longer good for anything, a harsh judgment. Yet his words make sense because we are not meant to be inert, bland, or stagnant in our service to the Lord. God calls us to be light and life in a dark and dying world where people hunger for food that satisfies, the Bread of Life. Once when I made bread, I forgot the salt. The lack of such a small ingredient made the bread not rise as it should, and it tasted more like sawdust than my usual delicious homemade bread. Just as salt is essential to the baking of good bread, salty Christians are needed in God's economy where people taste of the Lord by partaking of what we offer, our personalities and our faith.

We stay salty by staying in the Word, by praying, by giving the Holy Spirit complete control of our plans and our activities. As part of the body of Christ, each of us has work to do, exciting and purposeful work in God's kingdom. To do the King's bidding, we must be full to overflowing with his goodness and love; we must be aware of God's purposes for our lives and committed to fulfilling his desires. Every day God presents opportunities for us to be salt: to season, to preserve, and to bring vitality to others. Yet none of us can make ourselves more salty through our own human efforts. We need to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him. We need to focus on God's will, not our own. As we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, yielded to the Holy Spirit's control, we will see God's hand extended to us and through us. God does not want any of his children trampled or destroyed; He wants us alive and functioning for him. If God finds us salty and full of him, He will use us for his glory. We are a privileged people. May we bring honor to our Father by allowing him to enrich our lives, making us the salt of the earth that will preserve, protect, and enliven those we meet.

Luke 14:28-33

Luke 14:28-33 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Life is a river, not a pond. Life is action, not repose. Life is planning the next move, not going with the flow. As with Jesus and the disciples, life is walking to the next city to win some, not just staying home and praying for someone else to go. Life is movement, not inertia. In the above passage, Jesus talks about the lifestyle expressed in the book of James: show me your faith by your deeds, not just with your words. The New Testament is full of this WORK-FAITH. Jesus and the apostles were constantly on the move, walking the dusty roads from one town to the next, from one region to the next, always teaching the kingdom of God is near. Consequently, the gospel spread like wildfire. In Acts we find the apostles and their converts on fire for God, giving up everything to follow Jesus. We even see them fleeing from one city to another to escape persecution, but still with a testimony on their lips. This may all sound like the antithesis of Psalms 23: The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters. Yet this is our commission from the Lord as we go out to all the world to preach the gospel, God's message of love.

Many times, Christians seek a Psalms 23 existence, wanting God to show us the still waters and green pastures in life. We want rest, quietness, less turbulent waters. But we usually do not find it here because Christianity is an action word. Christianity is moving, not contemplating, not reclining, not preserving our strength, our sanity. We are strangers, moving through this land. Like Abraham the father of faith, we seek a city made by God's hands. We are not people incapsulated by our houses and green lawns, tied to this land. That is not where we, people of faith, live; this is not where the kingdom of God is and where we do the King's work. Well then, what about all this talk of rest? Does God give rest? Is there no still water? Yes, there is, for God gives rest to our spirit man. He says, stop trying to be a Christian through your works of goodness; instead, rest in my work, accomplished through Jesus Christ. By faith enter through the only door and lie down in the green pasture by the still water. God says, I have done it all for you. You are mine. The work is finished, accomplished. Therefore, heaven is our home, and death has been conquered, for we are ALIVE IN CHRIST EVERMORE.

Jesus implies if we desire to be his disciples, we must commit wholeheartedly, a 100 percent, to follow him. If we want God's kingdom work accomplished, we cannot sit back and say everything will come to fruition without our involvement. Christians have to put their total effort into living a life for Christ. A faith life takes effort. Abraham did not get to another country without effort. The Israelites did not enter the Promised Land without effort. The church did not expand throughout the world without effort. To live lives of faith, requires work, a lot of work, and not just work to save our personal souls. In Christ that battle has been won, but work is required to further the kingdom of God. Christians cannot sit back and say it is not important whether I am in the battle or not. We cannot say that gathering together as a community of believers is unimportant. We cannot say our testimony is not needed. We must understand that God needs our legs, our mouths, our lives for his purposes.

Too many of us sit in the back pasture, waiting for God to discover us as Solomon discovered David. David worked in the field and was ready to do God's bidding. Now we are the Davids, the men and women of war. Jesus has discovered us. Therefore, we need to get up and do HIS WORK as his faithful disciples. In a day of electronics, we can visit the sick, the hurting, the desperate without even leaving our homes. In many ways in this age, we can perform God's work without much effort. Our cars carry us quickly to someone's house to comfort the sick or grieving. We can send an email or letter or make a quick phone call to an elderly person or someone who is discouraged. We can go anoint someone with oil and pray for God's victory in their lives without much effort. There is just no reason we should hide out in our homes in front of our televisions, making them a place of stagnant waters. Hiding from your troubled workplace or the activities of life is not God's will. We should not spend our physical lives reclining by the pond, surrounded by green pasture, waiting for Jesus' return. Our lives should be in the turbulent river of life where we rescue the desperate, the people who are drowning. As his disciples, his light and salt, we will be there. Praise the Lord of the harvest who gives us strength to do his will.

Luke 14:25-27

Luke 14:25-27 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 10:37-39 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Philippians 2:5-8 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Many followed Jesus, but not many wanted to take up the cross and to follow him as a servant. Jesus said, a servant of mine cannot even protect his own life, his own way of living. He must give it all to me. Usually, we find this is hard to do. We want our lives organized and running smoothly, the way we want them. We want to interact and to associate with desirable people. We do not want to be told what to do with our own lives. But Jesus says we must love him so much that we are willing to put aside our own desires, even our relationships with members of our own families. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple.

As God did with the children of Israel, Jesus asks for a total commitment, not a half-hearted affirmation. He does not ask us to assure ourselves of a better, more secure life by following him; He asks us to risk everything willingly to follow him, even the love of our families. Such a commitment is far removed from present day Christianity in America. Many times, people accept Jesus Christ as "Lord" because they want a better life, stronger relationships, more success. We sometimes take on Jesus Christ to ensure our security, to fulfill our dreams of prosperity and happiness. Paul says our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who went to the cross as a servant to all mankind. He gave his life to others for their blessing not his. Jesus said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

Our lives should mirror the life of Jesus. He said, anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Accepting Christ is not a vaccination, a cure-all for our sins. Christianity is a life, a servant's life, lived for others and not ourselves. If we score touchdowns, it is for others not ourselves. We don't say look at me because Christ is doing great things in me; we say look at Christ because I serve him, my Lord and Master. I think as we absorb the attitudes of our day, some of us are confused in our Christianity. If we followed the tenets of modern thought, no one would give up his or her life for Christ. Martyrdom does not actually benefit the self; it does display a servant's heart. Jesus did not go to the cross for himself, but for the world. We are to be servants, not for ourselves but for others. The servant receives no glory; the praise goes to the master. If the grounds are kept up well, look magnificent, the master gets the credit, not the servants who toiled to make it happen. He accepts the accolades not the servants.

Well, what does this all mean? Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Christ did not come to highlight our lives, He came to reveal God to us and through us. We should reflect the same spirit as Christ who came to reveal the Father's love. If we reveal God in all of his glory, we will serve willingly, choosing to give up our lives, yielding control of our existence, and submitting our will to accept God's will. This is Christianity, the only way to victorious living. There is no other way to be a disciple of Christ. Since we have only one life to live, this may seem hard, but God asks us to live our lives for him by FAITH, knowing He will perfect the work He started in each of us. If we endure to the end, He remains faithful and gives us the power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now my friend, we have a choice: to live our lives for God or for ourselves. Those who choose the former are children of God, and the latter are children of the world. Which will it be? I believe you have chosen to live your lives for God. So shout, Hallelujah! Then live as a child of the King, sharing his grace and love.