October 3 - Unrighteous Mammon

 Read today’s texts first: Ezra 5,6; Psalm 138; Luke 16

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

The money that makes the world go ‘round
isn’t really an asset in God’s economy. 

It seems whenever I struggle the most with a Bible reading I can expect the biggest insight.  Luke is usually quite logical and chronological in His gospel account but chapter 16 made no sense to me, at first. Then I remembered a conversation I had with a colleague about a business opportunity he wanted me to consider, and then I got it.  Jesus talks a lot about money, not because He values it but because we do.  Sorry ‘bout this all you prosperity teachers out there, but Jesus seems to have utter disdain for unrighteous mammon.

After the parable of the unrighteous steward, the teaching on two masters and the story of the rich man in Hades, you get the idea that money just isn’t an asset in God’s economy.  Jesus grew up as the son of a lowly carpenter in a backwoods town to become an unemployed homeless man wandering around picking up scraps He scrounged from other people’s fields.  He even had to pay His taxes with money He happened to find in a fish’s mouth.  I know that the hyper faith teachers say that He became poor so we could be rich, but that just doesn’t fit with the rest of Scripture.  Jesus is not just our Saviour - He modeled for us how to think and act.

I use to spend way too much time thinking about how to raise enough money to do God’s will.  I think I finally learned through a major capital project at PLBC just to do what He says and the money will be there!  God had no problem convincing a heathen king to underwrite the rebuilding of His Temple (from the Ezra reading).  I can’t serve God and mammon, which became the reason I answered “no” to this business venture.  It was fine for my friend, but I was sure it wasn’t what God wanted me to do at that time.  “Thanks Lord for Your promise to accomplish what concerns me (Ps. 138).”