Do you want to be in that number?

In Like 19, we have the parable of the pounds - wherein a certain nobleman gives ten servants a pound each, leaves for a time, and returns to investigate his servants. Three servants are shown, one has turned his pound into ten, one has turned his pound into five, and one has turned his pound into one - has in fact hidden the pound away out of fear. Each servant was rewarded based upon what they were able to do with their respective pound, the first being given ten cities to be over, the second being given five, and the third was given none, and the first was told to take away the pound that the third had been given.

I have always understood it to mean that we must be a faithful steward of the resources under our control. I was tying it into the parable of the talents, as well as the parable of the 10 virgins - each of which have spoken to me about being mindful of our responsibilities and being prepared to ready instead of just being ready.

I took another at the parable of the pounds - there were TEN servants, each given a pound, and only three showed up when the nobleman came back. I always discounted this as Jesus being efficient, as the ten-five-one were effectively three "edifying" ways of responding to their shared commission. This never satisfied me, and I never saw why until today - what about the other seven? What did the other seven do and what did the nobleman say to them?

I believe this is actually revealed in Luke 19 as well and they are alluded to in versus 14 and 27 - his citizens hated him (14) and he calls that his enemies (which he defines as those which would not that he should reign over them be brought hither to be slain). There are, then, FOUR categories.

• The faithful, who when given a single pound are able to do much with it, and are given much in return.


• The seekers, who when given a single pound bear fruit - they are not as focused on the will of God but are still doing mighty things.


• The believers, who when given a single pound bear no fruit, focus only on the manifestation, and not the will of God.


• The others, who when given a single pound bear no fruit, lose or waste the fruit they have, and are called to be slain.

By proportion, this is a 70% attrition rate, and if we see these as representatives of the human population, this equates to:

• 70% not accepting the gospel of Christ at all, and are actually hateful toward Jesus


• 10% accepting the gospel of Christ and, through distraction, bear no fruit


• 10% accept the gospel, do some good works, and are blessed for it


• 10% accept the gospel, daily die to self, and claim the greatest blessing

So today’s call to action is simple:

1. Ask yourself which you number yourself among. Pray and be as objective as possible.


2. Ask yourself which number you wish to be among. Also pray and be objective.
   Clearly, as a believer, we are called to be among the top 10% of believers, but we have a wide proportion available - and God's grace is great.


3. Pray for a change of heart to line up more literally, fully, explicitly, and abundantly with God's will for your life so that can be a perpetual witness of God's love AND so that you can be among the number to claim those ten pounds!

Sacrifice of Praise, God as muse

In my reading, where the Moses speaks about how the children of Israel have been perpetually contrary, I realized I had turned a bit of a deaf ear to the story. The same thing happened in Luke, when Jesus shared with his disciples how the ground upon which the seeds (of the word of God) were dropped determines how much fruit their presence will bear. I have heard the story many, many times, and it didn't stir me as it had in times past.

What do you do when you have read the same scripture many times, can quote it, and it holds no mystery for you? You pray. For the Lord wants you to appreciate and connect with Him on a personal level, and if you are truly at the point where scripture becomes rote in any way, one predominant characteristic of that stance is generally a lack of fellowship with the Lord.

Put yourself in the place of Moses at this point in his life. He has spent his whole life serving God, directing his ever unfaithful peers to a land that he had only heard about, and because he had let them finally get him so angry he broke something, and thus took the glory away from God, the result was to arrive at the promised land and to miss out on what could have been an amazing experience. Imagine how different that part of history could have turned out if Moses could have led the children of Israel into the promised land, it might have set the stage for the arrival of Jesus that much sooner. I can't even begin to imagine the level of changes such an event would incur, but they would be far reaching.

Likewise, when Jesus speaks about the parable of the seeds, one could easily be distracted by the few details provided and delve no further. But look - the seeds and grounds are metaphors for very real things. If you tie in the fact that God's will is sovereign, it must be that in some way, God wills some souls to be fallow ground, some to be briars, and some to be stone. We have several instances where God has made a heart stone (Pharoah figuratively and Nabal literally are two), and so one might be tempted to wonder - how often is our inability to accept the seeds of the word of God a part of His plan?

God's will is revealed, to some degree, in His word. And we see, over and over again, how events happen, often in seemingly random order, that we would not be able to clearly predict. And we see miracles all throughout, some subtle and some glaring and explicit, and we are told that everything God allows is for His glory. And the thoughts he thinks of us are good.

Therefore - if some hearts he allows to lay fallow, some hearts he turns to stone, and some hearts he surrounds with brambles, we can rest assured that, although circumstances may not suggest any kind of order, we can trust in the reality that God's will is being done, and it will be for His glory. And because God knows the thoughts he thinks of us, and that they are for good and not for evil, we can also be assured that His intent for us is for the good.

So please, if you're feeling the least bit cynical, or distant from God, or separate, not really connecting with His glory, His grace, or His marvelous nature, take time out to pray.
Thank Him for all he has done in your life.

And if you have a problem with coming up with praise reports, here are some guidelines:
If you can read this, be thankful for:
the ability to see
the ability to read
the ability and opportunity to access the internet
the opportunity to choose what you read on the internet
the freedom to think for yourself

If you have eaten anything in the last twenty-four hours, be thankful for:
a source of food
a roof over your head
someone who loves you
someone who prays for you
someone to pray for

There are, quite literally, an endless list of things to be thankful for, and the main reason people aren't thankful is that they take one or more of those things for granted.
So if the above list isn't useful to you, then realize you might be better served focusing on someone other than yourself.

Regardless, may God bless you this day and allow your life to be a ministry to others.