Doing Business

In Luke 19 Jesus tells the Parable of the Minas. It is the story of a king going away to receive his official commission, and while he is gone he gives his servants a sum of money with which they are entrusted. He tells them, “Do business with this until I come back.” The NIV says “put this money to work until I come back.” The Greek word is pragma, from which we get the word pragmatic. They were to do something pragmatic with this money; make some business with it. The point is that the man has placed into the care of these servants a generous trust for which they would be held accountable.
What makes this story so compelling is that you and I are in this story. There are only three possibilities. You are either a true servant, a false servant or you are an enemy of Christ. A faithful servant does business with the Master’s gifts and continually receives more opportunities to serve Him. The false servant has received a commission from the Lord but never applies himself to the work of His master. They really don’t care whether Christ’s kingdom comes or succeeds. They simply don’t care. Therefore, they put forth no effort at all. And the enemies figure they can simply ignore the King of glory and suffer no consequence. There are no other categories. And the King is coming. When He comes He will call you to account. The question is: what will you do while the King is away?
Late last summer, my mother-in-law had some surgery and my wife decided to go and spend a week with her. That means I was left at home alone. As tragic as that sounds, and as much as I was tempted like any man to slack off on the job, the house was still standing when she returned home. Furniture had been dusted; the floors had been vacuumed and polished; clothes had been washed, dried and put away; dishes were clean and in the cabinets; and there was an ample food supply in the refrigerator. I even managed to have a surprise for her: I stained the deck on the back of the house!
It would have been easy for me to slough things off since “the boss” was away. I could have let her kingdom fall into ruin and betrayed her trust. But there is one reason I labored to make the house as pleasing as possible: I love her and I didn’t want to see a look of disappointment on her face. She does so much for me and is so valuable to me that I willingly cleaned up after myself each day and stayed up late the night before I drove to Virginia to pick her up in order to get the extra things done.
Christians, our Lord and Master has gone away for a while. He has been crowned the King of kings and Lord of lords. He has received His kingdom and will soon return to reign in splendor and majesty. At that time He will ask us, you and me, to account for how we handled His business here on earth. He will look at us with eager eyes in anticipation of our offering to Him. As a demonstration of our love for Him we must be about His business until He returns. After all, He did say, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (Jn. 14:15).
Bill Hybels once summed up the attitude that should mark all believers: “I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, uncalloused hand - a hand never dirtied by serving - and shake the nail-pierced hand of Jesus.” Our diligent and faithful service provides us with the divine comfort of

A STEADFAST HOPE

A Christian Nation

The Mayflower was quickly approaching land. Realizing that when they reached land they would need some agreement on social order, this group of a little more than 100 settlers penned the Mayflower Compact and signed it on November 11, 1620. This became the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. After a simple greeting the document states the explicit purpose of their voyage: “Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia.”
By reading our historical records we quickly discover the truth that this nation was founded for the expressed purpose of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These people were missionaries; they recognized that they were ambassadors of Christ who had been given a ministry of reconciliation.
This is exactly what Paul reminded us of in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. After reminding us of the glorious salvation we have received in Christ, making us new creations by faith, he says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Friends, a part of the reason we have lost our way as a nation is because we, Christ’s own disciples, have forsaken our duty to preach the Gospel to people who need to hear it and be saved. Oh, how we need a revival of evangelism. Surely all of us know someone who needs to hear about Someone Who will save anyone!
If we hope to receive God’s favor upon our land we must come before Him with contrite hearts, seeking His face and His will. We need the humility expressed in Daniel’s prayer. You remember that Daniel was in exile with the people of Israel, and through his reading of Scripture he concluded that the time of exile was nearly over. So, he turned to God in prayer, with fasting, and prayed this prayer found in Daniel 9:4-8. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame —the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you.”
The truth is that if we don’t evangelize and make disciples for the Lord Jesus Christ it won’t matter what kind of government they live under. Republicrat, Democublican, Independent or Tea Party won’t matter at all in eternity. Only in the Name of Christ Jesus can people find

A STEADFAST HOPE

Revival in the Land

Without fear of contradiction I say that all of us agree that there needs to be a Revival in the Land. There is no doubt that this nation has enjoyed the favor of God for over 200 years; and there is also no doubt that we are exhibiting some of the same patterns Israel followed in their long relationship with Jehovah God. They reveled in His favor and then abandoned Him as their God, then returned to Him in repentance only to turn away again. However, at each turn and with each rejection God continued to hold out life and favor to His people.
I believe with all my heart that there is a way America can once again obtain God’s blessing. Friends, there is no doubt that all of us are grieved over the rancor of partisan politics, the self-indulgent materialism that surrounds us, the rampant indecency, vulgarity, flaunting of sinful behavior and simple lack of common courtesy and respect for one another. But all our efforts to support life, to bring about justice, to support those things that are good and to reject evil and corruption will avail us nothing unless we maintain our devotion to the truth of the Word.
Most of us know that this country started out long before 1776. There were colonies established nearly two centuries prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. You had Roanoke, the Lost Colony in North Carolina and you had two significant landings in Jamestown and at Plymouth Rock. But why did these people come here? We have always been told that America was founded because we wanted to be free to worship as we pleased. That was part of it. But historical records from the first settlers clearly reveal that the goal was evangelism. In earlier posts we have noted the First Charter of Virginia and the Mayflower Compact which clearly have evangelistic overtones.
Another element of our founding was the moral and theological beliefs of the Founding Fathers. The people who played a pivotal and vital role in the founding of America were beyond question Christians. Even a cursory reading of their last wills and testaments will tell you that for these men’s lives the model was Christ.
Samuel Adams wrote, “Principally and first of all, I recommend my soul to that Almighty Being who gave it and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.”
Gabriel Duvall, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later U.S. Supreme Court Justice, wrote in his will, “I resign my soul into the hands of the Almighty who gave it in humble hopes of his mercy through our Savior Jesus Christ.”
Patrick Henry, “This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Jesus Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”
Friends, these are names with which we ought to be familiar and these testimonies ought to be embedded in our minds. They certainly aren’t the vague innocuous writings of men who had no faith. Did you know that 24 of the 55 Signers of the Declaration of Independence were ministers of the Gospel of Christ? Did you know that the first Speaker of the House of Representatives was a minister of the Gospel of Christ? Did you know that 95% of the 56 Signers were members of some mainline evangelical Church? These were men who knew Christ and preached Christ; men who wanted to see Christ exalted and His Gospel taught. Because only through the Gospel of Christ can future generations obtain
A STEADFAST HOPE!