Ramesh C. Reddy
Managing Editor
Hi everyone :)
May you come to know the Lord in a most personal way and may the Lord be glorified in your life as you faithfully do the responsibilities entrusted to you! Amen!
Announcements:
Today at New Hope Christian Community there will be a 9:30 a.m. pancake
breakfast for all those who are interested in coming before the 11:00 a.m.
service!
New Hope Christian Community is located on North Dithridge Street right opposite
to Webster Hall and St. Paul's Cathedral church on Fifth Ave. It is a 5-10 min
walk from the Towers.
You can also check out the activities fair in Posvar Hall from 2:00-5:00 p.m. where hundreds of organizations will be represented.
Quiet Times (Psalm 85, Proverbs 25, and Matthew 25)
Jesus said, “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going into another country, who called together his servants and loaned them money to invest for him while he was gone.” (Matthew 25:14)
“He gave $5,000 to one, $2,000 to another, and $1,000 to the last-dividing it in proportion to their abilities—and then left on his trip. The man who received the $5,000 began immediately to buy and sell with it and soon earned $5,000. The man with $2,000 went right to work, too, and earned another $2,000. But the man who received the $1,000 dug a hole in the ground and hid the money for safekeeping.” (Matthew 25:15-18)
“After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to him to account for his money. The man to whom he had entrusted the $5,000 brought him $10,000. His master praised him for good work. You have been faithful in handling this small amount,’ he told him,’ so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Begin the joyous tasks I have assigned to you.’ Next came the man who had received the $2,000, with the report, ‘Sir, you gave me $2,000 to use, and I have doubled it.’ “Good work,’ his master said.’ You are a good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over this small amount, so now I will give you much more. Then the man with the $1,000 came and said, ‘Sir, I knew you were a hard man, and I was afraid you would rob me of what I earned, so I hid your money in the earth and here it is!’ “But his master replied,’ Wicked man! Lazy slave! Since you knew I would demand your profit, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest. Take the money from this man and give it to the man with the $10,000. (Matthew 25:19-28)
“For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more, and he shall have abundance. But from the man who is unfaithful, even what little responsibility he has shall be taken from him. And throw the useless servant out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:29-30)
In this entire passage, the last 2 verses stood out for me because they essentially describe the entire passage in summary format.
There are 2 different outcomes I observed in these 2 verses:
1. For the man who USES WELL what he is GIVEN
shall be GIVEN MORE
and he shall HAVE ABUNDANCE!
2. For the man who is UNFAITHFUL, even what LITTLE RESPONSIBILITY he has
shall be TAKEN from him,
and he shall be THROWN OUT into OUTER DARKNESS!
It is awesome to realize that the man entrusted with $5,000 used that amount and got to work with that $5,000. He did not think to himself possibly, “Well, I have $5,000 with me but I am going to half-heartedly just use ½ of it and not touch the other amount. It is too much work to use that entire amount.”
On the contrary, he takes that entire amount of money and doubles it by the time his master returns and has a profit of $5,000.
It is also awesome to realize that the person with
$2,000 uses that amount of money and goes to work with it. He did not think to
himself possibly, “Well, I got only $2,000 and it is not much and I don’t want
to risk putting that money to good use because what if I lose it. Also, it is
not as much as the person with $5,000. He has a lot more than I do to work
with.”
On the contrary, he goes to work too and doubles it and makes a profit of $2,
000 with what he has been given.
Sadly, the man with the $1,000 did not even go to work
with it. He just hid it and let it lay dormant until the master came back. He
used an excuse of the master being a hard man and taking what he earned and
therefore he just kept it for him without doing anything with it. He did not
make any profit out of it. It is possible he may have thought to himself, ‘I
have only a $1,000 and it is way less than those 2 servants, what can I do with
this money so I may as well just keep it somewhere for safe keeping and when the
master comes back I will just give it back to him.”
That is exactly what he did not even earning a cent.
Now, I focused on the outcomes of all 3 of their actions when the master returned.
To the one that made an additional $5,000, the master was pleased and responded with these words, “His master praised him for good work. You have been faithful in handling this small amount,’ he told him,’ so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Begin the joyous tasks I have assigned to you.”
To the one that made an additional $2,000, the master was pleased too and responded with these words, “Good work,’ his master said.’ You are a good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over this small amount, so now I will give you much more.”
To the one that did not use his $1,000 to do anything, the master was angry and responded with these words, “But his master replied,’ Wicked man! Lazy slave! Since you knew I would demand your profit, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest. Take the money from this man and give it to the man with the $10,000."
I saw important implications for our own lives from this passage.
Money is something the master gave all 3 of them though it was not the same amount but according to their abilities and expected them to get to work with it. Another word for money that is used in other versions is the word ‘talent’
As I thought about ‘talent’, money did not come to my mind but literally how we define the word, ‘talent’ came to my mind which in turn brought to mind ‘people utilizing their talents at a talent show, etc.
Also, I thought about the concept of being multi-talented which is similar to the $5,000 person compared to having few talents similar to the $2,000 person and having a talent similar to the $1,000 person.
I was reminded of people who are multi-talented and put those talents to use and also of those who have talent and completely waste their talent away. Rather than being thankful for what they do have to use, they are upset about what talent they do not have and don’t do anything.
I learned with talents come responsibilities too and how we utilize the talents that have been given to us in terms of our responsibility we can be blessed with more talent or even what we have will be wasted away or taken away.
I ask you now friend, how do you use your talent?
Dear friend, to have a talent can be exciting but when it is not used for God’s glory than it gets wasted away. The Lord Jesus does not want you to waste the talent that you have been given. Rather, He wants you to invest that talent in people’s lives and make a difference.
I found it so interesting that in this same chapter Jesus talks about if we do anything for others it is like we are doing that for Jesus. In essence, if we use our talents and invest in people’s lives being responsible, it is like we are invested in our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom and it will please Him so much.
But, if we do not use what we have been given properly, I learned that the Lord is not pleased but very disappointed. Strong words such as ‘wicked’ and ‘lazy’ were used to describe the person who did not use his 1 talent but just buried it away.
Friend, I do not know what talent/s you have. But you are blessed to have some talent. Each one of us are talented in an area that we can use for the glory and honor of the Lord and when the day comes to account for how we have used that talent/s, the Lord will be pleased if we faithfully are responsible with even what little talent we have. That is exciting to know that the Lord looks for our faithfulness.
I also believe that when we use the talent the Lord has given us and we do not see any fruit right away, the Lord will still be pleased with us because we were not selfish and lazy just thinking about ourselves.
I don’t think the master was upset that the person with $1,000 just gave that back to him but because of his reasoning. The servant did not want to do anything because he feared if he made more money, that would be taken away, so what’s the point of working!. This is what made the master mad.
What I got out of the master’s interaction with the servant is that he was not concerned that his money was not doubled but of the man’s laziness and wicked attitude. The master made the point that you should have at least put it in the bank. That would not have given as much profit as putting that money to use directly but he wanted him to do something with it.
It is not the results that the Lord sees when He gives us responsibilities and talents but our faithfulness. That is evidenced by how the master responded to those that put their talents to work: “You have been faithful" to the servant with 5 talents, "good and faithful servant" to the servant with 2 talents, and ‘wicked, lazy’ to the servant with 1 talent who did not do anything with it.
I found it more interesting how ‘good’ is added to describe the servant with 2 talents and just 'faithful' to the one with 5 talents. Then, the opposite is used to describe the servant with 1 talent with the words ‘wicked and lazy’
I believe this is because ‘when we are given little talents’ it may not be as exciting to use them as ‘one who is multi-talented’ and yet proportionally the one with fewer talents produced as much as the one with ‘multi-talents’ profit wise.
Again, I don’t know what talents you have but your talent is valuable friend. You are precious and special in the Lord’s sight and He wants you to be responsible with what you have been entrusted with even if it is not much and when evaluation time comes, you could be blessed and entrusted with more.
Don’t let fear stop you or prevent you from putting to use your talents. They have been given to be put to use and not bury them. It would be a shame to lose the talent/s you have because you did not care to develop that talent and put it to use to glorify the Lord. It is possible that what we have if we do not develop it and become lazy, we can lose it.
No matter what your talent/s or I encourage you to use them for the glory of the Lord and when you come face to face with the Lord, you can hear the words, “Good and faithful servant”
If we don’t want responsibility than it is possible too that it can be taken away from you and given to someone else and you will be stuck without anything.
This passage ends with an assuring promise for you and me to claim and a commandment is implicitly attached to it with effects based on how we handle our responsibilities:
“For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more, and he shall have abundance. But from the man who is unfaithful, even what little responsibility he has shall be taken from him. And throw the useless servant out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:29-30)
Don’t ever think that your talent is not as good as someone else’s because remember there was a reason you were given that talent. And friend, there is nothing wrong to polish our talent/s. May you come to the point where you can utilize the talent/s you have been given for God’s glory as you depend on Him! Amen!
Totally Answer Lord Everyday Nurturing Talent! (T.A.L.E.N.T)/”How do you handle your talent?”
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for loving us so much and dying for our sins and most of all coming back to life to save us and staying alive working in our lives as we yield to you. I want to thank you for the talents we have been entrusted with. You know what they are Lord and if we have not discovered our talents, I pray that you will help us Lord so we do not have to have it buried somewhere in our brain but it can be used for your honor and glory. Lord, when we feel discouraged or afraid, I pray that you will strengthen us. I thank you Lord that you can light the fire in our heart again when we are distressed and down. Make us the way you want us to be as we yield ourselves to you for we cannot even use our talent/s for your glory without our minds being on you. Thank you for the responsibilities you have given us and we are sorry the times we have slacked of and done our own thing. Forgive us Oh Lord and please deliver us. I want to thank you so much Jesus and I pray for the one who is discouraged and down that you will comfort them and they can feel like they are cuddly in your loving arms of love my Lord and my personal Savior. I also thank you Lord, over all the earth you reign on High. I pray that t you would reign in us Oh Lord over all our dreams and over all our darkest hours. I thank you so much Jesus for all you do for us. Thank you for hearing us and answering us. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!
Love in Christ,
Ramesh