See God as Generous, and You Will Be Generous In Turn

"Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: 25And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine." (Martthew 25:24-25)

In this parable of the master and three servants, the three servants responded to the different commissions given to them.

The one who had received the most, made the most of what he had received:

"20And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. 21His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." (Matthew 25:20-21)

Look at that word "deliver". In the original Greek, the word is 3860 paradídōmi (from 3844 /pará, "from close-beside" and 1325 /dídōmi, "give"), which means " to give (turn) over; "hand over from," i.e. to deliver over with a sense of close (personal) involvement."

When we see that God has entrusted to much to us, we are ready to do much with what He has given to us.

Notice that the one who received the most would generate the most for his master.

In contrast, the one who received only one talent--did nothing with it but bury it in the ground.

Why?

The third steward said the following about his master:

1. "You are a hard man." Wow! He thought that his master was violent, harsh, stern!

2. "You reap where you have not sown" i.e. you get the rewards from stuff that is not yours.

3. "You gather where you have not strawed" i.e. you get something when you have done nothing.

Wow!

The truth is, however, that God, our Heavenly FATHER (not our master, but Father!) is none of those things!

Hardly a hard man, God is Love! (1 John 4:7)

And because of His Love, He gave us His best, He gave us His Everything:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

and thus:

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)

Contrary to the what the wicked servant said, God has given to us generously, and he reaps from having sown so much!

"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)

I mean, God simply spoke, and the world and all its teeming wonders came into being! He reaps diligenty because He sows!

He has also widely spread, and given away so much. He does not take from us to get, but rather receives from us what He has already first given to us!

David the Great King would declare:

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly in this manner? For all things come from Thee, and from Thine own have we given Thee." (1 Chronicles 29:14)

In fact, if we want to thank God for His goodness, this is what we must do:

"What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?

"I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD." (Psalm 116: 12-13)

If we want to be generous, the answer is not to focus on ourselves. People who struggle with giving do not see how much God has given them. Through His Son, we need to recognize that God gave us His most prized possession, His own Beloved Son.

If we want to be generous, we need to see that God our Father has delivered much to our care. When we see how good He is to us, then we in turn can be generous and giving with all that we have!

"O, taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." (Psalm 34:8)

Christmas: Jesus, The Light for the World Stepping into Our Darkness

Christmas is generally celebrated just after the darkness day of the year, the Winter Solstice.

The celebration coincides with pagan traditions, in which different tribes in pre-Christian Europe and the Roman Empire would rejoince that the sun was starting to come back, to shine for longer periods of the day.

For many, Christmas is a dark time, though not just in terms of the lack of light in the sky. They miss loved ones who have passed away, for example, or they struggle to make sense of the strange loneliness or loss which dogs them during that time of year.

Some psychologists point out that people tend to focus very keenly on their lives at this point, and they see that their lives have not measured up they way they wanted them to. There is a great deal of introspection at the end of the year, and indeed this time of year can be dark not just in the sky, but also in people's hearts and minds.

Yet this season is about Jesus, the Light of the World, and Jesus always appears when it is dark!

Consider His first appearing in God's Word. Not in the Gospels, but In The Beginning!

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis 1:1-3)

Notice that the earth was "without form and void." It had no structure, it had nothing in it. The proper rendering of this passage would include "The world became without form and void ..."

God did not make the world broken, failed, and empty:

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

God makes all things beautiful. It follows, then, that God did not make the world broken.

At any rate, the world was without form and void. 

Then what happened?

God said "Light Be!" And it was. God did not create the Light. He revealed the Light.

This Light is Jesus, who declared Himself to be "The Light of the World" (John 8:12).

Jesus came into utter darkness and brought restoration:

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:" (Colossians 1:16)

Consider His appearance before Manoah, the father of Samson:

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

"And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. 3And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son." (Judges 13:1-3)

The Philistines were oppressing the Israelites. They were bitter enemies, Satanic giants. It was a dark time for Israel. Then The Angel of the Lord, Jesus, appeared to these two parents to let them know that they would bring a Savior into their lives to stamp out the tyranny of the Philistines.

And of course, Jesus, the Light of the Lord, came into the dark world of the Roman Empire, when God had been silent for 400 years, since He had not spoken through any prophet.

Wise men came seeking Jesus, and the reaction from the rulers and the people of Jerusalem was not what we would expect:

"Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." (Matthew 2:2-3)

Everyone was troubled. Herod was a usurper who had no business reigning on any throne in Jerusalem. And the darkness would only grow worse once Jesus was born:

"Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,

"In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." (Matthew 2:16-18)

Yet Jesus, the Light of the World, came into the darkness every time to bring His Light, to shine and guide those who were in pain, in loss, or lost altogether.

"2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." (Isaiah 9:2)

And why?

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

And also

"And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6)

Light Came First, and The Darkness Cannot Overcome It

"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:5)

Five is the number of grace.

Let us never forget that even when sin increases, God's grace super-duper abounds (Romans 5:20)

Notice that in the beginning, it was dark and without form before God:

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2)

God created the heaven and the earth--then it was without form and void.

Let's never forget that there can be no darkness without God first having created or restored something,

God always comes first.

Light has already been there.

God the Father invited His Son to come: "Let there be light."

Notice that he did not "make" the light, nor did He create it.

The Light was always with the Father at the beginning of beginnings:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

And Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12)

He has overcome the darkness, just as He was before all things with His Father, and the darkness could not last.

Rest in Jesus, the Light of your world, and know that the darkness cannot overcome you!

Because of Jesus, We Will Never Again Walk in the Shadow of Death

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.' (Isaiah 9:2)

This prophecy in the Old Testament speaks of Jesus.

The rest of the passage particularly points to His birth:

"6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

"7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:6-7)

During His earthly ministry, He preached the Gospel to great acclaim, specifically to the Gentiles, the people of "the nations":

"Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations." (Isaiah 9:1)

Notice "Galilee of the nations", which speaks of non-Jewish believers.

Jesus is the Light of the World, for Jew and Gentile, for slave and free:

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

He is our light, and He came into a world covered in darkness, a realm where the pagan Empire of Rome was dominating the people of Israel.

Today, though, let's meditate on how Jesus is the Light of the world for all of us, and how no matter how dark the circumstances may be around us, we will never stumble.

Consider again the prophecy of Isaiah:

"They tat dwell in the land of the shadow of death ..."

Where have we read a passage like this before?

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)

Notice that David wrote this Psalm, long before Jesus arrived. He prophesied of our Savior, specifically detailing the account of His Crucifixion in the previous Psalm.

Today, let us recognize that we can never find ourselves under the shadow of death.

Jesus, the Light of the world, has established His Kingdom. He died for us, He died as us, and He rose again from the dead, now seated at the right hand of His Father (Ephesians 1:21-2)

Looking back over the verse in Psalm 23, notice that David starts with "Yea, though" or "Even though."

This verse does not communicate that some day we may end up in this valley.

Read over his musings in Psalm 139:

"8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;" (Psalm 139:8-9)

The statements are hypothetical, just like in Psalm 23: "Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ..."

The truth, the Grace and Truth which came to us in Christ Jesus, we can never walk in the shadow of death ever again!

He is our Light, and He is our Life!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!