TAX MAN COMMETH

DAY 101:  It's that time.  The deadline for Tax day has almost arrived when the government takes an accounting of every person's money and takes its fair share.  Of course, fair is in the eyes of the beholder. If the government really wanted to be "fair" it should give every person the right to give to the government what we feel it deserves. I'll be honest, if it were not mandatory, I would not be forking over as much as the IRS says I must.  I just don't think the government has proven very trustworthy with my tax dollars.  If I could, I would give it less until it proved to be a better manager of my money.

It's kind of ironic, that on the lead up to Tax Day I see God giving me the very same message I would like to send to my government: If you aren't responsible with what you have been given, you won't be trusted with more.

Jesus was telling yet another parable that showed His view of the importance and the priority of money. This time though, Jesus actually pointed out that there was something we Christians can learn from a more worldly practice.

In this parable, a rich man discovered that his manager was dishonest.  He told him to get the reports in order and get ready for an accounting.  The manager knew he would be fired.  This guy was obviously not cut out for manual labor and worried how he wouldn't survive once he was dismissed.  So he came up with a plan.  He called in all the rich man's best customer's and gave them a big discount on the amount each owed the master.  In other words, he cooked the books.  He hoped that this favorable, albeit dishonest, treatment would buy him some friends who would then look out for him once he hit the unemployment line.

As crooked as this was, Jesus said, "The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd." And he was shrewd.  He saw time running out and he made a plan for the future and acted on it before his opportunity was gone.

Then Jesus makes a really interesting observation:

"And it is true that the citizens of this world are more shrewd than the Godly are."

With that Jesus urges His audience to act in a similarly shrewd way.

⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.  (Translation for me: invest my money in people that I will see in Heaven one day.  Use my money to influence people for the Gospel so that they will be there to welcome me one day in the "eternal dwellings.")
 

He goes on....   ¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? (Translation: How I manage God's money will determine if He can trust me with more valuable things than money. (YES, there are far more valuable things than money.) God isn't like the government.  The money He is telling us how to handle is His.  He is trustworthy.  Managing what is His gives me the chance to show if I am trustworthy.)


Still more....     ¹³ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Translation: Money is a great servant but a terrible master.  It is up to me whether the possessions and money in my care are a tool or an idol. If I am not 'using" them to reach people and invest in the eternal things, I may be serving THEM.)

 AND....    ¹⁷ It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.  (Translation: I would do well to remember that money is a very temporary thing, no matter how the world honors it.  God's Word is eternal.  It is my true treasure and the voice of my true Master.  If, at tax time or any other time, I have the "wants" or feel possessive about money and belongings, I have been listening to the wrong master.)  

Jesus finished His parable with a powerful reminder:  "What this world honors is an abomination in  the sight of God." 
 

Tax Day may be a the government's day of accounting to claim some of our wealth, but God makes that claim every day because we are only His managers.  If we are wise, we will be shrewd, remembering there will be a deadline for investing what He has entrusted to us.

We may  have missed some opportunities, but every day is a new chance to show ourselves trustworthy.

Day 102 of 365
Joshua 7:16-26
Joshua 8
Joshua 9:1-2
Luke 16:1-18
Psalm 82:1-8
Proverbs 13:2-3