Priorities of Faith

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Luke 16:10-18  The Message

God Sees Behind Appearances

^10-13 Jesus went on to make these comments:

If you’re honest in small things,
    you’ll be honest in big things;
If you’re a crook in small things,
    you’ll be a crook in big things.
If you’re not honest in small jobs,
    who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
    He’ll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
    You can’t serve both God and the Bank.

^14-18 When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: “You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance.

What society sees and calls monumental,
    God sees through and calls monstrous.
God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;
Now it’s all kingdom of God—the glad news
    and compelling invitation to every man and woman.
The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve
    before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.
Using the legalities of divorce
    as a cover for lust is adultery;
Using the legalities of marriage
    as a cover for lust is adultery.

For Reflection

Stop worrying about the big stuff.  Pay attention to the little things, the every day opportunities to love, forgive, and act justly.   You do not have to defend God.  God is perfectly capable to do that on
God's own.  Make your life about extending a compelling invitation to live a life in the hollow of God's hand.  Trust in the Lord to solve the big stuff!

Pray

that you will respond to God's call.  Pray that you will trust in God's promise of life the way it was meant to be lived.