Seeking First the Kingdom of God
The Parable of the Unjust Steward gives a valuable life lesson about the priorities of Christians. The parable highlights the resourcefulness of a man who sacrificed his employer’s resources to gain favor for himself . This unjust steward is contrasted with the Children of Light who are following Jesus.
While visiting, Pastor Wiskie shared from Luke 16:1-13 where Jesus spoke about the parable of the unjust steward. Wiskie explained how Jesus commended the wisdom (or resourcefulness) of a man who used his employer’s money to pave a way for his next job in the event that he loses his current one (Luke 16:3-4). People of this world will use any resource at their disposal to get favor among men.
Since we are children of light, we serve the living God, not material possessions. We have different priorities (Luke 16:9, Matt 6:33). Jesus wants us to be just as resourceful as this unjust steward with the time and the resources He has given us. We should use the resources entrusted to us for building His kingdom.
We can have a temporal mindset, like those that live according to the world , or we can have an eternal perspective, where we take time to influence others to walk with God. Pastor Wiskie discussed how our investing should focus on leaving a spiritual legacy ( Luke16:9, Prov13:22), rather than living Just to find our next meal (Luke 16:3-4, Jn 6:27).
Pastor Wiskie encouraged the team not to faint in doing good things that word of God teaches us, even though the activities may seem to be insignificant. Instead, we are to recognize moments of testing as we prepare for the vision God provides through his word to develop the roots in our hearts from our faith and perseverance (James 5:7-8). God wants us to be faithful stewards of what He entrusted to us. This is why He allows us to go through painful times to strengthen us. We should glorify the Lord as he delivers us from our temptations, trials and suffering (Exod14:14). Jesus makes us a promise that if we are faithful with the small things that he gives us manage, he will reward us with many things that he will give us to manage for his kingdom (Luke 16:10, Matt 25:21).
God’s advice in the parable of the unjust steward is to teach us to be people who have compassion to influence others who are lost, those who are blindly scratching out a living. We are not here merely to find bread to eat for ourselves alone (Jn 6:27). We serve only One Master (Luke16:13, Matt 6:24). Our hope is not in the things we can see with our eyes (Luke 16:13, Ps 20:7, Matt 6:33 ).
Praise be to the Lord who counted us faithful into the work of the ministry and made us able ministers. As the light brings joy to creation, so is the word of God in due season. We reached out to the Fathers of Phalombe. We met the leaders to discuss our progress:
1. Our goal is to finds ways to share Bible lessons with others even when we are not present.
2. We are training other faithful stewards (Exod 18, 2Tim2:2) in Phalombe teaching them skills to cover topics when we are unable to travel over the intervals between our trips.
3. We are praying for resources to keep the ministry running.
4. We are praying for an opportunity to develop land for installing a solar powered irrigation system.
5. We pray for oneness among the group as the Spirit of God leads us into His paths of righteousness (Jn 16:13-15) .
We received some comments from those in attendance. One of the woman, who attended the meeting for the first time, “said she has chosen to join the ministry, since we have the vision to support parents and children. Our plans to help the Phalombe residents to become good parents influenced her decision to support this ministry. Another comment came from another male Phalombe resident, he said he is anxious to see the progress of the plans we discussed. He would like to help, if the life of the community is to change for the better.
