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“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” (Proverbs 31:8, NIV)

Are we channels or are we reservoirs?

Reservoirs are designed to take-in and hold. Channels give as they receive. God expects us to be the latter.

Today’s scripture reminds us of our responsibility to expend the “capital” we’ve received (whether it be time, talent, or treasure) for the benefit of others — particularly those who are destitute or disenfranchised. God blesses us in order that we might bless in His name those who have not.

Jesus came to the lost, the least, and the last. As His disciples, we can do no more; we should do no less. – Luther

Tagged channels, reservoirs, stewardship, the book of Proverbs

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“He (Job) said, ‘Naked I came from my mother, and naked I will return. The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away! May the name of the LORD be praised.'” (Job 1:21, God’s Word Translation)

Shame on us if we need to fall as low as Job fell before we begin to comprehend the fact of our “nakedness.”

Everything we acquire during our lifetime is borrowed. Our children: Borrowed. Our health: Borrowed. The air we breath: Borrowed (at a rate of approximately 14 breaths per minute). Even our names are borrowed from others, and shared with other people we’ve not even met (try “Googling” your name and see how many other people there are with the same name!).

We err when we think that we may become owners of anything. On the contrary, many times, “things” own us!

Freedom comes when we begin to view ourselves as stewards of God’s gifts to us — not as owners. As borrowers, rather than keepers.

All of God’s gifts are entrusted to us to risk for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is God’s to give; it is God’s to risk; it is God’s to lose; it is God’s to increase for His glory.

We are His agents; channels of His mercy and grace. We only fail when we think of God’s gifts as our own to hoard, or to use for our own benefit. – Luther

Tagged nakedness, stewardship, the book of Job, vulnerability

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“Now the famine was severe in Samaria, and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.) (I Kings 18:2b – 4, NIV)

Obadiah, like many of us, was at or near the pinnacle of his working life. Yet, his position as the king’s “chief of staff” was not the primary force of Obadiah’s life: He was also “a devout believer in the Lord.”

Because of that commitment, Obadiah did what was morally right — even though it was contrary to the law of the land, and he would have paid with his life had his support of the prophets of the Lord been discovered.

May we each be like Obadiah: Not married to our privileges, power, prestige, and position; but first and always committed to and trusting in the Lord. When we become stewards of access, privilege, and power; it is only for the benefit of others, and for the glory of God. – Luther

Tagged courage, Obadiah, obedience, stewardship, the book of 1 Kings