Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth,
so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
The person who is trustworthy in very small matters
is also trustworthy in great ones;
and the person who is dishonest in very small matters
is also dishonest in great ones.
If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,
who will trust you with true wealth?
If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is yours?
No servant can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.”
The Pharisees, who loved money,
heard all these things and sneered at him.
And he said to them,
“You justify yourselves in the sight of others,
but God knows your hearts;
for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.” Lk 16:9-15
Jesus teaches us what is disgusting in the sight of God; putting our trust in earthly goods instead of completely trusting in Him. Mammon means “that which one trusts” according to the NAB Bible. The Pharisees loved money, we love sports and skip Mass to go to the Chiefs game, we worship our cell phones, we are mean to others on Snap chat, we love to play games on our tablets (not evil in and of itself, but if we don’t pray or spend time helping others it becomes a distraction), we love to listen to music (not evil in and of itself, but we are being formed by some of the words and if we fall asleep listening to music and not praying it becomes harmful), we love to watch Netflix for hours (binging on anything is unhealthy and excludes God-how about we bing on God!). What did Jesus say to the Pharisees (us sometimes)? “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.” God knows you better than you know yourself, He sees everything and knows your heart, your intentions. We can’t hide the intentions of our hearts with God, maybe others, but not God. You are deceiving yourself. What is the intention of your heart? God above all because He gave us our very life as a gift out of love. God is complete in Himself, He doesn’t need us. We can’t add anything to Him by our accomplishments. He created us because He found love to be such a wonderful thing He wanted to share it. He wanted to share Himself with us. Our life is that gift of love, we must rise each day and give Him glory and thanksgiving for our breath, our life, and a Savior who died so we could get back to the Father who loves us so much. How can we start showing God we love Him back and thank Him for this great gift of life and His Son? Rise early in the morning to pray and read the Scriptures, putting on the armor of God. Recognize we need His mighty powers to fight Satan and our fallen human nature and to carry our daily crosses as His followers. After you have read the Truth and listened to Jesus speak to your heart in silence, make sure to go to Mass before you cheer on the Chiefs. On weekend sports tournaments, look up Mass times (CatholicMasstimes.org) so we can give glory to God that we are even able to compete and be healthy. Use our cell phones sparingly and what they are intended for instead of wasting hours on them. Put them down when we are driving recognizing life is too precious (This is tough). We will put Catholic apps and a Bible app to read and inspire us with quotes from the saints everyday to help us battle. We will build people up instead of tearing them down on Snap chat and stop labeling each other. We will put our tablets and video games down and pray and go to bed on time so we can function better the next day and put more effort into our homework and work. We will listen to Christian music to inspire us to keep up the good fight. When we watch Netflix we will realize the lies and trash that are in the shows filled with people not living the 10 commandments. We must realize our identity is in Jesus and start living with purpose and direction. Jesus is always waiting for you to come to Him, but Jesus is different than any religious founder. When you come to Him, He requires you make a choice. “You are either with me or against me”. “You either gather with me or scatter”. There is no such thing as lukewarm Christians, there is no fence to straddle. We are either with Jesus or we are against Him. He is Truth. He gives us eternal life. Convert your mind and heart accordingly! It’s time to make decisions and it will not be easy! With God’s grace anything is possible! Come to Him and He will give you rest!
Today’s challenge: Start allowing God to transform your life, He knows what He made you for. Read the Truth everyday to stay on task with eyes set on heaven. Stop pretending God won’t know what you are doing in secret and start reconciling yourself in Him.
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO, 212 degrees
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