April 13
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I'm really pumped about how well the sunrise service went this Easter. Thanks for all the youth who were involved in the planning/setting up/singing/anything. It was really great...
Today's reading in Joshua describes the covenant renewal at Mount Ebal. This is one of those moments where the Israelites have a moment of realization concerning what it means to be God's people. It is a passage that is helpful in making us consider the gravity of spending a life and an eternity in relationship with the living Lord...
The passage in Luke is very interesting. We have the parable of the shrewd manager. This is a story about a rich man kicking out his manager for stealing from the rich man. The manager basically goes to all of those who owe the rich man money and tell them they can get off of the debt for just paying a small amount (sounds like some sort of ancient story that may involve Bernie Madoff, 'get out of debt quick' schemes and Dave Ramsey all at once, though i'm not exactly sure how exactly) to him directly. The manager takes the money for himself before leaving his job as manager. Then the master actually commends the manager for his shrewdness. he's quite impressed! an interesting story. But Jesus uses it to say that those in the world celebrate dishonesty, but in his eyes it's all evil. I think this applies to anything that you 'can get away with'. sometimes we think we're okay, so long as we don't get caught. Or maybe we think it's okay if we get away with saying some clever insult to someone else at school or church. The point is that there is a higher council than what the world provides. It doesn't matter what the worldly authorities or influential people think, it matters what God thinks.
I agree with your take on today's teaching from Luke. There are many times that the world classifies something as good or cool, but us children of God know is evil. We have to keep God's perspective, not the world's.
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