For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?

Luke 13

For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil? v7

Once again, Jesus preaches on the command that we are to be fruitful and productive with the time, treasure, and talents Jesus entrusts to us.  We exist to glorify God.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who provides for all of my needs - apart from You I have no good things.  Thank You Jesus!  I am undeserving of all the blessings You pour out for me.  I daily miss the mark.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

Luke 12

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. v48

This morning - a sobering message about how we are to use the gifts God has entrusted with us, including the knowledge we have of Him.

More on this from DesiringGod.com: 

Have You Buried Your Gifts?
We Are Accountable for What We Know 

Jesus, help me be in action using my gifts and my knowledge for His glory.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an amazing God who loves me and who HAS given me much - thank You for how You have blessed me - yet I am undeserving.  I often am not using my time, treasure and talents for Your glory, and of course I have other sin - please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6

A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. v38

Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount (see also Matthew 5-7) includes verses instructing us to avoid judging others and instead focus on our own sin.  At the same time, as we look inward, we are to examine how we are good stewards on the gifts (time, treasure, and talents) God has provided us.

Jesus words on this subject are also recorded later in Luke in chapter 12: 
 
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48

I know God has blessed me beyond what I deserve in terms of time, treasure, and talents, and I am hopeful and prayerful that I am a good steward of these blessings.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an amazing God who loves me and who has blessed me beyond what I deserve. I am grateful for Your grace and Your sacrifice - the greatest gift of all time. Thank You Jesus - but again, I am undeserving.  I daily miss the mark.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Matthew 24

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. v42-44

As a follow up to yesterday's post about Jesus' warnings about the end times, Jesus continues to warn us by telling us that we "do not know on what day [He will return]".  Since we don't know when Jesus will return and we have been entrusted with time, treasure and talents, and some of us with the spiritual leadership of our households, we must be ready to demonstrate that we've been living by faith and been good stewards with what Jesus has entrusted us. 

We MUST live with the end in mind.  Watch this great video and read Malachi 3, with a specific focus on v16-18.

My Prayer: Heavenly Father - You are a good, good Father - and the One True God who created the heavens and universe, and died for me.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not worth such love.  I worry.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me. Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo. Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.

Matthew 21

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. v43-44

Much like my post yesterday, in v33-45 Jesus is warning us of inaction and hypocrisy.  He tells the
chief priests and the Pharisees of another parable that paints a portrait of them as entrusted with the many blessings as God's chosen people and told to be holy, set apart, and to care for others, among the many things God asks of us.  Yet time and time again the Jewish nation rejects God and His messengers....with Jesus this is no different.  

God gives us time, treasure, and talent - and we are not to waste it.  We must use it.  

We must also be in action and not be hypocrites - reading the Word but not "doing the Word".l

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an incredible God who as blessed me in many, many ways - too many ways for my words to describe.  You came for me and died on the cross for me so that I could have life.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not worth such love.  I am weak and miss the mark daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo. Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

^{Ezekiel 16}

Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. v60

In this chapter, God refers to Jerusalem as an adulterous wife and prostitute - unfaithful to God.  God describes how He cared for a young Jerusalem that was despised (v5), how He felt compassion on Jerusalem, made her His (v9), and how he nurtured and developed Jerusalem into a beautiful queen (v13).  Yet Jerusalem trusted in her beauty and misused her fame (v15).  

This is a message for all of us.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 describes how we are all entrusted with spiritual gifts.  We must be good stewards of these gifts and use them for God's glory - not our own.

God is full of grace and compassion for all of us just as He was with Jerusalem - He sent His Son as the everlasting covenant referred to in verse 60. 

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of grace and compassion for me - thank You Jesus!  I am not worth such love.  I miss the mark.  Please forgive me and help me overcome and turn from such sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You do.  Help me grow in my faith. Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.