Knowing God
“Do business till I come.” (Luke 19:13, NKJV)
Jesus told the parable of the Ten Minas or the Ten Pounds (Luke 19:11-27) to correct the thinking of His disciples. They thought that the kingdom of God “would appear immediately.” (Luke 19:11) They were wrong. Today, for the Church to sit and wait and become complacent and self-centered is surely a big mistake. Jesus said we are to “Do business till I come.”
The times we are living in surely require us to give our best for Jesus. He certainly gave His best and all for us. We are to do His Kingdom work until He comes or the last grain of sand in the hour glass of our brief lives disappears into eternity.
“Do business till I come.” Are you doing the assigned kingdom work God has given you? Is your church so engaged? If not, why not?
Prayer… much, often, and from the heart, is surely how we are to get back on track. Is there a church anywhere in Tennessee that is known as a house of prayer? There will be many in the future and we must think this way and start rebuilding now.
Vincent van Gogh is the most well known painter who has ever lived. His art work the most desired. He lived from 1853 to 1890 when, having lost all hope, he ended his sad life. He was the son of a Dutch Reformed pastor who labored in Groot Zundert, southern Holland. Vincent was born one year to the day after his mother Anna Cornelia’s first son was still born. Vincent’s parents gave him the exact name of his dead brother. He wrote that his youth was gloomy, cold, sterile.
Vincent, at around age thirty, sensed his time on earth was drawing to a close. He wrote to Theo his younger brother of the “few years” he had left to live. He wrote:
There is no anguish greater than the soul’s struggle between duty and love. Something must be accomplished in those few years. This thought guides all my plans. My firm resolve is to be dead to anything except my work.
Blessed Lord, there are many things we love that prevent us from doing our kingdom duty. Our souls struggle between these loves and our duty and we feel at times the anguish. Please grant that Your people may die to all things and return to You and to doing Your business. Please give us a deep conviction and a firm resolve that our part of Your kingdom work must be accomplished in these few years, in these last days.