Faithful Servants Plan

By Cal Cook

This week’s readings are filled with apocalyptic imagery and prophecy yet to be fulfilled! As we head into Advent this is normally the case, every year we are reminded of the promises throughout scripture that the end will come…and the Messiah will return. Both the Jews today who have rejected Jesus and the Muslims who call Him a great prophet are awaiting the coming of the Messiah! Those who reject all notions of religion and those who even reject God are looking to Nostradamus and the Mayans and other prophesies proclaiming the end is near. The movie 2012 is set to debut with millions I’m sure flocking to see it.

I’m not sure if it’s the current economic situation or wars that seem to have no end in sight or just a Spiritual malaise that has covered this land…but everyone seems to be looking to the end. Is it simply that we have just become so sick of ourselves that we all want it to be over with? As followers of Jesus Christ we are told to be ready for His return…but to keep busy in the meantime. Jesus himself speaks of the end times in Matthew 24, giving many signs and instructions:

Matthew 24:45-47

“A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 46 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 47 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.

He also tells us over and over again that no one knows when that day will be…yet we will see the signs. Will it be 2012? No one knows, but surely the signs are there! Wikipedia gives a list of things that will happen in 2012…some of them are pretty scary for those who know prophecy:

* Eros the second largest known Near Earth Object will pass by the earth, it is larger than the object believed to have hit Yucatan and cause the dinosaurs’ extinction.

* Solar flares will increase and reach a maximum where the sun’s magnetic poles will actually shift.

* Several other cosmic alignments will happen culminating in a once in 26,000 year alignment where on December 21, 2012 the sun the earth and the moon align with the equator of our Galaxy the Milky Way, called the ‘Galactic Alignment’.

Will that be then end? No because Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour…could it be the beginning of the end? Maybe…

As for us we are to remain busy doing the Master’s Work! So that when He returns (whenever that is) He can say, ‘Well done good and faithful servant!‘ In order for that to happen, we’ve got to live above the conditions we find ourselves in, we’ve got to live in opposition to the world of immediate gratification and live for that day when the ultimate gratification is extended to the faithful servants of the Master!

How can we do that if we are trapped by a life of debt? How can we manage and feed the masters servants if we can barely pay our own bills? How can we be a blessing to the world if we can’t be faithful stewards with what we’ve already been given? We can’t! That’s why taking control of our financial lives is so important. We have the economic power to transform this world if we would only get our act together and quit living as slaves to debt! An organization called the Advent Conspiracy has estimated that for just $10 Billion dollars we could give every man, woman and child in the world clean drinking water! $10 Billion used to sound like a lot, yet even before the $800 Billion Bailout Americans we spending an estimated $450 Billion a year on just Christmas! So for just 2% of what we spend on Christmas this year we could literally save millions of lives! What’s stopping us?