Created for Work ~ Chapter 10 "Increase"

All of us are probably familiar with the Parable of the Three Talents (Matthew 25:14-29)...

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Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven unto a man who goes on a journey to another country. Before he leaves, he calls his three servants to him, and gives them each a gift: to the first he gives five talents, to the second two talents, and to the third servant one talent...

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While their master is away, the first two servants use their gifts wisely, earning double the amount they began with. The third servant, however, displays very different character; instead of using his talent to make increase, he does something very foolish - he digs a hole in the ground, plops his gift into it, and buries it...

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Well, the master of the house finally returns from his travels. The first servant brings him not only the original five talents, but five talents extra. Likewise, the second servant gives his master four talents instead of only two. What about the third servant? Did his money magically sprout in the ground like a seed and yield a crop? Hardly. Instead of returning his lord's money with profit, he returns it just like he received it. There's no gain, no increase. Just that one, single talent. As a result of this slothfulness, the master of the house strips the unprofitable servant of the talent he was given, and orders him to be thrown into "the outer darkness."

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With this story in mind, we'll look at Chapter 10 of Bob Schultz' Created for Work...

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Our God is a God of Increase. "In [His] design," Schultz points out, "everything He creates produces something, 'some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred' (Mark 4:8). It isn't so much the amount of increase that matters, rather the fact that each part of creation makes increase in proportion to the resources God provides."  

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In the first place, we should make increase physically. A good and industrious man will take life's challenges head on, and benefit by them. He will strive hard to make progress in whatever work is set before him. He will use whatever talents he has - whether it's landscaping, woodworking, or digging ditches - to make increase. The slothful man will do just the opposite. He'll let his talents lie cold and unused. He'll make zero progress, and shirk the problems of life. To such a man, "increase" is an unknown word. 

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We should also make increase in our spiritual lives as well. A Christian who seldom reads the Scriptures, acts like the world, and takes his faith lightly, is of no use to the cause of Christ except to serve as a warning to others. Our goal should be to bring glory to God, edify fellow believers, and bring the unsaved to the salvation found in Christ. Our words and actions should further the Kingdom of God, not injure it's cause.

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When Christ returns, will He find that we have been diligent and made increase with the tools - physical and spiritual - which He provided? Or will He find that we have buried them in the ground?

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Schultz says in conclusion, "Don't sit around bored with life. Look around you. Meager as they might be, find your resources, add them to your labor and make some increase today." 

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"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." 

~ 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

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Persevero,

Scribe 

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