{"id":9981,"date":"2021-11-27T06:37:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T12:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-luke-16\/"},"modified":"2021-10-26T15:34:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T20:34:11","slug":"devotional-on-luke-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-luke-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Luke"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15794\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15794\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1-1024x765.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"717\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15794\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1-1024x765.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1-300x224.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1-768x573.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1-1536x1147.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/photo-1.jpg 1658w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Whidbey Island, WA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Playing it smart<\/p>\n<p>Luke 16: I want you to be smart in the same way.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an interesting story for Jesus to tell because the hero\u2019s a crook.  This guy mismanages his bosses\u2019 money and then, when he\u2019s caught he mismanages it some more in a quick witted move to find a soft landing elsewhere.  Jesus doesn\u2019t advocate that his followers be good at making shady deals, but he does urge us to play it smart.  At one level I can respond by spiritualizing the story.  That is I can come away having been reminded that I\u2019m to be smart in how I go about the business of the Lord.  For instance, I can use my wits to find ways to reach out to lost people and not just stand for the status quo all the time.  However, I don\u2019t think this is the primary application of this story.  Rather, Jesus is talking about living smart, being alert to opportunities, and taking advantage of openings.  When I see an investment opportunity I\u2019m not to turn away piously declaring that \u201cGod will take care of me.\u201d  Rather, I\u2019m to explore the possibility that the investment opportunity might be God\u2019s way of doing just that.  Jesus\u2019 story isn\u2019t a license for me to take unfair advantage of people but it is a reminder that Christians should live smart lives and not think we\u2019re too spiritual to take advantage of legitimate opportunities that come our way.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: A person can be ethical in the highest sense of the word and still be a good in business.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Playing it smart Luke 16: I want you to be smart in the same way. It\u2019s an interesting story for Jesus to tell because the hero\u2019s a crook. This guy mismanages his bosses\u2019 money and then, when he\u2019s caught he mismanages it some more in a quick witted move to find a soft landing elsewhere. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1515,1428],"tags":[1229,1248,487,603,785],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15796,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981\/revisions\/15796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}