Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Matthew 8:20

What does it take to dissuade someone from pursuit?  A little hardship, a little persecution?  Lack of a comfortable home?

Jesus said,

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 19:29

What you lose is only temporary, what you gain is worth it.  It is Good News.

Luke 16:1-13 is a parable about a shrewd manager.

Knowing he would lose his position, he used what he had available to be sure that he would have a stable place after he left.

John the Baptist’s whole message was about Eternity.  “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.” (Isaiah 40:6, portion).  What we have today, we cannot keep.

Like the shrewd manager, we are stewards in this life of what we cannot keep.  The news has already hit the owner, and we have been unfaithful.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

At the end of the day, the owner will come, take the possessions entrusted, the book of  accounting, prove the unfaithfulness, and turn the unfaithful stewards (mankind) out of His House.  That is, if we do not know Christ.

What was it that Jesus said the shrewd manager would do?

Since he couldn’t keep the things, as they would be taken away at days end, he started giving them away.  Here’s the reason why.  So that the people where he was going would receive Him.

The lesson is this.  The worldly and the wicked know how to provide for themselves bounty when going somewhere else.  Why can’t a believer have the same wisdom?

As Jesus said it,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19

This is exactly what this man was doing.  He was laying up treasures, via “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”, using what he couldn’t keep anyway.

Jesus said the same thing regarding the Kingdom.

You have all this stuff that doesn’t matter.  Why not make something lasting with it?  Why spend labor on what doesn’t satisfy?  Why store up in barns and heap an pile it up?

If you would simply take what you have today, and use it to store up heavenly wealth, you would not be disappointed.  Jesus said that whatever we left for the Kingdom, we would receive one hundred times as much, both in this life, and the next, and with them, persecutions.  We will not be liked for this, but, if you really looked at it through the eyes of God, since he who gives to the poor lends to God, what you lose is not worth comparing to what you will gain.

God will not be mocked, you will reap what you sow.

The issue is not the cost, when it comes to the Matthew 13:44 treasure in the field, it is rather, the worth of the Kingdom.  The best way to have the fullness of the Kingdom is to have absolutely nothing else, even as Matthew 5:3 says.  It is when there is no other yeast in the dough, that the yeast of the Kingdom through the Holy Spirit has full measure.

If we would maximize our investment, and keep on giving, trusting through Matthew 6:33 for God to meet our needs, we would not have lack.

We might sleep under a tree sometimes, but we would never be alone, for we would always be doing what pleases Him.

It’s simple.  Use what you have more when you get there.  This world is going to end.  It’s Good News!