Parable of the lazy servant

Humanists, Socialists and critics of Christianity use Matthew 25:14-28 as a basis for accusing Christianity for being pro rich or capitalistic. I think this is totally untrue considering that Jesus said it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Lets look at the parable of the lazy servant carefully. 3 servants were given 5,2 and 1 bag of gold respectively. Though the quanity differed, the 1st two servants produced a 100% rate of return on the capital provided and the master commended them both..

The master gave the 3rd servant only 1 bag of gold and from the above 2 observations we can safely conclude that he would had been happy to receive total 2 bags of gold; again a 100% rate of return.  An unfair (capitilistic) master would had expected varying level of rate of return from each of the servant.

So what was wrong with the 3rd servant? The master seems to have given him less because he lacked the ability to handle more. Looking at it from the servant's point of view it looks like the servant had a fear of failure because of his laziness. It is interesting to note here that laziness brings fear in our lives. Proverbs 22:13 confirm that.

Apart from fear, the issue with the 3rd servant was: lack of faith in the Master. Had he known (through faith) his master well he would had realised that his master would had forgiven him even if he had produced no return.

This, I think, is the key to understand this parable. Faith in God helps us produce fruit. Faith helps us believe that our God looks at the heart (intentions) and not the result only. Thats the reason why faith is fundamental to Christianity and no form of debate and reasoning can help us understand Jesus.

Benny Hinn Debacle

I have been reading about Benny Hinn for almost 17 years now. The person who lead me to the Lord was heavily inspired by Benny Hinn . Benny Hinn has really helped us sit up and take notice of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. His teachings has increased my faith in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. His books has inspired me equally.

So naturally it was very upsetting for me last week to read about his divorce and alleged affair with Paula White. Actually all this happened last year around in July but I have not been following him for quite some time now, hence such a delay in writing this.

Something seriously has gone wrong somewhere to bring him to this position. What saddens me more is the impact such things have on the testimony of the churches all over the world. Critics of Christianity must be having a field day hearing all this.

Things like these makes me wonder that as Christians what are we doing wrong? Every man of God in oneway or the other seems to faultering at some time

I think the problem is twofold.

Not the person but Christ

The first problem is that we put these people on a pedestal. Yes these ministers are responsible for proclaiming Christ through their character and there can be no concessions around it, but at the same time mature christians should also acknowledge that these people are only messengers of Christ and that Christ is not defined or characterized through their actions. They are prone to faultering some time or the other. Practically every biblical hero ( except Christ) of faith faultered, so is the same with these ministers.

In fact such instances should remind us to look at Christ and not the person who is bringing the message..not the person but Christ. These instances should remind us seek the Holy Spirit for guidance more and more instead of relying on people like Benny Hinn. If we keep our faith in Benny Hinn, he will let us down but if we put our faith in Christ, the rock on which we build our faith, our homes will never be washed away. As someone said failures can either be stumbling block or it can be your stepping stone to reach to new level

Not the ministry but Christ

From Benny Hinn's point of view what went wrong is this; his ministry became more important to him than Christ. A lot of ministers start with noble intentions, but somewhere down the line their ministries become so big that they start running a corporation than a church.

I had been a management consultant before and I totally understand the challenges of running a corporation. Pressure of performing, maintaining, financial growth becomes your focus than relationship with Christ.

That's why Jesus said that the rich man cannot enter the kingdom of God and Paul later said that if you are marry you will please your wife rather than God. Is is wrong to be rich or being married?...No. Jesus is not biased towards the poor or unmarried. Both the things are permissible in God's eyes but the point is that you create new challenges for your self when you are rich or married.

I think Benny Hinn is trying to run a corporation than to serve Christ. He is under pressure for maintaining what he has built. I went to his website and saw him asking for more money..for what..for the crusades he says. Brother have you forgotten that you have a million dollar mansion and an aircraft. Why don't you sell that for your crusades. And what happens if you are left with nothing at all.. will you stop preaching Christ?

Think about this dear Benny Hinn, just as Jesus asked the rich man to sell everything and give it to the poor and follow HIM, will you do the same if Jesus asks you this question today?

Maybe this why Mrs Benny Hinn has left you. Our spouses are the one who know us the best and she probably saw what we are seeing now. Perhaps she saw that you are serving Benny Hinn ministries than Christ.

An interesting thing is that Paula White has also divorced her husband too..reason.. I guess the same as Benny Hinn's. Indeed similar spirits attract to each other. Not surprising that they were allegedly running into each others arms.

I hate to sound so critical but this is really upsetting. I do believe in the restorative power of our Lord and hope that God will restore these two again

Christians in Workplace

I am a Christian and I work with a MNC Bank. I have about 11 years of work experience most of which is in a supervisory role.

I have been a Christian for the last 17 years. The one challenge I daily face is how should a Christian behave in a work place? Lot of people have written about it and most of them advocate a Christ like behaviour in the workplace.

The question is, what is Christ like behaviour in a work place?My general observation is that most Christians in this matter emulate the popular Christian image of being:

1. Diligent
2. Hardworking
3. Faithful
4. Accountable
5. Intelligent
6. Gentle
7. Kind
8. Compassionate
9. Submissive
10. Servant hearted

Most Christian Scholars in this area  would agree that a Christian should display these qualities in the workplace just as they would in a Church.

My experience is that emulating the qualities mentioned above in a workplace meets with lesser amount of success as compared to emulating or displaying them in Church. Christians need some additional skills and some understanding of the purpose of Church and workplace.

The Church is place to seek Jesus, fellowship with other Christians, edify oneself and others and help advancement of Kingdom of God and the workplace is essentially part of a business and businesses exist to make monetary gains. Two very different objective, which always pulls a Christian in different directions. That's why perhaps Jesus said that one cannot serve two masters - God and Money.

I believe that in a workplace Christians should also ensure that they are:  

• Shrewd
• Diplomatic & Politicking
• Authoritative
• Confrontational
• Demanding

 Some may argue that these qualities are not befitting to a Christian but I believe Bible indicates otherwise.

Shrewd - In Matt 10:16 Jesus asks his disciples to be shrewd as serpent and innocent as doves. If Jesus says so then certainly both these qualities can co-exist in a human being. Being Shrewd is important because in workplace you will come across mostly unbelievers who do not have the same value system that you have. If you are managing projects or a team you will agree with me that being shrewd is necessary while dealing with people and making sure that the objectives assigned to you are met. It helps in identifying people motives analyse their performance, manage conflicts, identify issues before hand and dig dip into root cause of problems

Diplomatic & Politicking - I feel Jesus was diplomatic while dealing with Sadducee's and Pharisees, who can be substituted for our adversaries in our workplace.It would be naive to think that everybody in our workplace has our best interest in their mind. In Matt 22 : 15 - 22 when Sadducee's and Pharisees were trying to put Jesus in a tight spot, Jesus very cleverly  turns the argument on its head and gets out of a troublesome situation. In other situations Jesus gave a slip to the crowd and his adversaries when he felt that the time was not right to confront them

As Christians there is no harms in advancing our interests which requires politicking and diplomacy. We exist

in our organisation with a purpose and this purpose has to served.

Authoritative -These qualities are a must for Christian Leaders and Managers in workplace. Our position in our workplaces requires us to deliver on our objectives We are accountable for our own and our team's objectives If we don't exude authority in a Godly manner our subordinates will never respective us and will never deliver on their tasks. Authority and accountability go hand in hand.

Confrontational - Christians mostly shy away from confrontation believing that this not what they are called for. Sometimes confrontation become unavoidable. Managers often are required to challenge status-quo and in such situations confrontations are necessary. Jesus confronted Sadducees & Pharisees when necessary.

Demanding - Is it wrong to push our subordinates to deliver more? Yes if we do not compensate them adequately and as per their employment contract. In our day to day jobs we often come across stringent deadlines and scarce resource. Is it wrong in such cases to turn to our team members are ask them do more?..No..We must not think they we are trampling on their rights in any way..but we must make sure that we reward them for the extra effort.

Talking about resources, this is another key difference between church and workplace. Church has 1 unlimited resource which workplace or any other organisation doesn't have - time. Church's objective are not time bound and while dealing with people in the church we can be gracious and accommodating, not so in a work place. Other important difference is that in a Church we have GOD working in people's life who has the power to change people's life beyond our imagination, again not so in workplace.

Most Christian are content taking soft jobs such as HR professionals, General Administration, Hospitality, Nursing, Teaching etc, because they feel that they are not cut for this or this is against their identity.

Brothers & Sister we have to glorify GOD in every profession. We are called to be salt & light of the world so lets spread the light in every area of life and profession. We must show what value Christ can bring to their lives and profession.

Lets aspire to be bankers, scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians, defense personnels or any other profession which we traditionally do not venture into.

  

  

Christianity - Social Issues - Poverty

As a Christian I am always trying to see the Christian view point on social issue like slavery, poverty etc.I am not sure whether social scholars look to the bible for answers to these problems, but I do.

Bible has been very vocal on certain issues like poverty but has not been explicit in giving its opinion on some social issues like slavery.

In the book of Leviticus 19:10 and Leviticus 23:22 God  commands Israelites that they should leave behind some of their yield for poor,widows and foreigners.

What I find interesting here is that the responsibility of the social welfare is being put on the people and not the government, which is what we dont see around in many nations today. Why does God put the responsibility on the people and not the government?

The answer I think is found when we look at social welfare system in India which is so inefficient and stooped in corruption that many have given up hope of its recovery.

The state as an agent for redistribution of wealth for social welfare is not a very efficient one. This I believe is because of what I call "Transmission Loss". When energy flows from one medium to another it is dissipated because of factors such as friction,vibration etc. In the same way wealth and resource also face "Transmission Loss" when redistributed through the state. These factors are

1. Corruption

2. Inappropriate Allocation

3. Overheads

4. Lack of infrastructure for delivery

5. Lack of empathy and sense of responsibility

Compare this with the citizenry taking up this role. If citizens voluntarily takes up this role then point 5 is taken care of. Point 2 is taken care of because benefit provider is directly interacting with the benefit receiver and is well acquainted with the need. Overheads and infrastructure required is minimum because the role of the state is limited to co-ordination efforts only.Absence of any other intermediaries reduce the risk of corruption as well.

Now the other argument could be that if the state relinquishes this responsibility to citizens then lack of participation from citizens could jeopardise the development & welfare of the community. But my thought is that if this is true about citizens then the same can be said about the state as well and this is what we are seeing in a nation like India where wealth of the people is totally misused by the government intermediaries.

I am not advocating total stoppage of government playing the role of welfare provider. If it does it will create a total chaos in a nation as large as India. But yes I do believe that governments state should slowly vacate this space to the citizens.