READING:
One-year plan: 2 Kings 11-14, John 10:31-11:16
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 2, Mark 15:6-20
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Over the years, I’ve heard it said that money is a primary temptation for gospel workers – not the acquisition of it for an honest day’s work, but the love and idolatry of it that result in too much attention given to it. Perhaps one way to put it is this: we misuse the funds, or we misuse the people who give the funds by playing favorites. Particularly in churches where weak systems require no real accountability, or among leaders who don’t monitor their own hearts, the temptation must be strong at times.
Today’s Old Testament reading addresses some of the reign of Joash — a reign that begins well with the restoration of the Temple but ends poorly with a national return to idolatry. Within this story, though, are these words about the managers and workers who restored the Temple: “No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay those doing the work, since they worked with integrity” (2 Kgs 12:15). We, too, ought to be so filled with integrity that accounting—while it’s wise to have it—is not necessary. Whatever our job is, we would do well to follow this model — doing whatever we do with integrity and ultimately for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you working with complete integrity in your life?
PRAYER: “God, I commit myself to this kind of work.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 2 Kings 15-17, John 11:17-44
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 3, Mark 15:21-32