Mattrew 25:14 - 30

"Faith activities that live"

　

by: Pastor Hironori Furuya

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"Faith activities that live"

What we hear from Jesus today through the parable of ten maidens and a lamp up to Section 13 of Chapter 25, and the parable of the good Samaritan after the Section 31 is that what we shall do now in our religious lives, and not that there is still more time down the road. Note that the master’s schedule differs from that you and I consider.

About a decade ago, the theme of "if the world is a village of 100 people" was distributed all over the world through the Internet.
If the standard of "rich" is considered from the viewpoint of poor persons that consist 25% of the world population, one would be deemed "rich" if he or she has food in refrigerators, a dress to wear, and that he or she can sleep under a roof.

This Talantons's tale tells us that people cannot live only on bread.
There were persons entrusted by the master 5 Talantons, 2 Talantons, and 1 Talanton respectively. Incidentally, it is supposed that 1 Talanton is equivalent to 5 million yen though it was the monetary value in about 20 years ago from now.
Two persons except for the one who was entrusted 1 Talanton used up the entire master's asset. And they were blessed to the extent they contributed. However, third person returned the master 1 Talanton as it was trusted without consuming at all, actually he dig a hole in the ground and concealed it with emphasizing the severity of collection of the master. Since he did not lose the money for sure, he cannot be bad, the master admonished against this distrust of the servant though. Why he got so angry?
This is because that he had his own rightness, considered it his sole pillar to rely on and ignored the thought of the master.

Ms. Ayako Miura, a novelist, died in 1999.
In her lifetime, she told that she had a task, which was indeed the very last subject of her, of dying after consuming 10 million yen she obtained in 1964 as the award for novel titled "Freezing point" of Asahi Newspaper.
In her younger days, she suffered from the tuberculosis. Though she was encouraged to recover by her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Tadashi Maekawa, who had just same disease, just like the money of the master, she threw it away, became self-abolishment, speaks nasty and made troubles with drinking, smoking, and attempted suicides. He tried hard to pull Ayako back, at last, however, he just hit a pebble at his leg and confessed her with his tear "I, with thin faith do not have the power of saving you."
Then, Ayako made her conversion soon and went into the way of faith. Although she was so desperate due to too much severity of her own body that she became self-abolishment, listened to nobody; she continued to write novels with Ms. Mitsuyo Miura’s dictation because Mr. Tadashi Maekawa's eager support gave her courage a lot.

Today, we shall bear in our mind that to the heart that there is a secret to be Rich exists only on the path following the Lord.
The Lord has entrusted 1 Talanton for me. The master trusted me all no matter how I discarded or just said no thanks.

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