Taking Inventory
My dad was a grocery store owner when
I was a boy. This enterprise had many perks. During the years that followed
WWII the nation was required to use rationing stamps to purchase certain food
and clothing items. As a grocery owner my dad could only sell certain items to
folks that had the proper rationing stamps. He was required to collect and
deposit these stamps with a government agency. Some of the products as I
recall, that required stamps were, butter, sugar, bacon, pork, ham and
beef. We were never lacking any of
these. I enjoyed easy access to the ice cream freezer and candy counter, a boy's
dream come true.
Some of the perks were not so perky to
me. For instance I had several jobs that I just out-right detested. (1) Every two weeks the grocery order had to
be unpacked and shelved. (2) Every week I had to transferring 100 pounds of
potatoes into bags of five-pounds. (3) Once a week my job was to rack-up the
returned empty soda bottles according manufacturer. (4) The job that was the
worst of the worsted was the annual inventory that told us our profit or loss.
My dad was a great teacher. I learned from him how to make hoagies, butcher a
side of beef, and arrange meat in the showcase, display fruits and vegetables.
All in all he was a wonderful mentor and I was happy in the family enterprise.
Just as my family had to take a
business inventory to determine our profit or loss, so the believer needs to
check-up on his state of bring. Lets
look at an inventory from the Old Testament.
King Belshazzar gave a great feast for
1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking
the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor,
Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from
them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines. So they brought these gold
cups and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from
them. While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver,
bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand
writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king
himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fright. His
knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him. Daniel was
summoned by the king to interpret the wall writing.
Daniel 5:25-28 (NLT) 25 “This is the message that was
written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. 26 This is what these words mean: Mene
means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to
an end. 27 Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have
not measured up. 28 Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and
given to the Medes and Persians.” As God had judged Nebuchadnezzar’s
pride by removing him from the throne, so He would judge Belshazzar’s pride by
taking the kingdom from him and giving it to another people. This judgment was
written in the words that appeared on the plaster. (1) Mene means
‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an
end. (2) Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have
not measured up. (3) Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and
given to the Medes and Persians.”
2 Corinthians 10:12 (NKJV) For we dare not class ourselves or
compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring
themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not
wise.
The fact is our measuring devise must
be God’s standard. That is the truth as revealed in scriptures. John 17:17 (NKJV) Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is
truth. James 1:22 (NKJV) But be doers of
the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
The truth causes us to put off the old
sinful self and put on the new man. Colossians
3:5-11 (NKJV) 5 Therefore put to death your members, which are on the earth:
fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is
idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of
disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, and filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another,
since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new
man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV) And be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave
you.
God’s standards are the reality of
TRUE FAITH and RELIGION.
