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Speaking to the talmidim, Yeshua said: "There
was a wealthy man who employed a general manager. Charges were brought to
him that his manager was squandering his resources.
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So he summoned him and asked him, `What is this I
hear about you? Turn in your accounts, for you can no longer be
manager.'
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"`What am I to do?' said the manager to
himself. `My boss is firing me, I'm not strong enough to dig ditches, and
I'm ashamed to go begging.
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Aha! I know what I'll do -- something that will make
people welcome me into their homes after I've lost my job here!'
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"So, after making appointments with each of his
employer's debtors, he said to the first, `How much do you owe my
boss?'
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`Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied.
`Take your note back,' he told him. `Now, quickly! Sit down and write one
for four hundred!'
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To the next he said, `And you, how much do you owe?'
`A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. `Take your note back and write
one for eight hundred.'
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"And the employer of this dishonest manager
applauded him for acting so shrewdly! For the worldly have more sekhel
than those who have received the light -- in dealing with their own kind
of people!
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"Now what I say to you is this: use worldly
wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when it gives out, you may
be welcomed into the eternal home.
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Someone who is trustworthy in a small matter is also
trustworthy in large ones, and someone who is dishonest in a small matter
is also dishonest in large ones.
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So if you haven't been trustworthy in handling
worldly wealth, who is going to trust you with the real thing?
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And if you haven't been trustworthy with what
belongs to someone else, who will give you what ought to belong to
you?
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No servant can be slave to two masters, for he will
either hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be
loyal to the first. You can't be a slave to both God and money." |
