One day, during the middle of finals, the owner and his wife showed up at the door unannounced. At first blush, I thought that they had some nerve, that they could have called first. But then I remembered it was their house. They kind of began to inspect the house. The husband told me he appreciated what I was doing in the house and yard. He asked, however, if I could take care of one corner, straighten up a room or two and organize some other items. Then they left.
Several days later I got a call from him. He told me that they were not sure what they were going to do with the house. They were giving consideration to moving back into it. Maybe they would take it off the market, but at any rate, they would be spending more time in the house. So he asked me to find another place to live. I told him it would be no problem, that I had some friends who were looking for a roommate and that I could move in with them. I did put two and two together and it struck me that I had blown an incredible opportunity. You see, when he came by and checked out the house, he had been disappointed at the state in which he found it. So I had to move out of a free lake house because I hadn’t taken care of it.
This morning, as we take up the issue of gluttony, as we continue this series on the seven deadly sins, that house stands as a perfect representation of my body and your Body In God’s Economy. You see, our bodies are given to us free and clear of charge. It is not like we are born into this world and then at age eighteen we receive an invoice. God says that your body is a gift and that all it will cost you is the upkeep and the maintenance.
Fellowship Church Grapevine – Ethical courage. We need ethical courage in the marketplace. You are talking to the client on the phone and you say, “It cost us $2,500.”, but in actuality you know you paid $1,800 for it. “The check is in the mail”, but the check hadn’t been cut.
