Hi friends. I'm Annie F. Downs. Let's read the Gospels. The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament and the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the stories of Jesus Christ's life on earth. The friendships, the parables, the sacrifices, the meals, the miracles. So here's how this works. We're reading all four books in 30 days. We will read three

chapters a day. So that's what I'll do today is read you three chapters. You can listen, you can watch

on YouTube, or you can read along in your own Bible, and then I'll pray. And that's it. So today is

day 13, and I'll be reading Luke 16 through 18 from the new living Translation, and we are on page 91 of the Let's Read the Gospels guided journal.

Luke 16. Jesus told this story to his disciples. There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs.

One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer's money. So the employer called him in

and said, what's this? I hear about you. Get your report in order because you are going to be fired.

The manager thought to himself, now what? My boss has fired me. I don't have the strength to dig ditches and I'm too proud to beg. I know how to ensure that I'll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I'm fired. So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, how much do you owe him? The man replied, I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.

So the manager told him, take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons. And how much do you owe my

employer? He asked the next man. I owe him a thousand bushels of wheat was the reply. Here, the manager

said, take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.

The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the

children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the

children of the light. Here's the lesson. Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make

friends.

Then when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.

If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.

But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities.

And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

And if you are not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. The Pharisees who dearly loved their money heard all this and scoffed at him. Then he said to them,

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