God's Awesome Trade (2) - series by the Rev Theo Groeneveld.

God's Awesome Trade - series by the Rev Theo Groeneveld.

Firstly,

A Trader is a new kind of Missionary

 - not defined by Geography -

but willing to apply the parable of the Good Samaritan  and to go and do likewise.

A Trader is intentional with their

 time, talent and skills.

They trade-in their pursuits for His pursuits.

They trade in time, money and comfort for a world that needs Christ.

En now:

Know that life is a gift;  or trade the things you cannot keep, for the things you cannot lose!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of

the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.    James1:17

Traders know that life is a gift.

They don't hold on to life too tightly.

They understand that ownership is over-rated and over-reaching.

I had a friend who said this about owning land: "How bizarre it is to think that we can own a piece of God's earth!" We think we buy things that we can possess with money we have earned from our work. But where did the talent, health, ability and oxygen that we breathed while we worked come from?

Traders understand that all we are is a gift from God, that all the opportunities that we have come from Him,  that all the good circumstances that we experience are from Him.

Even our ability to praise God comes from the music, poetry and revelation that He gives us!

Life is a gift.  We can't claim it as ours and it is bizarre to hang on too tightly.

When we go through life with an attitude of giftedness, when we develop an attitude of gratitude, it becomes easier to SHARE.

Someone (I can't remember who) told a story of taking some rice to a very poor family in a very poor area. He was taken aback when the mother of the home grabbed the rice and then ran out of the shack. As he was about to leave in disgust, she returned and thanked him for the gift. He asked her where she had rushed off to and she answered that two of her neighbours were also struggling to feed their families and so she had divided her rice into three and shared with them.

God's generosity in giving us life, breath, opportunity and then His Son and His Spirit should inspire us to trade the things we cannot keep, for things we cannot lose.