AN IMPORTANT NOTE FROM LEO SLINGERLAND.

“My desk is full, really full, probably a teacher in management would tell me that is wrong, because as a managing director you have to keep order and/or delegate. What you find on my desk are unpaid bills, reminders to call people back and a lot of invitations to go for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I am sure this is quite familiar with most of us and at times we have little time for ourselves, family, friends and maybe God.

Breakfasts are mostly invitations to convince the invited guests about a strategy or a political direction where (if your mouth is not full) you are supposed to react and give your vision. A lunch invitation is often more personal; it’s a man-to-man talk where the host is mostly looking for a deal or business. It is wise to avoid them especially when you are the victim.

Dinners in Nairobi mostly, you are supposed to pay for it and the host gives you the feeling that you now can eat as much as you can, because you did something good. It's hard not to follow up, because of your reputation, but these can be boring.

What do I want to say?

In Luke: 14 Jesus is talking about dinner, super dinner. But before he told that story he said; "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Jesus tells the story of a man in a parable form, who prepared a great dinner and when the time came all his servants went out to invite people for the feast. The man waited for his guests, but nobody on the list showed up! What would you feel if you spent a lot of money to prepare a party for your friends but none shows up and some give you reasons like:

“ No Sir, I am very busy , just got a lot of cars from Japan and I have to be on the road to get it sold or No Sir, I would love to come but I have just married a beautiful women and I like to enjoy myself with her.”

When you go through the story in Luke 14 you can smell that all these excuses are lies. In a way maybe they are not interested in the dinner. You will understand that God is the host and the dinner is to celebrate the fact that He has changed our lives, by giving His son Jesus to die on the cross.

 The messiah had come. That message was supposed to be announced at the dinner. But His invited guests (Israel) had no idea because they didn’t believe that and kept on doing what they believed they must do to survive. No time for a dinner with God and so they missed out on the announcement of coming of the Messiah. The Lord said unto His servants, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

 “For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper”

We all belong to the people that God has invited when the original invitees didn't show up. But is our behavior so different from that of the Israelites? Are we the hungry and poor people longing for a sumptuous meal? Or are we so busy to make it in life that we have no time to be invited and to celebrate the freedom we have in Christ.

On my desk, in between all the invitations lays another card. It has a purple envelope. It’s an invitation to be at his funeral. I know he was a good guy, always busy to make sure that people called him successful. But what is success if you missed the most important in life?

I pose the challenge to you to think about it.”