Many moons ago my wife and I lived in an apartment. And I would joke once in a while that as long as we paid the rent for our apartment, we could probably do anything we wanted and our landlord wouldn’t really care. There could probably be mushrooms growing out of the carpet and they wouldn’t care. I said that because I always got the impression that the landlord didn’t really care about the property as much as he cared about the monthly rent check. But for most landlords there is something to be said about good renters: people who take care of the property and pay their rent on time. If you’ve ever been a landlord you know what I mean because you know what a pain it is to deal with bad renters, people who don’t care about your stuff. When they start to destroy what you own, there’s very little return on the investment, and you start to wonder if it was a good idea having them sign the lease.

In a way, God has made us renters. He has given us his Holy Word to use it carefully and to faithfully proclaim—to take care of it, in a sense. He has made us the tenants of his Word. And like any landlord, he expects us to be faithful with his property. 

And God isn't asking the moon of us. He's given us everything we need. We have our Bibles. We have Baptism and Holy Communion. Use them! Read the word. Live the word. Share the word. And God will take care of the rest. Peter says, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)