oil for the feast

Matthew 25:1-13

I've been contemplating this parable quite a bit. Do I have oil in my lamp? How do we purchase this proverbial oil? Can I measure this?

When we have oil in our lamps, we feel hopeful and trustful that the Lord is in charge. We gain oil spiritually, temporally, and emotionally through various acts of faith.

1. Spiritual oil so to speak is earned drop by drop, when we follow God's Will and Word. But we must know these things to follow them. It's a fine line to participate in church and missionary work and study and prayer and such, but not fall into the way of Pharasees, outwardly moral, model worthy of imitation but faithless deep within. In other words going through vain repetitious motions without gaining a relationship with God or acknowledging the majesty of how grace magnifies works.

Temporal oil is obtained by spending within one's means and learning to be temporally self-reliant. That is building a food, water, clothing, and fuel storage, growing a garden, and keeping the earthly body healthy through nutrition, exercise, and disease prevention. Also self-education falls into this catagory--can I pick up a book to teach myself a new skill or learn new things about human nature?

Emotional oil is gained when we learn to get along with family, friends, and strangers. Building strong relationships and learning to be optimistic, I feel happier. Seeking out charity, truth, virtue, justice, mercy, purity, beauty, things are of good report, and worthy of praise, I build a desire for good things, things of God.

I guess this is pretty general, but it allows me to focus. I know how to obtain oil and to measure if my lamp is full. When I do things such as the list above, focus on joy, and trust in God, I feel optimistic and happy. This is the measure of a lamp.