The NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS published recently several pages listing accounts with unclaimed money in them. As impossible as it seems, hundreds of people or their families forget the bank is holding money for them in their name.

When men and women give their lives to God, many then lose faith in the Creator. They don''t use the treasure He has for them. Our orientation gets mixed up. We aim our lives in the wrong direction.

Charlie Brown in the PEANUTS cartoon comes to the kitchen one morning in his PJ''s and says to his mother, "Mom, I think I''ve discovered my difficulty in getting out of bed." "What''s that?" "I''m allergic to mornings," says Charlie. Many Christians are allergic to mornings. We orient our lives to the sunset and not the dawn. We live poor lives when we might be spiritually rich. We die before we really live.

The Parable of the Talents centers on a certain one-talent man. He could have been rich, but he settled for much less. He surveyed his past experience and concluded that life could never be different. He did not know the good things that might have awaited him. He chose to die before he really lived. Through this parable, God is speaking to each of us--challenging us to venture out, to live life in courageous faith, to invest our lives for Him. In this parable God is giving us a formula for living life to the fullest--living before we die.

FIRST OF ALL, WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE THAT GOD GIVES US DIFFERENT GIFTS. All people are not created equal. We differ in skills and talents.

A certain master left the country after giving his three servants different gifts--one about five-thousand dollars, another two-thousand and a third one-thousand. But notice the words, "Each to his own ability." Even in this story Jesus recognizes that we are not all equally endowed. One man can draw up plans for a church, another can write beautiful music for the piano or organ, another can build a building and still another can build a road up to the church. We don''t all have the same talents. We''re not equal in that respect.

However, we are equal in responsibility! The one-talent person is just as responsible to God for the way he or she uses his/her talents as the five- or ten-talent person. We may have differing abilities, but we are equal in our accountability to God for how we use them.

God depends on us. In Paul''s words, we are "co-laborers with him." As someone has said, "Without God we cannot; without us God will not." Antonio Stradivari, recognizing this, once said, "Even God could not make Antonio Stradivari''s violins without Antonio." What a blessed privilege is ours in the church. What a great responsibility God gives us, but what a grand reward follows. The poet reminds us, "God drops no churches from the skies, but out of men''s hearts they must arise." We are God''s tenant farmers. He has given us talents to be developed and put to use in His church. He has given us the opportunity to be a beacon of light in a dark world through the consecration of our attitudes and aptitudes. He depends on us. He is counting on us. Our lives are important to His work.

God gives us different gifts. HE ALSO REWARDS US FOR USING OUR GIFTS. This is what the master of the parable did. He settled accounts on his return. Two servants were rewarded for using their gifts in increasing what they had. The master''s reply was, "Well done, good and faithful servants." And that''s the kind of God we have. His world is set up to reward people of faith and effort.

What kind of people were the five- and the two-talent men? We are told they went to work at once with their gifts when the master left. For that they are called good. That means they were devoted to their master''s work. They are also called faithful, and that means full of faith and work. They did not sit around moaning about what others had or how little they had. They didn''t complain, "Oh, if I had so and so''s talent, what I would do." They simply took what God had given and put it to use.

A man used to say when working day by day, "I can hardly wait until I retire." And then after retirement he came to see that retirement is not an early goal for life. He went on to say that government can give you security, but not life. Medical science can give more years, but not purpose in those years. Technology can give us convenience, but not fulfillment. All of us need to find a purpose worthy of eternity. That is lifelong service to God. That is life lived courageously using our talents to God''s purposes in this world.

The one-talent man had no purpose worthy of eternity. He wanted to receive without venturing out in faith and investing what he had. A woman visitor to New York described a common sight in the train station. It is one that happens whenever there are vending machines, candy or gum. She saw a little boy go through the whole length of the floor, pulling all the levers of the machines. He didn''t put any money in; he was just hoping by some miracle to get a piece of candy or gum. Maybe someone had put in a coin and forgot to pull the lever. The one-talent man went through life hoping he could do well without investing himself or his talents, but he displeased his master in the end. We cannot stay in the harbor of life and be pleasing to God. We must venture out into the deep. And God will reward such faith.

Being faithful in little things, the faithful servants earned the right to greater responsibility and greater joy. They earned the blessing of the master. God is equal in rewarding those who devote themselves to Him. Both servants were richly rewarded for their faithfulness and devotion.

As God gives different gifts, He also rewards the users of these gifts. THOSE WHO DO NOT TRY, THOUGH, LOSE EVEN THAT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN. This is one of life''s most reliable principles: Use it or lose it!

Not trying was the sin of the one-talent man, and his story is a sad one. He earned the wrath of his master for hiding his talent in the ground. It is difficult for us to know why he hid his talent rather than using it. Perhaps the problem was resentment. He may have resented those who had been given more than he. He may have resented his master, "I knew you to be a hard man, so I went and hid what you gave me."

Or maybe his was a heart filled with fear. He was afraid to step out in faith with God and life. He was an ordinary Joe who minded his own business. He played it safe. All his life he probably listened to those who cautioned him, "Don''t be a fool. Why should you stick your neck out? Don''t risk anything. Don''t venture out too far. Let somebody else do that."

Scott Libby, a traveling minister for a Presbyterian church in Iowa, was to preach for a vacationing minister one Sunday. He decided to get to church early and become familiar with the order of service. Going down the hall, he passed the nursery and saw one child there all by himself. He paused a minute and the child said, "Hi, my name is Tommy."

Dr. Libby replied, "My name is Scott."

Tommy said, "I''m all by myself in this big room."

Dr. Libby repeated, "So you are all by yourself in this big room?"

"Yes," said Tommy, "and I''m lonesome."

"Well, I''m sure somebody will come shortly and be with you, Tommy."

With this, Tommy pulled up to his full stature, looked Dr. Scott in the eye and asked, "What about you?"

Well, what about us? What about you? What about me? We may have only one talent, we may be only one note on God''s musical scale, but without us the music will not sound right, the job will not be done well.

The master called the last servant wicked and slothful, "You rascal. You idle servant," is one translation. Another is "You ungrateful idler." Sin is more than something we do. It can be the things we know to do and do not. The servant lost that which was entrusted to him. Worse yet, he was lost himself. We need to heed Jesus'' warning.

Whatever we do not use, we lose. That''s true of athletic ability or mental ability or musical ability or whatever gift God has bestowed upon us. But the person who develops what God has given him increases his usefulness. He increases in abundance. The only way to keep a gift of God is to use it for His sake and for the sake of others.

This story disturbs us, or it ought to disturb us. It''s sad to see someone go through life no better for having lived, just putting in time until the quitting whistle, taking as much as he can and giving as little as he has to. So many Christians have hidden the talents God has given them. Like the one-talent man, so many of us have said, "I was afraid so I went and hid your gift." The idle servant describes many of God''s people. When the Master comes for us on the day of accounting and wants to know what we''ve done with the gifts of the Gospel, many will have to say, "I took them and hid them."

There is a novel with an imaginary but haunting scene in it. It''s called THE MAN WHO LOST HIMSELF. The hero, evidently a detective, is trailing a person in Paris. He wants to know if this man is staying at a certain hotel. He hatches a plan. He decides to go to the desk and ask the clerk if a fictitious guest is staying there. Then, as the clerk is searching the register for the fictitious guest, he would look over his shoulder to see if the name of the man he was following appeared on the register. He decides to use his own name for that of the fictitious guest.

He carries out his plan, but he gets the shock of his life. After he has given the clerk his own name the clerk searches the register and replies, "Yes, he''s been waiting for you. He''s in room 40. I''ll have you shown right up." There is nothing to do now but go through with it. So the detective follows a porter up to room 40. There the story goes off the deep end. For when he goes into the room he finds a man much like he would be at age 40, just a few years ahead. He sees there the man he is about to become.

That''s an imaginary story, but there is truth in it. There''s a man or woman out there in the future that you and I will become. What kind of person will that individual be? Suppose you and I keep living until then just as we are living now. Will we be glad to stand before God to give an accounting of our life? We all want to be found faithful, but are our present habits and attitudes the kind which God will reward?

If you''re not satisfied, if you''re not sure God will say, "Well done, faithful servant," now is the time to change, to venture out, to begin using the gifts and opportunities God has given you, to live before you die. To paraphrase Paul, "Talents were given to each one--that some should be deacons, some teachers, some trustees, some ushers, some youth leaders, some organizers, some helpers, etc." Have you ever really lived up to your opportunities? What resources and talents do you need to commit to God''s purposes? What possibilities for good are in your life and unrealized? Remember, today, indeed, is the first day of the rest of your life. Make the most of it for Him.