Good morning to all on this wonderful Tuesday, the 1st of June. Thank you for your prayers of traveling mercies. Waine and I got home to Atlanta yesterday from our travels in Portland and Seattle. We were also blessed with the birth of Hailee Christine Kong on May 31st. She weighed in at 7 pounds 2.2 ounces and is so beautiful! She is the 1st girl child born to my side of the family in 42 years! My niece Michele will have to give up her princess crown now! Both Hailee and Mommy Tracy are doing well and we should have her home soon. Freddie and Kai are doing great and between my sister, niece, Aleron , Waine and I they should have two weeks of help. Family is great!
I am continuing my journey in Matthews 20, verses 1-16. Jesus is preach a parable, "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' Because no one has hired us,' they answered. He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." Amen and amen!
God is indeed great and the first thing that struck me about this passage was that it was common 2000+ years ago to work for 12 hours before a wage was paid. In our day and age of hourly workers, even though a day's work is considered 8 hours, many mangers are frustrated that they can't get their employees to work the requisite 8 hours! Between phone calls and Internet surfacing the average American worker puts in less than 6 hours in an 8 hour day. Personal accountability is at an all time low in America and unless that tide is reversed we will go the way of other great countries that have fallen. Abraham Lincoln said that a "Great House is always destroyed from within."
Jesus is saying something more about His concept of "fair" compared to what men typically sees as "fair". None of us "deserve" the kingdom and its blessing based on our works, there is no entitlement in Kingdom building; our entrance into the Kingdom and all it offers is because of GRACE--we can't earn it and when Christians begin to understand that the blessings received are not because of our works or whether we deserve them, we will be humbled and understand the truth concerning the FORGIVENESS OF OUR SINS AND THE MERCY SUPPLIED BY GOD THROUGH JESUS. What we seserve beacuse of our sin nature is hell and eternal separation from the grace and mercy of God. Many Christians are like the first group of laborers in this parable. Since we have been in the vineyards the longest, we expect greater blessings. Jesus is here reminding us that we were all INVITED to participate in Kingdom building, none of us are deservant. God didn't have to invited us back to paradise and could have let us only know this present life however His Mercy and Grace, the TWIN TOWERS of our spiritual sustenance, allows us to experience TRUE JOY even on this side of Jordan. Many of us take SIN lightly because we know the grace and love of God. Understand this--God does not take sin lightly and is grieved each time we participate in sinful activities. As Christians we have our place secured in the Kingdom, the vineyard and as obedient Christians we are laying up our treasures in our Mansions. I don't want to walk down your street and see a small house--Christ wants you to have a GREAT House and wants you to walk with Him today to assist Him to work in His vineyard. The harvest is truly ready but the laborers are few.
Be blessed today and I thank God for you!
Stephanie
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