JULY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
JQ#22 “Is it not lawful for me to do
what I wish with my own things?”
(Matthew 20:15)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS completely take my life,
my career, my marriage, my health,
my desires, and the innermost longings of my soul,
take all of me and use it as You will
for You know the will of the Father
and all things that Glorify You, Glorify the Father.
There is not a better thing that
the created can do but Glorify the Creator.
Lord Jesus, we are
wonderfully and fearfully made
and I want to make my life count in Your eyes,
not in the eyes of a worldly boss or worldly friends.
Jesus, I claim Your promise to finish the good work that You
have started in me.
I yield myself to the molding, the shaping, and the pruning of the
Holy Spirit, and I pray that those things I don’t volunteer to yield,
that the Holy Spirit will take them, all for Your Glory!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus Teaches many side Lessons in the parable of the landowner and
He established at the beginning of the parable that the Lesson was
about “heaven” (see Matthew 20:1) therefore the “vineyard” is
God’s Creation and the “laborers” in the vineyard is mankind
— the “landowner” is God and the parable highlights both
man’s relationship to God and to God’s Creation. The obvious
message in this passage in Matthew 20:1-16 was that God intends
for man to “work” for “wages” and that God will do “whatever is right”
for us if we enter into His labors with Him.
There are a couple of not so obvious Lessons as well
and yet if we stop and think about it,
like Jesus has been Teaching us to do all along with
His Lessons on the Truth of God
that we will see that
God seeks each of us out
and establishes a personal relationship
with each worker. The parable establishes the
Truth of God
that even unto the “eleventh hour” God will seek us and wishes
us to use the remainder of our time before “evening” comes to
enter into His Labor. Also obvious but misunderstood by mankind is
God’s “wage scale” which is found in John 3:16 [paraphrased]
“For [the landowner] so loved [the laborers] that He gave
[the same wages] to all that entered into the [work of God]
which is believing that the Son came to save us from sin
— and those wages are eternal life.”
Jesus was always Teaching these “work” Lessons by the
Example of His Life while in the flesh for even as a small boy
of 12 years old Jesus said,
“I must be about my Father’s work”
(Luke 2:49)
and then there was that time recorded in the Gospel according
to John where Jesus made it clear that
the Work of God involved “sin” and “Forgiveness"
as He was asked
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?”
(John 9:1-2)
and in His answer Jesus addressed the problem of living our daily
lives with “traditions of men” not based on
God’s Truth
for Jesus replied to the “who sinned?” question thusly:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that
the works of God should be revealed in him.
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day;
the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am
in the world, I am the light of the world.”
(John 9:3-5)
We should learn that
we have a “day” to “work for God”
for when the evening comes
(Physical Death)
we will be given our wages
(Judgement)
so when God comes and asks you to be a “laborer” in His “vineyard”
that the only way to “earn” your “wages” is to do the work of the One
that is paying the wages to those that
work in His “vineyard”
while it is still day(Life)!
If Jesus Teaches a parable on earning kingdom wages
then we should listen to the Son
and get to work don’t you think?!?!?
Of all my studies about heaven I have never read about heaven
having any ATM machines —
of course it would be hard to figure out
how to mount a steel box to streets of gold anyway don’t you imagine???
Besides, even if we could “take it with us” then just how much money
would you have to take to heaven to pay “rent” on your mansion
for say, 200 billion years?
(Your pockets aren’t big enough!!!!!)
SELAH
