AUGUST 27 JQ#22-7 “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

AUGUST 27   JQ#22-7  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?”  (Matthew 20:15) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

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! {Re-written from 2004}     AMEN

The Jesus Questions

AUGUST 27   JQ#22-7  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?”  (Matthew 20:15)    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 messages 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 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 as a small boy Jesus said “I must be about my Father’s work” ( Luke 2:49) and then there was that time in 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 with “traditions” not based on God’s Truth, the Power of God, the work of God, and the coming Judgement, as well as the Truth of God that Jesus is the Son of God and the “light of the world” and that God expects us to follow in the footsteps of the perfect example set by His Only Begotten Son 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 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! 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 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 pay “rent” for say, 200 billion years? (Your pockets aren’t big enough!!!!!)