Picture a home owner looking for day laborers to help with a project on their property, recruiting at their local home improvement store. But, instead of a home owner, Jesus described a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard. Beginning early in the morning, he contracted with workers for the standard wage of a “denarius” (Matthew 20:2 ESV). The employer returned at nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock, and five o’clock with the offer, “Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you” (20:4 KJV). The “eleventh hour” (20:9) was five o’clock. At the end of the day, the landowner paid everyone the same wage, to the chagrin of those who had worked the longest and hardest. Consider: (1) availability of employment: matches the willingness of the workers, (2) immediacy of employment: now, (3) scope of employment: vineyard of God’s kingdom, (4) wages of employment: agreed upon by both parties, (5) dissension of the employees: fairness based solely upon consideration of self, (6) character of employer: “generous” (20:26 NET), and (7) sovereignty of the employer: “the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (20:16 KJV). LORD, we could not ask for a better employer than You, since we are that Eleventh Hour Laborer at the end. But, help us not to grumble, if You should tarry Your return. May we be found with our hand on the plow not looking back. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Spiritual Christianity
Center of the Will of God
Standing in the center of the will of God is not an illusion. Epaphras prayed for the Colossians, “That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12 KJV). “Perfect and complete in all the will of God” (4:12) is not man’s standards, for humanity will always be “accusing or else excusing one another” (Romans 2:15). God alone can declare us “perfect and complete” (Colossians 4:12) in the center of the will of God. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Only the Spirit of the Living God can cause us to be in the center of the will of God. “And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). Obedience is not simply deciding to do right, and doing it. Obedience is understanding and purposing to do right, then seeking and trusting the Spirit of God in making us do right, as we actually obey. Meditate on it. LORD, we can of our own self do nothing; and, through Your Spirit, we can do all things. Make us to know and trust You for everything. May You be magnified in all things. Return quickly, in Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and amen.
We Practice What We Believe
In other words, we all demonstrate what we actually believe by the way we act. “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew [shō] me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew [shō] thee my faith by my works” (James 2:18 KJV). There is no mystery about our beliefs, just look at how we act. If you wonder why you don’t have certain results from your beliefs, then you are confused about how you believe. Faith is not simply willing yourself to trust God, but “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Faith is not ‘pulling yourself up by your bootstraps’; but, faith is the “gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). And, no, God does not do our believing for us, but He makes our believing “effectual [Greek, energeia, Thayer, in the NT used only of superhuman power, whether of God or the devil]” (3:7), that is, He makes our faith valuable by empowering it. And, you can tell when He is cooperatively empowering us, when the results align with what He reveals in His Word. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). LORD, empower our believing. Make our simple act of intellectual faith powerful and spiritual. Cause us to evaluate our faith by what You represent in Your Word. Cause us to actively hunger for our faith to look like what we read in Your Word. Make it so that what we believe causes us to act like what we know from Your Word. Grant to us the essential working of Your Spirit that You may conform us to Your Word — not just in letter — but in Spirit and in power. Do all of this, in Jesus’ name. Amen and amen.
Confronting Your Past
It is all about Jesus. Growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2Peter 3:18) requires you to confront your past. You obviously have already done something right to even be presently considering what God wants you to be doing. Now, here’s the hard part, you’re going to have to give up or reframe your thinking about what you thought you understood, in order to grow. This is where your roots hit a rock and have to redirect your growth, but more importantly, this is where our Heavenly Vinedresser does some painful and aggressive pruning. “He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2 NIV). By God’s grace, see you at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! LORD, do to me what is necessary to bear the fruit that will glorify Your name. In Jesus’ name, amen.
What’s Wrong With Hedonism?
To begin, what is hedonism? “HEE” + “duh” + “ni” + “zuhm” A devotion to pleasure or happiness as its highest good is hedonism. “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Philippians 3:19 KJV). As a created being, our purpose cannot be for the service of self as our highest pleasure, but the service of God. Not just philosophically but practically and functionally, we cannot seek pleasure simply for the sake of pleasure. Disciples do not seek merely the fulfillment of our senses, but the fulness of God. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Allow not the satan’s temptation to substitute your God given needs for your reason for existence. Only the Spirit of God can keep us safe. LORD, keep Your people as the apple of Your eye focused upon You, the apple of our eye. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and amen.
We Need A Miracle 