Equal Pay

In Mt. 20, Jesus tells the parable of the workers paid equally.
Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a landowner that goes out into the market place early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He, and they by accepting his offer agree on the wage for the day. Later in the day, three more times, the landowner returns to the market and hires more men with the promise that "I will pay you whatever is right." They to accept and go. When the day is over he calls the foreman and instructs him to pay the workers, starting with the last hired. The last are paid what the first agreed upon. Seeing this, those called first are now expecting a more generous settlement.

Each of them, however, receives exactly what they agreed upon earlier in the day. They, the first hired, begin to grumble and complain as if to say they deserve more than they had agreed to. The landowner poses this question: "Am I not giving you what you agreed to? Don't I have the right to do what I want to with my money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

God's generosity and grace is both incomparable and incomprehensible. We do envy, we envy because we don't understand and we want more. We try to take something that was given to us, salvation, and put our rules and parameters around it. We want more because we were first. The whole time we disregard the notion that we really don't have any say in the matter. That's where it gets tricky. We want control, we want to establish the rules for meting out God's grace. We stumble wanting more.

At some point we need to realize that salvation is reward enough. Who God decides to reward is not cause for our concern. We have been blessed through the Son and that is enough. Individually, we need to put aside our preconceived ideas of justice and fairness. It's not a justice issue, it's a grace issue. Justice says you get what you have coming, for us that's eternal separation from God. Grace says I know what you deserve, I chose to give you what you don't deserve. It's not a fairness issue, never was. God is the landowner and He determines the wages.

Crossing T's

Lost and wandering, missing the main point, we focus on the mundane. We miss out on the story, while dotting I's and crossing T's. As our days go, our lives follow.

May we see and hear. Allow us to perceive your will. Enable us to act upon that will in the ways and manner you have equipped us.

The world longs to know the story of truth, send others, send us.

Obedience

Rare is the individual who passes on the chance to hand a setback to his or her nemesis. Maybe it's human nature, maybe our flawed logic justifies missteps.

Saul, hunting David, tries to kill him at every turn. The LORD delivers Saul into David's hands. Amazingly, David honors God with his righteousness by refusing to strike God's anointed one.

Ps 57:10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the sky.
Mt. 8:8 The centurion replied, "Lord I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But say the word and my servant will be healed."

We live out our faith by obeying what God commands. David emulates God's righteousness. The centurion displays a faith so strong, scripture records Jesus is astonished. Jesus doesn't astonish easily.

Faith is more than belief. By faith we accept what Jesus has done for us. We receive him as the only one who can save us from our sin, and we live out this faith by obeying what he commands. David obeyed, the centurion obeyed, in obedience we encounter God.

Encounter

How do we encounter God? The question assumes there is a programmatic way or formula that we can follow or adhere to that will assure such an encounter. Certainly, setting time aside each day for study, contemplation, and prayer helps. Is there more to it?

What if we chose to take God out of the box we call quiet time? What if we recognized He was never limited to the brief and fleeting minutes we assigned to Him every day? What if we began to live with the expectation that we could encounter God regularly and frequently throughout the minutes and hours that make up our days? What would happen if we quit compartmentalizing God? What happens when we purposefully seek an encounter with God? Do we have the courage to seek?

Would God show up on our jobs and in the quality of our efforts and our workplace relationships? Would we see God in the faces and places we go each day? What if we spent our days seeking God?

Would we do unto others? Would we find the good? Would we see the opportunity? Would we take the chance? Would we act? Would we love unconditionally? Would we discover the power at work within us?

Would we glow in a shekinah kind of way? Would people know we encountered Him? Could that encounter lead to other meaningful encounters? Could we change our little corner of the world? Could we change the whole world? Would there be a difference?

I want to know.

Focus

Studying scripture and the teachings of Jesus can be a perilous undertaking. Not because it's difficult to do and beyond us; rather the peril comes into play when we ask ourselves, as we must, what is it we are going to do with the truths presented? If you believe the voice and will of God is found in scriptures as I do, you will be challenged by the Holy Spirit to change.

Jesus teaches about worry, his position on it, don't. We are told not to worry about food, drink, clothing or even our bodies. Jesus goes on to say that worrying will not add anything to our lives, not a minute or even a hair on our head. Worry, actually takes away from our lives, it distracts and divides our focus. Worry causes things to matter, that don't. Worry drains and derails our God given purpose.

Jesus said in Mt 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Our priorities are not to be on things and possessions, or even necessities. When we seek God, his kingdom and his righteousness, we are focused and our attention is where God wants it. The promise? Pursuing the things of God leads to growth, knowledge, and life change in ourselves and others.

We read.
We pray.
We listen.
We act.

When we focus, all things are given to us because our Father in heaven knows our needs.

Weakness

Nowhere in our culture is weakness valued or esteemed. Power, strength, self-reliance, these are the qualities we admire. These are the qualities we wish for ourselves, these are the qualities on the altar of self.

These qualities allow us to be bold in speaking of ourselves. I built this, or I have this, I control my world. In our strength we need no one or nothing. Relying on our strength and wisdom allows us to forge onward, to be the captains of our own destinies. Strengths allow us to be about self. In strength, we can lose sight of the Almighty.

Jesus said, "My grace is sufficent for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." In weakness we can see strength. In the slums of Nairobi, daily bread is a miracle. In strife and constant fear, with nowhere to turn, peace can be found. It is when we decide that our strengths have become our greatest weaknesses, that we can turn aside from them. Strengths cause us to lose our sight, we become spiritually blind.

When we choose weakness we can seek God.

Endings and Beginnings

Amazing what happens when your in the right place at the right time. Amazing because we can't plan on being in the right place at the specific right time. It just happens. Serendipity is a word some use to describe this phenomena. Some call it destiny, others would say coincidence sums up these chance alignments.

Endings
Hours before her 90 year life span drew to completion, I was there.

Weddings
The ceremony that will unite them for life took twenty minutes, I was there.

Baptisms
35 people obediently publicly proclaiming faith in Christ, I was there.

Each one of these events was an ending and a beginning. Life drew to a close eternity dawned. Two became one in the eyes of the Lord. People died to self and were born anew.

Blessed
God will put us in the right place at the right time for His purposes. We are fortunate to be His.