I Couldn't Post From The Courthouse

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4/29/09 - The Last Will Be First, and the First Will Be Last

Good morning family!  Guess where I am at?  Good old jury duty.  So I'm going to leave you with a prayer for today.  If you have your Bibles (if not you can go online to www.biblegateway.com) please feel free to read Matthew chapter 20 and we will begin to study it collectively tomorrow.  Have a wonderful day!

PRAYER: Thank You LORD for Your mercy and grace that surrounds me.  You are my true and only comfort.  Please forgive me for looking elsewhere when You are the only help that I need.  I won't let go of Your promise to me-Your promise to keep me and never forsake me; Your promise that the joy will always come in the morning, no matter how hard the day/night before was.  Your promise to love me forever, because You knew me even before I was formed in the womb.  I am of Your design-wonderfully and fearfully made.  Continue to teach me who You are and who I am in You.  I love You Father God.  In Jesus' name, amen.

4/30/09 -God's Grace:

PRAYER: Thank You LORD for Your instruction.  Let me seek it every day and let me desire to make it a priority in my life.  You wouldn't give us anything that didn't serve us well in living.  I pray that we collectively learn how to trust You and act in our Trust in You in every decision that we make.  Thank You for Your grace.  Your grace and mercy is amazing.  Thank You LORD.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

MATTHEW 20:1-16 part 1

THE PARABLE OF THE WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD: 

^{(Jesus Speaking to His disciples) 1}"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. ²He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. ³About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

⁴He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' ⁵So they went.  He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. ⁶About 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?'

 ⁷'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. 

He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'   ⁸"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.'  ⁹The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.  ¹⁰So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹²'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.'

¹³But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?  ¹⁴Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Do you ever compare yourself to other Christians or non-Christians?  Thinking that you're better because you believe in God?  Have you ever wondered or discussed the fact that someone that has lived a terribly selfish and evil life can be sitting on their deathbed and call on Jesus and be saved, while you lived the majority of your life trying to be obedient and both end up in paradise?  Being chosen by God is not a competition, it is a privilege.  We have to start seeing it this way.  It is because God loves every single one of us, He is going to be there when we call on Him in Jesus' name.  This does not give us license to live any way that we want because there are consequences (spiritual and physical) to our actions and there will be judgment in the end.  But God's grace does give us the opportunity to be forgiven and saved no matter what we have done in this life.  This should bring comfort to you. 

LEARN TO APPRECIATE GOD'S GRACE