😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you. Yesterday morning I read Matthew 20:1-16 The Laborers in the Vineyard. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So, they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon, he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
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.’ The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So, when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These 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.’ But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
We are all on our own journey and each of us come to the point of faith and trust in the Lord at different times for different reasons, and by different means. But we all have a few things in common.
The Lord is the one who sought and chose us to be with Him. We just had to say “Yes” to His invitation.
The Lord is the one who offers us a means for making a living and providing for our needs. We just have to say “Yes” to His invitation.
The Lord is the one who holds true to His word and gives us what He promises. We just have to accept them.
Lent has gone by in a blink and we are now at the midpoint of Holy Week. Over these next few days, we celebrate, experience and reflect upon some incredible events and gifts. Christ doesn’t just tell us, but shows us leadership is actually being a servant to others. Just to name a few, He institutes the sacrament of Communion so that we will always have His physical presence with us. Christ called out the betrayal which Judas was about to impart and instead of holding him back, Jesus told him to do what he needed to do. He showed us the importance of going to a quiet place and having those heartfelt, hard conversations with the Father. He showed us the gift of friendship and also the betrayal of friends. The ridicule, verbal and physical abuse. Seeing and experiencing His mother’s pain. He experienced it all, so that you will never go through anything alone. He gives each and every person EVERY THING He has to offer. He doesn’t hold anything back, including the GLORY of His resurrection and salvation.
It doesn’t matter if you are in the morning of your life or in the 5 o’clock hour. The Lord is reaching out His nail pierced hand to welcome you into His home. Please, thoughtfully consider the opportunities that are being offered to you this week. Choose to share some extra time with the Lord and journey with Him on this road. May these steps you take carry you into a lifelong and beyond relationship with our risen Lord. Father, Son, and Spirit.
Bless others and be blessed.
If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others. Click subscript to receive your message every Wednesday.
#DannyGoeky – We All Need Jesus feat. Koryn Hawthorne
Third Day Devotions 