Highlighted New Testament Bible

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Thursday, July 9, 2015

St Matthew, Chapter 20, verse: 12b, On the same level.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard)
Part 17.  

They grumbled.  They complained.  They murmured amongst themselves.  They were not satisfied.  They were not happy that they received the same as the others who had only worked an hour.  They thought that they would receive more because they had worked longer than the other laborers.  This is the parable that Christ told his disciples.  He compared this parable to the kingdom of heaven.

There was a message.  There is a lesion to learn.  There is information in the parable that will enlighten those who understand.  Laborers are needed to bring in the harvest.  The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.  There is a reward for those who work in the vineyard.  There is pay for those who work.  What will the agreement be for those who do the labor?  Christ wants his disciples to understand that the householder is just and fair in his rewards.  He wants them to know that as laborers in the vineyard that they will be compensated for their work.  But he also wants them to know that just as the laborers in the parable, they should not be like them, they should not compare.  For they told the house-holder:   "Thou hast put them on a level with us, who have borne the burden of the day's heat." 

And then comes the central point of the parable, on the same level.  I am better than they.  I worked harder and longer and better than they.  I deserve more than they.  It is this feeling that comes from within that makes us compare ourselves and determine that we are different, we are better, we are more than they.  Where does it come from?  Where does it originate?  Adam and Eve had everything their hearts desired.  They lived in the garden.  They did not have to toil.  They had all provisions given to them, yet they were tempted.  The snake told them that if they ate the forbidden fruit that they would be like God.  And with that information came the thought that they were not like God. but wanted to be him.  The comparison overwhelmed them so much that they were compelled to transgress.

Are we not the same?  Are we not created in the same image and likeness as our Father?  Are we not made of the same spirit and life given us by our heavenly Father?  Yet we consider ourselves more, we consider ourselves better than, smarter than, prettier than, faster than anyone else.  We consider.  We allow ourselves to be influenced by the thoughts of the day and the influences of what we perceive from the world.  We do not consider that which is within us, that which is our spirit, that which is the light of life restored to us by Christ Jesus

We walk in the darkness of the physical world not knowing the life that is within us.  We see not the beauty of the light of life within each of us.  We see only the physical, only the appearance, only the focused view that is given us by the world we live in.  What is beauty?  What is intelligence?  What is wealth?  What is life?  And what is death? 

To see beyond the physical and see within the physical is the opportunity to truly know who we are.  To see the light within our own selves opens our eyes to the life that is in others.  We are the same.  We have the same spirit, if we have life.  We all are children of our Father.  And it is that one fact that makes us equal, the same, not different.  Our Father opens the door to all who would ask of his forgiveness and of his love, whether we do this everyday for the rest of our lives or whether we ask in the last minute of our life here on earth.  He is fair.  He is merciful.  He is loving.  He is forgiving.  He is our Father and we are his children.  Let no evil separate us from his compassion and his love.  We are all on the same level.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you.  Open the door and let him in.