#Parable of the laborers in the vineyard explained

[mindfulldsliving]

Dispensationalism and the Restoration: How the Book of Mormon Prepares Us for Christ’s Second Coming

Doctrine and Covenants Section 1 introduces the Restoration as a divine response to a world in spiritual disarray. It’s a bold declaration of God’s work to reestablish Christ’s eternal truths. The Book of Mormon stands at the center of this effort, fulfilling ancient prophecies and preparing hearts for Christ’s return. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord restored gospel principles that had…

[firstumcschenectady]

“Hunger” based on Matthew 20:1-16

On Thursday morning I opened an article about the impact of COVID on hunger around the world.  The article started with a picture of a malnourished child reaching out to a caregiver.

For better or worse, I closed the article right then, my stomach already roiling with horror and my whole being already feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the issue.

As these things go, a few minutes later I turned to sermon research, in this case re-reading the chapter on Matthew 20:-16 from William R. Herzog's book, “Parables as Subversive Speech.”   Herzog reminds us that the day laborers in Jesus's day were people who died of malnutrition, people that society thought of as “expendables.” Furthermore, these “expendable people” were the ones whose labor enriched wealthy vineyard owners along with kings, emperors, the military, the bureaucrats, and the religious leaders.  The work of agriculture was profitable, but as with any other industry, the cheaper the labor, the more profits for those on top.  Thus, the work of day laborers was considered so invaluable as to be worth less than what a person needed to eat in a day.

This did not make my stomach feel any better.

Then, I thought of the book, “White Trash: The 400-Year Untold Story of Class in America” by Nancy Isenberg that the Intersectional Justice Committee book club read recently.  In that book,  Isenberg explains that this country was colonized and founded while assuming that ~15% of the WHITE population was “expendable,” in this case referred to as “white trash.”  This is IN ADDITION TO the dehumanization of Native Americans as their land was stolen, the enslavements of Africans and their descendants, and the consistent dehumanizing of all people of color.

When I read “White Trash,” I was horrified to realize that the people who were considered “expendable” as our country was founded and as it has continued – the ones sent to work in mines regardless of safety conditions, the ones sent to build the railroads and to dynamite mountains, for example, whose safety didn't matter because there were always more people who could be brought in to work – and whose wages didn't matter because there were always people willing to work for anything, the ones who died young after hard lives --- were just the same as those day laborers that Jesus talks about.  AND they're the same people who live with food insecurity in the richest nation in history, the same people for whom subpar education is deemed sufficient, the same people from whom wages are often stolen without recourse.

We still have “expendable” people in our society, we just don't talk about it explicitly.  Worse yet, our country's policies exacerbate wealth inequality around the world, so that there are even more people even more desperately poor and “expendable” outside the US than in it (and within the US the number of people we deem unworthy of sufficient nutrition is a moral atrocity.)

And, of course, the pandemic has made this all worse.  Were we once had 10-15% of the population of the US going hungry, at least double that amount are now estimated to be hungry.  30% of our population.

Now, there are some things we can do, if we are able.  We can give to SICM, to help the food pantry provide food in Schenectady.  (They also need volunteers.) Similarly we can give to or help with the Sunday Morning breakfast here, or at the Regional Food Bank.  The organization “Bread for the World”1 is our long term partner in education and advocacy to end hunger, and they have many ways for us to respond.

But, for now, I want to look at this parable.

Because, not only do I believe Herzog that this parable was about the struggles of day laborers and the ways that vineyard owners and the systems they were a part of excited to oppress the poor and extract wealth for the wealthy – I think Jesus TOLD THIS STORY to day laborers.

Because I think that God and Jesus are on the side of the people the world sees as “expendable.”  And, in particular, I think Jesus's ministry was PRIMARILY to the poorest of the poor.  So, his teaching was teaching for those who were struggling, including this story.  

Which should impact how we hear it.

The people the first hearers of the story associated with was the day laborers – the people who had lost their ancestral land, had no notable trade or craft, and had fallen through the safety net.  The people waiting and hoping to be needed in the fields and paid so they can eat that day.

The first shock in the story is that the landowner comes out to hire them himself.  That didn't happen in real life, but it helps the story exemplify WHO is benefitting the most from their labor.  The second thing to note is that while the laborers hired first got to agree to a wage – not a good one, but the normal one – the next sets of laborers went into the fields without even an agreement.  The final set didn't even get a say – they were SENT to the fields without being told if they'd be paid.

Another thing to notice is that this a VINEYARD and not a wheat field or vegetable plot.  The owner of a vineyard had to be wealthier than average, because a vineyard took 4 years of intense labor as an investment before profit would come in.  That said, it was more profitable than other land use.  So wealthy people liked to buy other people's ancestral sustainable farmland and make it into vineyards.

The owner's response to the complaints of those who worked 12 hours being paid the same as those who worked 1 is to dismiss the value of their work.  That was especially insulting because WORK was all that day laborers had to offer.  That is, the owner told the laborers they were worthless.

However, the parable tells us something else.  The landowner had to keep hiring people all day because there was so much work to do that he wasn't even able to estimate how much labor he needed.  The vineyard would not have been able to exist, much less produce anything, without labor.  The sub-subsistence wages of the laborers were part of making the vineyard owner even wealthier, but moreso, the LABOR of the day laborers was IMPERATIVE to his wealth.  Wealth that, again, he is making off of the land that they once used to LIVE and not just struggle to survive.

The parable also makes clear that the owner's actions aimed at keeping the day laborers competing with each other.  Herzog says,

To ensure a timely harvest, the landowner needed their labor.  Yet the lack of cohesion so evident among the day laborers allowed the landowner to conquer them by dividing them.  This is why the owner spoke only to 'one of them.'  The banishment of that one served to intimidate the others and put them in their place.  … [The owner] smothered the truth that he was dependent on them and, as as result, that they could have power but only a power tha grew out of their solidarity.  Divided, they would fall one by one before the withering hostility and judgement of the elite.  (Herzog, 96)

Jesus told a story that let his hearers see more clearly the power they had, the worth and value they had, and the need they had to work together instead of competing with each other.  The system is was designed to oppress.  The system today is too.  And opting out isn't really an option for most people – at least not alone.  But together we can choose a different system.

Our country has more than enough food for all the people.  Our WORLD has more than enough food for all people.  The issue is not food, the issue is distribution.  And Jesus reminds us that people working together can work for the common good.

May Jesus inspire us to work for the common good, and may God strengthen us and offer us wisdom so our work is productive.  Amen

Questions for reflection:

What do you see being done for the common good?

How should food be distributed?

In what ways does society treat some people as “expendable”?

What do you see being done to change that?

Rev. Sara E. Baron First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 Pronouns: she/her/hers http://fumcschenectady.org/ https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

September 20, 2020

[almightygodismydependence-blog]

Do You Know God’s Hidden Intention in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard?

By Cheng Xin

One evening, as I sat at my desk after I prayed to God, I read the parable told by Jesus in Matthew 20:1–16, where the kingdom of heaven is likened to a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard, and giving them the same wages regardless of whether they went into the vineyard first thing in the morning, in the afternoon, or in the evening. When the workers who came first learned of this, they complained to the landowner, but the landowner replied by saying, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is your eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:15–16). After reading these lines of scripture from the Bible, I knitted my brows and couldn’t help but think: “It is reasonable to say that those who practice their faith in God for a long time, who forsake and expend more for the Lord, and who toil and work for more years ought to be rewarded with more than those who come later, but in Scripture it says that the wages are the same for those who come early and those who come late. Isn’t this God intentionally showing favoritism for those who come later?” I found these words very confusing. I didn’t understand what the Lord’s intention was in saying these words.

One day, I ran into a fellow church member, and as we talked I told him about the question that had confused me for so many years. He said, “I also had that kind of misunderstanding. I didn’t understand God’s will until recently, when I read a certain book, that I came to understand this aspect of the truth. It just so happens I’ve brought that book with me today, so let’s take a look at it together.” As he said that, he took the book out of his bag and read me a passage, “No matter how much you are able to accept, no matter how much you have heard, how much you have understood, how much you live out or how much you obtain, there is one fact: The truth, the way and the life of God is bestowed freely on each and every person, and this is fair to each and every person. God will not favor one person over another due to someone being a new believer, who has only believed for a couple of months, or someone who has believed for two years, for 10 years or for 20 years; nor will He treat anyone differently because of their age, their appearance, their gender, the family they were born into or their family’s background. Each and every person obtains the same from God. He doesn’t make anyone obtain less, or make anyone obtain much more. To each and every person this is fair and reasonable. He provides for man in time and in proportion, not letting them go hungry, cold or thirsty” (“Man is the Greatest Beneficiary of God’s Management Plan”). After finishing reading, he continued, “In the past I also thought that if those who believed in the Lord for a long time and expended themselves more for the Lord are given the same rewards as those who believed for a shorter time and who expended themselves less for the Lord, wasn’t this God showing favoritism? But after I read that passage, I finally got rid of the misunderstanding I had about God. It turns out that God treats each and every person fairly. He doesn’t show favoritism to any one person, regardless of whether they are a new believer or have believed for many years, and regardless of their family background, their appearance, and so on. God always provides for each and every person in accordance with their needs. The truth God bestows upon man as He does His work to save mankind is the same, and similarly He arranges environments and opportunities for each and every one of us. Whether or not we are ultimately able to gain the truth depends upon whether we ourselves love and pursue the truth, whether we are able to practice the Lord’s word, and whether we are able to perform our duties in accordance with the Lord’s will and demands. If we do not love the truth, and if we do not pursue the truth, then we are unable to do the things that God has entrusted to us in accordance with His will, and when we encounter things that don’t conform to our own notions, we won’t contemplate or seek God’s will, but instead we will analyze matters with our own minds, and perhaps even misunderstand God or blame God. People who do this, even if they have believed in God for many years and done much labor and work, will obtain nothing in the end, and will even lose the opportunity God gives them to obtain the truth. In God’s eyes, these people are evil-doers, and they can only be eliminated and punished by God. There are also some people who, although they have only believed in God for a short period, have hearts that thirst for and seek the truth. When things happen to them, they are usually able to pray to God to seek the truth, and once they understand God’s will, they are able to practice according to His word. As such people follow God, bit by bit, their corrupt dispositions change, they obtain the truth, and live out normal humanity. Such people have a good final destination.

“I thought of how, when God led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness to Canaan, those able-bodied men and those tall ‘warriors’ people looked up to did not seek God’s will, and even blamed God, and how in the end they fell dead in the wilderness. Yet those women and children who had pure obedience, who practiced according to God’s word, and who obeyed God’s orchestrations and arrangements ultimately entered the good land of Canaan. Also, the Jewish chief priests, scribes and Pharisees were familiar with the Scripture and proficient in the law, and some had traveled to the far corners of the earth to spread the gospel, so they felt as though they had believed in God the longest and toiled and worked the most of all people, and that they were the most qualified to welcome the Messiah and be selected by God. Yet when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, they knew that the Lord Jesus’ words had authority and power, but they were stubborn and arrogant. They refused to set aside their positions to seek the truth, refused to accept God’s new work, and even used all of their knowledge of the Scriptures to condemn and resist the Lord’s new work. In the end, to protect their own positions and livelihoods, they nailed the Lord to the cross, causing them to be cursed and punished by the Lord. But all those disciples selected by the Lord, the Jewish people who followed the Lord, and people from all the nations beyond Israel, despite the fact that they had not believed in God for as long as the Pharisees and did not have as much knowledge of the Scriptures, and had not toiled and worked as the Pharisees had, or traveled to the far corners of the earth to spread the gospel, still had hearts that feared God, and because they thirsted for and sought the truth, they received the Lord’s salvation.

“From this, we can see that the view that we can evaluate who is qualified to receive God’s rewards and blessings based on who has believed in God for the longest time and who has expended, toiled, and worked the most does not conform to the truth. It is an erroneous way of thinking. God certainly does not issue rewards and punishments or decide people’s ends based on these external factors. Rather, He looks at whether or not we have gained the truth through believing in God, and whether or not we are people who do the will of God. Just as the book says, ‘I decide the destination of each person not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, and least of all, the degree to which they invite pity, but according to whether they possess the truth. There is no other choice but this’ (‘You Ought to Prepare a Sufficiency of Good Deeds for Your Destination’). ‘To God, no matter whether a person is great or insignificant, as long as they can listen to Him, obey His instructions and what He entrusts, and can cooperate with His work, His will, and His plan, so that His will and His plan can be accomplished smoothly, then that conduct is worthy of His remembrance and worthy of receiving His blessing. God treasures such people, and He cherishes their actions and their love and affection for Him. This is God’s attitude’ (‘God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I’).

“These two passages clearly explain the standards by which God measures man and God’s attitude toward man. God has a righteous and holy disposition, and He is fair and impartial toward each and every person. He does not look at whether a person is of low or high status, or at their seniority, or how long they have believed, or how much suffering they have endured. Rather, He looks at whether a person pursues the truth, whether a person loves God and has a heart obedient to God, whether they are able to consider and satisfy God’s will in all things, and whether they ultimately gain the truth through their faith in God. Among those of us who believe in God, regardless of whether we are priests, elders, or ordinary believers, each and every one of us who thirsts for and seeks the truth, and who is humble and obedient, is able to receive God’s enlightenment, and is able to receive God’s blessings just like those who came later to the vineyard. Anyone who believes in God for a long time but does not pursue the truth, and instead clings to fallacies, lives within their notions and imaginings, and shows off their seniority and qualifications, no matter how much suffering they endure, how much they expend themselves, or how qualified they are, in the end they will not obtain the truth, and they will all be eliminated. This is an immutable fact, and is decided by God’s righteous disposition.”

After I heard his fellowship, I understood that no matter how much God’s work does not conform to our notions, God is still righteous, that we shouldn’t be choosy or doubt anything that God does, and that we must let go of our notions, seek, and obey. Just as God’s word says, “Everything that God does is righteous. Though you are unable to discover it, you should not make judgment as you please. If it appears to you as irrational, or if you have a conception about it, and then say God is not righteous, this is the most unreasonable” (“How to Understand the Righteous Disposition of God”). God observes our hearts and minds, God has a thorough understanding of us, and God knows best who truly believes in Him and who loves the truth, and who is a hypocrite and detests the truth. God decides our endings based not on how long we have believed in God or how much work we have carried out, but rather on whether we love the truth in essence and whether we ultimately gain the truth through our faith in God. This truly is fitting! Now I can see that my notion that God showed favoritism for those who came later by making the wages the same for those who come early and those who come late to the vineyard was mistaken!

Thanks be to God for resolving this puzzle in my mind. May all glory be to God!

Recommended :   Christian Life: What can we do when facing difficulties in life without any path? Read now. You'll obtain God's guidance easily, understand God's will, and find the path.

[woodworkingpastor]

What are you waiting for? Matthew 25:31-46 Sunday, April 7, 2019

Call to Worship, © 2019 Thom Shuman, www.lectionaryliturgies.com

Before there was any time,

there was God.

When we wandered the wilderness,

God built a way for us.

When we lived in exile,

our homes were built by God.

When we are overwhelmed with life,

God unknots the tightness in our shoulders.

When we seek to serve faithfully,

God provides the opportunities.

When tomorrow comes,

we find God awake and waiting for us.

When time ends,

there will still be God.

 Prayer of Invocation

God of justice, you have shown yourself in this world in the poor, the hungry, and the needy. Make us willing participants of your grace and generosity, so that when you come again, we will know your face. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

When I was a teenager, part of my Saturday morning routine was to get up and go Dad into his office.  We’d stop for breakfast at the L&S Diner in Harrisonburg; then we’d go to his office for an hour or so before heading to Kroger.  Dad worked for Holly Farms and then Tyson foods those years, and as the manager of a poultry processing plant he was curious to see what the chicken looked like in the stores. At Kroger, we would eventually go by the bakery where I’d get two chocolate covered donuts.  But while we were there, I liked to go to the magazine section.  Someone used to print a magazine that contained the song lyrics that month’s top songs.  This was the early 80’s, you couldn’t pull out your phone and check these things on Google, because Google didn’t exist and the phone was on the wall in the kitchen.

It’s not always easy to understand the lyrics in a song, and famously mis-understood song lyrics exist in abundance, depending on the era and style of music, and how church appropriate you want this illustration to be. For instance,

A friend of mine used to get concerned in church every time they sang the hymn “There is a bomb in Gilead.”

I once explained to Zach that in Bon Jovi’s song Livin’ on a prayer, it’s “Tommy” who works on the docks, not “Johnny.”

Or the episode of Friends where Phoebe mis-quotes Elton John and sings “Hold me close young Tony Danza.”

All of this is hopefully a humorous way to say that Brethren are inclined to mis-hear this text.  We get off track is thinking that this text is a call to help people in need. By any measure, being concerned for others is an important part of Christian faith and practice; we are and we ought to be involved in ministries like these—especially to the degree that they require our personal involvement. It’s just that this is not the point of this text.

To help us straighten things out, let’s back up and set the stage: Matthew’s Gospel tells us the story of Jesus.

It’s a story that is rooted in a particular history; a genealogy that goes all the way back to Abraham that includes four prominent women and a whole band of in-laws and out-laws.

It’s a story that includes Joseph fleeing a murderous king with Mary and Jesus, living as refugees in Egypt before settling in Nazareth.

It’s a story that instructs us on the character of the Kingdom of God.

It’s a story that is now wrapping up.  Jesus is telling the disciples what things will look like at his return. After this story events will unfold quickly, resulting in this Jesus being condemned as an outcast and a criminal.

What are we to hear?

We are to hear that Jesus is Lord. At the end of time, the decisions will not be made by the kings or the rulers or the presidents or the movie stars or the rich and famous or the sports idols of the day.  At the end, Jesus will define reality, because he’s been doing it all along.  If we can move past what we think the story is saying about ministry to “the least of these” and the various ways the faithful and unfaithful either did or didn’t respond to them, we might notice how many references there are to Jesus being Lord.

Jesus makes this plain. Notice how he begins: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.” This is not a random title. The Jewish people of that day were absolutely looking for the Messiah to come, because it had been promised to them in the Bible. With this sentence, Jesus references Daniel 7:13-14 and applies the words to himself:

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

No one in Jesus’ day doubted that these words from Daniel would someday come to pass.  Many, however, doubted that Jesus was that one.  Very few knew how to act when confronted with the real thing.

It is the kind of statement that either had to be true, or else Jesus was a fraud.  It reminds me of a time I was talking with a man about the weather.  It had been really hot and dry for quite some time. As we talked about this, this man says, “Well, we all know that NASA controls the weather.”  It’s kind of hard to know what to say to that and be polite at the same time.  It’s so outlandish that we can’t possibly imagine it being true—most of us, anyway.

C.S. Lewis works with this idea a bit more elegantly when he says

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic…or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (Mere Christianity, “The Shocking Alternative”).

Before this account begins wrestling with how the faithful act, it makes us deal with the fact that Jesus is Lord.  What will we do with that?

We are to hear that life in the Kingdom of God involves having a relationship with the king, not on what we do for the king.  Over the last several weeks we’ve seen several parables that really upset how we often look at Christian life:

The “Parable of the Vineyard” introduced us to some day-laborers who learned that payment is this vineyard is not an earned reward for our labor; it is the benefit of working for a generous, gracious landowner.

The “Parable of the Wedding Banquet” showed us that the only way to be excluded from the wedding banquet is to ignore the host and refuse to participate in the celebration.

The “Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids” illustrates the need to make provisions for the long haul, so we’re ready when the bridegroom arrives.

In every case, the issue involves being in right relationship with the one in authority; it’s the same lesson here.  The only difference between the sheep and the goats is that the sheep are known by their relationship to Jesus—even when they didn’t realize it was Jesus!  Their lives are simply defined by a basic compassion to those who are suffering or going through an impossibly difficult time.

Over and over in the Gospels, what defines faithfulness is a life that demonstrates a profound trust in Jesus.  We are called to put our trust in Jesus and then act out that trust in our daily lives.  The measure of our faithfulness is not the maintenance of a tradition or a particular way of doing things; it is not to root out unfaithful people or beliefs from our midst; it’s not known by how many people read our blog or follow us on social media.  It’s to be alive to a relationship with the one who made us and loves us and wants to redeem us.  And if we’re doing it correctly, then Jesus words here make us realize that we might not even know we’ve been doing the faithful thing all along.  What a joy it will be to stand before Jesus and learn all the times we met him in the face of someone we encountered in life and blessed in a particular moment.

My experience of the Church of the Brethren is that we often talk about the faith of our spiritual ancestors—people who undertook great challenge or experienced great sacrifice for their pursuit of Jesus.  But in this most popular of texts for the Brethren, it’s important that we hear correctly, because the song of faith that is lived out in our daily lives needs to be sung correctly.  Faithfulness means that we get to be those people in our day.  We’re not simply to maintain what was handed down to us; we are to actively reach out and engage the Kingdom of God in our midst, never knowing for certain when we’re ministering to Jesus himself.

[nijjhar]

Matt 20v1-16:- At Pentecost, the Labourers of Jesus, our Foreman, were R... Matt 20v1-16:- At Pentecost, the Labourers of Jesus, our Foreman, were REWARDED for their Services and it was Holy Spirit, the same to all.He was the First Anointed Light from our Father and Satguru = Christ Nanak, the Second Anointed and Greatest of all the Christs because he had to confront the Kings and Emperors of Darkness of Khatri tribal people against the people of Judah tribe, the Princes of Darkness that Jesus confronted. He came in 1469 and Preached Gospel to Perfection through Five more Lights for 150 years. Still the Darkness couldn’t be comprehended. Then, our Father Himself came in the name of Royal King = Sache Patshah Gobind Rai Ji with His Consort, Shakti, Holy Spirit in the name of “Maha Devan” to sort out the stubborn sons of Satan with sword power. Sons have no authority to take the life but our Father and His Philanthropic Soldiers of Akal Purakh, Khalsas, the Puritans do have. GOSPEL IS CALLED “LOGO” AND LOGO IS THE EXTRACT/NECTAR OF “LOGICAL REASONING”.ONCE-BORN PEOPLE ARE INCAPABLE OF LOGICAL REASONING AND, THEREFORE, LOGO IS FOR THE TWICE-BORN PEOPLE OF DISCERNING INTELLECT CALLED THE “HOLY SPIRIT”, SURTTI OR “COMMON SENSE”. SO, IF YOU WANT GOSPEL, THEN YOU MUST THINK LOGICALLY OVER YOUR OWN HEART. THUS, LISTEN TO EVERYONE AND PONDER OVER IT IN YOUR OWN HEART. THEN, GOSPEL WOULD BE WRITTEN OVER THE LIVING TABLETS OF HEART – 2CORN 3. SCRIPTURES, THE DEAD LETTERS ARE “DEADLY POISON” TO GOSPEL. SCRIPTURES, THE “DEAD LETTERS” THAT THE ONCE-BORN PEOPLE ARE TAUGHT IN THE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. THEY ARE “OLD WINES” OR “MILK FOR THE BABIES”. THIS IS THE JEWISH LEAVEN FORBIDDEN BY CHRIST JESUS. TWICE-BORN PEOPLE OF “DISCERNING INTELLECT” LIKE THE “BIRDS OF THE AIR” ARE CAPABLE OF “LOGICAL REASONING” TO BREW THE “NEW WINE” WITHIN THEIR OWN HEART. FOR THIS YOU NEED TO BE “IMPARTIAL” LIKE THE LITTLE CHILDREN. THUS, YOU DO NOT NEED TO GO TO A UNIVERSITY TO KNOW GOSPEL BUT A HEART BURNING FOR “GOSPEL TREASURES”. UNIVERSITY DEGREES IN “DEAD LETTERS” WILL TURN YOU INTO A SUPER DONKEY CARRYING “HOLY BOOKS”. Holy Gospel of our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. delivered by the First anointed Christ = Satguru Jesus according to Saint Matthew 20:1-16a. Jesus told his Labouring Brethren and not the once-born disciples of the Rabbis this parable: "The Royal Kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven of Yahweh and his Rabbis is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.' So they went off. (And) he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.' When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman Christ Jesus, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.' That is what applies to the natural world of flesh, the opposite applies to our Supernatural World of Spirit. When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.' He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? (Or) am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?' Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last." Hajj is for the Heavenly Peaceful living of the sons of Man, "Ba-Ilah" and not for the sons of Satan in "La-Ilah".http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/faithfat.pdfEbook by Kindle. ASIN: B01AVLC9WO In Jesus, we are to be solitary Royal Priests. Test for twice-born:- https://youtu.be/__X89iAI_cE http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/antichrist.htm Flesh + soul = Once-born natural Disciple of the Rabbis Flesh + soul + spirit = Twice-born sensible Labouring son of God Fanatics are super bastard Devils – John 8v44:- http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/seedterr.htm http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/fanbastards.htm Much confused Trinity is explained:- Playlist:- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C8AFaJhsWyU_oUMJodHvSZGoNDPk5bu John's baptism:- http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdf Please print these pages to understand Baani as well:- Punjabi Book:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/pbook.htm www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

[whosoever-in-christ-blog]

Are You Suffering from the Jonah Syndrome? by Dr. Michael Brown We all know that Jonah was the prophet who tried to run from God’s call. But do you know the reason he tried to run? Jonah was afraid that if he preached repentance to the people of Nineveh, who were Israel’s arch enemies, God would forgive them. In other words, Jonah had a problem with the goodness of God. He would have been much happier if God simply wiped out the people of Nineveh rather than had mercy on them, and he actually complained about this at the end of the book. But as shocking as it is to see the wickedness of Jonah’s heart, many of us are just like him. I call it the Jonah Syndrome, and in times past, it has affected me too. Let me explain exactly what I mean. We see from 2 Kings 14:25 that Jonah had no problem prophesying that the Lord would expand the borders of Israel, but when it came to going to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, to warn the people that destruction was coming, he looked for a way out, knowing that the Lord was a merciful God and that if the Ninevites repented, God would forgive them. Did Jonah care about his personal reputation, not wanting to look bad if the prophesied judgment didn’t come to pass? That could definitely be part of it. But what we do know is that he had a real problem with the mercy of God. The Scriptures state that after the people repented in sackcloth and ashes, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it” (Jonah 3:10). And how did Jonah react? This was the greatest response to any message preached in human history, the greatest altar call ever given (to put it in contemporary terms). Did Jonah rejoice? Not one bit. In fact, the Word says, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1). How remarkable! Jonah was terribly upset that God had mercy on more than 120,000 people. “And he prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the LORD said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?’” (Jonah 4:2-4) But it gets worse. God caused a plant to shelter Jonah from the heat, but then it died quickly, and the prophet got even angrier. The Lord said to him, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:10-11) You might say, “Well, Jonah’s attitude was miserable, but certainly none of us have attitudes that bad.” Are you sure? Have you ever gone through a church split and found yourself upset because God still blessed the people on the “other side” (of course, the “wrong side” from your perspective)? Have you ever been hurt by a ministry and grumbled when the Lord continued to bless them and even work miracles for them? Have you ever been glad (rather than grieved) to see a colleague fall, as if this vindicated you? (If a brother or sister’s failure is your success, you do not have the heart of the Lord.) These are all symptoms of the Jonah Syndrome, and the sooner we recognize them, the sooner we can repent and ask the Lord for a transformation of heart. A number of years ago, I was involved in a very difficult split, one which brought pain and confusion to many people, as much as we all tried to avoid it. Yet God sustained both of the entities involved, to our mutual surprise. “Lord, how can you bless those people when they treated us so poorly?” we thought to ourselves. “God, surely you won’t sustain them when they are so wrong in this matter!�� those on the other side thought to themselves. Yet the Lord blessed and sustained us both while we struggled to find common ground in order to reconcile. The key that unlocked the door for reconciliation was the recognition that God was for both entities involved in the split, since He cared for both equally, loved the sheep involved in both groups equally, and wanted to bless all of us equally. (It’s also important to realize that none of us are ever perfectly righteous, whichever “side” we are on.) I remember well the night of reconciliation and the hugs and tears and laughs and renewed fellowship, and I remember well how we smiled at one another and said, “I bet you were surprised to see how the Lord came through for us and sustained us!” Yes, both “sides” were surprised to see that the Lord was for both of us.... Let’s remember the Lord’s words in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, where he rebukes those who had a problem with the owner’s goodness, asking, “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15) And let’s remember the words of Jacob (James), that “judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (James 2:13) As we have received mercy, let us show mercy, never forgetting there are not different “camps” or “sides” in the Body of Christ–even if we use those terms descriptively–but just one family with one Father, and He desires to do good to all his children. Can we share his heart?