Jesus’ story makes no economic sense, and that was his intent. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day’s wages. The employer in Jesus’ story did not cheat
the full-day workers. No, the full -day workers got what they were promised. Their discontent arouse from the scandalous mathematics of grace. They would not accept that their employer had the right to do what he wanted with his money when it meant paying scoundrels twelve times what they deserved. Significantly, many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work, rather than the add-ons at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers. We risk missing the story’s point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell.                       (PHILIP YANCY, WHAT’ SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE)

The lesson of this parable is that God rewards us based upon the opportunities that He gives us. The later workers would have been willing to go to work earlier, but they were not given the opportunity by the employer.

Had you been given a lot of money, you may have been willing to give a lot of money away to the poor. But if God gave you only a little money, you were not given the opportunity to give away lots of money. Still, if you are faithful with the small opportunities that God gives you, God will reward you with just as much as someone who was faithful with large opportunities that God gave them. He is perfectly fair.

Jesus concluded the parable of the vineyard workers by saying, “And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then” (Matthew 20:16). Some who are faithful with the small opportunities that God gives them, now “last” in the eyes of people, might receive more reward than one who is “first” in the eyes of people but who is unfaithful with the bigger opportunities God has given him.
Are you being faithful with the opportunities God has given you?
(DAVID SERVANT)

A comment by Saint Augustine deserves mention. He says that those asked to go into the Lord’s vineyard early in the morning must not say: “Why should I tire myself out when I can go at the last hour and receive the same reward? When you are called, come. The reward promised is indeed the same but the great question concerns the hour of working. No one promised you that you will live until the eleventh hour. Take care lest what he by promising is prepared to give you, you by deferring take away from yourself.”
(JAMES B. BUCKLEY)

A teacher tells her young students, “Class, I’m going down the hall for a few minutes. I don’t expect to be away long. I’m sure there won’t be any trouble.I trust you to work on your assignments while I’m gone.” Fifteen minutes pass,  then 20, then 40.  Suddenly the teacher returns. Dennis has just thrown an eraser at Carol who is doing her math. Steven is standing on the teacher’s desk making faces. The students carrying out the teacher’s instructions are delighted at the teacher’s return, but Dennis and Steven wish she hadn’t come back at all.

Jesus Christ is coming back! That stands as both a warning and a promise throughout the New Testament. It’s good news or bad, depending on who hears it.

What destroys our readiness?

Partly, it has to do with sin. When we indulge ourselves certain sins, we immediately dull the edge of our lives and our awareness. Sometimes we can fool ourselves. We know something is wrong. We know something isn’t exactly pleasing to the Lord, but we indulge ourselves and do it anyway. He’ll forgive us, we tell ourselves. And He will. But this self-indulgence, this moral compromise, prevents us from walking closely with Him and being alert to His voice. We exchange the minor sin for intimacy with Jesus — and the trade is never worth it. It is a deception of the devil to neutralize our influence.

We must take time, spend time in prayer and communion with Jesus if we are to be spiritually alert, spiritually awake. When we’re too busy, too preoccupied for that, our guard is down. If this becomes a pattern — even though we may attend church — we can become spiritually sleepy.

In church we sing songs like “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” As we take the Lord’s Supper, the pastor says that we “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). On Sunday morning, the second coming of Christ sounds like great news. But during the rest of the week are we as ready for His return? Jesus is coming back! It may be soon. It will be sudden. Is that good news or bad? It’s up to you.

So what are we supposed to do now in the light of this? Jesus said, “You too be ready.” Be ready. How do you get ready? Abandon false religion, fear God, confess Christ, trust the Holy Spirit, be rich toward God, leave the world behind, seek His spiritual Kingdom, that’s how you get ready. He’s coming and His coming is certain and powerful and for the purpose of motivation…motivating every generation, its timing is uncertain. And so the message is, you better be ready…you better be ready.

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
(AJAI PRAKASH)

Jesus said, “Whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two” (Matthew 5:41). He was referring to the law where a Roman soldier could compel any Jew to carry his backpack, weighing about 50 pounds, for one mile. If you refused to carry it, you would be flogged. Imagine being on your way to your destination when a Roman soldier orders you to carry his 50-pound pack. It would be hard enough to carry it for one mile, but now Jesus tells you to carry is an extra mile.   So now you must carry it
two miles, and then walk two miles back to your original spot where he stopped you, which is four miles! (Remember, you’re walking under a heavy load, not driving a car.)

Let’s say you’ve carried the pack for a mile and the soldier says, “You can put it down now.” You reply, “I would really like to carry this for you for another mile.” The soldier curiously asks, “Why would you want to do that?” You answer, “Jesus told me to do this for you.” Now you have an opportunity to share your faith with this Roman soldier as you walk that extra mile. You’re going beyond natural duty, which opens his heart. There’s no telling how many Roman soldiers became Christians during that second mile.

We don’t carry packs for Roman soldiers anymore, but the principle remains the same – go the extra mile at your job, at home, and in your relationships. Jesus asks us to do many things that don’t make sense, but if you will just obey, you will begin to see Him act on your behalf. It’s in that second mile where the miracles happen!

If you are having marital problems, go the second mile and do something special for your spouse. Marriage problems will close the hearts of husbands and wives, but going the second mile will open up his or her heart again. The same is true for other relationships as well. Remember, miracles occur in the second mile.

What can you do today to go that extra mile for someone?
(KENT CROCKETT)

Our giving to God is intimately connected with  the  love  of  God.  Before we  know  the love of God, we may give of ourselves to others—but our motivation will always be self-centered or self-motivated. But when we experience the love of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, the blessing of God, EVERYTHING changes. Those who have responded to the love of Jesus cannot help but have their motivations radically transformed—why we give, what we give, and even to whom we give turns from self-motivation, and becomes driven by the love OF Jesus, a love FOR Jesus, a love LIKE Jesus, and a love TO BE WITH Jesus.

#1 Our giving is motivated by the love of Jesus:   Our giving is motivated by the love OF Jesus. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, then the love OF Christ begins to control us. There is a difference between believing Jesus and following Jesus. Anyone can believe in Jesus—even demons. Following Jesus means the governing force in your life is the love Jesus has for it. It holds you, restrains you, compels you, and holds your life together. Our desire to give, therefore, is generated by the love of Jesus in us.

#2 Giving is motivated by a love for Jesus:   Our giving is motivated by the love FOR Jesus. Once we accept Jesus’ love, we see the world entirely differently. As the hymn, “TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS” says: As we turn our eyes upon Jesus, as we look full in His wonderful face, the THINGS of this earth grow strangely dim. Before Christ, we didn’t give because we were afraid of losing everything. But, our hearts are changed and now we do all things out of a LOVE for Jesus.

#3 Giving is motivated by a love like Jesus:  Jesus says that the distinguishing characteristic of His disciples will be a love for one another—the people of God, the church. We DO NOT give our time, money, or stuff because it is sinful to have or enjoy our time, money, or stuff. Jesus is not some cosmic kill joy who doesn’t want us to enjoy the good gifts He has given us. WE GIVE because, as disciples, we are overwhelmed with a love for others. Our desire to enjoy is trumped by our desire to bless. We give not because we want to go without, but because we don’t want others to go without—we want to bless. Having been given the mind of Christ, we consider others more needy, more deserving, more important than ourselves.

#4 Giving is motivated by a love to be with Jesus:    Finally, our giving is motivated by a love of being with Jesus. Not only is our view of the stuff in this world changed, our view of the nature of this world entirely is changed. We must never forget  that this is not our home. The Bible calls us refugees, exiles, and sojourners on earth. We are ambassadors in a foreign land. We are missionaries in the field. We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. This should impact how we give. If we LIVE with an eternal perspective, we will GIVE with an eternal perspective. Our giving is motivated by a love of being with Jesus.                                                                                     (SAM FORD)

Two important points in the Parable of the Wheat & Weeds should speak to us. First, remember where the weeds came from. Jesus clearly says the source of evil among us is Satan—the sower of the weed seeds.  Too  often in  our  misguided
efforts at purity we conclude that the source of evil is the people we think are weeds. Consequently we focus our energies and animosity on them, believing we can rid ourselves of evil if we just get rid of certain people.

A second important point is to note who the harvesters are and what their job is. Jesus says that the sorting out of weeds from wheat is a task for angels, not for servants. It seems to me the assumption of this task for ourselves is not only risky but is arrogant. In spite of how confident we are that we understand God’s will, if we are honest, we need to admit that we are not as perceptive as the angels of God. To say we know the mind of God to the extent that we can correctly judge another person’s relationship with God is to put God into a box of our construction—to use God to support our personal agenda.

Since pulling weeds is not our responsibility, is there anything we can do to keep the church pure? Yes. There is one area in which we have significant responsibility for the purity of the church, a place where all of us can contribute safely and effectively to church purity: our own lives. This is the only place where we are qualified to look for weeds and pull them out by the roots when we find them. When we open our lives to God, we are competent to recognize the evil within us that has been sown by the enemy while we were asleep or perhaps while we were busy trying to pull weeds elsewhere. Removing those weeds will, more than anything else, promote purity within the church.                                                  (DAVE MILLER)

We, as Christians, have a tremendous responsibility given to us when the Lord blesses us with a child. By doing so, He entrusts us with the responsibility of raising that child in the way of the Lord and establishing early in his life, a foundation built upon Jesus Christ. It is this tremendous responsibility that causes us to think of child consecrations as “family consecrations.” We feel that the whole family needs to be lifted up to the Lord so that each member will be able to keep his or her responsibilities.

But first, what exactly is involved in “consecrating” your child to the Lord? Children are a heritage from the Lord. He gives them to us to bless us, and because of this, we must be willing to give them back to Him. We too must be willing to totally submit our children to the will of our Father. We are to do the most we can to “set apart” our children to God until the day that they can make their own choice. By consecrating your children to the Lord, you are making a vow to raise them in His ways. The following is a list of some of the things parents do as part of keeping their vows.

1. KNOW GOD’S GIFT OF LOVE:   The greatest importance is to know the gift of God’s love in Jesus Christ personally as parents.

2. BE A LIVING EXAMPLE OF CHRIST TO YOUR CHILDREN:   It does not do your child any good to instruct him in the way of the Lord if you yourself do not walk what you talk. Therefore, it is good for you to always be examining yourself and your witness to your children.  In Proverbs 20:7 the Bible says “The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed (happy) are his children after him.” The main reason for the blessed state of this man’s children is that they have someone to look up to and to use as an example to model their own behavior. We as parents are encouraged to strive to be that example to our children even as Christ is our example.

3. INSTRUCT YOUR CHILD IN THE WAY OF THE LORD:   We are taught in Ephesians 6:4 to “bring them (your children) up in training and instruction of the Lord”. And Proverbs 22:6 adds, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” If we, while our children are young, instruct them in His ways, our children will grow in the ways of God for a lifetime.

4. PRAY CONSTANTLY FOR YOUR CHILD:   A parent’s responsibility to pray for their child does not end at their consecration, but continues throughout the rest of their life.  We see an example of this in Job 1:5…“ When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, ‘Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their heart.’ This was Job’s regular custom.” And in James 5:16…”The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” The prayer of Christ-centered parents powerfully covers their children in prayer that will produce effective change for a lifetime.                              (AGAPE INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES)