We can learn a lesson from a fig tree.

We can learn a lesson from a fig tree. 

When I was a little bloke years ago, we lived at a place called Hamilton in New South Wales, Australia. Near where we lived, there was Gregson Park, and all around its borders were huge fig trees. They were everywhere. Dropping their leaves and figs all the time. We all had fun as kids, chucking figs at our friends and sticking them down the backs of people's T-shirts.

Oh! nice. How friendly we were (not).

In the Bible, in Matthew 24:32-35, Jesus was telling his disciples another parable or story as they are known today, and I quote:-

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

I guess we can really learn a lesson from a fig tree. They lose their leaves every year, and back in Judea, where Jesus was, when they started losing their leaves, it was a sign that the harvest was almost upon the workers. 

Jesus was telling his disciples this parable about the fig tree because just before this, he and his disciples were in the temple, and the disciples watched in amazement as Jesus saw that the place was filled with money changers and all sorts of people.

Jesus threw all the money changers out of the temple, saying that this is a place of God, not a place of scoundrels and money lenders. Then he told his disciples about the fig tree and the lessons we can learn from it. And then approximately five days later, Jesus was arrested and sent to trial because the Pharisees and Sadducees were totally afraid of what Jesus was saying and doing.

When he told his disciples about the fig tree, he was actually predicting that things were about to change, especially for them. He knew in his heart he was about to be crucified and pay the price for all of our sins, and also for speaking out.

Jesus actually paid for our sins, and that is exactly what he was trying to get through to all of us when he talked about the fig tree and how it changes from month to month, and how we, too, change.

So, what are your thoughts about Jesus? Do you have any idea what he did at all? Who is Jesus?

Jesus actually knows us all - he knows where we are and what we do. Did you have any idea about that? I know I didn't for ages. I always thought he was a distant sort of body.

Jesus knows us all, and He actually knows our thoughts and our lives. You know you can't pretend in your life with Jesus as you can with other people. He knows everything about all of us.

Jesus always spoke the truth. If you don't know him at all, who is he to you?

He actually knows us all, and he knows our hearts and thoughts and everything that we think and do. In the Bible, in John chapter 2 and verses 24-25, he knew all of us. Jesus knew what was going to happen to him that he would die so ghastly on that cross, and he knew all of the thoughts of those who would bring him to his death.

Jesus died for you, and he died for me, and he is alive, he rose again, and he knows our thoughts and our hearts.

God is a miracle-working God. I know he is because I came to Christ and asked him into my life, and he has changed me. Something I never ever thought would happen. I was so in the world sort of person, and my whole world revolved around me; there was absolutely no room for Jesus at all. Then he worked a miracle in my life and brought me to my knees, and he came into my life.

He can and will do the same for you, but only if you ask him to lead you in everything you do.

My daughter and I do house cleaning. We do that and run a business because my son-in-law is totally incapacitated. He is a plumber and was so used to running his own business until he got cancer, and it was then that his wife, my daughter, and I opened up a new business, and we clean homes each week to help pay the normal day-to-day expenses for their family.

Most of the people that we clean for are really amazing and really nice people. There is at least one, however, who reminds me so much of what is written in Matthew 19 about the Rich and the Kingdom of God.

If you read about what happened when a rich young man came and asked Jesus 'What must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus quoted back at him pretty much the ten commandments, and the young guy said: All of these I have kept - what do I lack?"

Jesus then shocked him and said, "If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me."

The guy got a shock and went away sad because he had heaps of treasure.

Jesus then said to the disciples, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Our very rich clients have really put us down a lot. I was pondering why they would do that, and then it came to me that they really don't want to mix with lower types of people. It brought home to me what Jesus said to the Rich Young Ruler (as above).

It is really going to be hard for very rich and influential people to enter heaven. Why I ask? Because they put their riches and influences way above others, as my daughter and I actually see firsthand with this amazing family that we clean for.

That certainly doesn't mean that every single rich person or family won't be able to come to Christ, but what it does mean is that all the riches, homes, boats, cars, and whatever really do need to take a much lower place on life's scale if Jesus becomes your Leader and Saviour.

Jesus really does need to be number one in your life. You need to be able to communicate with him constantly and always be prepared to give him priority over everything else.

Jesus gave his life for you and me. The fig tree parable is so apt because it tells us that when we come to Jesus, we change, like the fig tree, and Jesus also gives us the courage to welcome change. Sometimes the change can be completely out of left field and often unexpected by us.

Giving our entire lives over to Christ can be awkward and so different. Our lives may change dramatically or hardly at all. But given the way our lives are controlled by our Heavenly Father, we are so destined to spend our lives with him for eternity.

Yes, it is hard for rich people to come into the kingdom of God, because they are so used to getting their own way in life, running their own lives, and achieving everything they have ever wanted. 

Regardless of how rich you are or whether, like us, you plod along through life, the main thing you have to do is give your life to Jesus. Ask him to lead your life and take priority. Make him number one and give him the number one place in your life in every situation in which you find yourself.

Maybe hard, maybe not, but the reward at the end of your life and the total love you find in Jesus as you follow him is astounding and so very real. You will never want to go back to how you were before making the decision to come to Christ and making him the ruler of your life.

God bless you this week. Hope to see you next time.

Weddings

Weddings are amazing - well, I feel they are. 

I know some are different. I remember ours; it was quite the day. Some are full of good thoughts and lots of great memories. Some are full of terrible mistakes and lots of heartaches.

There was one a while ago here where a whole bunch of guests were departing the wedding after the bride and groom had left. They had all had a great time, and they had organised a bus to take them all home.

Horribly, the bus went too fast entering a roundabout, smashed into the guardrail, and ended up tipping completely over, killing many of the wedding guests and injuring many more. How do we come to terms with something like that?

Obviously, the newly married couple has to contend with that. So many of the guests were killed, and many more were hurt really badly. A horrible time indeed.

Matthew 22:1-14, you will get a great account of the parable that Jesus told about a great wedding banquet. He told a story about what the kingdom of heaven is like.

He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to all of those whom he'd invited to the wedding banquet and told them to come. But they refused.

So, the king sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet.'

But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, 'How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?' The man was speechless.

The king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,' For many are invited but few are chosen." 

What Jesus was saying here was pretty straightforward. He used this story as a reminder that we can spend so much time on ourselves and so little time with God. Are we really too busy for God sometimes? God will give us huge blessings if we come to him. But then we can be so occupied with ourselves that we have no time for him at all?

Do we ever spend time with God? Or are we like those in the story that Jesus told? Making excuses rather than spending time alone with him.

It's time to examine ourselves and really come to terms with how we relate to God and, actually, how much time, if any at all, that we spend with Him.

We can be totally absorbed in our own lives, and like what Jesus said in this parable, if we are so consumed with our own little world and completely cut Jesus off in everything we do, then we haven't got the slightest chance of getting to Heaven when we finally reach the end. Which can be quicker than we ever thought.

BUT what Jesus is trying to get through to us is that he wants to be the epitome of our thoughts and in our lives. He needs to be our main focus throughout life, and we need to give him prominence in everything we do and everywhere we go.

A relationship with our friends and family can often be a real effort. BUT can coming to Christ be an effort for you? All you really need to do is ask him into your life to lead you and make him THE number one in your life in all situations in which you find yourself.

When we come to God and ask him into our lives, he comes in and changes us, and we know that all we have to do is accept his great love for us and ask Him to lead our lives regardless of what may be happening in each of our situations. That alone is totally amazing. 

I know personally that life can throw all sorts of curveballs at us, and we really can't dodge them at all. But what Jesus is saying here is that we should be prepared to give God everything. We can't just pretend that he is leading us if we haven't asked him to, and also, how serious are you when you have asked him to lead you?

We need to communicate with him constantly, asking him to lead us in every situation in which we find ourselves.

I know, in my personal situation, I feel I need to come to Christ constantly, and really every day, before you start your day, take a time to surrender your life to him, and to lead you throughout the day. Check out Romans 12:1: "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship."

Another truly great thing is prayer - it doesn't have to be hour-long prayers shut away in a cupboard somewhere, just short sentences to God regularly is amazing and will keep you ever close to him.

God bless you and hope to see you soon.

The 'Cornerstone' of Our Lives

Ever read the Bible? I know I have, and it can be very sobering in that it can leave us really thinking about what it really means.

When Jesus walked the earth here, and just five days before he was so mercilessly killed, he told a pretty cold and calculating parable or story to the masses, and also pretty much aimed at the Pharisees, who were so ready to get him out of the way so that they could continue to lead their 'very important" lives 

The Pharisees really did think that they were more important than any of the mob surrounding them, and when Jesus had the guts to stand up to them, well! What could they do? They had to show him who was boss.

In just five days from this amazing story that Jesus told, aimed directly at the Pharisees and actually anyone, including you and me, he was horribly tortured and killed.

Jesus was actually standing up to everyone there, including you and me here and now, and told us all about his own death at the hands of the Pharisees and all the other 'religious' leaders around that time, and also all of us here today. We really should sit up and take notice,

Jesus' death actually made way for the total and utter forgiveness of all of our sins and any wrongdoings we may have, BUT we first have to come to him and ask him into our lives to lead us.

There will be total and utter reckoning when we pass over, IF we don't come to Christ now and ask Him to forgive us for all of our sins. If we reject Jesus as Lord, just like the Pharisees did in the following story that Jesus told, then we WILL pay the price at the Judgement.

Following, I have included that parable/story that Jesus told the masses, including the Pharisees, who were out to get him. You can read the story Jesus told in Luke 20:9-18. It went like this:-

A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers, and went away for a long time. 

At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.'

But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

What will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others."

It was quite the story that Jesus told, and when you think about it, the meaning is very in-depth and right to the point.

Jesus also quoted a scripture to the crowd - you can read it for yourself in Psalm 118, and verse 22: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." 

In other words, Jesus can be and is so ready to be the cornerstone of our lives. He was rejected and killed and thrown away, BUT he rose again and is now the ruler of Heaven, of which we can be sure of being there with him IF we give our lives over to him and ask him to lead us in every situation in which we find ourselves.

In this parable/story, Jesus was actually telling the people about his own death, which was imminent and at the hands of the Jewish religious leaders. 

That is pretty obvious. The parable, above, that Jesus told is teaching us about God as the landowner, and Jesus as his son. The chief priests and the Pharisees are like the original tenants of the vineyard. 

Jesus' death actually paved the way for all of us, no matter who we are or what we have done, to come to him and ask for his forgiveness. If we are disobedient and refuse to know Him at all, then there will definitely be a reckoning that will have to be paid. 

The chief priests and the Pharisees at that time really understood what Jesus was saying and that it was aimed at everyone and really did include them, but of course, we know what happened; they didn't respond to him at all. They really wanted Jesus tortured and dead.

The Pharisees knew that Jesus was aiming at them in his story. They were pretty timid when they saw how the crowds responded to him because the people held him up as a prophet. They certainly weren't concerned about Jesus or God; all they were concerned about was how the crowd would respond if they were to hand Jesus over to Pilate. You can read that in Mathew 21:45-46. They really squirmed, scribbled around, and looked for a way to arrest him.

When I looked at this amazing parable that Jesus told, and how the Pharisees reacted and what Jesus was aiming at, I asked myself the same question that Paul asked the Galatians in chapter 1 and verse 10 " Am I trying to win the approval of humans or of God? That's a great question. God really has to be number one in our lives, not coming after all the other people. A great lesson for me.

Let's not take any of this parable that Jesus told for granted. Our very salvation, i.e., the fact that we can come to Christ right at this very moment and ask him into our lives, and the fact that our life is a gift of the amazing grace of God.

When we come to Christ, and we ask him to lead our lives, we will be like new tenants of the vineyard, doing what the owner asks of us and pleased to do it. Of course, we will still be tempted all the time to do what we want to do and even brag to others. That would be like keeping all the fruits of the vineyard to ourselves and never sharing anything with others.

Having Jesus to lead us is amazing and glorious. Of course, we will make mistakes, but having Jesus as number one in our lives can be a victory over sin, and that victory could come slowly, but it will come, and God will bring about change in our lives. God is so good, and he is faithful and true to his promises.

God bless you, and we hope to see you next time.

Ask God to Lead you

Two fences built together can cause a bit of trouble. I appreciate that so much. Not that we have had any trouble at all when we built our home here at Rankin Park. The boundary fences were already there when we bought the block and when we built our house. All very good.

But being on a corner, we had to build a fence on our property, which gave a bit of privacy, and we wanted a slat-type fence, which we reckoned would be great.

Getting someone to do it was going to be more of a problem than we first thought. Some of our friends suggested that we do it ourselves. Unfortunately, I wasn't that way inclined. If I had done it, I hate to think what it would have looked like.

We had lots of advice about getting quotes and then thinking about it. Did we get a lot of quotes for that? No, we didn't.

Jesus didn't get quotes or anything like that, but what he did get confronted with, when he arrived at the temple this particular day, was by none other than a few of the Chief Priests. They hauled him to one side and wanted to know where he supposedly got his authority from. 

"Who do you think you are?" They gabbled on to him and kept on gabbling, but Jesus refused to tell them anything or even where he was from or who he actually was.

He ended up telling them a story/parable, which we will get back to soon:-

Back to my fence; we rang a lot of fence people. It was an interesting experience and one that I still get amused by. We had absolutely no answers to our problem when we first started, but things changed, well, in a way they did.

One place seemed so interested in our suggestion, "Yes Mate, we will be there. How about two o'clock tomorrow afternoon"? I felt that would be great, and we arranged for one of us to be here, and the family and I had talked about it at length. So, we all knew basically what we wanted.

One of us made sure we stayed home and stayed home and stayed home - hour after hour. I finally gave them another ring. "Aww, sorry mate, we got caught up - will be there tomorrow morning - sorry about that."

So again, the next day we waited and waited - nothing! Don't you love that sort of thing!

Back to Jesus:- He ended up telling all around him, including the Chief Priests, a special story about a Dad who had two sons. You can read about it in the Bible in Matthew 21: 28-31 and it goes something like this.

Dad went to the first son and said, "Son, go and work today in the vineyard."

"I will not," he answered his dad, but later he changed his mind and went and did what his dad had suggested.

Dad ended up going to the other son, probably after the first son gave him the heave-ho and asked the same thing that he'd asked of the first boy.

"I will, Dad - of course," but he didn't go at all.

Jesus then asked the Chief Priests, "Which of the two did what their father wanted? 

The first,"  they answered

Back to my fence guys:- the waiting continued, and finally, my common sense took over, which can be very limited according to my life's experiences. "They aren't coming, are they?" I asked my family. "No dad they aren't coming so well done!"

So, we rang around yet again. Some never answered at all, so we kept on trying. Finally, I got an answer, and they told me they would come tomorrow at around one p.m. "Hmm, I thought, we will see".

Amazingly, they showed up and built the fence - here is a picture of the completed thing, and it is quite good actually.  Absolutely no one else turned up or phoned me back.

The whole thing reminded me so much of when Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees and those around him. They had listened to the story that Jesus told them, and when they answered Jesus that it was actually the first son who did what his dad had asked him to do, Jesus came back with an answer. (my words.)

He said so many people will be entering the Kingdom of Heaven long before you. He then mentioned John, who came to show the way, who they beheaded. You did not believe him at all, but the poor and needy people are going to heaven way before you lot. They would have got a shock. 

Our own personal promised obedience and our best intentions aren't necessarily real obedience. We need to put God first in our lives. We can pretend to be a Christian and say all the right things, just like the Pharisees were doing, when Jesus pointed that out to them. We can say yes to God with our lips but no to God with our actions. But we really need to turn to God in real terms and live our lives with God. 

So, where are you? Where am I? We need to turn our lives over to God and our hearts and minds as well. God really needs to come first in our lives every single time. Life won't be easy; it never is, but God has to come first in our lives. How do we do that?

By firstly giving our lives over to him and coming to him daily and asking him to lead our lives throughout each day. Doing that and relying constantly on God gives us confidence in the case of any problems that can come into our lives, so often.

So many times, we can truly be absorbed with everything that can happen daily. It can be truly amazing, or it can be truly heartbreaking. Good times and, unfortunately, bad times happen to all of us; that's life, but you know, when we ask God to come into our lives and lead us, then whatever happens as we trundle through, God is going to be there for us.

God will never leave us or forsake us. You can read that in the Bible in Hebrews 13:5. That's a huge promise that, regardless of where we are at the moment, his huge promise of never leaving us is there for us all, regardless of what we are going through at present.

God's huge blessings to you and yours today. Hope to see you next time.

Forgiveness?

Ever had trouble with forgiveness? I know I have. It can be hard, but it is something we really have to think about.

In the Bible in Matthew 18, Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus, was obviously concerned/thinking about something that had happened in his life, probably just like the rest of us, and he asked Jesus, "How many times must we forgive someone who does wrong things to us? Up to seven times?" Good question, actually.

In the office where I worked....

I related so well to that question because, as an assistant to my boss, it was pretty hard going.

I know a lot of staff at that time felt the same way. I could relate so well to how others were feeling. He was so adamant about things that we all had to "jump to".

Have you had anyone like that in your life?

Back to Peter's question....

In answer, Jesus replied (much to Peter's shock), "I tell you, Peter, not seven times but seventy-seven times seven."

Jesus was pretty keen to tell him and also to get through to us that God is so ready to forgive us, regardless of what we have done. God wants us to come to Him, ask His forgiveness, and accept Him into our lives. Because God is ready to forgive us our sins, we should be more than ready to forgive others who have hurt or sinned against us.

Jesus told another parable or story to reinforce what he was saying about forgiveness. If you like you can read it for yourself in Matthew 18: 23-31. It was about a servant who owed the boss a lot of money. A strange thing to have happened. He got into a lot of debt, ten thousand bags of gold - now, that is what I call a lot of debt.

As Jesus told the story, I guess he wanted to show that this huge debt could be repaid. In those days, the debtor had to be put in chains as well as his family until he paid the debt back to the boss. The boss had to obey the rules, I guess, and would have put the young bloke in prison along with his family, but at this, the servant fell on his knees and said:-

"Be patient with me, and I will pay you back everything". The servant's master took pity on him and cancelled the debt and let him go. See Matthew 18: 23-27. That must have been really something, considering that in today's world it amounted to millions of dollars that the servant owed.

In the story, the servant was totally incapable of repaying anything at all, let alone millions of gold pieces that he owed to his boss.

Back to the office.... 

This man certainly came across as the boss. He made all of the office decisions. He was certainly in charge of running the place and making decision after decision, even though sometimes I personally felt the decisions may not be the right ones.

There was really no turning back. He and I never really got on together. Sometimes it is hard to get along with someone, especially if you have to work with them. But nevertheless, life went on, and we worked together for many years.

We had to attend the usual number of meetings together, but things between us started to take on a peculiar feeling. Well, I guess because he and I had really managed to know each other so well, I guess we could relate to each other's feelings and attitudes.

Back to the parable/story. Jesus continues:-

The servant went out from his master, and he found one of his fellow servants who actually owed him a hundred silver coins. So different from the millions of gold coins he had owed to his master and ruler.

He grabbed him and began to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me!"  he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, "Be patient with me, and I will pay it back." But he refused, Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could repay the debt.

When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

Back to the office....

There was a young lady secretary who commenced with us; she'd only been there a few months. She and the boss spent a lot of time in his office. Well, things deteriorated. They ended up having an affair. Sadly, because of this, the young lady's marriage failed. His marriage didn't actually fall apart, but of course, things were very strained. Both he and the young lady eventually left the company.

Shame really, he was good in the office and worked pretty hard, and so did she.

We all make mistakes, and unfortunately, none of us is immune. He made a mistake and had to pay for it, and so did the young lady. When we make mistakes, we often have to pay the price.

His wife forgave, but things were never the same again for them. So many times we make mistakes, and so many times we can't forgive. Jesus tells us that forgiveness is absolutely necessary if we are to come to Christ at all.

Back to the parable/story

The master of the place then called the servant in. "You wicked servant," he said, "I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" 

In total anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that he owed.

It was quite the parable that Jesus told all those years ago. The upshot of it is that if we don't forgive all the bad things that have happened to us over the years, and we hold it all inside of us and hang on to so much hurt and anger, then, unfortunately, at the end of our lives, we will have to pay the price. God will not forgive us if we don't forgive others.

God bless you this week, and I hope to see you next time.

Waiting all day!!!

Don't you love it when you wait all day for an appointment with a doctor in an emergency situation in a hospital?

Three months ago, my son-in-law had a huge operation in Sydney, which is approximately two hours drive away from where we live. He had to undergo an emergency operation to remove half of his pelvis, which was truly riddled with cancer. The operation in Sydney lasted for a good six hours.

He slowly recovered, and we had him back home.

And then just one week ago, he started once again getting acute pain where his pelvis had been removed. What was happening? We rushed him off to our emergency hospital here in Newcastle.

He was so doubled over in pain that he couldn't walk. We managed to put him in a wheelchair after driving him to the hospital here. There was no possible way to get him to Sydney.

We waited in the emergency department, and we waited, and we waited. Things were getting worse. Fortunately, we had brought all his documentation from the specialist in Sydney who had performed the operation, so we could show it to the doctor here in Newcastle.

Back in the Bible in Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus tells the parable about the Workers in the Vineyard. Quote "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 (the standard silver coin of ancient Rome) 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.

So here we have the owner of the vineyard, or a vintner as they are known, really wanting to get all his grapes in on time - maybe there is a storm coming or some other thing, and all the grapes need to be collected.

Unlike today, where we have lots of skilled workers in vineyards and most other places, in Jesus' time, to get labourers, all you had to do was go to the marketplace and grab all those willing to come.

What did Jesus have in mind when telling this story of the vineyard?

Back to the hospital:- Here we have our boy, desperately ill and in so much pain it is unfathomable. There were so many people in the emergency department, many with flu symptoms, and many really struggling. All waiting and waiting and waiting.

He was called in after two hours, and he struggled to see the check-in nurse. All to no avail, and the nurse told our boy, "Go take a seat, and someone will be there with you shortly." Did they check anything or do anything about it in the check-in system of the hospital? Absolutely nothing. He was desperate. 

As it turned out, he had an acute infection called sepsis, which was absolutely life-threatening. 

Back to the vineyard:- The Vintner must have been desperate, according to the story that Jesus was telling his disciples. He obviously really needed to get the grapes in quickly.

"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 around 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.' " 

Five o'clock in the afternoon would be getting a bit dark, and they would all soon have to finish up. The Vintner really wanted to get as many people as possible to help out and harvest all the grapes.

Back to the hospital:- Our boy was in absolute agony. No one seemed to be doing anything. He wasn't the only one in agony; there were heaps of others. A lady throwing up in a bucket, a girl with a temperature shaking and feeling cold, all wrapped up in a blanket, and heaps of others, all looking desperate.

Suddenly, all eyes were on the door. There was a young girl who came in all dressed up in her soccer uniform. She had obviously been carted off the field with a hurt ankle. The nurses and the doctor who were present dropped everything and rushed over. She was whisked off to another room and immediately surrounded by a doctor, a nurse, plus the check-in nurse.

She was x-rayed immediately, bandaged up an gone while everyone else waited. Hmmm, made me think.

Back to the vineyard:-  When nighttime eventually came, they all apparently gathered around to get their wages for the day. He told his servants to call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.

The last workers came and were paid a denarius. Then the others came to be paid, and after seeing that the new guys got paid the same as they were due to receive, they were shocked! They reckoned they should get more, seeing as how they were there all day. But each one of them also received a denarius.

When they were paid, they were pretty grumbly with the owner! "A denarius? Really? We've been here all day and got the same pay as those you hired last, who only worked one hour. You have made them equal to us, who have been here all day and worked in the hot sun."

The owner answered 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?'

Back to the hospital:-  I was shocked! There was this young girl, triaged, medicated, and all fixed up and gone, and here we were still waiting with my boy. Actually, he was so ill with sepsis, and as it turned out, he really could have died had we given up waiting and gone back home.

Praise God, we didn't leave. After waiting all day and half the night, he was finally whisked off to emergency surgery throughout the night with three specialists and a phone link to his specialist in Sydney. 

He underwent an amazing operation throughout that night. It is an absolute miracle that we still have him with us.

So, really, what can I learn and what can you learn throughout all of this? 

Firstly, everyone is important! Everyone!

What does the parable of the vineyard teach us? Jesus came to the Jewish nation first of all, and a lot of these amazing people came to know and love their Lord. Did the message of God stop there? certainly not!

The message is still going around the world every minute of every day. Years after Jesus lived here on earth, and after he gave his life for all of us, his amazing message is still reaching many thousands of people.

When Jesus was born in Israel, he was the vital plan of God right from the beginning. 

In the parable above, God's amazing kingdom would not only be shared by the country where Jesus was born, but to the entire world. All of us, everyone. That was God's plan right from creation. 

Everyone, no matter who or where, can come to Christ.

Just like our experience in the hospital. Of course, that young lady was due for her medication and well-being. Of course, I fully didn't understand exactly what was going on in her life and what had actually happened to her, and of course, she is just as important as the rest of us, and of course, I learned a huge lesson.

Jesus came to earth to save us, and all we have to do is accept his sacrifice and his eternal love for all of us. We can ask him into our lives to lead us and give him the honour and glory afforded to him, making him number one in everything we do.

You can do this. All it takes is a prayer of acceptance, and he will lead your life.

God bless you, and I hope to see you next time.