Servants

P 2388 His will is always our priority.

/ DVH

Matthew 22:1-14 “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. “Then he 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 wedding 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. “Then 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.”

At this time, Jesus was preaching to the spiritual leaders and the crowds about a King who was holding a wedding feast. Astonishingly, at that moment, the Master of that feast was standing right in front of all of them inviting them all to think differently about God Himself. I think the Lord was giving the religious leaders who were listening, a chance to understand, that although they thought they were so right with God, they were actually rejecting Him in favour of their own more self-important made-up chosen ways! They are the people saying NO in this parable! They are the invited guests who are too busy with their own lives to respond to the honour. He is saying, if they are not careful, the little people, the so-called bad, less-spiritual people that they look down upon, will actually be the ones who end up at this feast – not them. Because the religious people will exclude themselves.

All of these different types of spiritual leaders had presumably come to check out His theology. They enjoyed a prominent spiritual position before God and man, and they were revered because of their place in that society. In His parable, the Lord is saying that they’ve used their privilege to avoid going to the feast – even though they had the invitation first. Because what they wanted, and deemed important, was more important than honouring their agreement. The Master of the feast is always more important than anybody invited to it! However, these men were so entrenched in what they had embraced, they couldn’t see Him and spent all their time trying to catch Him out.

Now, if anyone ought to know about the things of God it should be them! These guys studied the truth for a living … yet they still missed it when the Truth was standing in front of them. They did not see the value of their invitation to be His chosen people, and they blew it off. Even though the food, everything needed was all ready for them, and the Master of the feast would have to waste it … they still said no. Their religious ideas had grown so big, so all encompassing and powerful, that they thought their theology was more important to them than what He was saying. Just to be clear, the feast is actually God Himself, knowing Him … and He was standing right in front of them. But their pride in what they knew, said they knew better. They were too greatly invested in proving Him wrong and themselves right!

Now, you and I — who were never going to be a part of that elite group without Christ’s sacrifice — have been temporarily given their place. Let’s be clear, MAN cannot dictate the terms of any agreement between God and us. Almighty God does. And if He says ‘come’ we come – and if He says ‘GO,’ we go! Otherwise we are acting like we are in charge and we are not. Actually, when we think we are in charge, satan takes advantage of us! As outsiders, we have now been compelled by His love to be His honoured guests at that bridal supper. He personally sent the Holy Spirit to bring us in! We’ve been given brand new bridal garments washed in Jesus’ blood – because our own clothes will not do. 🙌

Our Heavenly Father God wants His house full of people who are glad to be included, and they are rejoicing because they know they are so blessed to be asked to His feast. In the mean time …let’s not ever forget how easily we can exclude ourselves, like these religious men in Matthew did. We must not use good-sounding excuses … they show the Lord our hearts, and reveal our lesser priorities. We’ve been invited to live the Way Christ lived this life. He is our priority. We must not ever make our personal priorities bigger than His. His free Grace is not permission to do what WE want.👋🏻

P 2371 Transformation.

/ DVH

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

Jesus Christ did not just provide our redemption on that cross – His death provided us with TOTAL lifestyle TRANSFORMATION. Now we have the POWER and ability to grab opportunities to figuratively and literally change our minds. To change our thinking, change our reactions, change and transform the way we were taught by family, life and the people we’ve associated with – into something life giving and redemptive. 

You and I don’t have to be the same old cranky easily provoked grump we always were. Now, we have the power and the Person inside us Who will help us to get that soft word that turns away anger! (Proverbs.) We can be transformed by believing what it says in the book – and acting on it, using our faith. If you wait to feel like it, you will never feel like it – trust me!  The power to change is in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our lives. We have to put away the idea that this life is about the Holy Spirit AND …EG: the Holy Spirit and what I want. We can’t have both options. Dead people don’t have options or opinions.

I have learnt that if I find myself resistant to transformation, that is an indication of how rebellious I have allowed myself to become. I love this illustration of how inner transformation works: “There is a legend of a grandfather or elder using a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him to explain personal inner conflicts to his grandson. When the young person asks which wolf will win, the grandfather answers “whichever one you feed.” Whichever one you feed!? So, what are we feeding our thought life on?

People freak out and say that you should or shouldn’t watch this or that, or you shouldn’t go here or there if you are a ‘good’ Christian. But the truth is obedience is about Who you are actively following. The real question is this – what will help me to obey the Lord and what will lead me away or distract me from thinking about Him?! Christians love Jesus but they do not necessarily foster that love as the most important thing in their life. The everyday humdrum things-that-need-to-be-done stuff swamps them, and they forget about Him and start living this life like everyone else.

The secret to total transformation is in the book:“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23&24.  We are not working for a man anymore – we are working for Jesus in our school, home or job. That other person is HIM to you and I. That’s how deeply the Lord Jesus identified with mankind. So if you are yelling at someone else – you are yelling at HIM! “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ There is no accidental or incidental happenings in His kingdom! Everyone we bump into is sent.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing the washing-up or teaching your kid how to tie their shoe laces. That other person is Jesus standing there. We have so much power in our choices. Unfortunately, in this generation, our wills have become weak because we give in to them all the time! Instead we need to stand on the Word and refuse to go the wrong way. Ask for His help to resist the temptation to act like you rule the world, and yield to the ONE WHO ACTUALLY RULES THE WORLD. This world will not explode if you acknowledge that you do not know how to do everything – remember His strength is made perfect in weak people!

We have His book. The bible tells us His thoughts about behaviour and life. We do not have to remain ignorant. We now have the power to overcome the things we have probably deliberately cultivated along the way in our lives. Before we met Him we did stuff to protect ourselves and make us feel good about who we are. Ask yourself, do I see myself as a victim or a servant? The answer will diagnose your position before the Lord. 

We have mistakenly tied Christ’s Presence in our lives, entirely to our behaviour, not to what He has already done. His Grace propels us into obedience, it empowers us to make right choices. Our behaviour actually changes because we want to live and remain in His Presence, rather than roll along day after day, doing what we want. We are His servants. We’ve been left here to serve Him and serve Him by serving others. And transformation comes from obedience to His word as He leads us – – and BTW if you read it then you are responsible for your response.. 👋🏻

P 2185 Hard questions.

/ DVH

Jesus preached on the theme of the Master and His servants, so many times in the bible.  Here are a few FYI: Matthew 25:14-30, Luke, 19:11-27, Luke 16:1-13, Matthew 21:33-46, and Luke 12:43-47. It is easy to read these parables as separate individual stories, and challenges, but, today, I think the Lord wants us to look at them, AS A THEME. BTW – there is a pretty awful result if we are found to be unfaithful servants!

Here’s what I mean when I call these things a theme. Things like God’s love, eternity, redemption, they are all themes. A thread runs through the entire bible about those subjects. Themes are even stronger than the individual stories because of the repetition, so we need to take particular notice of them. It hit me the other day that when I am reading the parable of the unjust servant;  or about the shonky manager of a vineyard; or even those servants with numerous bags of gold – the thing these parables had in common was THE MASTER WAS ABSENT. 🧐 Yes, I know Jesus comes to your church. But here’s a question … do the people around your church know that?

Here is something else I have learnt over the years – if the Lord says something three times or MORE, then we need to pay attention. The theme in these parables is about still being faithful – when the Master is not visibly present but He has left clear instructions. I realised that there are times, in our churches and our own lives, when we cannot see the Lord at work. When the Word of the Lord is scarce in the land we can end up concentrating on maintaining our own lives. But let’s look at this another way –  what happens in our church groups when we’ve been left in charge?

Today, the Holy Spirit’s question to me was this: “Will you be faithful to what I’ve told you in My book when it seems like I am not there watching over your shoulder? That’s what these parables are about. They are about the servants remaining faithful to what the Master told them to do … the way they should live … even when they cannot easily access Him.”

Do you know I had never noticed how many times He talked about US being faithful? I have become so used to being spoon-fed by what the people-much-smarter-than-me said – that I just didn’t see it. That shocked me. Because faithfulness is part of His Character and He wants it to be a part of ours. So when He asks us to think about our faithfulness, He is actually asking us if His character is being formed in us. Now there’s another good place to pause and think!😳

Faithfulness can also be said like this – Full.Of.Faith. The Lord Jesus wants His servants to be so full of faith every day, that there is no room for doubt, unbelief, or disobedience. That sounds like a good aim to me!  Here’s another parable for thought: in the one about the Master going on a journey – those servants have been left in charge of the Master’s riches! We all need to think on that for about 20 years or so – I know I will!

There is an old saying: “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Perhaps we’ve accidentally been doing the same old same old at church rather than stewarding and multiplying what Jesus has given us? Maybe we think going to church is the same as being active at church? The result could be that we are allowing those pesky little foxes to spoil our vines. If our meetings do seem the same week by week, then maybe it is US who got stale? Routine is great for maintenance – but forward movement is better for advancement and momentum. Plus, we all need to obey the word collectively, not just individually. 

Being faithful means we are increasing our faith from where it is, up to, and including, FULL. It looks like this – have we got more faith today than we had yesterday? Last week? Last year?? Are our churches growing and producing strong trees like the mustard seed parable? And I don’t mean in numbers, I mean in dedication. AND lastly … “Are we catching any fish, boys?” Maybe someone needs to show me in the book where it says we have to be inactive. Instead of waiting for revival – perhaps we all need to be one. Otherwise we are like the guy who buried what he was given in the dirt because he was too scared.

We pray for revival, but maybe we need resuscitation? You know, we simply must stop expecting our poor pastors to pull the rabbit out of the hat week by week. The pastor is not a magician! If we all want to be found to be faithful, then we need to collectively, and prayerfully, do something about it  …ourselves. 👋🏻