View Blog Entry

Although I witnessed to my mother often, she wasn’t interested in giving her life to Jesus Christ. 

My mother lived just past her eighty-fifth birthday. Though terrified of dying, she refused to accept Christ. Several pastors spoke with her about eternal life, friends witnessed to her, and she read daily devotionals and attended church occasionally, but when her health began to decline, she still wasn’t interested in making a decision about eternity. One week before she died, my pastor visited her, read Psalm 23, and asked if she would like to receive Christ. She did. At eighty-five, she received the same amount of grace I received when I accepted Christ as a teenager. 

Matthew 20:1-16 is known as “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.”  A landowner left one morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. They agreed on payment of a denarius. The landowner went out again at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours to hire additional laborers, promising them they would be paid “whatever was right.” At day’s end, the landowner asked his steward to call in the laborers and pay them, beginning with those hired last. All were paid a denarius, regardless of what time they started working. 

The landowner represents God, the vineyard His kingdom, the laborers believers, and the steward Jesus Christ. The parable teaches salvation is not earned. Our good deeds, years of service, age, or station in life aren’t a part of the calculation. No partiality. No seniority. Salvation is God’s gift. One day, God will tarry no longer, and our work on earth will be done. 

Use every opportunity to share the hope that is in you while there is still time.  

(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)