1And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 7But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Have you not read this Scripture:
"'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
Made me think of how often the messengers of God are killed. God sends out people time and time again, and they all get killed or beated or set away, by the very people God is trying to communicate with. And then he sends his most precious messenger...and he is destroyed as well.
Not only did this actually happen physically...but it also happens mentally and emotionally. Christ was crucified, he was dead. he was alive again. he rose and is now sitting besides God in heaven.
But his people, who call upon his name, are being martyred around the world daily. People are harassed, beaten, sued, denied jobs, driven out of their homes, just because they believe in Christ and have the "audacity" to tell others about it. God sends these people out. he's given all believers the ability to tell others about him, and it's something he actually tells us to do. Unfortunately many of us are too afraid to do anything about it, but we still need to. We can't let .. oh i want to say we can't let the world win... but that's not what I mean. We can't let all those lost souls perish for the want of hearing God's word.
We need to be obedient to Christ.
It's like those servants who were sent out. They knew what happened to the previous servants...beaten or killed. They still obeyed the will of their master. As Christians today, we can't let the fear of loss of position, money, life, liberty, and so forth stop us from heeding the word of our risen Lord and Saviour.
Your thoughts?
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