Fair Wages

Currently, I am reading a book titled “What's So Amazing About Grace” by a wonderful fellow by the name of Philip Yancey. It's been recommended to me several times, so I've finally picked it up and started it. There's a lot to digest in it, and much has stuck out to me. One such thing is that he covers a parable that, as he points out, is not often brought up in modern sermons because, plainly put, it just doesn't make sense in our world.
It's the parable found in Matthew 20:1-16; the Master of a house going out to hire workers for His vineyard. Summed up, He hires some men in the morning (presumably 6am) under the promise of a full day's wages (one denarius), then hires more at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, and 5pm (third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, and eleventh), all under the promise of a denarius. He has them paid last to first, as in those hired at 5pm to be paid first, then those at 3pm, then those at noon, and so on. The first-hired, last-paid get upset, saying they deserve more. The owner's response is that it's all generosity, and He can distribute His money as He wishes.

In this book, it's described as a grace and that, if paid according to what we deserve, we'd all get Hell. Instead, it's moreover gifts that God gives us rather than wages; that the grace of it is that it's not about counting, because grace doesn't work by measurement. And that's true, I will not deny that. It's a great example of grace in that sense.
Reading over that parable again, I've realized something I'd care to add to this interpretation.

Firstly, a lifelong Christian will get Heaven. A lifelong Christian who turns away in his final hour will get Hell. Likewise, a lifelong heathen will get Hell. Inasmuch, a lifelong heathen who repents in his final hour will receive Heaven. And with Heaven comes all the glories that God bestows upon His beloved.
The thief on the cross beside Christ, despite asking Christ to remember him as he was dying, was given -that day- the same amount of Heaven as, say, the most notable reformer, the widest-reaching evangelist, the most faithful disciple, or the greatest of apostles. They all received the same Heaven, the same God, the same blood of Christ covering them. This is grace, but it's also fair in the sense that if any of these people had disowned Christ, even a second before their final breath, they would have received the same amount of Hell, despair, and absence from Christ.

Secondly, this is reminiscent of the mentality of the first son in the story of the prodigal; when the younger son demands his inheritance, it's made clear that the older gets his share as well, at the same time. Yet, when the younger returns after having squandered everything, the older son is irate when the Father throws a party, has the prize calf butchered for a feast, and the younger son's return treated as a monumentally joyous occasion. His case is that the Father had never thrown a party for him, saying, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (notice how he doesn't even claim his brother, except as “this son of yours”)
It doesn't seem fair, but it is. The Father's response was “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”

In both senses, the fault lies in the ones receiving; it's not up to them (this is you and I) to bargain with God, nor to look at what others are getting. We should focus on how He's blessed us, not how He's blessed another person for the same (or less). Our walk is not with them, it is with God. Our walk doesn't concern them, nor does theirs concern us. Both concern God, and it's between the two.
To paraphrase the way one of my favorite singers put it in her book, titled “What Is The Point?,” God doesn't measure the size, timeframe, or impact of our ministry. He measures the heart of it. If we help lead one soul or one thousand souls to Him, He does not favor one over the other; He watches the heart we put into the one or the one thousand.

Concrete

Many times, I have been confronted with the question, “How do you believe in God if you can't see Him?”
This question has been asked by others almost as many times as I've asked myself. It's a difficult question. Often, one reason enters my mind, and that's “I can't see the wind, but I can see the effects of it.”
Sure, that's a fitting answer. I can see the evidence of God in nature, and in my very life. But there's something I've overlooked for so long.

How would a person born blind believe in those around them? They can hear them. I can't audibly hear God, but I've heard Him. It's hard to explain, but anyone who has heard the call of God knows what I'm referring to. A stirring of the heart, and revelation in the mind that is, quite frankly, not my own. There's that.

But going a little deeper, let's consider love for a moment. It's not something that can be seen. It can be said, but it can't be seen.
I love you.
That sentence doesn't mean all that much, yet it's been said. Not until there's some sort of sign saying it, like roses on your doorstep, or a ring on your finger, or something of the like. It's something that has to be shown, not just said, and yet it still can't be seen. How do we know it exists, then?
It's not that it doesn't exist in words or in things we see, it transcends those senses. It's something that's felt deep inside our heart, and in that mere feeling, we're more sure of it than we are of anything we can see, touch, hear, smell, or taste. It becomes a part of our existence. It is part of what makes us what we are, and we are sure of it. Because we feel it more definitely than our own heartbeat, we feel more certain of love than we're sure our heart is beating.

So how do I believe in a God I've never seen face-to-face?
Simple. As it's said twice in the first letter of John, in chapter four, “...God is love...”
Basically, I am loved by God. And once you know this feeling and embrace it, you, too, will believe in God because it's not that you can't see Him or hear Him, it's that He transcends sight and sound; He exists deeper than these fleeting senses, and instead stirs our hearts to know more certainly than we even exist that He loves us.
He loves you even now, even if you don't believe in Him. But once you realize He loves you, you will not deny that He does.

Why Is Love The Greatest?

Paul emphasized over and over that loving was the greatest thing for a person to do. Of the three, faith, hope, and love, he says, love is the greatest. He goes through a list of things that love embodies, and it's patience, gentleness, kindness, etc., as well as a list of things it does not do, such as delight in wrongdoing.

Paul was a man that had formerly been known as Saul of Tarsus, a man who was versed in the Law of the OT (Torah), and was adamant about punishing those who disobeyed it (to the point of killing those who professed Jesus as the Christ).

This man, who had for so long ignored what the love of God is, became outspoken that love was the greatest, even over faith (faith would imply obedience to the Law). It's not that we're to disobey the Law, or to disregard it, or to see it as anything less than crucial.

As Jesus said, the greatest of the commandments is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second being to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus, not just Paul, placed love above any other legislation of the Torah.

Love covers a multitude of sins. Love never fails. Love delights in truth. Love obeys.

In Romans 13, and likewise in Galatians 5, Paul says that all the Law is fulfilled in loving others as we love ourselves.

The reason is because if we love someone, we won't steal from them, we won't murder them, etc. The whole of the Torah is obeyed if we love God with all we have and if we love others more than ourselves.

Jesus said something along the lines of “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

If we love Him, we will keep His commandments. It's the one who loves Him that does keep His commandments.

That is precisely why love is greater than obedience to the Law; a fruit of love is obedience to it. Which is greater, a tree, or one of its fruit? Surely, the tree.
Not to mention 1 John 4, I think it is, says twice that God is love . . .

Fruit Of The Spirit

There are two primary seasons for a crop; there is planting, and there is reaping. The growing part should not be overlooked, but i'm going to focus this post on the lattermost of this span; the reaping.

In an orchard, trees grow and bear fruit, and the fruit is then harvested to be sold or eaten.

When it comes to spirituality, there are two types of fruit.
Firstly, we have the flesh, which consist thusly: "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like." (Galatians 5:19-21)
Secondly, we have the fruits of the Spirit, which includes the following: "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23)

Something occurred to me when my pastor's dad mentioned that the Bible is, in essence, "food" that we must "eat" daily to stay spiritually healthy and strong; we, too, produce fruit. One definition for fruit is "produce," or "result." Fruits of living by the Spirit are results of it. But after looking at the Hebrew text for this and running it through a translator, seeing all the other possible definitions, i've found only one, and it's not merely the "result" of something.

הפרי
That is the word we're looking at here; it's the one that translates to "the fruit" in this verse. Other fitting translations are "fruiting," "fruits," "fruit is (fruit's)," etc.

This verse isn't talking about the result of living by the Spirit so much as it is the literal fruit of it. We produce fruit. A tree does not produce fruit for itself. It produces fruit which will provide nourishment to things around it. We do not merely live by the Spirit to become loving, gentle, joyful, peaceful, etc. We live by the Spirit so we exude these things, and so others can benefit from them. We produce these things for the glory of God, not for our own well-being. So others can experience the love of God through us, the joy of God through us, the peace of God through us, and so on. We were made to nourish each other. In other words, we are the Bible to the world. We are nourishment to the world. We are Christ to the world.

I just thought that was interesting.

My Views On Homosexuality

I'm going to start with some Scriptures here.

"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Leviticus 18:22

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

"Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted." 1 Timothy 1:8-11

"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." Romans 1:24-27

This post isn't intended to slap people with certain tendencies in the face, nor to beat them with a few select verses out of thousands. This is intended to state my stance on the matter (specifically within the Christian community) out of love because, due to these verses, i believe homosexual behavior to be sinful.

If you knew someone who was dying, and could encourage them to change their ways and fight their inclinations and, in doing so, save their lives . . . Wouldn't you? That's why i'm writing this; not to judge, but to encourage.

Now, most who practice such things don't believe in God. But they do believe in nature. I could start by saying that one orientation is natural and the other is not, but that's cliché. Instead, i'll warn; the human body has a natural "culling" behavior to homosexuality. It's called AIDS, of which there seems to be no cure, and only fleeting inoculations/vaccines. It was once referred to as "GRIDS" (gay-related immune deficiency syndrome), for obvious reasons. Understandably, it was changed because it wasn't exclusive to the gay community. It is, however, nearly exclusive to such a demographic, and transfers by vast majority from them.
Nature, not just God and the "religious" society discern against it.

Now there are others who believe in God and the Bible, and yet still practice such things.

I've heard the argument that "God created [them] like that," or that "[They] were born [the opposite gender]," and also that it's suppressing who they are to deny such practice (i've heard people say "You just can't accept me for who i am).
That's a rather fallible ideology.
Firstly, every man was created male, and every female was created female (Genesis 1:27 says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."). If God is infallible, then He makes no mistakes--man is man, woman is woman, simple as that.
Secondly, to pretend one was born the wrong gender and therefore would be denying who they are to go against what is their natural tendency doesn't make quite logical sense. The two genders work together for a reason. Man is supposed to be with woman, and vice-versa. To deny that would be to deny what and who they are.

Also, note it doesn't say such desires are sinful. Leviticus says to lie with a man as with a woman is wrong. 1 Corinthians says men "who practice homosexuality," as does 1 Timothy. Romans, however, is a little less contrasted, though still defined; it says they were consumed with passion for one another, but it still points out that they committed such acts, and that's where the sin lies (though those actions stemmed from God 'giving them up' to 'dishonorable passions' because they traded the image of the Creator for the created; sin bred sin, as it always does).

For these reasons, i believe the "Queen James Version" of the Bible to be contrary to the literally translated Word of God, and substantiatedly (that should be a word) blasphemous if it does, in fact, condone homosexual behavior.

So that's how i stand on the matter, in case anyone was curious. Basically, i hold it to the same light as infidelity in marriage, or adultery outside of marriage. Abominable, selfish, and based solely in greed and wrapped up in the "now" and not the future.

Above all, we are to love the sinner, be they convicted of infidelity, adultery, homosexual practices, thieving, murder, lying, or anything. Our first commandment is to love. So then, we are not to be malicious with one who has committed any of these sins. We are to care for them, offer them shelter and refuge, and love in the way of encouraging them unto righteousness that can only be found in Christ.

Our Reason For Salvation

Typically, we seek salvation for one reason; to avoid Hell. We don't want to experience that for eternity, and we're driven to make proselytes of those we care about because we don't want them to face an eternal damnation.
There are exceptions, but that's what it most commonly amounts to; fear. We fear Hell, we fear the wrath of God, we fear death, so we run to the arms of God like a child who is terrified and running to the arms of his/her Dad for comfort. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; we shouldn't want such a condemnation for anyone. We should be driven to our Father, and anything that converges us towards Him is good, even if it's fear of Hell.

But I don't want salvation for that reason.
I want my salvation to be deeper than that. I want your salvation to be deeper than that.

Salvation isn't merely being saved or rescued (by definition it is, but with some analysis it can go much farther). When we cannot save ourselves, salvation's definition alters to become submission to One with the power to save us. The Gospel holds the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). God alone has the power to distribute salvation. When we submit to His power, when we realize Him, and we acknowledge Him in all of our ways, confessing our sin and forsaking it, believing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for us and was resurrected by God on the third day; that's when we have salvation.
When we decide that, if it meant we would still face the wrath of God en force, and yet still say "not as I will, but as You will," (Matthew 26:39) that's when we have salvation epitomized. Not as a means of escape, but as a means of servitude.
Salvation is obedience to God, and loving God.

I want to believe that there's something that God put in me that could glorify Him, and that's what I want my salvation to do; bring glory to Him. Even if it didn't mean my eternal soul would be saved from Perdition, I would still want my life to reflect the beauty of salvation through Christ to God.

I want my salvation to be more than God blessing me; I want it to be me blessing God because I know that, even if I feel inadequate, I know He made me with the ability to bring honor to Him. He made me to bring honor to Him.
He made you with the ability to bring honor, glory, worship, and praise to Him.

We Are Lakes

There are things called "salt lakes", which usually consist of lakes with many inlets, and no outlets. There are also spring-fed lakes

In Galatians 5, we are given examples of two differing lifestyles: the first is living by the flesh.
"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21, ESV)

The second lifestyle is living by the Spirit.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:22-25, ESV)

The first example we're given is one of an obviously worldly manner. It's submission to our physical desires, living based on "me, me, me", and it is focused inwardly. It has a mentality of hoarding. It takes and stores for self.

The second is one of humility and generosity. It focuses on, contrary to the former, others and God. It holds back no goodness, and thinks of self only after thinking of others. It is an outward lifestyle.

About the lakes.
saline and hypersaline lakes (Salt Lake in Utah, the Dead Sea, etc.) have medicinal properties, but life can scarcely survive in them beyond microbes and sometimes crustaceans. These lakes and seas have such a high salt content that they will kill most plant life around them. Fish will asphyxiate in them due to the mineral and sediment content. This is the "inward" lake; the one lacking outlets.
It reflects living by the flesh, living so selfishly that your existence becomes lifeless.

Likewise, we have lakes that have outlets, distributing their minerals gently throughout the streams and rivers that flow from them in such a way that they're beneficial to living matter. The minerals don't bombard organisms to the point of overdose, but rather in moderation that allows fish and plant life to thrive in their vicinity. They supply, to quote a friend of mine, "Living waters." This is the "outward" lake.
This reflects living by the Spirit, living so selflessly that your existence becomes deathless.