Accept One Another: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

The Hardest Workers Oughtta Get More One of the hardest tasks in running any business is determining salaries and benefits. Human resource committees and officials do a lot of research to figure out what the market is paying. Larger firms hire expensive consultants to help them get their compensation and benefit packages just right. Generally, seniority with the company gets rewarded, right? Not in God's heavenly HR scheme. Read Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard. "'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day'" (Matthew 20:12). Have you been a Christian for a long time? Do you feel any twinges of resentment that people in your past who were party animals and hell-raisers might come to the Christian faith late in life and be accepted to the same heaven where you are planning your everlasting retirement? Might it help to remember that you have no right to set even your sinful big toe into God's holy presence? Your forgiveness, gifts, accomplishments, and immortality are all gifts of his grace, not rewards for your achievement. We must never take for granted the mercy shown us to the point where we resent that mercy being shown to someone else. Rejoice with the angels over even one bad boy who repents.