Mobilizing a Generation
Jordan M.
"And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' They said to him, 'Because noone hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too'" - the words of Christ in Matthew. From this text, we see a landowner, hired laborers, and those whom have yet to hired. Jesus here is talking about what the kingdom is like. Under the lordship of Christ, the King of kings, this is the reality. A landowner is seeking servants to hire. They do not come to Him. He must go to them. They are idle until He comes. Our Greek concordance shows us that "argos" means to be free labor, or at leasure. The meaning extends to being lazy, shunning the labor one ought to perform. This leasure is not the rest Christ gives when we come to Him weary laden with heavy burdens. We've been created to work, complete in our Lord, and rest, complete in our Lord. Leasure in Christ in a sense is the ultimate desire and reward of His redeemed. However leasure outside of Christ is fallen humanity missing its mark, futile in regards to the things of God. Work outside of Christ is no less of a futility, where I strive to attain for my own kingdom, whether practically or religiously. These souls in this story were not seeking this, to be their own bosses, they were waiting for someone to hire them. For a purpose. There are many landowners looking for laborers. The love of money is a big one, a big landowner. False religion is a landowner seeking laborers. There are many landowners, however if you trace the leases to these properties all the way up, all the land in this country is owned ultimately by one of two very powerful men. And if we are particularly interested in this matter of real estate, we find that the landowner spoken of in this story has actually founded the entire country, even and especially the land owned by the other less powerful landowner.
We want this landowner to approach us. We are waiting to be hired. We pray it's Him, lest we find ourselves cheated and it impossible to gain the lost week of wasted labor. When it comes time of day when He approaches me, I know it is late (5pm!), but I've been hired! Something in me hates being idle! I dont know the landowner really all that well, and I dont know why He chose me. He hadn't seen me work. Perhaps He knew that prior job training typically only inhibits. And what is this work that I've been hired to do? I would have guessed it would be going out and recruiting more workers, which would seem to me analogous to the kingdom of God, evangelism. However God does not specify in this story specifically what the work is. What we do see is a landowner Himself recruiting idle men, even right before the end of the workday.
God mobilizes His generation. Jesus Christ said that not all who say "Lord Lord" will enter the kingdom of God, but those who do His will. Jesus said His food was to do the will of God. I'm learning that life in Christ is the labor, and life in Christ is the leasure. That makes sense if true labor is what God does for His good pleasure, and we participate in this labor as we leasure in Him. Otherwise, our self-initiated labor actually inhibits true labor, His labor. That is, ministry without the true Minister, counterfeit.
I pray for continual salvation from idleness, to not be found a laborer leaning on his shovel. Oh to be chosen!!! That temptation to idleness can remain, and that is why we must remember that we were chosen for this reward, sought out. As we seek the kingdom of God for others, as we speak of Jesus and of the salvation of God, as we strategize, as we pray, as we pray, as we pray, it is God who is going out and seeking and hiring. Mobilizing a generation is commanded as our Great Commission in Matthew 28, and we remember how that passage ends.. "surely I am with you, even to the end of the age." Speaking first to myself, oh to go only where His presence is, to rejoice in the mercy of our gracious landowner and His own means and purposes for whom He hires, that He would forbid we try and hire workers - even out of good motive to serve our landowner - but without Him, that noone would believe they had been hired, as they do work that is not His and receive not His reward at the end of the day. God mobilizes His generation. Let us rest in Him, a yoke easy and burden light, cast upon Christ. It is God who wills and works according to His good pleasure, and for His kingdom, His glory, which He desires for Himself more than we ever could imagine on this side. And His will is that noone should perish, but that all should come to the repentance, to the knowledge of Him. Oh praise Him, the great and merciful landowner.
By Reena T
March 14, 2008. It was a beautiful day. We were on our way back to Richmond from an amazing week at New Orleans, where over 200 students had gathered from around the nation during their spring break to serve the people living in NOLA, by building houses and working in homeless shelters. Everything was going wonderfully on our journey back…till we found out two hours after we left the hotel that we had been traveling in the wrong direction! Silent sighs of frustration escaped pursed lips as we turned back around and reached the Quality Inn, the hotel that we had spent the week at, four hours later. Well, of course, we believe that ‘everything happens for the good’, so we gallantly continued our journey and stopped for a break a while later.
An interesting sight greeted us as we pulled up in front of the gas station—a man who stood struggling to tie his luggage onto the back of his bike. This particular man had the biggest smile on his face, but as we got talking to him, we discovered that he had absolutely nothing to smile about—he had lost most of everything he had in a court case involving his wife, who left him for his friend. The most amazing part of this whole situation however, was that it was obvious that God wanted us there at that particular time and place, for a reason. In God’s plan, we were not four hours behind schedule; we were right on time. Eventually we got to share the gospel and God’s amazing love with him, and prayed with him by the road side when he was done packing.
At the end of the prayer, he opened his eyes slowly. Tears filled his eyes as he thanked us and gave each of us a hug. “You know”, he said, “sometimes I look around and I wonder what this world is coming to. But then I see you guys and…” His voice trailed away, when someone in our group said “It’s ’cause God changed our lives!”
God has changed our lives! This is every Christian’s story, every Christian’s song. In John 17:26, Christ prayed “(Let) the love with which you loved me, be in (those who will believe on me)…”. Whether it was digging ditches for drains, serving meals, or sweeping insanely hard carpets, this love was evident in New Orleans where everyone did everything with their whole heart…and with a genuine smile. Having a servant’s heart also carried special meaning that week as God showed us what it truly meant to be humble and to do everything without grumbling. Looking back, I can now say that He was working in each of our hearts- chipping away at our imperfections, making us His masterpiece…and mobilizing a generation.
My Family: Aletheia
By Michael C
For many of us, the first stage of coming into a relationship with the Lord Jesus can leave the new believer lost (though not even close to as lost as we once were). For me, there was a good 6 month period where I was only clinging to my new found faith and constantly slipping and compromising due to a lack to knowledge, prayer, training, and discipleship. Did I mention lack of fellowship, too? I felt alone. I couldn’t find a church home where people really approached me and made me feel welcome as a part of God’s kingdom and His body of believers.
The Good Lord has always been looking out for me though. He introduced me to my wife, Amanda, my senior year at JMU. This amazing godly woman brought me to Aletheia in Harrisonburg for the first time that fall. As soon as I walked in the door, I was instantly loved on. The teaching was awesome, the worship was amazing, and the people there were genuinely interested in my faith, my walk with God, and the details surrounding them. I felt at home. I couldn’t get enough. The leaders there snatched me up into their Bible study and trained me. Finally, I jump-started my growth and my faith and knowledge has compounded continuously since.
Praise the Lord that He planted another Aletheia in Richmond, where God has so gracefully placed my wife and I to start out our lives together. I’ve seen what God’s been doing in this place at VCU over the past few months. The vision that God has implanted into Pastors Dave Proffitt, Aaron Proffitt, and Josh Soto’s hearts for these churches are so quality, relevant, and refreshing that more Aletheias are beginning to pop up all over Virginia.
So, as I have grown in my faith I have come to realize there is a huge difference between knowing the path and walking the path. Christ ultimately is the reason for where I am today; He forgave my sins. I knew the path in which I was supposed to be walking. God put Aletheia in my life so that I would continue walking the path. Aletheia surrounded me with my amazing brothers and sisters in Christ. Aletheia is my family, Aletheia is my home.
Mobilizing a Generation
by Sam
Who am I? What am I doing here? College students around the globe are asking such questions as the pending doom of graduation approaches. The most commonly overlooked opportunity in such a time, however, is serving God and having the most incredible time doing it. College students are capable of going anywhere in the world at a whim and have seemingly limitless potential, as there is next to nothing tying them down.
Jesus’ teachings demand all…the kind of all that college students naturally give when they pick up and move their belongings to a ten by sixteen foot existence. Students are being subjected to new ideas in the classroom that challenge them every day. The all that Jesus demands is more naturally assumed by the students that pick up and do it all again after graduation.
Not having a house payment, car payment, and kids can pay off in more ways than one. There is no exchange for being able to worship and serve God all day long, and that is exactly what college students and grads are faced with being able to do. Taste the joy of knowing God to the fullest by finding out ways you can get more involved and serve Him.