On This Day: Answers Bigger Than Our Questions

   Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Luke 12:41-48)

   Jesus was a Master at asking and answering questions. And, if we want to be like him in this, we best be ready to get in as much trouble as he did!

   Today, my attention was drawn to the parable Jesus told in response to Peter’s question about the previous parable. While it may look like Jesus wasn’t answering Peter, the fact was that he was giving an answer that would expose hearts (in a right brain way) instead of merely settle minds (in a left brain way). 

   One of the things involved in this is what Jesus already said about his parables. He explained to his disciples that he spoke in parables to differentiate between those who were in his kingdom and those who were not. To the disciples, “it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). 

   What I realized not long ago was that Jesus would not give the secrets of his kingdom to those outside the kingdom because “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14). 

   However, Paul clarified about believers, 

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (I Corinthians 2:12-13).

   As we read the way Jesus asked questions, it was always to expose which hearts were hearing him and which were not. When he answered questions, it was always the right answer, even if it did not directly address the specifics of the questioner. 

   Today, this all became clear as I realized that by the time we finish meditating on Jesus’ answer to Peter, we will know if what he is teaching is for us or not. The way we will know is whether his words move us into the “obedience of faith” or leave us clueless and disinterested. 

    And one of the best encouragements when we feel like we aren’t sure we “get it” is that we find ourselves asking God more questions because we must know what Jesus means by the “secrets” of his kingdom. And as long as we keep asking, seeking, and knocking, we will keep receiving, finding, and opening doors. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Jesus Shows What We Are Like

   “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)

   I won’t detail the storm, but the description of “a flood arose,” and “the stream broke against that house” hits home. That’s why Jesus used parables, word pictures, metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech. They are so easy to say, “I know what that one feels like!” 

   For a few decades, I have practiced beginning my time with God by telling him how I am doing. No, I am not informing him of things he doesn’t already know. Rather, I am admitting to him my “soul condition” so I can attach to the “soul provision” he has given me in his Son. The more honest I am about how I am doing, the more Bull’s Eyeish is my experience of attaching to what he says in response. 

   Today this hit with the simple awareness that Jesus was asking me, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Or at least that’s the way it sounded to me. At first. 

   I then found myself wondering whether he saw me as the man who did put his words into practice or the one who did not. How would I know? Does this mean “perfectly” kept his word, or devotedly tried to keep his word? 

   Yes, I struggled through such thoughts and feelings, being honest to the core of my being, and that’s when Jesus ministered to me through his word and his Spirit so that I KNEW what he was saying to me. His words pierced me like I had never read them before in my life: “I will show you what he is like…” 

   Now it felt not so much like Jesus was confronting me with all the ways I may have failed to put his words into practice, but that he was declaring his view of my life, that he knew “what he is LIKE”! Not PERFECTLY! But this is what Montgomery Paul Vigh is LIKE! 

   And suddenly I could say that the next words applied to me. It wasn’t the storm I’m facing that says I am the people who say “Lord, Lord,” but never do what Jesus says. It’s the other way around. Because I have been seeking to live in “the obedience of faith” since my youth, I have withstood one storm after another for one simple reason: God has taught me to hear my Savior’s voice and follow him where he leads. No perfection. No measuring myself as better than anyone else. No earning my standing with God through good works. Just looking back and knowing which group I am in. I am in the group of people who come to Jesus, hear his words, and put them into practice. 

   When I went downstairs for my prayer time, I realized that I had never confessed to God that I had sinned by not getting baptized when Jesus told me to. I caved to abuse. Yes, understandable. No, not excusable. Yes, I know I was under God’s mercy. No, I did not do what Jesus called me to do. I chose self-protection over knowing and doing the will of God. 

   However, when I brought the pain of that experience to God this morning, I confessed my sin, received God’s forgiveness, handed over to him the guilt, shame, and fear of what I had done, and grieved how I had hindered my siblings who wanted to get baptized by not being the big brother who would lead the way. YES, being THAT gut-level honest with God is so REWARDING! The way we get to know our Savior when we are honest with him is so worth the pain of facing such wounds. 

   The conclusion of the matter is that I dealt with one more thing Satan has tried to use to his advantage. Instead, I have ringing in my heart that Jesus is the one Mediator between me and God, and he is my Advocate in responding to the devil’s lies. Jesus says to Satan himself, “I will show you what my servant Monte is like”. 

   I know it is only by grace through faith that I have any relationship with Jesus Christ at all, but today my Savior assured me that he knows what I am like as his little brother. And then he showed me the children in our daycare whose efforts to put our words into practice are childlike, sometimes childish, immature, not as good as we would do, but so absolutely heart-captivating to see how they are putting their hearts into trying to do what we say. 

   And today, Jesus told me he sees me like that as well. A little kid trying to walk in the obedience of faith. And so, in Jesus Christ my Lord, I take my stand. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Good Person, Good Treasure, Good Fruit

   “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)

   When I come to a passage like this, I think of it as a “self-examination text”. Jesus is addressing things we must first apply to ourselves before considering how to contribute to God’s work in the body of Christ.

   I found it helpful to discover that the “good” in the tree, the heart, and the fruit means moral goodness. It isn’t fruit in the sense of how we are affecting others, but fruit in the sense of what the tree produces whether anyone notices or not (an apple tree is an apple tree even if no one eats the fruit!). 

   The main point is that in Jesus’ kingdom, the work of God is so transforming that there cannot be any disparity between the person we are, the things we treasure in our hearts, and the way we act towards others. 

   Which reminded me of a huge lesson I learned in the early 90’s, that God always begins his work in our hearts and people are more committed to self-protection than to knowing and doing the will of God. 

   The reason that stands out today is that self-protection makes liars out of us. Hypocrites. We try to act like good people on the outside, but God’s transforming work is hindered because we won’t give up lordship over our hearts. God can’t transform us without leading us out of our old hearts into the new hearts the prophets foretold, but our fortresses of self-protection are defiant that no one is going to mess with the things we have hidden deep inside, not even GOD! 

   For some of us, the “log” that needs to be removed from our eyes is the log of self-protection. Whatever it is we do to hide a traumatized, reclusive soul must be removed so we can be “transformed into the same image (as our Savior) from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18). 

   Opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s inspection will invariably lead us into another journey through the Beatitudinal Valley. God will bless us with the poverty of spirit that admits the ways we are not doing well in what he is teaching us. He will bless us with the mourning that grieves what he is showing us about ourselves that is not like our Savior. He will bless us with the meekness that gives up trying to fix ourselves and opens the door of our self-protection in submission to the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord. And he then blesses us with the hunger and thirst for the righteousness of being in our hearts what we are trying to portray in our works. 

   This then leads to us being blessed by becoming genuinely merciful people because of the mercy we have experienced in our hearts. We are blessed by having pure hearts that make us the same on the outside as we are on the inside. We are blessed by becoming peacemakers who genuinely want everyone to experience peace with God, and that leads to us being blessed with joy in our persecutions because we know that the way the world is treating us is because we truly are becoming like our Savior (based on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12). 

   In Luke 6, Luke is showing us things Jesus taught about life in his kingdom. If we have confessed with our mouths that Jesus is Lord (over every part of our being, self-protection included), and we have believed IN OUR HEARTS that God raised his Son from the dead, the salvation we claim to have will show in what we do (Romans 10:9-10). If that is not what is showing, it’s time for a heart-to-heart with our Father in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ his Son. It will be transforming.  

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When ‘The Old is (NOT) Good' Enough

   He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Luke 5:36-39)

   My personal reaction to reading those last words, “‘The old is good,’” was that I know too many church folk like that! 

   The above conversation took place while Jesus was at Matthew’s house having a meal with “tax collectors and sinners”. At the same time, “some Pharisees and their scribes” were peeking in to see what was going on and “grumbled” at Jesus’ disciples why Jesus would hang out with such people. 

   Jesus never played favorites or showed partiality to his friends. He alone was without sin; everyone else needed the “good news of great joy” that could only be found in him. So, Jesus customized a parable for both groups of people, the “sinners” who had come to dinner and the religious devotees who were judging everyone.

   Because Jesus’ illustrations for the religious devotees are easy to understand, our focus must be on how we are doing at receiving the “new covenant in my blood”. Jesus didn’t die merely so we could have a fire-insurance policy for when we die. He died to make a new covenant between God and sinners. Through Jesus’ death, God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). 

   So, “when we were dead in our trespasses,” and God “made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5), he brought us into the new covenant. It is a binding relationship in which God is the adoptive Father who has made us his adopted sons.1  

   What I want to leave with everyone is the reminder that the new covenant cannot be added to anything and cannot be replaced by anything. It doesn’t supplement our systems of good works, and it doesn’t pale in comparison to “the old is good”. It is the only relationship by which sinners can receive eternal life. Period. 

   Do you lean more to the religious devotee who struggles to give up self-reliance to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and restoration to God? Or are you more tempted to settle for the drunken stupor of sin that thinks the old is quite good enough? Either way, in Jesus “was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). 

   So the only question is, are you one of the people who “walk in the light, as he is in the light,” so “we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7), or are you one of those who “loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19)? 

   Jesus still comes to tax collectors and sinners by any name or label. He still calls religious devotees to leave their sin and follow him. No matter where we are in relation to Jesus, we all have the same call to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ into the fullness of life.

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

Footnote 1: Yes, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29), which is why “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14), “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26), “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). The expressions of “brothers and sisters” or “sons and daughters” is NOT in the Bible and is NOT what God means by “sons”. We all have the exact same status with God in our spiritual identity, the same status as Jesus, which can only be conveyed through “sons” and “brothers”. It is a horrible mistake to tell people the Bible SAYS there are two categories when God himself breathed out one category of “sons” who are “brothers” to Jesus Christ as our Firstborn.

On This Day: Explaining Why ‘Outsiders’ Do not Understand

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that
“‘they may indeed see but not perceive,
    and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” 
(Mark 4:10-12)

   For a long time, I have been troubled by this passage. It sounded to me like God had prophesied that when the Messiah came he would do things in such a way that people would not be able to understand. And that did NOT make sense to me!

   This morning, what the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see is the distinction between those who were outside the kingdom and those who were inside. And then he brought to my remembrance some other Scriptures that made so much sense of this troubling passage.

   The simple point is that everyone was called to the same gospel, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). By Mark 4, we have a group of people who had received the gospel and entered Jesus’ kingdom.

   This means that everyone Jesus referred to as “outsiders” were still “dead” in their “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). As Paul clarified later, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart” (Ephesians 4:18). And he adds to the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14). 

   That’s the point. Outside the kingdom of God there is no understanding. This is why I don’t see much value in focusing on left-brain debates with unbelievers. They cannot understand spiritual truth. Instead, we share the good news of the kingdom of God, we speak Scripture to people as the “word of Christ”, and watch to see if there are any sheep among the listeners who will hear Jesus’ voice and follow him where he leads.

   In the category of the Spirit’s work of bringing Scriptures to our remembrance, he did this with two verses from II Corinthians 4. 

   First, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (vs 4). This is why “outsiders” don’t understand. 

   Second, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (vs 6). This is why “those around him with the twelve” were with Jesus and wanted to hear his explanations of the parables. 

   I still don’t like that the “many” prefer the wide road to destruction. But now it makes sense to me why there is such a distinction between the “outsiders” and those who were “around Jesus”. When Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), he was telling a Jewish religious leader why the kingdom of God is so distinct from anything in the world. We can only enter by being “born again”, and that’s why we keep making everything about Jesus. 

   Our Shepherd said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27), so let’s help people hear Jesus’ voice while uniting with those who are “around him with the twelve”. Each of us will know who we are.

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

An Interlude of Brotherly Worth (A Short Story)

          “My Little Child,” Paul labored to explain, “I simply want to… to see you experience what it is like… to have Firstborn formed in you.”

          “What did you say?” Timothy gasped.

          Paul paused and looked at his Little Brother to consider what Timothy really wanted to know. “I want you to know what it is like to have Firstborn formed in you.”

          “No, not that part,” Timothy clarified, “I mean the first part.”

          “Wasn’t that the first part?” Paul furrowed his brow trying to understand what was going on in his Brother’s heart.

          “No,” Timothy fought the tears that were now brimming in his eyes as he wondered if he had heard correctly.

          “Hmmm…” Paul considered. “Oh, I see what you are asking!” he suddenly exclaimed. “Oh, my Brother,” Paul continued, “is it that I called you, ‘my Little Child’?”

          Timothy began sobbing in acknowledgement that Paul had indeed understood the words that had gripped his heart.

          Paul put his arm around Timothy and let himself feel the wonder of the moment. He had been so long in the enjoyment of Father’s love that it still surprised him with grief to see children come into Father’s House with no consciousness of their beloved identity.

          As Timothy’s sobbing eased, Paul gave him a squeeze around his shoulders and continued. “Timothy, my Little Child,” he worded with deeper meaning than Timothy could have imagined, “I want you to know who you are. And, it is clear from your sobbing that knowing who you are still does not come easily to you.”

          Timothy nodded as he tried wiping the tears away.

          “You know,” Paul reminisced, “I came into Father’s House from a life of thinking far too highly of myself and imagining I was better than others. Father’s work in me was to bring me down to the same place as everyone else. I had to realize that I was as much a sinner in his sight as anyone I had ever scorned and disdained for their weakness. I couldn’t really know what I meant to him as his Beloved Child until I could see that it had nothing to do with the way I had lived my life. It wasn’t immediate, the change I mean, but the more I saw the glory and wonder of what Firstborn did for me, and that I was equally guilty before him as all the Worldlings I had despised, the more I could feel that my worth to him was greater than anything I had ever imagined.”

          “How could you feel greater worth by seeing yourself worse?!” Timothy desperately wanted to know.

          “It’s because nothing I had once thought of myself or Father was real,” Paul explained. “When I saw myself as good enough for him, my view of him was so much lower than I realized. If he was someone who could think highly of my miserable and prideful attempts to be a Good Boy, he was not much of a Sovereign at all.”

          “A ‘Sovereign’?” Timothy wondered.

          “Yes,” Paul considered how to describe this distinctive quality of their Father. “A Sovereign is the ultimate or supreme ruler over all,” he explained. “Even in my old life of arrogant religiosity I knew he was the Sovereign-ruler over everyone and everything. But I lowered him down to the place where he was a Being who could be impressed by what my little speck of dust was doing.”

          Paul shook his head as he paused to gather his thoughts. “It is unthinkable that I could have imagined myself worthy of him,” Paul sighed.

          “I know what that feels like!” Timothy lamented.

          “You struggle with thinking your good works make you worthy of him?” Paul asked in surprised.

          “No! No!” Timothy corrected, “I know that it is like to think it is UNTHINKABLE to imagine myself worthy of him!”

          “Ah, yes, Little Brother” Paul chuckled. “Methinks that your ‘unthinkable’ is a bit different than mine.”

          “I know,” Timothy admitted quietly. “You were thinking too highly of yourself then, but now you see yourself as Father sees you.”

          “Yes,” Paul affirmed, “and you are still thinking such low thoughts of yourself because you don’t see yourself as Father sees you.”

          “But I have never had anyone think of me as their Little Child!” Timothy defended.

          “No…,” Paul cautiously clarified, “you have never KNOWN what the Triune thinks of you as their child.”

          Timothy grew quiet as he contemplated the difference between the two thoughts.

          “What I’m getting at,” Paul continued, “is that my starting place was so opposite to yours that I need to be reminded that Orphans come into Father’s House with such a low view of themselves that even the most normal expressions of endearment seem…”

          “Weird!” Timothy exclaimed. “Foreign! Does-Not-Apply!”

          “Yes, Little Brother,” Paul smiled as he tousled Timothy’s hair. “I understand that this is how you see it.”

          “But I’m wrong, right?” Timothy grinned mischievously.

          “Yes, my Little Brat,” Paul grinned back, “your wrong is right.”

          Timothy grew more serious as he asked, “Did I miss what you were really trying to say by getting stuck on what you called me?”

          “What I called you was as much what I was really trying to say as the rest,” Paul clarified. “In fact, the only way you can appreciate the wonder of something so amazing as Firstborn formed in us is if you know you are a beloved Little Child.”

          “I guess it makes sense that Firstborn wouldn’t want to hang around with someone if he didn’t love them,” Timothy acknowledged.

          “You know what you see of Father and Firstborn always being together,” Paul directed, “and Daily Companion always seeming like he is with them even though he is with us at the same time?”

          “Yes…” Timothy considered carefully. “They do seem inseparable even when each of them is doing different things to make things work together.”

          “Do you understand that Firstborn wants that with you as well?” Paul asked.

          “He wants to be with me?” Timothy clarified.

          “You are his beloved Brother,” Paul reminded.

          “So you say,” Timothy again inserted his mischievous grin to the picture.

          “Ah,” Paul smiled, “so my Little Brother knows he matters to me enough that he can be a Little Troublemaker whenever he feels like it!”

          “Hmmm…” Timothy considered, “I guess I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

          “Like what?” Paul encouraged.

          “That part of me does seem to know that…” he struggled, “well… that you must… you know… that you must think of me as… as someone important to you?”

          “But the other part?” Paul invited.

          “Yes, the other part is quite different from that,” Timothy added. “It still feels strange that anyone in Father’s House would speak of me as being special to them in any way at all.”

          “And that is all the more reason that I am so desperate for you to know what it is like for Firstborn to be formed in you,” Paul returned to his earlier thought.

          “What a weird… uh… consideration?” Timothy wondered.

          “I want you to be so filled with Firstborn,” Paul wished, “and so aware that he is in you, and you are in him, and that Daily Companion makes this real for us all, that it will feel wonder-filled instead of weird.”

          “Wonder-filled?” Timothy considered. “Don’t you mean, ‘wonderful’?”

          “The way the Triune love us is wonder-filled,” Paul explained. “Yes, it is inherently a wonderful, glorious, amazing, delightful, awesome, magnificent thing that they love us as they do. But it also fills us with wonder of what it is like to be loved by the Sovereign Ruler of everything.

          “However,” Paul continued, “as the sun shines the glory of its light all the time, even when it is nighttime on our side of the planet, or storm clouds hide it from our sight, we must know that the love the Triune has for us is wonderfully constant and constantly wonderful no matter what any of us think about them or how they view us. And the wonderfulness of this reality makes us wonder-filled as we embrace it for our own.”

          “Hmmm…” Timothy interjected, “so you know that my struggle to see my worth to you and Father is not the truth about the Triune, but evidence that I’ve got clouds in my heart?”

          “Yes,” Paul smiled. “Clouds in our hearts is a common malady of us adopted children.”

          “Malady?” Timothy grinned mischievously once again.

          “Yes, my Little Child!” Paul exaggerated, “A malady is a sickness that very easily takes us down.”

          “So, me feeling like being special couldn’t be true is a malady?” Timothy asked.

          “Exactly,” Paul affirmed, “just like thinking the sun isn’t shining just because there are clouds overhead.”

          “You mean like right now!?” Timothy exclaimed as a big fat raindrop smacked him on the nose.

          “Uh… I suppose so!” Paul laughed as he too felt the beginning of rain.

          “Where did those come from?!” Timothy shouted in surprise.

          “Where did they come from indeed,” Paul welcomed the sudden turn in their adventure.

          As the two Brothers ran into the House, they both knew that they had shared a visit in the Light that would continue to shine into their hearts even when cloudy skies hid Father’s love from their sight. They would continue to grow in love because Father had loved them more and longer than they would ever fully comprehend. But knowing it was so would grow stronger every day, rain or shine.



© 2019 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ A Parable’s Help For Our Treasure and Prize

          As I continue meditating on the apostle Paul’s affection for the church as, “my joy and crown,”[1] and his additional expression of, “For you are our glory and joy,”[2]I have enjoyed the feeling of wonder that comes from considering what mattered to him in relation to Jesus’ return.

          I am quite familiar with the sarky, works-based feeling that we are going to see disappointment on Jesus’ face at his return. I constantly remind myself of the good news of the gospel, that salvation, and our present life, and our standing before Christ at his return, are all about the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

          Once I put aside any deceptive and accusing thoughts, I move past the fact that Paul was confident about the coming of Christ, and see this strangely beautiful thing that he looked forward to. His joy, and his prize, and his glory, and his crown, were the people who had come to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

          As I consider this from the viewpoint of what I would mean to Paul in this picture, that he would consider someone like me to be his treasure and prize because I am a beloved brother through my shared faith in Jesus Christ, I turn to other Scriptures to help me both comprehend the wonders of this relationship with God and his people, but also to give my heart the opportunity to know this relationship as fully as is possible this side of heaven. This is how God’s Spirit led me in his word today.

          In one of Jesus’ parables, he told of three servants who were each given a sum of money in trust, and told to work that money for the master’s business.[3] The master then went away on a long journey, leaving the servants to take care of things on his behalf.

          Upon the master’s return, he called his servants to give account of how things went for them. It is here that I gained some greater understanding of what Paul felt by considering the church his treasure and prize.

          Two of the servants came to the master smiling. They were happy to see their master, and delighted to show him how they had managed what he had given them. Both were excited to show that they had doubled what had been left in their charge. The master responded to both with the wonderful expression of, “’Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”[4]

          When I bring together the picture of the servants in this parable, along with Paul’s expressions of what he considered his, “hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming,”[5]I see what Paul will bring before Jesus when the Master returns. His “boasting” before his Savior would not be mere money, as is used as illustration in the parable. Rather, Paul’s treasure and prize at Jesus coming is expressed as, “Is it not you?”[6]

          Once again, I not only marvel at the confidence Paul felt in view of the return of Christ, but I am in wonder at his focus on what he prized and treasured. It is us who are the body of Christ, the one new man, the church, the saints who are set apart unto God as holy by grace through faith. His joy and crown were the church. His boasting before Jesus at his return will be, “Master, look at the people I have brought to you!”

          I know that Paul could not look ahead and see someone like me benefiting so much from his God-breathed writings to the churches. However, I know that I am as much part of Paul’s joy and crown as anyone in the Philippian church. Paul will welcome me into our heavenly home as my older brother rejoicing to see another gem added to the treasured and prized brotherhood of believers gathered before the throne. He finished his race knowing that there was a prize waiting for him. It was not a reward for good behavior; it was not a trophy setting him apart as better than the rest of us.

          Rather, it was his knowledge that he was given responsibility for something in his Master’s kingdom, and he would show Jesus all the people he had brought into the kingdom through the glorious gospel entrusted to him. It is no wonder he would tell Timothy,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.[7]

          Paul knew he would receive the crown of righteousness awarded to him on that day, just as to “all who have loved his appearing.” But he wanted us to know that he considered us to be his joy and crown now. He wanted us to enjoy feeling that an older brother looked at the body of Christ, all the saints, without any favoritism and partiality, and considered us his hope, and his joy, and his crown of boasting before Jesus Christ at his return.

          The parable of the faithful servants helps us see how Paul rejoiced to multiply the gospel in heart after heart, and city after city, down through the ages, and how he prized and treasured the church as his joy and crown.

          It also shows that Paul’s joyful love relationship with the church in this lifetime led him into the joy of his Master forever. He knew that would be the case. He just wanted to make sure we would be there with him; and that we would enjoy knowing we would be there, and how excited he will be to see us when we join him in our heavenly home.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Philippians 4:1

[2] I Thessalonians 2:20

[3] Matthew 25:14-30

[4] Matthew 25:21, 23

[5] I Thessalonians 2:19

[6] I Thessalonians 2:19

[7] II Timothy 4:7-8

Pastoral Pings ~ Entering Into the Mastery of Joy

          One of the most hopeful, gracious, hard to believe, expectations for the believer in Jesus Christ is that we will one day hear him say to us something like this: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”[1]Let’s unpack a few thoughts from this wonderful revelation so that our faith in future joy will give us growth in our present experience of joy.

          The central part of this glorious gift is the expression, “enter into the joy of your master.” This tells me a number of very significant things.

          First, this all revolves around someone identified as “your master.” In the parable Jesus was teaching, the figure who says these words to his servants was identified as, “His master.” One of the ways we are to think of our relationship to Jesus Christ is that he is our master, our Lord, our King.

          Second, since the key, joy-giving figure is master, the people represented by the other participants are referred to as servants. When we consider Jesus as our master, the Lord of the kingdom in which we live, then all our business is about him. Life is about him. We have come into his kingdom, to do his will.

          If we put this into parallel thoughts from the rest of Scripture, we could also think of ourselves as sheep in relation to our shepherd, disciples in relationship to our Lord, saints in relation to our Savior, the redeemed in relation to our Redeemer, the secure in relation to our Rock, and the protected ones in relation to our Fortress. If we have the relationship, we have the promise.

          Third, the thing the master wants for his servants is that they would share in his joy. He has rescued us out of our sin because our sin held us under the condemnation of death. He has transferred us into his kingdom so that he, the God of hope, can fill us with “all joy and peace” through our faith in Jesus our Master.[2] He gives us teachings like this parable that assure us that we have the certain hope of eternal joy waiting for us in eternity. This also fulfills the proverb that, “The hope of the righteous brings joy.”[3] Jesus’ parable assures us that our hope includes sharing our master’s joy.

          In this present lifetime, Jesus’ disciples have reason for joy, while accepting that it will be offset by a world full of sorrows. We can presently, “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”[4] while accepting that we will be “grieved by various trials.”[5] Paul could describe himself as, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”[6] He could tell us to, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice,”[7]while telling us that he had, “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart,”[8] because so few of the Jewish people were receiving God’s gift of salvation.

          Part of the, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little;” is that Jesus’ servants faithfully endure suffering in this lifetime while we participate as peacemakers in the growth of the kingdom of heaven. We have “Christ in you, the hope of glory,”[9] so we know the world will persecute us as it persecuted him.[10] However, we also know that the hope of glory includes entering into the joy of our Master when the momentary sufferings of this lifetime are over.[11]

          One reason Jesus can tell his servants that we will enter into his joy is that he has already told us, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”[12] He uses his parable to remind us that those who show their faith by their faithfulness will most certainly enter into his fullness of joy. As a side note, the book of Revelation says the same thing, just in a much longer narrative.

          While we wait for that day of hope-filled joy to arrive, read your Bible. Why? Because Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”[13] If our joy becomes full of his joy by hearing and practicing what Jesus has spoken,[14] we might as well listen up every day and give our joy the best head start on fullness we possibly can.

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] Matthew 25:21, 23

[2] Romans 15:13

[3] Proverbs 10:28

[4] I Peter 1:8

[5] I Peter 1:6

[6] II Corinthians 6:10

[7] Philippians 4:4

[8] Romans 9:1-2

[9] Colossians 1:27

[10] Matthew 5:10-12; John 15:18-27

[11] Romans 8:18

[12] Psalm 16:11

[13] John 15:11

[14] Matthew 7:24-27

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ The Sparkle That is More Than Gold

          Yes, I have been looking for it my whole life. I have not known what it was until distant family members described it to me. Now that I have heard it put it into words, and felt the delightful inner surge of desire to know this with all my heart, and soul, and mind, I can’t stop looking for it wherever I go, and seeking to show it to people all around me.

          The saying, “All that glitters is not gold”,[1] is certainly true. However, while it was originally meant in a negative way, reminding people that very cheap trinkets can glitter as well as valuable pieces of jewelry, it can also remind us of treasure far greater than gold, that presents us with a sparkle even more priceless.

          There is a sparkle of love that is contained in someone’s look that defies the greatest collection of gold, diamonds, or precious stones. To walk into a room and see someone’s face light up because we are there is a greater gift and experience than any material treasure.

          However, for many of us, such talk is like a book club discussing fairy tales. The only stories we know of such things are those we imagine, or those we read of other people we have never met. In real life, anything resembling a sparkle of love in someone’s eyes seems to be a fleeting experience at best.

          The question is, do we have any reason to think of God’s love for his children as something that would approach the wonder of a sparkle in someone’s eyes? Is there anything beyond a figure of speech, or an imaginary encounter, that would give our faith the same gift of delight as when we hear of this elusive glittering love?

          I think of the parables Jesus told when he was trying to help the hypocritical religious leaders understand why he was spending time with “sinners”.[2] To clarify, Jesus was not accepting sinners as they were, and making them feel loved and accepted while they continued in their sins. He was befriending the sinners who heard his preaching of the gospel, repented of their sins, and entered the kingdom of heaven by faith in Jesus as their Messiah.

          In that context, Jesus said that welcoming the sinners into the kingdom of heaven was likened to a shepherd rejoicing over finding a lost sheep, and that the Father in heaven was rejoicing along with Jesus every time one of these sinners repented and received the gospel. He added that the same joy someone would feel when suddenly finding a valuable coin that had been lost is the joy that God feels when these sinners received the gospel and entered the kingdom.

          By the third parable, Jesus spoke very personally of a son who threw away his family, and his inheritance, squandering his life in sinful living. He illustrated God’s response to such a person by describing a father who came running towards his son with joy and love as soon as he saw his son finally returning home.

          All three of these parables declared the same thing, that there is great joy in the one who sits on the throne of heaven, and in the Son who brought the love of God into the flesh of a human being, whenever their lost children return to their home. It is not little joy. It is not letting the sinners come in the back door of the basement and quietly take a seat in the back pew so as not to disturb all the good religious people who have been behaving themselves the whole time (so they thought).

          Rather, it is a kind of love that rejoices when the lost come home. Jesus gave us three witnesses (in his parables), that this is the way God is with us when we come home to him through the gospel of the kingdom.

          These three witnesses revealed what had already been prophesied of the work of God hundreds of years earlier. God’s prophet declared, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”[3]By the time of Jesus’ coming, the majority of the people were living meaningless religion that could not recognize their Messiah because he was so different from what they wanted.

          However, the sinners saw Jesus as someone who rejoiced over them with gladness as they acknowledged and confessed their sin. They were now able to spend time with the Word of God and feel his presence quieting them with his love. His joy over them coming into the kingdom was like one exulting over all these repentance sinners with loud singing.

          Jesus was the one showing us the love of God, the image of the invisible God rejoicing over the last sheep that had come home, the lost coins that had been found, the lost sons who had returned from their sin to once again be at home with their Father.

          There is coming a day when we will no longer need to take these things by faith. Jesus will come in the clouds, making his presence known so clearly that his children rejoice at his appearing.[4] We will suddenly be fully transformed into his likeness because we will see him, and look upon him, and become just like him.[5]

          While the world calls on the rocks and hills to cover them because they see the wrath of this Lamb of God against all their unrepentant sin,[6] the children of God will see the one who rejoices over them with singing as he gathers us all to himself forever and tells us to, “Enter into the joy of your Master”.[7] At that time it will be clear, the predominant description of our firstborn Brother taking us home will be the sparkle of love in his eyes.

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] A phrase made famous by Shakespeare in the late 16^th century, but with historical precedents going back to the 12^th century.

[2] Luke 15

[3] Zephaniah 3:17

[4] Matthew 24:29-31

[5] I John 3:1-2

[6] Revelation 6:15-17

[7] Matthew 25:21, 23