Then He began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
"Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
"So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
Mark 12:1-11
Jesus gives such a vivid picture of what the day of His suffering and death would be like. Notice one little sentence at the end of this parable; He says, "Have you not read the Scripture?" Before we had Jesus Christ in our lives, we were aimless and yet we thought we had some agenda we needed to accomplish in this life. Little did we know that we could only have complete fulfillment when we understood what it meant for Jesus to die for our sins. No more agenda. No more religion. "Have you not read the Scripture?" When you found the Bible and started reading the Word of God, it set you free and you found out that love is what being a Christian is all about.
Don't add to the Gospel and make Christianity a bunch of religious jargon and nonsense. Read the Word of God and live by what it says. If you don't have a red-letter Bible, go buy one and start reading all of the words in red; these are the words that Jesus Himself said. Start there in your daily reading and start taking to heart what Jesus is saying to you. When you start falling in love with the Bible, you fall in love with Jesus. It's all about Him. The Scriptures bring the heart of God to us and bring our heart to God. They open us up and they speak to us. And today more than ever we need the Word of God in our hearts, stirring us up to live our lives with purpose and meaning. Don't be like the Pharisees who acted religiously but didn't even see Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, right in front of them. We have God's revelation right here in front of us. Take full advantage of that wonderful and precious gift. Get into His Word and meditate on it every day.
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