25A23.    Isaiah 55:6-9.   “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near.”  Lost in our humanness, some may think that God does not seem to show up anywhere in one’s life. They think that perhaps God is lost in some other world.   God is not lost, we are.  God can be found; he has always been right here.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”  But the Spirit has been given to us to make God’s ways our ways by making room for God to be the very center of our lives, around whom and in whom our lives are lived.

Mathew 20:1-16a.  In this parable the landowner, who I believe is to be identified as Jesus speaking of himself, is saying that he will give heavenly goods not only to those who inherited them by birth, the Jews, but also to others who now receive heavenly goods by only recently putting their faith in Christ.  “What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?” “Are you envious because I am generous?  Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  We receive God’s heavenly gifts here on earth by living a life of faith in him and thus becoming first.

Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a.  Paul is saying that his life is all about Christ who is his life.  Everything Paul does, thinks or says reflects the Christ who is the one who is what Paul’s life is all about.  For Paul going up to heaven to have a complete and total union with Jesus would be great but there is still so much more to be done here on earth to accomplish the work that Jesus has for him to do for the benefit of the people to whom Jesus has sent Paul.  Paul is wonderful example for us to live our lives in the Lord.