20 September 2020
Two-Minute Features | 27 September 2020 | 13 September 2020

Does God Treat Everyone the Same? (TMF:1465)

Friday, September 25, 2020
Peace to Live By: Does God Treat Everyone the Same? (TMF:1465) - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download two-minute feature)

       They played the comparative game. They compared themselves with the other workers, just like we so often do in various areas of our own lives. And we can have the temptation, like they did, of pointing the finger at God when we feel we are not being treated fairly compared to so and so. We have a prideful attitude. We can say, “But my friend over here was married when she was 25 years old, and my other friend when she was 27. I’m 33 and still not married. That’s not fair, God.” Or, we can say, “My friend makes $55,000 a year. And my other friend makes $70,000. I only make $35,000. God, what’s going on? That’s not fair!” We can play the comparative game all day long. That’s what Facebook is about for a lot of people, right? But the reality is, is that God is doing no wrong in giving one person this, and another person that, and whatever he gives us. Everything belongs to him and he can do as he pleases. In reality, he didn’t even have to give us all that he has. But this likely strikes a prideful nerve in many of us.

Will We All Get the Same Rewards? Part 3 (TMF:1464)

Thursday, September 24, 2020
Peace to Live By: Will We All Get the Same Rewards? Part 3 (TMF:1464) - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download two-minute feature)

       The person who has served Christ all his life will likely have an abundance of rewards in Heaven, a great amount of friendships and possessions. The person who accepts Christ toward the end of his life may not have much to show in regard to rewards. This is just another reason not to put off salvation for anyone listening today who is not a believer, who hasn’t accepted Jesus as Savior and Guide. If you really want to have abundance in friendships and possessions in the future, those that last for all eternity, the earlier you can get started investing the better. But I brought up this parable also because I think as we read it, many of us come away from it still feeling like somehow the workers who came early got ripped. We may feel like they should have gotten more, like they argued for. And really what we need to see here is that there is no lack of justice on the part of the master of the house here. The problem is that the early workers, in seeing the later workers get a full days wages for their work, made an assumption. They assumed they would get more than the people who came late.

Will We All Get the Same Rewards? Part 2 (TMF:1463)

Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Peace to Live By: Will We All Get the Same Rewards? Part 2 (TMF:1463) - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download two-minute feature)

       A person might be saved when he is three or four years old, and a person may be saved as a 77 year old man on his deathbed. But both people are going to get the same thing, which is salvation from sin and Heaven for eternity. God can save people when he chooses to save them. This doesn’t mean a person should put off salvation and accept Jesus later in life, wishing to have so-called fun in sin during life. For one does not know when he or she will die, and such an idea would be foolish. A person can be killed in an unexpected instant, and then spend forever in the future in Hell. Besides, God is not mocked—and it’s not a smart idea to put him to the test. In other words, a person who accepts Christ as a young person and a person who accepts Christ later in life are equal as pertains to salvation. Nonetheless, it should be noted that this doesn’t mean each of these individuals will have the same experience in Heaven.

Will We All Get the Same Rewards? Part 1 (TMF:1462)

Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Peace to Live By: Will We All Get the Same Rewards? Part 1 (TMF:1462) - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download two-minute feature)

       For our next hard saying from our Lord Jesus, turn or tap one chapter over, to Matthew 20. Let’s go to verse 12, and pick up at the end of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. I believe this passage comes at an interesting time here for us because we just talked about storing up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. And, at first appearance, this parable would seem to indicate that people who start later will get the same thing as those who started earlier. Nevertheless, Jesus in this parable is not talking about rewards we, as believers, will get in Heaven when we die. What this parable is talking about is the salvation that is given to all who accept it through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In the parable, the master of the house represents Jesus. The idea here is that people who are saved early in their lives will get the same thing, that is, salvation, as those who are saved late in their lives.

Where Should We Invest our Wealth? (TMF:1461)

Monday, September 21, 2020
Peace to Live By: Where Should We Invest our Wealth? (TMF:1461) - Daniel Litton
(Tap or right-click link to download two-minute feature)

       Back in Matthew 6, Jesus had talked about where we should invest our wealth. He said, ”Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21, ESV). Things we have here on earth are only temporary things. As the Apostle Paul told Timothy, “We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Timothy 6:7; see also Ecclesiastes 5:15, 16). However, we can invest now in the next life. We have a 401k, per se, that is located in the next life. And we invest into it by loving God, being obedient to him, following his Word—and by loving others as we already love ourselves. When we do these things, we are storing up eternal possessions for ourselves that we get to have forever.