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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we deny him,
\nhe will also deny us;
\n13 if we are faithless,
\nhe remains faithful,
\nfor he cannot deny himself. (II Timothy 2:12b \u2013 13\u201d)<\/p>\n
Imagine if you will a large vineyard outside a small town in Central Texas. One morning the owner decides it is time to begin the harvest. He drives into town to the Sam\u2019s Club, where all the day laborers hang out, and says, \u201ccome on folks, I need help in my fields. Its a hundred dollars for the day and I provide lunch.\u201d Well some of them pile into his truck, others get in their trucks, and they follow him out to vineyard.\u00a0 Soon he has set them to work in harvesting grapes, hauling grapes to the presses, taking out the remains, and generally keeping the vineyard in good order.<\/p>\n
Then out by highway a couple of men find that a tree has blown over and blocks access to several rows of grapes. They can\u2019t move it themselves, so they start looking out for help. Pretty soon they see a pickup coming down the road with out of state plates and four big guys in the back, so they flag it down. \u201cYou boys want to make some money, come help us move this tree. The owner\u2019s paying $100.00 a day for workers.\u201d The men in the truck like the sound of that and pull over into the shade, jump out and start putting their backs into moving the tree. After a while another truck passes. The driver sees the men at work and she pulls over. She has a chain saw, and so she volunteers to help cut the tree into more manageable pieces. Before long the group of workers are hauling wood and stacking it along the fence line. By afternoon all of them are back to harvesting grapes, making up with extra labor the time lost to the tree.<\/p>\n
Finally, as the sun sets, the workers make their way up to main house. There the owner of the vineyard stands, ready to pay his laborers. One of them steps up and the owner says, \u201cDid you give me a day\u2019s work?\u201d The man says \u201cYes.\u201d But owner has been watching this old boy and sort of clears his throat and says, \u201cReally?\u201d Now the worker knows he\u2019s been caught and says, \u201cWell maybe I did spend some time talking to Jim about his new car, and maybe I did take a little nap in the afternoon, but that was just to make me more productive when I was working.\u201d The owner looks at him hard and says, \u201cWell I promised a days wages for day\u2019s work, and although I\u2019m not sure you gave me a day\u2019s work, you were here all day and I keep my promises \u2013 so here\u2019s your hundred.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next fellow steps up and the owner says, \u201cI don\u2019t think I know you.\u201d The man answers, \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know you either. Me and these boys, we\u2019re from out of state, your men flagged us down to help them with a tree out by the highway and we stayed on to help with the harvest.\u201d The owner said, \u201cWell I promised to pay a day\u2019s wages for a day\u2019s labor, and although I didn\u2019t hire you, you were willing to work in my fields. I keep my promises; here is your hundred, and one each for the others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now just then the owner looks across the yard and sees a guy taking a bin of the grapes and putting them in his truck. The owner says, \u201cHey you! What are you doing with my grapes? I know you, I called you at the Sam\u2019s club with the others. You work for me \u2013 put those down.\u201d The man looks back at him and says, \u201cI don\u2019t work for you. I\u2019m an independent contractor and I\u2019m taking the grapes I picked and going home.\u201d A deep frown crosses the owners face. He looks at the \u201cindependent contractor\u201d and says, \u201cIf you don\u2019t know me, I guess I don\u2019t know you, but I know my grapes, and you can\u2019t have \u2019em. You\u2019d better leave now, and leave grapes behind, before there\u2019s trouble.\u201d The man then shouts back, \u201cIf I can\u2019t have my grapes I want my hundred dollars.\u201d To which the owner replies, \u201cI pay those who work for me, even if I\u2019ve never met \u2019em. But I don\u2019t owe anything to those work for themselves. Get out of here, and leave my grapes behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so the man left, and we don\u2019t know if he was still waiting for work the next time the vineyard owner came round Sam\u2019s Club looking for workers, or whether he was still working for himself.<\/p>\n
Robert Hunt<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
:I keep my promises”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":965,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-identity","category-home-page"],"yoast_head":"\n