Living a life purpose

Luke 18:9–14 Pride isn't always loud or obvious. It doesn't always appear as arrogance or boastful words. More often, it quietly settles into our hearts, convincing us that we're doing well because we're doing better than someone else. It whispers, "You've got this. You're not as bad as they are." Before we realise it, we've stopped depending on God's grace and started depending on ourselves. In Luke 18:9–14, Jesus tells a striking parable about two men who went to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector. At first glance, the Pharisee seems like the one we should admire. He lived a disciplined life, fasted twice a week, faithfully tithed, and avoided many of the obvious sins of his day. Yet as he prayed, something was terribly wrong. Instead of worshipping God, he compared himself with others. Rather than recognising his own need for mercy, he thanked God that he wasn't like "those people." His confiden...

When Grace Leaves No Room for Comparison Matthew 20:1–16 One of Jesus' most thought-provoking parables is the story of the workers in the vineyard. A landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard and agreed to pay them one denarius for the day's work. Throughout the day he continued to hire more workers—some at mid-morning, others at noon, some later in the afternoon, and even others just an hour before the working day ended. When evening came, something unexpected happened. The landowner paid every worker the same wage. Those who had worked from sunrise expected to receive more. After all, they had carried the burden of the day's labour and endured the heat. Yet they received exactly what had been promised. They became upset—not because they had been treated unfairly, but because others had received the same gift. A matter of the heart This parable reveals something deeper than a disagreement about wages. It exposes the condition...