"In prayer you shall perceive ... the way out of every situation that has no exit." 
                                                                                                           - Medjugorje March 28, 1985

"Do novenas of fasting and renunciation so that satan be far from you and grace be around you"                                                                                                             -  Medjugorje July 25, 2005

____________________________________________________________________________

Dear Friends,

          So often, when we read the parables of Jesus, we can understand them intellectually, but the fact is, that very few of us in this modern culture have any experience with tending sheep, sowing seed, or dressing vines.

Recently, we were asked to help bring in the harvest of Alberino grapes in a local vineyard when the regular crew could not make it to work. Since I had never done anything like that before, it seemed like it would be an interesting experience.

It was a beautiful morning before sunrise, and the Texas heat hadn’t even gotten started yet.  We were each handed shears and an empty bucket and given short instructions on what to look for and how to harvest the clusters of grapes. About ten volunteers were each assigned a row and began slowly working down the assigned row, moving the leaves, backlit by the rising sun, to reveal perfectly ripe clusters of grapes. We snipped and snipped, steadily filling our buckets. Each full bucket was picked up by a man riding down the vineyard rows on an ATV and replaced with an empty bucket. 

The experience helped me to understand some of the sense of Jesus’ parable about a vineyard owner hiring workers at the beginning of the day, midday, and near the end of the day. In the 20th chapter of Matthew, the vineyard owner hires laborers several times during the day, and at the end of the day, he pays those hired late in the day the same wage as those hired at the beginning of the day. Those who had worked the longest grumbled about the perceived injustice of it. As a volunteer “hireling” who started at six am, I could entirely feel, if I had labored the entire day through the heat, how irritating it would feel to see others paid so well for such little work.  The Vineyard owner in the parable points out though, that there is no injustice if those hired at first were paid what they were promised. True enough. What he pays those hired later is his own prerogative.

On the other hand, though, seeing the urgency of the Texas vineyard manager whose crew had failed him, I could understand why a manger would go out to try to hire more and yet more crews. When the fruit is ripe, it is ripe and must be harvested in a very short window. And all of it must be harvested at the same time in order to crush all the grapes at the same time and put the juice in the vat. If at noon, he had seen that it was impossible to harvest all in one day with the crew at hand, he would desperately go get some more workers and then again more lest the grapes spoil on the vine. 

The Lord in this parable is the vineyard owner who hires us to work in His vineyard. His business dealing is with each worker, and we do not need to worry about anyone else. Additionally, there is an urgency to bring in the harvest in the vineyard of the Lord, and we should be happy that the harvest will come in and not be left to rot. Jesus said to His disciples in Matt 9:37, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into His harvest.” 

One last idea:  often when a row was finished, a volunteer would help another volunteer with his row, meeting him in the middle. As the laborers met, there would be a basic introduction of how we found out about the harvest day, our relationship to the vineyard, a few personal details, and then we would continue harvesting. There was minimal contact as we were generally working in different areas with intermittent contact.

Likewise, in the harvest of the Lord, many laborers are working seemingly unrelated to each other but all working with the same purpose and all harvesting small amounts steadily. What a shock it was then to find out that at the end of the morning, we few volunteers had harvested over 2500 lbs. of grapes! God willing, it will be like that in heaven where we will see the total work of our hands, and we will be stunned.

Thank you for fasting with us today – You will be glad you made the effort for all of eternity!

PS – We are hiring for evangelist positions in the vineyard. If you fast regularly and feel led to reach out, let us know.

____________________________________________________________________________

Why We Fast – Our Core Fasting Intentions

1) For the Holy Spirit to reign down upon America renewing our land as the Christian, capitalist meritocracy we were founded to be.

2) For the protection of our police, firefighters, military and their families from harm and that the Lord bless their courageous generosity on our behalf one hundredfold.

3) For the protection of the families who fast with us, and for God’s blessings of abundance upon them and that true to His word, we will be able to witness that He prospered us in famine.

Would you like to learn more about fasting?

We maintain a repository of ideas and information we have learned over the last decade while fasting weekly for America. From scientific studies on the benefits of fasting, to the differences between intermittent dieting vs intermittent fasting, to scriptural references regarding the power of fasting to the history of first century Christians who stated believers are obligated to fast weekly, we hope you will find numerous insights with our free resource located here.

Together let us also implore Heaven while fasting for intentions you have highlighted:

4) For Mike Lindell who is putting himself on the front lines suing over the election fraud that has taken place and for all of the warriors who are stepping up around the nation to fight for the gospel – May The Father cover them in the blood of our savior,  protect them and their families from evil and bring victory to their endeavors.

5) For priests, ministers and all who aspire to lead others to the Lord, that the Holy Spirit will reign down upon them as at Pentecost filling them to overflowing with an understanding of what the Lord wants, courage and the desire to preach what He would have them preach and protection and strength from all evil that comes against them. 

6) For the Americans jailed after January 6th who were admitted to the Capitol building by the police, and who were not found to have destroyed any property at the capitol yet who have been held captive ever since on our own soil - That God's Spirit will move quickly to bring justice back to this land by freeing them while enlightening Americans how to bring God's justice back to our nation.

7) For young Megan who has an incurable liver condition @ Duke Hospital - Asking the Divine Physician for a complete healing.