Mike's reply to the Little Foxes

We have a tendency to focus on the foxes.
But what is the vineyard?
If we don’t know what our “grapes” are, how can we recognize when they’re being destroyed?
Are we trying to grow obedience? Integrity? Knowledge?
When Jesus was asked what the “first” (most important) commandment was, He responded “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength”  and the second: “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Love of God must be our primary crop - - everything else comes from or after it.  If we don’t understand God’s love for us, we can’t love in return.
And we can’t love ourselves, which means we can’t love our neighbor.
It is interesting that when the scribe showed his understanding of what Jesus had said (he had “repented”, or changed his thinking), Jesus let him know he was “not far from the kingdom of God.”
If others don’t see that we love them, they don’t see that we are disciples.  We may be “Christians” (saved), but we really aren’t His disciples.  The foxes (petty issues between people) are destroying the vineyard (the love of God).
A military Chaplain and friend was the best example of this to me.  I could spend all day picking apart his theology, but I couldn’t overlook the love that radiated from him.  It was very, very obvious that he was a disciple of the Living God.  And it was that love, more than anything else in my life, that made me want to have a relationship with God and continues to motivate me.