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How did you come to be in your current church?
Friend/s invited me I walked past I searched the internet I was looking for love I needed help of some sort Somebody recommended it I heard about it through radio/tv discussion Through my mailbox I saw an advert

 Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. "What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."

A young person is quite confident, none more than the 'sons of thunder' because this was the nickname given to these two men. Their mother thought that her begging would get them to sit on the right and left of Jesus in his Kingdom. Living more than 2000 years later we have history to tell us what happend to Jesus, but if you were there, now, and didn't know the rest of the story, do you think you'd view Jesus' way of victory differently - perhaps a coup? James and John were definitley going to take part in Jesus plan 'drink my cup' but are the places of honour something you could plead for, and will they be given to those who use force?

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them,  "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" Matthew 20:17-19

'Jerusalem' - The name means City Of Peace, but what peace is there? What would it be like to be aware that you are about to be put to death? An immense amount of pain awaits Jesus, pain that will be administered by his own beloved children. What peace could there be in a place that contains the death of God. The name is eiether wrong, or it is a name that relates to the last phrase - on the third day he will be raised to life. How does Jesus know what his future holds? First the Jews will condemn him, but afraid of actually carrying out the deed of spilling blood, they will hand him over to the gentiles to put him to death. Betrayer is perhaps worse than murderer.

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' " 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."  Matthew 20:1-16

This is an analogy, the Kingdom of Heaven is being illustrated by the way a landowner pays his workers. The one's who were hired at the beginning of the day get paid last and aren't paid per hour, but per agreement. They have to wait longer for their reward and then they get the same! Do you expect some special reward for long-service? Jesus/Isa points out here it is God's generosity (or mercy) that I am entitled to work for him; so am I actually grateful, or do I think I deserve something special? The reward IS heaven!