When we got saved, God didn’t promise us material riches. I’m skeptical of anyone who says they were converted when they thought there would be money if they got saved. This is nothing new; throughout history, there have been people who would make a profession of faith for the material things they wanted. These people have become known as “Rice Christians”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term “Rice Christian”<\/strong> refers to people who formally convert to Christianity primarily for material benefits\u2014such as food, medical aid, social safety, or education\u2014rather than out of genuine spiritual belief. The term was originally coined by missionaries who wanted to express God’s love by offering rice to those who were experiencing famine or extreme poverty. But the missionaries noticed a disturbing pattern beginning to emerge in their efforts. As long as they were handing out rice, they would see crowds of people coming to the faith, but when the rice ran out, these so-called converts abandoned the faith just as quickly as they embraced it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ___________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes it’s not just about what God can give you but what he doesn’t give you. If God gave you $5 million but gave $50 million to someone else, what would you do? Would you be thankful for $5 million, which is no small change, or will you be resentful that you didn’t get the $50 million that someone else might have gotten?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a story in the Bible called the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard<\/em>. This is a parable about what God chooses to give each one of us and what our response tells us about ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>\u201cFor the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. <\/sup>He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup>\u201cAbout nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. <\/sup>He told them, \u2018You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.\u2019 5 <\/sup>So they went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. <\/sup>About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, \u2018Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018Because no one has hired us,\u2019 they answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe said to them, \u2018You also go and work in my vineyard.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup>\u201cWhen evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, \u2018Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup>\u201cThe workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. <\/sup>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. <\/sup>\u2018These who were hired last worked only one hour,\u2019 they said, \u2018and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup>\u201cBut he answered one of them, \u2018I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn\u2019t you agree to work for a denarius? <\/sup>Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. <\/sup>Don\u2019t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup>\u201cSo the last will be first, and the first will be last.\u201d Matthew 20:1\u201316)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we got saved, God didn’t promise us material riches. I’m skeptical of anyone who says they were converted when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d2e2a50a-74e1-4341-a24e-d4ab5c41aa6d.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6524"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6544,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions\/6544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanjordan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n