Sell Everything

A ruler asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus responded with telling the ruler he must follow God's commands.  The ruler said he had kept those since he was a boy.  Yet still Jesus said he was missing something.  Whether we have followed the commandments as closely as this ruler or not Jesus commands us all to, "Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me." (Luke 18:22)  Sell everything your wealth, sell your material possessions, sell your comfort, sell your food, sell everything that is not Jesus.  Give it to the poor.  Then after you have done this Jesus says "Come, follow me."  Are we willing to literally sell everything, to come follow Jesus?

Our purpose in this life is to love God and Jesus Christ our savior.  Love for God is defined in 1 John the word reads, "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says 'I know him', but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.  This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." (2:3-6)  How much do we know God, do we love him, do we truly seek him if we do not follow his command to sell everything and give to the poor?  

I will continue to write on this topic of losing everything to gain life to the full with Christ, as God has really really convicted me with the greed, comfort, and selfishness of my life.  Jesus never told us to live comfortably, he never said life would be easy, lazy, full of sitting, full of entertaining yourself, or safe.  He tells us that a life following him and loving him is full of adventure, risk, it is uncomfortable, against the grain, dangerous, not culturally normal, it is hard, but this life with Christ will be freeing and will be revolutionary.  God is not always safe, but he is always good and he is always king! I pray that I not only write about this, but that I live it.  I challenge you to do the same.

"You do not believe a thing rightly until you act in accordance with it." - AW Tozer

The Route Home

We must repent
Our lives reinvent
He has given us grace
To the Lord we must face
Easy to wander, easy to stray
As Satan asks us to lay
But to the Lord we run
And to Satan we shun
Are you truly in His house,
where Satan hides quiet as a mouse?

A Life of Ease Or Him Well Pleased

Do I need this comfortable life,
or should I be living in strife?
Is this a blessing,
or is it a testing?
Do I live with those in need,
or do I embrace this life of greed?
Do I need material things,
or to the poor show the King?
To which a life of truth springs?
To which does death lose its sting?

If We Don't Have Love, We Are Nothing

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

We can possess everything we could ever imagine, we can achieve everything we ever wanted to, we can achieve unparalleled levels of success, we can do everything to bring us happiness.

or

We can have faith that can move mountains, we can give away all of these possessions, we can persevere through hardship, we can do works for God.

Either way if we do not have Love, we gain nothing. we do not make a sound. we are nothing.

The Power of Christ

This is an amazing redemption story of our need for Christ and his undeniable power to heal us.