The Upper Room scripture reading for today is a story I have read often in Luke 18:18-30. It is the story of the rich, young ruler who asks Jesus, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" An excellent question. One I know many of us have asked at one time or another. I also am glad this guy went to Jesus with the question. I can't think of anyone better to ask this question.
If I were asked this question (and it has happened before) my response would be like many other Christians I know today. I would say, "the way to eternal life is to believe in Jesus as your savior." And I still think that is a partial right answer, but I am becoming more and more convinced that this is not the complete answer. It is an easier answer then the full answer and maybe that is why we often stop there.
What was Jesus' response? He did not mention anything about believing. First he mentions portions of the Ten Commandments. The man says he has followed those. So Jesus gives him one more thing to do, actually Jesus gives him two more commands. First, he must give all he has to the poor, then he must follow Jesus.
After this the man goes away sad, which is always frustrating to me. He came to Jesus with a great question. He gets the answer, which I would be glad to have, but he is sad because apparently it was not the answer he wanted.
See, I think the answer many of us want for our "ticket" to eternal life is just believing in Jesus. Believing is not always easy, but it is easier than giving all we have to the poor and following Jesus. Believing, we can do any time, any where. But giving to the poor would require us to be with the poor, to be sacrificing our desires for their needs. It requires a lot of work and action. I am not saying believing in Jesus is not a good thing, it is, but I am being challenged by God to live more than just believe. I am being challenged, and called to challenge others, to really live their eternal life now. To change our actions so that they are representative of Jesus and his life. We must act differently if we proclaim we believe in Jesus.
What does that look like? Well, for this rich man it was to give all he had to the poor. I don't know that this is every one's call. It may have been specific to this man because he was gifted at making money. Your call would probably be something around the gifts you have. What that call will look like for each of us will be different, but it will all be about following Jesus. That is our call. To believe in him and because we believe we then start to follow him. That is how we inherit eternal life.
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- Pastor James
- I am married to the beautiful and talented Helen. We have two wonderful children that keep us on our toes. Together we pastor St. Paul's UMC in Williamsburg, Iowa, a congregation that is growing and following God's great adventure.
4 comments:
God must be trying to speak to me right now and maybe to the other's who are reading the Mary/Martha book for Sunday night women's study. I just read about this man last night in that book. Yes, I'm a chapter behind, forgive me! LOL! I'm at work right now but I want to share a little bit out of it tomorrow. It's just funny how in detail it was in the book and went right along with the devotion today!
On the spiritual gifts thing... I have found this to be EXTREMELY important in my life. I'm VERY big on encouraging people to find what their spiritual gifts are and helping people figure out how to use them for God's purpose. You can Google Spiritual Gifts Test or here's a site that adults & youth can do online. http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com/
Okay, I'll write more tomorrow if I can remember my book! Until then!
Jamie
I do believe that to truly follow Christ we do have to take up our cross and follow Him. Each person will have a different "cross" to bear, a different sacrifice they have to make in their life. I also feel that at different times in our lives we will have different sacrifices to make to follow Jesus at that time.
Okay folks... our Mary/Martha book was talking about a similar story found in Luke 10:25. The story starts out the same but the Mary/Martha one is teaching how to balance worship and service where the devotion was something different... did I mention I'm A.D.D.? LOL! I still give myself 2 snaps for trying though! LOL!
Yes, Jamie...I DO know that you are ADD. And what I want to say is more along the lines you were going...balance. John and I have always thought balance in your life was very important. when we look at candidates for our clients or even potential employees for our own business, we look at their complete picture. The resumes are nice but tell us what you do when you are not breeding corn, selling alfalfa, recruiting people. How do you pay your community rent? Time is a valuable commodity and for so many of us, we get all tied up doing too many things with little time for what is really important to our souls and our faith calling. Making those choices is hard at times but the pay off is great! Jeanie
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