By Evangelist Francie D. Jones
In the Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 18 verses 18- 23, it records the conversation between Jesus and a rich young ruler . The young man appeared to be a upstanding, model citizen, morally good and a religious church member. He really felt like he was certainly deserving of eternal life, given his religious track record. Then Jesus began to list the lawful duties of a good church members: "Honor thy Father and Mother; do not committ adultery; thou shalt not steal The young man very proudly replied, "these things I have kept from my youth". It was almost like modern day responses when you ask people do they know the Lord. You will get such answers as, "I've been knowing him all my life" or "Yes, I'm a member of this church" or "Oh yes, I was baptized when I was a child" or the popular one - "I couldn't have made it this far without him".
However, the young man willing to test the Lord before all and prove his worthiness to be granted heaven's citizenship asked, "What lacketh I still?" Then this gave Jesus the opportunity to probe deeper into the very heart of this young man and proposed that he take a greater step in his faith and sell all that he had and give it to the poor.
Well, this was going too far, the young man must have thought, and surely it doesn't take all that to get to heaven. Going to church every sabbath day and being nice to my neighbors and not smoking, drinking, gambling or lying - that should get me more than enough points to get to heaven by anybody's standard. One thing he was overlooking is God's standard, not man's standard. We shouldn't judge ourselves by others but by the Word of God. (That's what God is going to use in judgement.)
Jesus greatest test question really came down to, "Are you willing to give your all - even if it means the very thing you love the most?" In this man's case, it was his wealth and he failed the test, because the Bible says, he went away "sorrowful for he had great riches". He just couldn't see himself living without it. In Abraham's case in he was put to the test with his beloved son Issac that God told him to sacrifice unto him in Genesis 22. But Abraham passed the test because even though it hurt sorely to think of giving up his only son, yet he was willing to do it if that's what God required. The great lesson that we learn from that is God is faithful and will always provide. You have to believe that with all your heart in order to see it happen in miraculous ways.
In another passage of scripture (Luke 9:24-25), Jesus takes his listeners by surprise when he makes the great statement, "if you save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life you will save it." What a paradox - what kind of sense does that make? Never a man, or philosopher or great orator spoke like this before. What does he mean? Simply that we need to surrender all to God and stop holding onto to things so dearly that are preventing us from serving the Lord with our whole heart. Because if you put it ahead of God, he's going to take it anyway. But if you dedicate all to him, then he will bless you.
In the rich young rulers case, it was his money. Maybe you are saying, well I certainly don't fall into that category because I can barely make ends meet. But how do you react when you are challenged to give up that little that you have. If you refuse or hold back, then your response is the same as the rich young ruler. You are holding on to something that God could take away from you at anytime.
Take the attitude that you really don't have anything anyway without God's blessings and whatever God wants you to have, he will more than abundantly provide. Look at our other example Abraham, who raised the knife, willing to sacrifice his child but God stepped in and made another way.
Often, church people are willing to give a few hours in church weekly, but what about volunteer service to help the multitude of needy segments of our society in hospitals, prisons, rescue missions, children's homes, the homeless and the list goes on. Most are not willing to give of themselves. Their only concern is my family, my house, my car, my pay check, my problems, my job, my pride, etc. God can take all of this away in just a moment, then what will you have?
The old church hymn sums it up beautifully,
"Jesus paid it all - all to him I owe - sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow".
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