Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Choosing

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Someone came to Jesus with this question:  “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  “Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied.  “There is only One who is good.  But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.”  “Which ones?” the man asked.  And Jesus replied:  “‘You must not murder.  You must not commit adultery.  You must not steal.  You must not testify falsely.  Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  “I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied.  “What else must I do?”  Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.  Matthew 19:16-22

On the pages of Scripture, we find a commonality of human experience, namely, except for Jesus, there isn't a sinless character in the Bible.  I'm glad we see the "warts" of such heroes as Moses, Abraham and Peter.  Each of them experienced that what's the use feeling from time to time.  Aimlessness, or purposelessness, is tied very closely to man's innate need to know and experience the presence of God.  It is the lack of that close relationship with God that causes the void in life.
An unbeliever experiencing that void is understandable.  His need can be filled by being born again.  But, what about when a professing Christian is aimless?  Does that mean he really isn't saved?  That may be so in some cases.  In many more it is simply a signal that the believer has dropped the ball in his relationship with the Lord.  God is never the one who drops the ball!  God is our purpose and reason for living.  Without Him as our focus, we tire of life's toys and distractions and begin to feel empty.
The common human experience is that nobody is immune to the void.  In the account of this rich young ruler, it was that restless feeling that there was something he'd left undone with his life that prompted this question.  It's very much like attending your wife's high school reunion . . . unless you went to the same school, somehow you just don't fit in. 
Jesus pointed the man to all God had said about behaving yourself.  But the man wasn't content with superficial rules-keeping; he'd done that all his life.  He was rich, obedient, morally-sound; he had everything you need for a bell-ringer of a life!  But, inside there was no peace.  We can't be fulfilled outside of a close, loving fellowship with God. 
The tragedy of our current culture which is obsessed with booze, materialism, Hollywood glitz and sex, is that the frantic race for a higher high, a longer lasting popularity, and different experience is exactly what rocker Mick Jagger howled in his Rolling Stones days:  I try, and I try, and I try, and I try; I can't get no satisfaction!  Grammar aside, the man expressed what the whole world should know, apart from Jesus, you can't get no satisfaction!
Those who've never been born again have never known genuine satisfaction.  Those who have, should know better than to slip away from that close fellowship.  But we do! And the reality about emptiness is that we choose it.  Jesus wanted the ruler to choose a relationship with Himself.  The only requirement was to remove whatever stood between.  The man had already dealt with the one thing that trips most of us - pride!  Just coming to Jesus with his questions shows the ruler wasn't prideful.  The problem was his materialism.  When confronted with that choice - Jesus or his wealth - the ruler was sad.  He was sad at having glimpsed the one thing that would have given him peace (what he was really seeking) and choosing the opposite. 
We are strange people indeed, when we choose death over life.  Pagans choose to remain separated from God eternally.  Believers, who have tasted the goodness of fellowship with God, sometimes choose to wallow in the emptiness of unbelief. 
For You Today
Reality is that you cannot have new life if you refuse to let go of the old. 
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Heinrich Hofmann Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons     Unless noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

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