For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Jesus…said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor…and come, take up the cross, and follow Me." MARK 10:21
The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
“One thing you lack….” From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.
“…sell whatever you have….” I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. “…come…and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.

[Boaz]

To carry his cross , to surrender to him . Thank you Ronnie

[Blackwater]

Wow! This one's always been a problem for a lot of us. What does it MEAN, though? I think Christ saw the rich man as wanting to dabble in following Him, and that he wasn't really committed to anything Christ was trying to relate to him. Thus, Christ was basically asking this man to be serious about it, and follow Him in more than just words. Words come easy. Following Christ was NEVER meant to be an easy thing to do. It's a constant challenge. We continually fight our basic and most innate and strogest aspects of our "human nature." We are constantly tempted to stray "just this one time," and we can make up all sorts of excuses for doing so.

But in reality, and in the end, Christ's advice and instruction is the ONLY way we'll ever truly be happy. We've seen a candidate for the Supreme Court, now, treated not unlike Christ was at the sentencing for his crucifixion. And all because he was "too good to be true," and because he couldn't and would never go along with the rending asunder of the Constitution, as some so desperately want to do now. So, he suffered the "slings and arrows" of the wrath of those whose only "moral" is "you're either with us, or you're desperately evil and deserve to be killed or neutralized forever." So all this really IS relevant to all our lives, and it's relevant TODAY. And it'll always be relevant, and it'll always produce consequences when we allow ourselves to be side-tracked, or whenever we fail to defend what we know, inwardly, to be true and just and honorable.

There's no "soft way" to follow Christ. There's no "near enough," no "safe way," and no "sufficient for the moment." We either uphold what He so laboriously tried to teach us, or either we fall off the wagon. Our Lord DIED for us, and he suffered inhuman punishment before he died. Are we now to expect to have a party while we follow Him? There's no way the world about us will ever allow that to happen. It's sad, but true.

However, when we truly DO follow Him, our lives become satisfying, and we have many opportunities to laugh and enjoy each other's company and wit. So we DO have a lot of fun. It's just not the kind that Satan wants us to be a part of. Few of us really get it fully "right," but those that do, always seem to be the happiest, most fulfilled people we know. That's no accident! It's what Christ intended for us to be, if we'd just follow Him.