There's no place like home. That Dorothy definitely knew what she was talking about. It took Marge & me 26 hours to get home and at 11pm last night we pulled into the driveway of our home sweet home. It's odd, we've owned this house for 3 months but have only slept here for 3 weeks but it feels like home. What a blessing home is.
We ended up getting stuck in Seattle for 8 hours before we finally found a direct flight to DFW & we jumped on it quick! There is a fine art to travelling & adaptation on the fly is critical...go with the flow & be ready for change. I think the same can be said for life. When your flight gets cancelled in life what are you gonna do? But that's an interesting topic for another day, lets get into the day's 5MC.
I had a late start this morning after sleeping until 10:30, it's crazy how your body adjusts to an 11 hour time difference. Regardless, my first thought of the day is of God's Word and it's lesson for the day. I thank God for the hunger He gives me for His Word.
On a side note, let me also say what a joy it is to be back in the US where I can freely write whatever I want about Jesus, the Bible, God & the Gospel without fear of who is monitoring it. We were carefuly instructed about what we could write & where its written because of the possibility of Chinese monitoring. We're richly blessed to live in free country!
I'm continuing on in Luke this morning and in chapter 18 I read about the physician Luke's account of the rich ruler. (In Mark it's the rich "young" ruler so we can surmise he is a younger man) This story teaches us so much. It starts out teaching that no one is good except God alone. (v19) We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of god. (Romans 3:23) It then goes on to teach us that we can keep all the commandments we want but will still fall short of the true glory of God.
The rich young ruler says that he has kept all the commandemnets but then Jesus hits him where his true love lies. "sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me." But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich." (v22-23)
The last Sunday we were in Hong Kong, Marge & I had the awesome opportunity to attend church at The Vine on Hong Kong island. What a joy to stand in an SAR of China (special administrative region) with several hundred other believers and worship our risen Lord & Savior. What a sweet spirit in that place. The Pastor taught on the book of Proverbs and had a great quote that really spoke to me. In fact I wrote it on the inside cover of my bible. (yes, you should write in your bible!)
"The decision to govern our own lives always leads to idolatry; where something other than God receives our worship and rules us."
Jesus is pointing out to the rich young ruler exactly where he ranks his money. Give it away & follow me or stay here with your money. God knows the power of money over us. In fact God's Word addresses money more than Heaven & hell combined! 11 of the 39 parables are about finances! God clearly sees that we can struggle with money & the lure it produces to pull us away from God.
I think about the rich young ruler & how he must have felt when the realization hit him..."he was sad for he was extremely rich." Here's some homework questions for you. Aren't riches supposed to make us happy? Why was he sad? How much money is enough to make you happy?
I've heard it said that God knows how much money it will take to corrupt us & gives us a little less. That seems so true when you think about people that get rich quickly (ie lottery) & it ruins their lives.
A hard lesson this morning...to think about what really rules my heart.
Have a blessed day & I hope when Jesus asks you to follow Him today you are not sad but rejoice and give Him your 'yes'!
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