Matthew 19:22-23

When the young man heard Him say that, he went away very sad. He had many possessions.

Jesus said to His disciples, “I’m telling you the truth: it’s very hard for a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven.”

We are all rich. Everyone of us on this email list is rich in the world’s standards. Just living in this country puts us into the rich category. We always want to feel better about ourselves by pointing to someone with even more money or things than us. But we all have insanely more than we need.

So I really believe it is hard for any of us in America to get into the Kingdom of heaven because of all of the stuff competing for our attention. I look at how I keep pearing down my possessions, and yet I still have so many things, so many things I don’t need, so many things screaming for my attention, when the only thing necessary is listening to Jesus.

Distractions.

I still see this as our number one nemesis in our modern day culture.

Watching a movie on Carthusian monks last nite, they showed Jesus’ words from Luke 14:33 a couple times: “Unless you give up all your possessions, you cannot be my disciple.” Pretty strong. I’m not sure we are to have absolutely nothing, but I feel sure that we are to have absolutely nothing possessing us. Oh to live simply. The more possessions, the more noise in my life.  We simply don’t count the cost of discipleship. To be Jesus’ student, to sign up for His class that He masterfully teaches, one must take the prerequisite of “Possession Relinquishment 101”.

Proverbs 19:19

People with quick tempers must feel the consequences of their actions; if you rescue them once, you will only have to do it again.

“Rescuing” people is not always the best course of action. Some are hell bent on going their own way, and the more we save them from feeling the backlash of their destructive ways, the more we just delay the only possible answer–a change of heart. Until there is a heart change, people will do the same things over and over again. Without a teachable spirit, without desire, there is nothing we can do. Only God can change the heart, tho He may use us in that process.

So before assisting someone, you may ask yourself, “Am I helping this person survive or thrive?”