Friday, April 4th

In Matthew 19, the Bible gives us the account of a young man who wanted to know how he could inherit eternal life.  Interestingly, he opened the conversation by calling Jesus "good master".  Instead of answering the question about eternal life straightway,  Jesus used the opportunity to appeal to his reasoning and said,  "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God:"  The young man didn't catch the lesson Jesus was trying to teach him.  So, Jesus continued and listed the commandments that he needed to keep in order to be saved.

 Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

Jesus wasn't trying to teach him that he could "earn" his salvation.  He was trying to show him just how short he came to the mark of God's righteousness.  Guess how the young man responded?  "Oh, I've done ALL those things.  What more must I do??"  There is NO way that this young man had always honored his parents!  You cannot convince me that he had never told a lie or had trouble loving others like he loved himself.  Jesus saw through him and told him that he lacked one thing.  The Lord advised him to go sell everything he owned so that he could follow God.  The Lord knew he hadn't kept all those commandments, but instead of arguing with him, Jesus pinpointed exactly what was keeping him from God: the love of money.  

This man's love for money was enough to keep him from the Lord because he wasn't willing to relinquish what had become his god.  In the same way, not relinquishing what we allow to control us can break the fellowship between ourselves and God.  The young man went away sorrowful because he just couldn't trust God enough to completely sell-out.  

What about you?  Are you completely sold out for the Lord?

Scripture Reading for the Day:
Proverbs 4
Matthew 19