Monday, September 28, 2015

No Jesus, No Peace - Know Jesus, Know Peace




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.” CHAMBERS

The young man’s problem was not the absence of good deeds, the problem was a divided heart.  His trust was in his wealth.  Really in himself.  Do you know someone who tries really hard to do right?  The key to life is not in doing right but in being right.  We cannot be right if we are not totally devoted … committed to following Jesus.  That means that we know we can’t ever be good enough.  That all of our effort is vain.  Either St. Augustine or Blaise Pascal said that each of us has a God-shaped void that only God can fill.  We try to fill it with other things, but they never do.  You want to find peace?  It’s Jesus.  You want to find fulfillment?  It’s Jesus.  Someone once said, “I didn’t understand that Jesus is all I need until Jesus was all I had.”  In the face of whatever trouble might come our way, it is difficult to not do something. (I guess this is the day for quotes!)  Dr Henry Blackaby said “You have heard the saying ‘Don’t just stand there, do something.”, but God is saying ‘Don’t just do something, stand there’.”  That is hard for us to do.  Especially when the outcome is uncertain.  When the problem seems unsolvable.  You may not be spared from the consequence, but you don’t have to walk that road on your own. 

Losing all your possessions, facing a terrible illness or loss of someone you love .. those things are difficult, overwhelming.  Turn to Jesus and find peace and strength.  Stop trying to face life on your own. (John 4:10-14)  “ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  ELGIN

“There Is A River”

“There is a river, and it flows from deep within. There is a fountain, that frees the soul from sin
Come to this water; there is a vast supply. There is a river, that never shall run dry.

There was a thirsty woman, She was drawing from a well. You see her life was ruined and wasted. And her soul was bound for hell.
Oh but then she met the Master And He told about her sin And he said "if you drink this water, You'll never thirst again. '”

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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