Well this is a couple days late, but I still wanted to share what I read on Saturday night. I find it so cool when I open up the Bible and find an answer to a question I have. It's so great! I opened up to Matthew 8: 18-27:
The Cost of Following Jesus
"Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Jesus Calms a Storm
"And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
The title of the first passage "The Cost of Following Jesus" is very important to look at in our lives. Christ calls us to live radical lives, and that means dropping everything. How can we expect to live our lives for Him if we are holding onto earthly and selfish desires? If someone asked me if I follow Jesus, I would say yes. But how true would that statement be? When I really look at it, not very true. I am holding onto earthly things that I shouldn't, I have a hard time trusting God, and it's not always my number one priority to be in His Word all the time. I have a lot to work on, but I know He's never going to just leave me. In verse 22, Jesus answers back to one of his disciples saying "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead". When I read this, I didn't exactly get the whole concept, but luckily, I have the ESV Study Bible (I highly recommend it!) and it has great study notes. In those notes, it talks about how it was a Biblical commandment to honor father and mother, but the call to follow Him rises above all other allegiances. This was the answer I was looking for. I have wondered if God is calling you to do something, but it goes against your parents or other authority, if you're actually suppose to do it. This passage straight out answered my question, and it reminded me to have absolute obedience to the Lord.
In the second passage, the title is "Jesus Calms a Storm". In this passage, Jesus and his disciples are on a boat and a big storm comes. The storm got worse, and the disciples, being scared, woke up Jesus who was sleeping. They begged for help for Jesus to save them from the storm, and he simply replied "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?". He then calmed the storm. So many times in our lives, we encounter different "storms" and often are scared, worried, etc. We don't always trust Jesus, rather, we rely on our own strength to deliver us, but we can't. Only He can. I always worry, and it's something I am really working on. When I am going through a scary situation, I need to rely on the Lord. I have been seeing this becoming more true in my life recently. For example, on Saturday my parents and I were headed home to Fargo and we hit a very scary storm. Little visibility, lots of wind, snow, and the roads were bad. I was very scared. I couldn't concentrate on anything else, but decided to get my Bible out and start reading. God really comforted me during this scary time; I read from Psalms and prayed that He would deliver us from this (snow) storm, and He did!
The last passage I read was Matthew 9:9-13
Jesus Calls Matthew
"As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This passage is a good reminder to me to love unconditionally. Jesus is sitting with tax collectors. Jesus. The very Son of God. The Savior of the world. Yet, Jesus is not too good to sit with sinners. In verse 12, Jesus says: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick". We should be living by these words. As Christians, I feel like we like to spend a lot of time together, but not with non-believers, and it should be the other way around. How else are non-belivers suppose to learn about Christ without having Christians around? By the grace of God, He can use us to be the salt and light. I definitely get too caught up in my "Christian circle", and I admit it, I like hanging out with my Christian friends way more than my non-Christian ones. But what if I hung out and put myself around a lot of non-believers? How would I impact them? How could they impact me? I need to push myself to step out of my "Christian circle" and be a light for Him.
So I challenge you. Go out. Be the salt and light. It may be scary and uncomfortable, but the outcome and gain from this will be so worth it.
With Blessings,
Heather
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