Is it worth it?

Happy Sunday!

"If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.  And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?"(Mark 8:35-37 NLT).

Don't miss that question!  Is anything worth more than your soul?  In Job 2:4, "Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! Certainly, a man will give everything he has for his life."(GW).  The enemy had already failed at getting Job to curse God after he'd lost all his possessions, and his children. But he was sure that Job would curse God when his health was affected.  BUT we all know how that story ended!  Job did not curse God, and in the end he got "Double For His Trouble"!

Job realized that there is more to life than people and things. Read that sentence again!  I will wait. 

We are to love God first, and when we love Him we will love people in the RIGHT way.  The preacher said, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."(Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV).  The Apostle James wrote, "The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father’s point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans and widows, and who remains true to the Lord—not soiled and dirtied by his contacts with the world."(Living Bible).  What a visual!  Don't you just love reading scriptures in other translations?  We don't want any part of "Soiled and Dirtied"!  Jesus is coming back for a Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle"!(Ephesians 5:27). 

Jesus told the story of The Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus.  The rich man had everything he could ever want.  The KJV version says, "fared sumptuously every day".(Luke 16:19).  The Message says, "expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption".  You know me, I had to look this up.  One web site defines it like this, "Conspicuous consumption is the purchase of goods or services for the specific purpose of displaying one's wealth. Conspicuous consumption is a means to show one's social status, especially when publicly displayed goods and services are too expensive for other members of a person's class.".  OUCH! 

The Bible goes on to say that both men died.  Luke 16:22-23 says, "The poor fellow died and was carried on the arms of the heavenly messengers to the embrace of Abraham. Then the rich fellow died and was buried and found himself in the place of the dead. In his TORMENT, he looked up, and off in the distance he saw Abraham, with Lazarus in his embrace."(VOICE).  The rich man didn't go to Hell because he was rich.  God wants us to prosper. He is not against prosperity.  God is against the selfishness that caused the rich man to pass by the beggar right at his gate and refuse to help him.  Jesus said, "You’ve made your choice. Your ambition is to look good in front of other people, not God. But God sees through to your hearts. He values things differently from you. The goals you and your peers are reaching for God detests."(Luke 16:15 Voice).

What's it worth to you?  Where will you spend eternity?  The song writer wrote, "You may seek earthly power and fame, the world might be impressed by your great name, soon the glories of this life will all be past, but only what you do for Christ will last".

Love and prayers, Cynthia