Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to see a video of at the sibling group of Dave’s Highway singing I Surrender All dedicating their career and lives to the only One worthy of such surrender.
Highlight Passage: Mark 10: 21-22 [NKJV} … Jesus teaching about surrender to the “rich young ruler” … 21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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Highlight Context - NKJV: Mark 10: 17-22 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK …
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Reference Passage #1: Luke 9: 23… [NKJV] … Without a doubt the most repeated scripture which I’m so often led to quote or reference in my daily journaling …
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. … “
Reference Passage #2: 1st Timothy 6: 17-19 … [NKJV] GO TO THIS LINK … … Paul helps Timothy to know how to preach/teach to the rich in God’s kingdom
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Dave Branon, raised one of Jesus’ oft repeated lessons by using the passage from Mark 10 about Jesus’ encounter with a rich, young Jewish leader. And this story was also rendered by two of the other Gospel authors (see Matthew 19: 16-22 and Luke 18: 18-23). And long ago, I learned in my discipleship that anytime multiple Gospel authors repeat the same parable or teaching from Jesus, this is the Holy Spirit’s way of saying … PAY ATTENTION!!!
So, this story, by all three of the synoptic Gospel authors, is in God’s word as God’s way of telling me (and any Christian), that our Lord wants me (us) to FULLY grasp the lesson Jesus was trying to get across to the main character in this encounter, … a rich, younger man, whom many scholars believe might have been a younger member of the Sanhedrin, the group of committed Pharisees who were a part of the ruling leadership of the Jews in Jerusalem.
But no matter if the latter is true, it was obvious to Jesus, in His encounter with this rich, young man, that the inquisitive Jewish leader didn’t have a clue WHOM he was encountering, asking Jesus how one can be led into Heaven. Jesus saw deep into this young man’s soul and perceived that the young man was a slave to his riches and the power that came with the wealth. So, when the young man asked the LORD, and his unrecognized “Messiah,” Jesus told him - straight out - that the young ruler must be willing to give up ALL of his riches and power and come to follow Jesus if he really desired entry into God’s kingdom. And we know the result of the encounter. The young man couldn’t get it … or wouldn’t! And he went off desiring to hold on to all his earthly riches.
How many potential kingdom followers encounter Jesus; and walk away from the encounter as did the rich, young ruler, … lost forever because of their unwillingness to see that when Jesus says “ALL,” He means “ALL.” And I’ll leave it to you, in meditating on this thrice repeated story in Scripture, as well as the Apostle Paul’s teaching to Timothy (see 1st Timothy 6: 17-19 linked above), to consider whether we are holding on to STUFF or power or control in our lives too tightly, … not really having given ALL to Jesus?
Because when the song, linked above and sung by a young man and his two sisters today, sings “I Surrender ALL,” and we meditate on our desires and holdings, we have to decide wether we truly understand that when Jesus says “ALL,” He means … “ALL!”
My Prayer for Today … Lord, I know You mean it when You say “ALL” to me. I pray I get it. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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