Happy MLK Day! Pastor Eldie preached an inspiring message yesterday on racial reconciliation. Please listen to it on our website when it goes up: www.as1community.com

The Bible can inspire us as well as disturb us. It is meant to do that. The Bible is not an anesthetic to our soul but rather a surgery. It will carve us up and make us squirm if we are willing to read what it has to say about us.

One of those passages is about the rich young ruler in Luke 18. Jesus makes it very clear that if we want to DO something about earning our eternal life, we must give up everything right now. Can you do that? Can you empty your bank account and go to Africa? Can you drop your children, never to see them again, in serving Christ? Can you drop out of college to follow Christ? See? I told you the Bible is disturbing. That is in fact what Jesus was requiring of the rich young ruler, which I doubt any of us could do.

Jesus, on purpose, demanded from the rich young ruler something he could not do. That’s right. Jesus demanded it knowing he couldn’t do it. Why? So that we would conclude that salvation is impossible on our own strength. Jesus was emphatically demonstrating that we cannot save ourselves with our own will power or strength or resolve. God has to do it.

So, Jesus says, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27). In other words, God will enable us to do what we could never do on our own. He will enable us to see that He is more precious than money or family. So, after having experienced Jesus, we will find ourselves making sacrifices financially or even putting our family in less than favorable conditions in order to serve Christ.

So, Jesus is not so much asking us to make sacrifices to Him in order to make ourselves worthy, but rather to examine our hearts to see if anything is more important than Jesus. And if something or someone is? We pray in dependence on God that He will change our hearts. Only He can change our hearts.

PH