Sun 29 Jul

The only time many think about eternal life and eternity is when a death occurs of someone close to us or we attend a funeral. And even though you can say at the funeral that without Christ men and women are on their way to hell, people still do not listen and get it. Indeed, without Christ we are on our way to hell.

Today’s story from the Bible focuses on a rich ruler who by all who knew him thought him to be a very moral and upright and godly man. Surely if anyone was worthy of eternal life it was the rich ruler. And he thought he had eternal life in the bag when he said to Jesus that he had kept the commandments since he was a child. This rich ruler sounds to good to be true. When was the last time your child disobeyed one of the commandments?

The rich ruler thought he was sure candidate for eternal life. However, Jesus knew his heart and mind. He knew that the rich ruler had a misplaced love. Jesus knew the rich ruler loved something very much that he was going to find challenging to give up. You see this man loved money more than he loved God. When Jesus asked him to give it away to the poor and then come follow him, the rich ruler went away sad. The rich ruler faced a challenging decision. Does he give up something he loves in order to gain something of far greater wealth, namely eternal life. Is there something in your life that the Lord is asking you to step away from? Is there something in your heart that you love more than you love Christ?