Saturday, November 22, 2008

What are we Missing?
November 22, 2008

We’ve probably all heard the story of the rich, young man in the Bible who came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. After a brief interchange about the commandments Jesus tells the rich young man, “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mark 10:21) The Bible then states that the man went away sad. This rich young man was not willing to give up his wealth to follow the Lord. This one thing kept Him from being a follower of Christ. The last time I read this story I started thinking of what happened after this story. What did this man miss because of his refusal to give Christ everything? We don’t know of everything that this man might had seen if he had followed the commands of Jesus, sold his wealth and followed Christ but we do know the man missed the following:

- Blind Bartimaeus receives sight
- Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem
- The withering of the fig tree Jesus condemned
- Numerous teachings of the Lord
- The last supper
- The resurrection!!!
- The ascension

This is only a list of what he missed up until the ascension. If he had joined the disciples he might have also participated in some of the adventures and witnessed some of the same miracles as those who started the church.

Kind of makes me think, what do we miss when we refuse to give Jesus everything? What blessings do we miss? What miracles do we not see? What teachings of the Lord do we miss? What are we missing? If we’re holding on to one thing, I bet we’re missing a lot – just like the rich, young man.

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