A while ago a good friend of mine gave me a new bible as a gift. It is a study bible that has study notes from a jewish perspective. It gave me a deeper understanding of the things Jesus was saying and doing through his life. Its amazing!!
You might wonder why would I mention this. So recently I was reading Matthew 19:16-26 which talks about the meeting between a rich man and Jesus. It comes down to the rich man asking about what good thing he must do to go to heaven. This sentence is very significant in understanding the power money can have over our lives. The rich man probably worked hard and did a lot of things right to come to the place where he was at. He put his life into it. His understanding now became that by him doing something he will get something. So he thinks that out of his strength or might he is able to do good things and by that earn his way into heaven. So the risk of being rich is that you start thinking that your money can fix all things. That is also what the world tells us. Have a lot of money and you can get the big house so you can rest after a hard day at work, a vacation to restore your body, best health care so you never have to worry. Pretty much you are in control. But then where is the trust in, that? If we trust money to fix all our things where does Jesus and God have a place? In the Jewish bible that I got the word faith is often translated as trust. So having faith actually means to trust. When Jesus challenged the rich man to give away everything and follow him, he couldn’t do it. It would have meant to give away everything he trusts in. So it was pretty much impossible for him to go to heaven. But that is actually not just limited to very rich people, this can apply to everyone that puts there trust in money instead of God.
So When I read that story it does 2 things 2 me:
- It challenges me to honestly ask myself the question where is my trust in? Yes all of us would say of course it is in Jesus. But if you look a little bit deeper and honest could we all still say that?
- It gives me a greater compassion for people that are rich. Its easy to look up to someone rich and be jealous of what they have. But instead we should actually have compassion and a true love for them. Our lives should reflect to each of them how good God is and how much he cares for us and that it is safe to trust Him. We need to be a true friend to rich people not with an alternate motive.
Of course, the chapter doesn’t end with that hopeless verse that its pretty much impossible for a rich man to go to heaven, no that wouldn’t be Jesus. Jesus always has a solution. The story ends with this: With men its impossible but with God all things are possible!! Let us remember this!! With our God nothing is impossible!!
So ask yourself this week honestly those 3 things:
- Where is my trust in?
- Confess and repent of where you put your trust in outside of God and ask God to help you to trust him from now on in that area!
- Be a true friend to someone who is rich so they can see the love of God in your life and how he is trustworthy!
Hey our friend
We hope your week was amazing!! We had an awesome meeting of many ministries in the bay area. It was amazing to see how many ministries are represented outside of ywam and how many churches. We are also looking out for a new meeting spot in the neighborhood since our old one just closed last week. Please pray with us that we find the right location! Last week YWAM’s skater DTS came back from there outreach and they will be graduating this week. Pray for them and their time of transitioning out of DTS and back into their homes. It can be hard to leave a strong Christian community behind and stand on your own.
Make sure to ask yourself the 3 questions above!
God bless you
Markus and Jen
So over the last 7 weeks we talked about how important it is that people see more of how good God is through us, His Body on Earth. Today we will wrap it up with a video blog. Be inspired!
How was your week? Ours was great! We had a neighborhood watch meeting, a YWam Community night and a brunch just to name a few of the highlights. It was wonderful. We also still feel refreshed from our time away. Also, last week was sad as well. The coffee shop we went to since the beginning of our time in North Beach Cafe Roma closed. It was a sad goodbye with many wonderful memories attached to it. We met with many people there and had a bible study and an encouragement group and wonderful friendships with the workers of the cafe. Pray with us to find a new place where we can do all those things.
Last week Billy Graham passed away or in his words changed his address at the age of 99. I want to dedicate this video blog entry to him since he is a great example how Jesus can shine through us! Be challenged by Billy Graham and how he brought the gospel to many people and follow his example by stepping into the calling God has for you!!
So over the last 6 weeks we talked about how important it is that people see more of how good God is through us, His Body on Earth. Through the way we show patience, kindness, generosity, love and forgiveness. So now you do all those things and wonder what it does.
It amazes me how the prodigal son comes home, tells the father how he sinned and wasn’t worthy to be a son anymore. The fathers response is a big hug and telling everyone how his son who was dead returned and is alive. There wasn’t even an instance of saying I told you so. No the father totally forgave him and didn’t look at the past. You should think that after all the humiliation he faced through that he would at least hold on to some offense. But no nothing, he totally forgave the son and established him back into the family. Jesus showed us that really clearly as well at the end of His life at the cross. He asked God to forgive the people that put him there. There was no hesitation and he did not keep offense, no he just forgave them. That is powerful. We also see again that it was undeserved, like many of the other things we talked about in the last week.