"A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:25-27
These verses have crossed my mind more than once these past few weeks. Let me explain...
I am looking at a trip oversees for 9 months in the year 2013. Thinking how long that actually is to be away from my family is a little bit nerve racking. Thinking of all the things that I might miss out on like birthdays, holidays, family time, crazy long car rides that are always exciting experiences, cooking in the kitchen with my Momma, et cetera, et cetera. But if I were to miss out on any of these things it would have to be because I was serving God and following Him where I felt Him leading me (and I think he is leading me to go on this trip).
I wonder at times if I love God so much that in comparison to my love for him, my love for my family looks like hatred. We hear people say, 'so-and-so, I love you so much that I would take a bullet for you any day.' or 'so-and-so, because I love you so much I would lay down my life for you.'. Now I am not saying that that is a bad thing because obviously John 15:13 is in agreement with this, but I wonder if these people would be willing to 'take a bullet' for Jesus. Me included.
Do we love Jesus so much that we would go anywhere for Him? That we would do anything for Him?
Would we lay our lives at Jesus' feet in complete surrender? Giving Jesus complete control of our lives?
Well, this is the part of the blog where I try to think of a good way to end it and I am having a 'writers block' kind of moment. So I will end off with a wonderful Bible verse (that I love, love, love) which is found in Isaiah.
"How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel reigns!"
