Send to Kindleby Jim Hughes
Matt. 10:37-39 “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine, or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it, but if you give it up for me, you will find it.”
These verses may cause you to do a double take. Jesus is laying it on the line and putting things in their proper perspective. He is declaring that our allegiance to Him is far more important than our allegiance to anyone else. He makes it very clear that if He is not more important to us than anyone or anything else, we are not worthy of being called His children.
When we consider how important our families are to us, this really challenges us to consider our love for the Lord. Do we love the Lord more than our spouses, children, parents, and siblings? Is it obvious to them and others that we do? Do we assume they know it or have we actually told them?
If we really love Christ more than anyone else, we will daily do whatever we have to do to remain faithful to Him. We will be willing to do anything for Him. We will be willing to make whatever sacrifices we need to do in order to obey Him. What we desire out of life becomes secondary to our devotion to Him. We will be willing to set aside whatever we deem important in life in order to follow Him.
If we really love Christ, we will surrender all of our life to Him. We will consider all of it His. We will abandon ourselves to His will. It is only when we do these things that we will really find ourselves. In Him alone we will discover what our lives are really all about. We will find purpose for our living. We will find what is worth living and dying for. In Christ alone we will find eternal life.
Let go of all that your life is to you and give it to the Lord. He will then make something beautiful out of it and you.
About the Author:
Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.
C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one’s self from such failures.
I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn’t broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.
