Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 69

March 10, 2018;      Matthew 19:29;       19/260(IV);        ‘Leave Everything Behind’

Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

The Lord Jesus has said several things in the Gospels that may have confused some.  We will see the context of this verse after I give a couple of other scriptural examples. Jesus said that He came to bring division in families.  Jesus created the family, so why would He ever want to bring division?  When a member of the family gets born again often the other family members do not understand and division occurs.  If that saved family member lives their faith and manifests the character of Jesus, the other members of the family will see the tremendous change in that family member and want what they have.  Jesus told the rich young ruler to give away his money to the poor and come follow Jesus.  Religion has used this example to teach that the Lord does not want us to have anything.  That is absolutely not true.  The Bible clearly teaches that the Lord wants us to prosper.  Jesus just wanted to see the priority money had in the life of the rich young ruler.  The hold money had on him caused him to walk away from Jesus.  If you love the Lord more than you finances, you will be free to enjoy the prosperity you have.  In this verse, similarly to the rich young ruler, leaving houses (possessions), family (regardless of how they feel about your becoming a Christian), fields (your occupation) does not mean that you are expected to leave all of this.  It simply means that none of this or anything else should be more important to you than Jesus.  The wonderful truth about all of this is that if you do make Him number one in your life, every other aspect of your life will be better.  Jesus and His nature in you makes life work.