What God Considers Important

                                                             What God Considers Important.

Matthew 19: 29-30.

 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.  (also read Mark 10:28-31 and Luke 13: 24-30.)

The verses above are powerful and even shocking examples of what Christ considered most important in this life.  He very carefully said that if we want to inherit everlasting life we will need to “yield up” families and possessions to be sent forth for Christ and His kingdom.

Those who love us the most often do not remember Christ’s words to those of us who minister for Him.  They want the very best for us.  As a matter of fact they want us to be “first”.  Why? Because they believe with all their hearts that we “deserve it”.

Christ gives this paradoxical statement in verse thirty “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.”  No one that loves you or me will want us to be “last”.   Those who understand Christian work know that if we serve Christ out there in “Smirgley Junction”, we will be hidden away and will certainly be “last”.  They know that we will come and go in this life without much earthly recognition or remuneration.

Our family and close friends will not always understand Christ’s promise in Matthew 20 :16, “So the last shall be first, and the first last:  for many be called, but few chosen.”  Remember that in St. Matthew 20:29, Christ stated that those who forsake “for my name’s sake shall receive an hundred fold….”  and, of course, everlasting life.”

If those who forsake earthly connections and possessions receive everlasting life, what about those who said “I go sir”, and went not?  This is sounding better all the time.  Those who go are first in the Kingdom of Heaven and get to miss eternal damnation.  Christ sums it up very clearly in Matthew 20:28 “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”