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Paul makes clear that Jesus is the living Lord one can follow. Jesus takes his would-be follower from obedience to the commandments to singular relational obedience to him (and therefore an obedience only God should have). The man is held back by his possessions, which leads Jesus to observe that it is impossible for those with possessions to enter the kingdom - but God's grace enables us to do the impossible. We should be following Jesus with total dedication, although the shape of that dedication will look different depending on our situation in life and over our life as Jesus progressively frees us from our attachments to enter a deeper relationship with him.

Attachment to the World Last week I spent a few days in Canaan Valley with Andersons and the Emersons (we’d planned a backpacking trip that got curtailed). One evening, as we were sitting around the dinner table talking, we started sharing some of our family stories, those of our parents and grandparents.…

There is nothing wrong with looking into the past to remember what God has brought you from and how He has provided for you. However, We should never look back on our wickedness with longing to return to it.

The OT and Epistle readings shows us God giving us his wisdom and inner logos to follow his call. The gospel is a concrete example in which the young man does not know that while he is following conventional piety he is attached to wealth that no one can get free from without divine assistance. Not recognizing Jesus as divine, he does not perceive his need for transcendent power. The call to us is to constantly seek wisdom and the logos of God to reveal our attachments and show us how to follow the call so that we know what to leave behind and what to see to attain the upward call in Jesus.

In my devotions recently, I was reminded of a very important, but readily overlooked, spiritual fact that ties in very well with the themes that I have been and will be exploring in my preaching. The devotional book that I am currently reading —and I'm a little embarrased to admit the title— is Two Minutes…