OT = More deception and more direct communication with God. I'm almost surprised there isn't a little maid servant sex going on again. And what's with the theft of the gods? What's that about? And who is the God of Nahor in vs 53... May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." Is this some other God? So much I do not understand.

NT = More stuff that kind of worries me here. Vs 37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. I know I should love God/Jesus more than my son and my parents, and I want to be able to, but if I am truly honest with myself, I don't know that I do. I hate even writing that down. And vs 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. I don't really understand what this means.

Gotta run...

...rich

Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.

17 Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace.

18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her;
those who lay hold of her will be blessed.

This is huge for me today. To remember how valuable wisdom is and that there is wisdom in the silence. To listen is to learn. Father, help me to grow in wisdom and strength. This world is not getting easier and I rely on You for daily sustenance. Thank you Father that you give so freely and all we have to do is ask.
I am knocking on the door of heaven and asking that you grant all of us the grace and peace and wisdom to navigate this place called Earth.
I love you Father. You are my rock and foundation. Thank you that I cannot be shaken because I am in you. Amen

Hey Rich! I love your honesty and frank-ness. Thanks for sharing this morning!
I often ponder alot of these verses and scratch my head and think...HOLY MOLY..HOW AM I EVER GOING TO MAKE IT IN THIS LIFE??? I am so "not worthy" of the things
He is calling me to! (Insert Wayne's World 2 lines.."we're not worthy, we're not worthy") Thank goodness we've got Jesus to cover our little behinds!

Hey Rich, this too kind of threw me (NT). I mean, it makes sense, but the fact the He made the point to say it out loud to his followers, must mean that He was trying to tell them, and us, something. And the best I can come up with is, that yes we need to love our families, (mother, father, brother, sister, sons and daughters) but our number one MUST BE God. I guess how that would look is, we should be putting God, and his teachings, first in our lives personally, and then everything else and if any of them take away or don't follow God or interfere with our walk, then we need to guard ourselves from that. Even if it is our flesh and blood. Now, the hard part is, when and where do we draw that line when someone we love is causing a strain on our God Life. Do we just simply disown them, or do we treat them as a stranger who needs God's help? Jesus was our example of how to live on this earth. And He cared for those in need, so when my brother (only an example) is not following God's way and is harming his eternal life, how does that now work? And what if that was my mother, or even harder, my child (DON'T HAVE ANY, again just an example)?

Good luck with that one,
A

Good morning. The NT stuff caught my eye too. I've been studying Mark lately and there's a lot of this kind of stuff there and it's been really burrowing into me. It just seems that the call to a life of discipleship is just astonishingly extreme. I mean seriously, the way to find your life is to die for Jesus' cause? I read this stuff and just sit with incredible questions. What does it mean to take up my cross? To not fear those who kill people? To allow my life to be so utterly disrupted by whatever sword Jesus brought that even my loyalty to family is broken? Why would he want that? I mean, that's a battle call. These words of v 34-38, this is what you tell soldiers to hype them up to die for a cause. Who was Jesus? What did he understand himself was doing? What was he trying to communicate?

Morning :-)

Hey Rich I love that you voice your interesting questions! I remembered the name "Nahor" and found it back in Genesis chapter 11 -- Nahor was Abram's brother.

I find it interesting to me that "fear" drove so many of the events in the Bible... Jacob's fear that Laban would not let him take his wives and belongings if he left openly, etc., etc. Despite the promises God had given them they still functioned out of fear in their actions -- and yet God "bailed" them out time after time. I pray that these examples will sink into this thick skull of mine provide me with a working knowledge of God's sustaining love -- changing my fear to faith and trust.
Blessings!

Jacqui -- I LOVE your thoughts today and your prayer. I 'd like to pray the same prayer, Amen Sister!

I struggle with some of that same stuff Rich, Aaron & Brittany. It makes me think that our call to spread the gospel of Jesus, and follow Him in obedience is way more of a commitment and incredibly more important than we would probably like to think. I think that we try to fit this concept (christianity) inside the box of our cultural norms, i.e.: marriage, family, work, school, etc. We do that stuff first, because it's what people around us do (not that any of it is bad) and then we find ways to follow Jesus in that construct. I think what He might be asking here is that we turn that around. To ask Him first what it is we can do to answer His calling, and then tend to the necessities of life afterward. This might be why Paul seemed like such a dedicated chrisitan. He seemed to avoid getting married, having children, etc and recommended that because it makes it easier to put God first. I mean Paul did have a job making tents, but I think he just did that when he had to and put the ministry of the gospel way in front of that or anything else. I may be rambling here, and I may be totally off-base, but its just what's been rolling around in my head.

That said, I love my wife and kids more than anything, which means that I am just going to spend more time with them than I am with other people that God might be calling me to reach out to. Sure, we can be reaching out within our workplace, school, or whatever, but we're also distracted much of the time by those obligations. It's hard to reconcile all this, because God obviously condones and blesses marriage and family, but He also want us to be constantly going about His mission to reach others with His love. I don't know that God would call everyone to full-time ministry either, but maybe He is. Thoughts?

The comfort I find is that He has always seemed to be patient to draw each of us through a growth process where we gradually learn to loosen our grip on the cares of this life and become more and more conciouse of the eternal. I just think that the faster we learn to do this, the more God might be able to use us, and bless more people through our commitment to His mission.

Amen to that Nate! Thanks for sharing. :)

I think I agree with Aaron's thouhts. I sort of view it in the same way I think about healthy families. I really love my kids. But one of the best ways for me to love my kids is to love my wife well. The better I love my wife, the more of a stable foundation my kids will have, and the better modeling they will have for relationships. So, in one way I have to love my wife more than my kids in order to love my kids well. There are ways that I can love my kids more than my wife, which in the end undermines my relationship with my wife, which has the end result of harming my kids. Make sense?

I think the God thing works the same way. The more I love God and let Him shape my life, the better I am able to love family and friends. But there is a way I can hold onto friends and family above God, and that has the potential of enmeshing me with them in unhealthy ways that can even be hurtful to them.

Good thinking all. I've been reading this book called "Organic Church." It makes some very interesting points about how americanized, and safe-culturalized we've let the church become. I think there is something to this sense of extremity. it's like God is asking if we're serious. Following doesn't mean agreeing with. It means to get up and go after.

Marc, that is such a good example of how that concept plays out and what the relevance is. Thank you for sharing that!

I've been reading the comments throughout the day and really enjoying the great thoughts. I was going to share some of my inspired wisdom tonight, but apparently I don't have any!!!

Blessings and good night to you all.

Oh brother!