Self-denial

Im just reposting this message to share here. Credit to the owner Frances Taylor

This is one of the topics that comes up more than once in the Gospels. Who or what is more important to us than God? What are we willing to do to follow Jesus? Jesus did not earn salvation for us without cost. He taught us that living a good, moral life is not easy in a world that is heading in the opposite direction. It was that way in the first century and is still the same in the twenty-first. Jesus was constantly doing verbal battle with the Jewish leaders of the time as well as going up against the Roman authorities. Today, Christians are fighting a moral battle with the media, a battle for justice with leaders who are at times more interested in the bottom line, and a battle for truth in a world that has more "spin" doctors than medical ones. There are times when these battles do cause fractioned families and broken friendships. We also may have to make sacrifices in our own lifestyle to do the right thing. We might be called upon to go outside of our comfort zone for a cause. Several years ago, I was part of a community organization that was asking voters to sign petitions to raise the minimum wage and to allow part time employees to earn sick time. I was asked to stand outside a local grocery store with the petitions and ask for those signatures. Not something I wanted to do, or was comfortable doing! But, I felt strongly about each of these issues, and overcame my discomfort and stood there more than once. I'm sure that you have probably done something of the sort yourselves. Regardless of the sacrifices, we will all be asked to make them. What will be our answer?