Tuesday 23 May 2017

May 23: Mark 9:42-50

Key Verse: Mark 9:45
And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

Devotion:
Why would Christ repeat three times the phrase about going to hell if it were not true? Why would He give us such a stark warning if He did not mean it? We often see warnings in our lives, be it a sign on the road warning about an obstacle further on or someone shouting at us to tell us we are doing something wrong – warnings are there for a reason! Ignore a warning and you are then travelling on into danger...

But warnings are sometimes a bit harder to accept than a simple sign or word. Some warnings are very physical like the pain we feel if we cut ourselves. But that warning is there to make sure we do stop what we are doing otherwise we begin to put our lives in peril. What is it to endure a short period of pain and to know we have averted death?

Christ warns us of our impending doom if we are not going to accept Him as our Saviour. He warns us we do need to make sure we are saved so we are certain that we will get to heaven and be with Him. It is not such a difficult question to answer: Would you suffer a short while to be absolutely certain you have everlasting peace ahead of you? Or would you look for not cuts and bruises now and be uncertain of your future? We already know the answer to this because we are willing to go to war with countries who threaten our freedom!

Yet when it comes to the really important things in life like everlasting life, we tend to overlook things just because we cannot understand the importance of them. We don't fully grasp just how important some things are in life until it is too late! And if we have overlooked them when we find out it is too late, guess what, it really is just too late! So, putting up with a little hardship should never turn us away from Christ; it should be doing the opposite and making us depend on Him even more!

Points to Ponder:
What would you do if you lost your best friend?

What do you think Christ thinks every time He loses another person?