"OUR COMFORT ZONE"

The parable of the rich young ruler, as told by Jesus in Luke 18:18-23, shows the picture of a man who was quite confident of his life when he questioned the Lord about what more he must do in order to inherit eternal life. He was a good religious man who kept the commandments of God and was very comfortable in his life. When Jesus told him to go and sell his possessions and give the money to the poor, he was deeply saddened because he had many possessions. He was living in his comfort zone. He had found his place and he felt good about it...until he met the Lord.

I think that we all have a comfort zone. It is a place in our lives where we have been for a long time and it feels safe...cozy, and we do not want to leave it. But, are we holding God's truth in front of ourselves, as a mirror, to find out if our feeling of safety is real or imagined? What more do we lack?

For the past two Lord's Day mornings we have thought about "truth"...what it is not...what it is... and where to find it. Jesus said, of His disciples, in John 17:17, when He was praying in the garden, "Sanctify them (set them apart) in your truth, your Word is truth."

God's word rejects the idea that truth is subjective and depends on an opinion or a situation. The "truth" of which we are thinking is the collection of absolutes that God has handed down to us in the Bible. We must follow His "truth" in order to "inherit eternal life". The truth of the price of gasoline might be that it is $3.099 at one station and $3.169 at another; however, it makes no difference what you wish to pay for gasoline. It does make a difference, however, whether you adhere to the principles by which God has told us to live.

Let's all look at our own lives in the mirror of God's truth and see what we see. Let's resolve to get out of our comfort zone and correct the deficiencies that we find so that we can "go on to perfection," (Hebrews 6:1).