Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I just don't see how you can say that you have surrendered all of your life to Jesus, when you still have not "left all" to follow Him. Neither have you taken to heart the Lord's command to sell all. Following this, the Lord tells Peter about leaving homes, wives, families, grandmas, and children for the sake of the kingdom of God. He also compares this to eternal life in the coming age.
You are also living in the Bay Area of NoCal, which surrounds the present day Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't see how realistic it is that you would extrapolate these statistics of your limited experience there to the rest of the inhabited earth.
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My understanding is Jesus didn't say it was a prerequisite for eternal life but just added it to the list because eternal life is the greatest gift, but if the Spirit leads you to go you still have to obey.
God has called me to minister to the youth here and I have received quite a few confirmations of that. He has also perfectly equipped me to feed them because I can relate to their life experience and love them instead of judge them because I know their struggles. If God calls me elsewhere I am willing to go. I have become pretty detached from this world. Still It wouldn't be easy but I know God's grace is sufficient.
The disciples also had to go through a training period with Jesus. It probably wouldn't hurt to get some experience here before I go to some remote village in Africa. Also there are probably fewer true Christians in rich countries than there are in poor countries where folks are desperate for Jesus. I still see a lot of opportunities for ministry here to wake up folks to love Jesus with all their heart. If they believe in Jesus already and the authority of God's word that is a huge stepping stone to work from. My pastor said wisely that One person who loves Jesus with all their heart is more useful than a thousand lukewarm christians. Jesus throws out the flavorless salt because it's useless.
My goal is to bring the flavor back to that salt!