Thought for April 10

 History:

  • 1516: Venice compels Jews to live is a certain area--first Jewish ghetto
  • 1790: US Patent system forms
  • 1815: Major portion of Tambora eruption
  • 1816: Samuel Taylor Coleridge recites "Kubla Khan" to Lord Byron who convinces him to publish it
  • 1825: First hotel in Hawaii opens
  • 1841: Horace Greeley begins publishing the NY Tribune
  • 1868: first complete public performance of Brahms' "Requiem"
  • 1869: Congress increases Supreme Court from 7 to 9
  •  1912: Titanic sails on its maiden voyage
  • 1916: PGA founded and first professional golf tournament held
  • 1925: "The Great Gadsby" published
  • 1947: Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Dodgers
  • 1949: Sam Snead wins first of three Green Jackets
  • 1961: Gary Player becomes first international to win the Masters
  • 1963: Nuclear sub Thresher sinks killing 129 including my friend, Joel Stephens
  • 1968: "In the Heat of the Night" wins Best Picture Oscar
  • 1995: NYC bans smoking in restaurants that seat more than 35
  • 2019: First photo of a black hole
  • 2019: Public health emergency in NY after measles outbreak
  • Born: Jim Bowie, Lew Wallace ["Ben Hur"], William Booth [founded Salvation Army], Joseph Pulitzer, Frances Perkins [First woman cabinet member], Clare Booth Luce, Harry Morgan, Chuck Connors, Junior Samples [Hee Haw], Wesley Clark [first personal computer], Max von Sydow, Omar Shariff, John Madden, Don Meredith, Steven Segal, Haley Joel Osment
  • Died: Gregory XIII [calendar], Kahil Gigran, Harley Earl [auto designer], Majorie Main, Sam Kinison, Little Eva ["The Locomotion"] Dixie Carter
Thought:
I have underlined four words in Luke 14:25--""going long with Him." Now you might think that is weird. But take a look at that passage. Great multitudes were "going along with Him." We may have seen that yesterday when our churches were filled for Easter services. I wonder how many people there were really followers of Christ and how many were just going along with Him. Then the spirit asks me, "Larry, are you just going along." Have you found a comfortable spot? Have you gotten into a comfortable routine? Then I read the rest of this chapter and understand that Jesus recognizes who is really following Him and who is just going along. Look at what He says:
  • If you don't love me more that family, you can't be my disciple. You just can't go along. Who has the highest priority in my life? Whose approval is most important to me? When I was with the 49'ers, the Tennessean called for an interview. After the interview, I wasn't sure if they would publish anything or if they did, what it might say. When the article appeared, I was shocked. A quote from the interview was inserted over the headline: "You have to have something at the center that holds everything together. Christ first and Jan second---that's what holds all of this travel, confusion and other stuff together." I'm not sure I recalled saying that, but so grateful that's what the reporter heard and published. 
  • Whoever doesn't carry his own cross and come after me cannot be My disciple. Following Christ has a cost. Dying to self daily so that He can live in and through us.
  • No one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Now, I don't think this is a vow of poverty, but it an understanding that everything is His, not mine. Therefore He controls how I use it, spend it, invest it. 
Reading this again today challenges me to examine myself--am I just going along or am I a disciple? 

Blessings
Larry

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