WHEN I FALL IN LOVE

The third principle in last night's BSF lecture, I didn't completely get. The second principle in last night's lecture escaped Discussion Leader buddy Brad who asked to see my notes. We both are capable note takers. It's not our first year in Bible Study Fellowship. Actually it's my 6th. Our teaching leader Dennis is a very good speaker. He enunciates well; he repeats the principles about 3 times each for emphasis. So what gives?

For me, the impact of his words. As I was taking the first half of the notes, thoughts raced through my mind and I was unable to brush them away long enough to complete the notes. The part of the third principle I got was "Christians must keep no competing allegiances to Christ." Even before Dennis finished, I was assessing. Do I do that? Even when he was repeating I was thinking, yeah I do. And when Dennis added, "After I got married, I don't think my wife would have wanted me to keep an old girlfriend or two around, and it's the same with the Lord."

Sometimes scripture you've known for years really jumps off the page when you re-read it. Maybe for the twentieth or fiftieth time when it never did before. It speaks directly to your heart. That's what this lesson did for me this week.

I had long known the scripture from Matthew 10:37-38 where Jesus is explaining the cost of being one of His followers: " Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me, anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me." I think I had rationalized this by convincing myself that He was talking only about the 12, or at the most really devout Christians, the kinds persecuted in Foxes' Book of Martyrs. But for today's Christians, well that's not all that practical. We can rationalize about anything if we put our minds to it.

I have spoken many times of Gale Sayer's book, I am Third, in which he prioritized God is first, his family second, and him third. I love that. But I've been so guilty of number 2 being ahead of number 1; of number 3 being ahead of number 2 and number 1 so many times that I can't count.

But being told that my allegiance to loved ones is competing with God just as an allegiance to old girlfriends would be competing with my wife, well that clarified things for me. Since no one is comparable to God, then how could someone(s) compete with Him anyway(s)? Sometimes, just re-wording or looking at something from a different perspective makes the obvious clear.

I wonder what Brad missed from the second principle: "Christians can expect hostility from the world but comfort from the Lord"?