Dear church,

Still more leftovers from Luke 5 … Enjoy – and I hope you still are reading one chapter per day! God bless!

“And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.” – Luke 5:28

Levi left everything – his tax booth, his vocation, his standing with the Romans, his wealth, his security. When you come to repentance, you also must leave things behind. It is unlikely this always will be easy. We have wound ourselves up in certain unholy lifestyles and habits and friendships and reputations. To cut our ties with those things may very well bring pain.

But we must do it if we are to follow Jesus. The danger is to think these unholy things aren’t all that bad. “Surely,” we may say, “God isn’t going to be a stickler about this thing.” The call, however, is to absolute holiness. We are to live our lives as Jesus lived his life, with an unwavering devotion to God himself. 

Have you eliminated from your life every vestige of your old sinful self? You may have no further to look than the entertainment you consume or the way in which you speak. Do the things you consume with your eyes and ears and the words that come out of your mouth reflect the goodness and mercy of God?

As you repent of those old things, never forget you also are going somewhere. The void left in your life by those things left behind will soon be filled by the one who says, “Follow me.”

Chris