Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. -Luke 9:23-26
Deal or No Deal is a game show where you have to make choices, or deals if you will, in order to try to win a million dollars! At the end of the game, we find out if the contestant made a good deal. Here, Jesus gives us a choice between 2 lives … heaven or earth. In the end, we will stand before God and see if we made a good choice!
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. - 2 Timothy 2:20-21
Noble and ignoble things in a house: a plunger and a nice drinking glass.
Probably wouldn’t want to be served a drink in a plunger.
We must cleanse ourselves of the ignoble things that are in us.
Then we will be an instrument for noble purposes.
Becoming a Christian is kind of like the recycling process.
When we are unholy, we are not useful to the master.
We need to be prepared to do any good work for the Master.
Don’t learn from the world about how to have a great marriage and how to date. Go to the scriptures and to other disciples to get regular input on Christian dating and having a godly marriage.
“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:47-50
There are all kinds of fish are in the net, and there are all kinds of people in the kingdom.
There are over 25,000 identified species and there may be over 15,000 fish species not yet identified. There are more species of fish than all the species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined. Some species of fish can fly (glide) others can skip along the surface and others can even climb rock. The spotted climbing perch is able to absorb oxygen from the air and will crawl overland in search of water when its water hole dries up. The smallest fish is the Philippine goby that is less than 1/3 of an inch when fully grown. Largest — Whale Shark up to 50 feet.
The world’s largest lake trout was caught in Canada, and weighed in at 102 pounds.