Follow Me

by Pete Berardi

Mark 10:22
And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

What is it that you hold most dearly? Chances are that this is the very thing that you would give your life for. The man in Mark 10:22 was a wealthy man. It was his wealth that he held most dearly and it was his wealth that he gave his life for.

In the gospels, Jesus uses the words “follow me” very sparingly. He used them to call Simon Peter to be an apostle. He said “follow me” to Matthew who also obediently became one of his disciples. He asked a man named Levi to follow him and soon after he taught the Pharisees a very valuable lesson on what the Sabbath is really all about. However not everyone that Jesus asked to follow him was obedient. This brings us to the wealthy man in Mark 10:22.

This wealthy man wanted to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus explained to him that even though he followed God’s laws perfectly, he must do one more thing. That one thing was to “follow him”. This also meant giving up all of his possessions. The man could not do it. He chose wealth over salvation.

Many people are familiar with the saying “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”. Jesus loved to speak in parables and often left his listeners with a mystery to ponder. Other times, such as this, he explained his parables. The literal meaning of the parable is “Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:24)

The Bible is very clear when it says that if you are not going to heaven, you are going to hell. Hell is eternal damnation and a complete separation from God. Hell truly is death. When a person dies, whether or not he goes to heaven depends solely upon his faith or lack thereof. By rejecting Jesus because of his desire to keep his great wealth, the man committed the only unpardonable sin: unbelief.

The wealthy man held more dearly his riches than the kingdom of God. This was in fact a death sentence. By turning his back on Jesus he essentially told him that he would rather have the riches of this material world than the spiritual riches of heaven. This is a big mistake. The Bible teaches us that all things in this world are temporary and that the only things worth having are spiritual things which are eternal.

By holding Jesus more dearly than anything in this world, no matter how valuable, we are proclaiming saving faith in Christ. By being satisfied with only the love of Jesus, denying ourselves and following him, we can enter the kingdom of heaven and be assured of obtaining much greater riches than this world could ever offer.

When a sunset is more than just a sunset

by Pete Berardi

Psalms 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth his handiwork.

Living here in San Diego definitely has its advantages. The weather is consistently seventy degrees and sunny. The winter is fairly short and extremely mild. We have a gorgeous stretch of beach that lasts for miles.

Recently I stood on the shore line and watched the sunset. It was only one of a thousand that I have seen, but yet it was unique in its own way. When the sun sets into the ocean it almost seems as if it will never get there. The experience is a slow anticipation. One peculiar thing about sunsets in San Diego is that they rarely can be experienced alone. Normally, sunsets attract a crowd and are similar to a Broadway show with applause and whistling afterward. Everyone seems to be enthralled, with their eyes glued to the horizon, as if the sun occasionally would do a sing and dance and they didn’t want to miss it.

On this particular sunset, as with many, I was in awe. It is very common that I think about God during them because of their beauty. I selfishly often think that God created this sunset especially for me and that he was using it to give me a message. There are so many science books in publication that “preach” the theory of the big bang. They claim that our universe was created billions of years ago by an explosion of a star. I simply cannot accept this. The exquisite perfection of the sun setting in the horizon does not allow me to cheapen the whole experience by giving its credit to an “accident”.

God is the creator of the universe, without a doubt. There are thousands of books in publication that will give multiple examples of the intricacies in our universe which somehow explain the theory ( intelligent design. These theories claim that there is a supernatural force that is behind all of creation. I cannot stand by this theory either. The design of the universe is much greater than intelligent, it is divine. God in his divine wisdom created the unmatched pulchritude in the simplicity of the sun setting into its resting place.

The Bible says that the firmament shows the handiwork of God and I stand by this theory. If you are a believer and have ever watched a sunset, you know exactly what I mean. If you are not a believer, I urge you to look at your next sunset with God in mind. Let his own creation speak to you that you might understand that He created it for you that you might understand. Solomon, the wisest man in the world, wrote in Proverbs “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (vv. 9:10). Let a beautiful sunset be even more so by letting be a tool of the Lord.