the rich won't enter

A friend of mine asked me to pray for her son this past Sunday. He's rather snobby and unloving to people he doesn't consider his equal. He's very intelligent - he's a scholarship, PhD, physics student at an Ivy-league university. I come from a very similar mind-set that he retains and this is why his mother felt that I specifically could intercede on behalf of her Christian son. (I started college when I was 14; had numerous scholarships; was always in math and science etc). So, I have learned that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I'm glad I learned it. The joy and peace that I have chosen to walk in has greatly out-numbered the benefits of walking in pride and knowledge. on a side note, I can still be quite prideful at times and I'm not claiming perfection.

Today, I listened to a sermon from Highland Oaks Church of Christ dated Sept 29, 2008. And then I wrote this to my friend (I've edited out the names):

S-, your son has been on my thoughts constantly since Sunday. I can only remember how sad I was when I knew how much smarter I was than everyone else. God has continued to bring him to the forefront of my thoughts to have me pray for him.

Just now I was listening to a sermon that B- W- posted to his fb. I'd like to share some thoughts I had during the sermon. I'm sure you've already shared similar thoughts with A-. I think my heart aches so much for him because I know exactly where he's coming from and I know exactly what he's missing out on.

This sermon still spoke to my own areas that need improvement.

-We will not be carrying a banner of victory on this earth, but a cross. That is, a banner of love symbolized as a death sentence. Some deaths are physical, but some are a death of ones-self, of one's will.

-John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. -- Christ seeks to be our friend. Will we lay down our lives for him as he has laid down his life for us? He gave up being omnipotent; he gave up his riches, he slept in boats. He asks us to put aside our lust for knowledge.

-Christianity is not consumerism, it is love. They will know us by our love, not by our intellect. “Are you thinking how this place isn’t meeting your needs? It isn’t about you. Are you a consumer of religion? Have you made Christianity about you? It’s about God and others and how much you love them and serve them.” (that was a direct quote from the sermon)

-If you want to be the greatest in the kingdom, you must make yourself the least. We can have the greatest intellect and the most knowledge because we passionately pursue theology but we would be least in the kingdom because God has made this life about love not about intelligence. Jesus said it is impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, and I believe that we could include the rich in knowledge, even Christian knowledge, in his words. In fact the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19 is completely a story of love. Obedience, knowledge, and riches are not enough. Only in giving yourself up will you be able to find Christ. You can’t buy your way to heaven, not even with intellectual currency.

Anyway, I know you know this. And I'm praying for your son that he would some day soon know this too.

<3 Lauren