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“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.” Psalms 91:14

Our obedience to the LORD is not in order to get Him to love us but rather in response to the love He already has for us – and was profoundly demonstrated by sending His only begotten Son to die for us “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:6-8). There are priorities in the divine economy. Jesus called them “the weightier matters of the law” (Matthew 23:23).

Jesus says that “IF” we love him, we are to “keep” His “commandments” (John 14:15). He’s obviously not interested in our outward rote obedience if we don’t love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:37-39).

Obeying God after He saves us is the expression of our love for Him and not that which justifies us. HE alone justifies us. And yes, those who know Him will definitely obey Him and yet their obedience doesn’t justify them, HE alone can do that.

Becoming familiar with, memorizing this following passage will tremendously help every disciple of Christ.

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:4-5

Do we Earn or Receive Divine Love?

Remember that “God is love” and that “he first loved us”:

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. … We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” 1 John 4

We did not find the LORD, He found us. We did not initiate or make this relationship possible – He did – by sending His only begotten Son to die to pay the full price for this relationship to be possible and eternal! So, we can rest in His love by abiding in the Son of His love – Jesus Christ, who is eternal life (1 John 5:20-21).

There is no possible way that God could have more clearly demonstrated and shown you how much He loves you more than He did. Jesus stretched His arms wide to take upon Him the sins of the world and by such drew and draws “all men” to Himself (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29; 12:32). While you were still “dead in trespasses and sins,” He sent His only begotten Son for you and “for the sins of the whole world” (Ephesians 2:1; 1 John 2:1-2).

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:6-10

When we walk in His love, we demonstrate that we are born of Him who alone “is love” and that we currently abide/remain in Christ (John 15). It is important to realize that we are not love, but “God is love” and those who abide in Christ bear the fruit of His “love” (1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:22-23). This is one of the clear proofs that one is truly the LORD’s. “Walk in love” (Ephesians 5:1-2). A fresh reading of the book of 1 John and 1 Corinthians 13 will quicken and refresh your heart as to the priorities of He who “is love.”

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16

Before you study gifts, study love. Make love the priority of your life. In the modern church which is grossly apostate, the emphasis is placed on you, on self – instead of the LORD. Little is spoken about the divinely-ordained importance of Christ Himself, love, truth, personal holiness, abiding in Christ, the soon return of Jesus, etc. – “Be ye separate” (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1). Make God’s priorities your personal priorities.

In light of this divine revelation of His love, may we be presently and forever thank-filled for the sacrifice of the LORD Jesus Christ in this “unspeakable gift” of His salvation (2 Corinthians 9:15). May all fear be vanquished from your heart as you receive of His love and walk abiding in He who “is love.”

“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:17-18

May the love of God quicken us today in His holy fear, to forgive all others of all trespasses, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to grow in His grace.

“For the love of Christ constraineth (compels) us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Now that God’s love, instead of His judgment, has been manifested through our LORD and Savior, your identity is now in Him alone and your life is “not your own,” for ye are “bought with a price,” even the price of “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18-19

This profound truth is not the occasion to think we are something special in and of ourselves, but rather, to understand that “while we were yet sinners” – in utter rebellion and meriting only divine judgment – God sent for us His only begotten Son to die so we could experience relationship with Him both now and forever (Romans 5:6-9). We deserve only damnation but He gave us life and mercy “through the blood of his cross,” not so we can receive His salvation and then just go on living our lives as we wish, but rather that we are now His and our lives are His. Jesus Christ alone “made peace through the blood of his cross” so that we could be reconciled to God from our alienation, brought back from sin, to abide in His indescribable love.

“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him (Jesus) to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.” Colossians 1:20-23

Abiding in His freely given love, we are given full assurance and are able daily, through trials and tribulation, through good times and bad, to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” all the way to the end of our earthly lives and for all eternity.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:3-9

Does God want us to know His love for us?

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

God’s love is something to get into and to keep ourselves in:

“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 21

“Pray harder”? NO! Let go and let God by trusting Him and not your own hard work! Romans 4:4-5; Galatians 3:3 – Trust the NAME of JESUS in prayer! John 14:13-14; 16:23-24 – REST in HIS Love! Jesus says “I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28-30).

YOUR PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of my LORD Jesus Christ – Your only begotten Son who died, was buried, and raised again from the dead for me. Please make this Your vessel, Your disciple, whole from the inside out – as You alone can do. I love You Jesus. Please wash me afresh with Your precious blood, cleanse this conscience, and fill me with the Holy Ghost to be Thy witness in this last hour before Your glorious return. In Jesus’ Name.

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Abiding

America’s Path to Destruction According to Holy Scripture [podcast]


Sadly, so many today, who claim to be Christians, spend more time, money, and energy seeking to save the sinking ship called America (a corporation under which they are slaves) than they do obeying Christ’s Great Commission command to teach His Word and preach the Gospel to the lost (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20). They have chosen America over the LORD (Matthew 6:24; 12:30). So very man “church” members and yet Jesus Christ is not their “first love.” (Revelation 2:4-5) Patriotism is their idol, vainly believing they can vote away divine judgment. Most of their time, money, and energy is wasted on the futility of the temporal. Nothing will save America – no campaign, political party, voting block, or otherwise. God is judging America. It’s over as we once knew it.

God judges nations and has a timing, a frame of time, an “instant” including a beginning and ending point, where He judges nations (Jeremiah 18:7). And America is under His judgment, and it going to get much worse (Jeremiah 18).

America is under Divine Judgment

“This is exactly where we are! Things are about to wax worse and worse in this country! Jesus warned us a greater tribulation is coming (Mat 24:21). This world is becoming darker and darker. It will be a challenge to all who put their faith in Christ. Will our faith stand in the midst of severe persecution (1 Peter 1:6-9)? God will try it in the fire, subjecting it to intense heat. The ultimate goal is to purge out all unbelief and impurities. The genuineness of our faith can only be proved in the fire. During hard times of tribulations the lukewarm will drift away, but genuine faith will endure! And the reward will be final salvation (Mat 24:13).” Karen Cochran

The ultimate reason America is being destroyed is not, as some imagine, due to “bad leadership.” No. America is being destroy from within and without due to the rebellion of its people – the sin against God and refusal to repent. Read Jeremiah 18 and Isaiah 1.

Destruction Comes when leaders are allowed to pervert justice!

“The heads (leaders) thereof judge for reward (take bribes), and the priests (religious leaders) thereof teach for hire, and the prophets (religious leaders) thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 12  Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.” Micah 3:11-12

Government Servants and Bribes

“The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts (bribes) overthroweth it.” Proverbs 29:4

Inflation Revelation 6

“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” Revelation 6:6

Excessive Inflation is judgment.

“They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.” Ezekiel 7:19

Timeline of Impending Doom

Someone is saying “But brother I’ve been listening to dreams and prophecies people are getting about our nation.”

Our hearts can deceive us (Proverbs 28:26; Jeremiah 17:9). We can only be fully “sure” by reading, studying, and knowing the “MORE SURE WORD of prophecy” which is the Holy Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21).

“God’s judgment is upon America. We have become Sodom’s sister (Ezekiel 16:46). It’s pride that has rooted itself in the hearts of the American people. And what brings destruction upon nations? Pride! Those who love Him will be looking for a new heaven and a new earth. This world is not our home.” Karen Cochran

THE DISCIPLE OF JESUS SHOULD VIEW HISTORY, INCLUDING WHERE A NATION STANDS THIS DAY, BY “THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY” WHICH IS THE HOLY SCRIPTURES (Isaiah 46:9-10; 57:15; Romans 15:4; 2 Peter 1:19-21).

Looking at the USA through the lens of Scripture is what is important. We have murdered over 60 million precious innocent babies and called it “choice” but God calls it murder and commands us “Thou not kill.” (Exodus 20:13). The US is over and has been for a long time, as we once knew it. Military men: This isn’t the same USA you and I both signed up to serve. This isn’t the same USA we were born and raised in.

This list of sins in the above passage begins with these 3:

PFA = Pride, Fulness of Bread, and Abundance of idleness.

The Sins of Sodom:

Sins Jerusalem cited for in Ezekiel 16:49-51:

  • Pride (arrogance),
  • Fulness of Bread (gluttony, hoarding),
  • Abundance of Idleness (idle, lazy),
  • did not help those in need due to preoccupation with self-worship (not generous in spreading God’s wealth to His people and work)
  • haughty
  • committed abomination (rampant fornication – just as in the days leading up to the Noahic flood. See Genesis 6)

In the bulleted sins listed above from this revealing Ezekiel 16 passage, did you notice the progression?

Though it culminated in sodomy, yet not one sex sin is even specifically mentioned in this list of Sodom’s sins in Ezekiel 16. Does this not align perfectly with the judgment we see in Romans 1, how “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God” and were unthankful, further enriching themselves while they ignored others?

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful (they were ungrateful); but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Romans 1:21

A fresh reading of Romans 1 reveals the root sins that preceded the sexual sins which immediately go before divine judgment. See Romans 1:18-32.

The sins that darken the hearts of those who once “knew God” and lead to the ultimate abomination of sodomy/homosexuality are pride, gluttony, idleness, and refusing to be generous givers to believers in need, etc.

Let’s Look Again at the Root, the Gateway Sins of the People of Sodom and Gomorrah:

PFA listed in Ezekiel 16:49-51:

  • Pride (arrogance),
  • Fulness of Bread (gluttony),
  • Abundance of Idleness (idle, lazy),
  • Like the fake religionists priest and Levite of Jesus’ Good Samaritan teaching, they did not help those in need due to preoccupation with self-worship (not generous in spreading God’s wealth to His people and work)

“The deceptions are growing stronger and becoming greater in number, leading us to the ultimate deception which is the antichrist! Beware, that if possible even the elect will be deceived (Mat 24:24). See 1 Corinthians 10:12.

“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

“America’s root sin is pride. They call us the greatest country on earth. We celebrate gay pride. American’s trust in their pride. We have pushed God out of every part of society, yet still believe in our pride, He is blessing us, because after all, we are the greatest country on earth! We are arrogant and boastful in the power of our own might. Trump has recently built a golden alter to himself and I have seen some pastor’s bowing down. We no longer fear God! God’s judgment is falling, from heaven, upon us! He will spare a remnant just as he always promised in the OT! Faithful believer’s who only bow to Him, seeking His face, keeping themselves unspotted from the world, and remaining pure and clean. Those are His true remnant will be given the fountain of life and never thirst again (Rev 21:6).” Karen Cochran

HERE’S WHAT BEING FULFILLED, WHAT’S COMING TO PASS RIGHT NOW

“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:10-14

In the midst of the prophesied great apostasy we are in, Christ’s Remnant are…

  • Waxing hotter in their love for God v12
  • Enduring to the end v13
  • Preaching Christ’s kingdom Gospel to the lost v14

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Famous Last Words of Atheists [podcast]


“Wow! That should put the fear of God in anyone who listens to this podcast! I know it did me! Powerful!” Karen

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” Psalms 14:1

I saw where a brother in Christ asks the so-called “atheists” he meets “Don’t you miss Him?”  In a gentle loving voice he asks them if they miss God. This rings true because we know at some point in their past, God was showing them His kindness, drawing them (John 12:32). He is still showing them kindness in that they are still alive (Romans 2:4).

Think about that. God informed us that all men, with no exception, know inside that He exists. This is why He said that “they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

I’ve seen several testimonies lately of people who previously called themselves  “atheist” and are now saved by the blood of Jesus Christ! Keep preaching His glorious saving Gospel beloved saints. He’s coming soon.

Fearful Last Words:

CAESAR BORGIA – Italian nobleman, politician, and cardinal:

“While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die, and am unprepared to die.”

THOMAS HOBBS – Political philosopher:

“I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark.”

THOMAS PAYNE – Leading atheistic writer in American colonies:

“Stay with me, for God’s sake; I cannot bear to be left alone, O Lord, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them, that ‘The Age of Reason’ had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! No, don’t leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.”

SIR THOMAS SCOTT – Chancellor of England:

“Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”

VOLTAIRE – Famous anti-Christian atheist:

“…’I am abandoned by God and man.’ He said to his physician, Dr. Fochin: ‘I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life.’ When he was told this was impossible, he said, ‘Then I shall die and go to hell!’ His nurse said: ‘For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.’

ROBERT INGERSOLL – American writer and orator of the book, Golden Age of Free Thought:

“O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul from hell!”

DAVID HUME – Atheist philosopher famous for his religious skepticism … He cried aloud on his death bed:

“I am in flames!”

Witnessed said his desperation was a horrible scene.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE – French emperor who … brought death to millions to satisfy his … selfish ambitions for world conquest:

“I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!”

SIR FRANCIS NEWPORT – Head of an English Atheist club, to those gathered around his deathbed:

“You need not tell me there is no God, for I know there is one, and that I am in his presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! Oh, that I could lie for a thousand years upon the fire that is never quenched, to purchase the favor of God and be united to Him again. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”

CHARLES IX – French king. Urged on by his mother, he gave the order for the massacre of the French Huguenots, in which 15,000 souls were slaughtered in Paris alone and 100,000 in other sections of France, for no other reason than that they loved Christ. … He finally died, bathed in blood bursting from his veins. To his physicians, he said in his last hours:

“Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. They drop with blood. They point at their open wounds. Oh! That I had spared at least the little infants at the bosom! What blood! I know not where I am. How will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever! Oh, I have done wrong…” 

DAVID STRAUSS – Leading representative of German rationalism who spent a lifetime erasing belief in God:

“My philosophy leaves me utterly forlorn! I feel like one caught in the merciless jaws of an automatic machine, not knowing at what time one of its great hammers may crush me!”

JOSEF STALIN – Soviet revolutionary and politician. In a Newsweek interview with Svetlana, his daughter, she told of his death:

“My father died a difficult and terrible death … God grants an easy death only to the just. At what seemed the very last moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry. His left hand was raised, as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. The gesture was full of menace…the next morning he was dead.”

ANTON LEVEY – Satanic Bible author and high priest of the Satanic worship religion. … His dying words were:

“Oh my, oh my, what have I done, there is something very wrong.” – newzsteam. wordpress.com. December 19, 2017, by Brian Butler

ELIZABETH THE FIRST: 

“All my possessions for one moment of time.”

KURT COBAIN (suicide note): 

“Frances and Courtney, I’ll be at your altar. Please keep going Courtney, for Frances. For her life will be so much happier without me. I love you. I love you.”

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN:

“Too bad, too bad! It’s too late!”

ANNE BOLEYN:

“O God, have pity on my soul. O God, have pity on my soul.”

PRINCE HENRY OF WALES:

“Tie a rope round my body, pull me out of bed, and lay me in ashes, that I may die with repentant prayers to an offended God. O! I in vain wish for that time I lost with you and others in vain recreations.”

SOCRATES: 

“All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”

SIGMUND FREUD: 

“The meager satisfaction that man can extract from reality leaves him starving.”

TONY HANCOCK (British comedian):

“Nobody will ever know I existed. Nothing to leave behind me. Nothing to pass on. Nobody to mourn me. That’s the bitterest blow of all.”

PHILLIP III, King of France:

“What an account I shall have to give to God! How I should like to live otherwise than I have lived.”

LUTHER BURBANK: 

“I don’t feel good.”

Philosophical Last Words:

Aldous Huxley (humanist):

“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try and be a little kinder.’”

Karl Marx: 

“Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”

Leonardo da Vinci: 

“I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”

Tolstoy:

“Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.”

Benjamin Franklin:

“A dying man can do nothing easy.”

Grotius:

“I have lived my life in a laborious doing of nothing.”

In Stark Contrast to the Wicked, the Righteous Die with Great Hope

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” 1 Peter 3:18

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

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The Persecution Podcast [podcast]


“Think it not strange” in 1 Peter 4 simply means to not be surprised. If you love the LORD you will want to hear all He says in His Word, including the reality of persecutions for Christ’s sake (John 8:47). Any man posing as a leader among God’s people and isn’t preaching regularly on the reality of Christian persecution, is absolutely an ear-tickling wolf! Run!

Sounds like our LORD is saying that WHATEVER, WHOEVER we lose in this life due to following Jesus, God is going to multiply back to us…

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. 31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.” Mark 10:27-31

“He shall receive a hundred fold, houses, &c. – Not in the same kind: for it will generally be with persecutions: but in value: a hundred fold more happiness than any or all of these did or could afford. But let it be observed, none is entitled to this happiness, but he that will accept it with persecutions.” John Wesley

William MacDonald, the Believer’s Bible Commentary:

“10:28-30 Peter caught the drift of the Savior’s teaching. He realized that Jesus was saying, “Forsake all and follow Me.” Jesus confirmed this by promising present and eternal reward to those who forsake all for His sake and the gospel’s.
1. The present reward is 10,000 per cent return, not in money, but in:
a. houses—homes of other people where he is given accommodations as a servant of the Lord.
b. brothers and sisters and mothers and children—Christian friends whose fellowship enriches all of life.
c. lands—countries of the world which he has claimed for the King.
d. persecutions—these are a part of the present reward. It is a cause of rejoicing when one is found worthy to suffer for Jesus’ sake.
2. The future reward is eternal life. This does not mean that we earn eternal life through forsaking all. Eternal life is a gift. Here the thought is that those who forsake all are rewarded with a greater capacity for enjoying eternal life in heaven. All believers will have that life but not all will enjoy it to the same extent.”

FB Meyer writes:

“Mark 10:23-52
TRUE RICHES AND REAL GREATNESS
Wealth brings many temptations. It is not said that rich men cannot get through the gate, but they will have to stoop very low and be stripped of the love of wealth, though not necessarily of wealth itself. In Christ’s kingdom to give all is to get all. The surrendered life needs no pity, for what it loses on the material side is more than compensated by its enormous spiritual gains, Mar_10:30-31. Perhaps the request of the two brethren was dictated rather by the desire to be near the Master than by ambition; but in any case there is only one price to be paid. We must know the fellowship of His sufferings, if we are to share His glory, 2Ti_2:11, etc.”

“The strongest swords are forged in the hottest fires.” unknown

More on persecution here.

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