Everyone

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. Matthew 19:29 I hesitate to tell too many of my life experiences with my Lord for fear of coming across as presenting myself as some kind of hero of the faith. I am not. At all. I know how weak I truly am. But the above Scripture has had deep meaning in my life for many years now, and that meaning was brought home once more this very morning. I made the decision to follow Jesus Christ 47 years ago this month. Wherever He led, I would go, no matter the cost....but I never imagined how much that cost would be. It began almost immediately as I left my old life behind, and in doing so, so many of my friends as well. That involved some pain, but I was young and I knew I couldn't stay in the environment I had been living in and still go on with Him. I trusted Him in this and He didn't disappoint. When I left for Bible College, I entered into a whole new world and one of the choice blessings I received were the many fantastic friendships I made there, most of which have continued to this day. He kept His word. I entered the ministry in 1984, and it is where I really began to learn of what it meant to suffer loss for His name. Most of all in my own family. The hardest part of ministry is watching people walk away from you for a number of reasons, but what they all had in common is that on some level, they wanted me to heed them before Him. Refusing to can make people angry and angry people can lash out and do very unloving things. I felt the deep sting of abandonment and betrayal more than a few times. People I thought would never do so, did. It's a story shared by every faithful pastor. Yet again, for everyone that left me, He would raise up from many different sources, those who would prove to truly be friends of the heart. Once more, He kept His word. Eventually, I would pay the deepest price. My wife, who I had believed was my life partner, began to hate the lifestyle of a pastor's wife. She sought for me to make compromises that I just couldn't make. She wanted a lifestyle for us that I knew I could never live. Whatever love she once felt left her, and was replaced by a cold, bitter anger and seeming hatred. She left, and she took her daughter, who we had raised as my own, with her. I will never forget the indescribable and heart wrenching pain I felt on the day she was taken away. A young girl that I loved completely as my own. I would not see or know anything of her for more than a decade. Yet even in this loss, He was faithful, and He has remained so. I lost my family, but what He did in response was to bring in seemingly endless numbers, people of all ages to simply love and be loved by. In 42 years of ministry, I have had the blessing of loving and being loved by so many wonderful people of God. I have formed some of the deepest friendships and relationships that will go on into eternity. What I have gained from Him has greatly outweighed what I lost. I was reminded of that this morning when a young girl, now a teenager, came up to me in church. When I pastored in Northern Viginia, I would each week pick she and her mother up for church. That little girl would sit in the backseat and banter the whole way with me. She was quite the character, but I loved her and knew she loved me. I hadn't seen her in years, but the bond was still there. She's just one of the many countless blessings I have received from Him as I keep on keeping on in the Kingdom. Through it all, through all the losses and cost, He has kept His word. He will always keep His word. Trust Him. The cross of Christ is soaked in His blood. We cannot expect that if we truly follow Him, it will not be soaked with ours as well. In the midst of the cost, He gives His greatest gift; Himself, a truly incomparable gift. . Blessings, Pastor O