Lo Mejor / The Best

On Friday I had to lead my conversation class in a Bible study in Spanish. As I was trying to think of what to share and discuss, I was brought back to the verses that helped to bring me here to Costa Rica in the first place. I'll share a little bit of it with you here:

We read- Marcos 10, 17-31 (Mark 10: 17-31)
The story of the rich young ruler who Jesus tells him he needs to give up everything in order to have eternal life. He goes away sad.

Specifically verses 29-30:

• “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
• —Les aseguro —respondió Jesús— que todo el que por mi causa y la del evangelio haya dejado casa, hermanos, hermanas, madre, padre, hijos o terrenos, recibirá cien veces más ahora en este tiempo (casas, hermanos, hermanas, madres, hijos y terrenos, aunque con persecuciones); y en la edad venidera, la vida eterna.

How awesome is this?! Yes, God does tell us to give up everything we know and are comfortable with, but only so He can give us stuff that's the best and so much more. I was a math minor in college...so I know that "100 x (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields) in this life and eternity" is way better than what He asks us to give up.

Here's a few more examples of this for our lives:

Mateo 16, 24-26 (Matthew 16:24-26)

• Abandonar: tu vida, este mundo  (Give up: your life, this world)
• Recibir: vida mejor, vida real, vida eterna  (Receive: better life, real life, eternal life)

2 Corintios 5,17 (2 Corinthians 5:17)

• Abandonar: lo viejo  (Give up: the old)
• Recibir: lo nuevo, una nueva creación  (Receive: the new, a new creation)

Efesios 4,22-24 (Ephesians 4:22-24)

• Abandonar: el ropaje de la vieja naturaleza  (Give up: the old self)
• Recibir: el ropaje de la nueva naturaleza  (Receive: the new self)

I don't know about you, but I want the things we can receive. They definitely look better than the things we have to give up! The rich young ruler went away sad because he didn't understand or believe this truth: that God wants us to give these things away so that He can provide us with THE BEST (lo mejor).

¡Haga un intercambio!

Trade it in!

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I was reminded again and again about this over the weekend. On Friday I spend a little time talking with one of the people from the team that was visiting. She was a great encouragement and blessing to me. As she was praying for me, one of the things she said was that I would believe that God is not holding back from me the best. That's so true, though I often don't believe it. He isn't holding back the best from me. He wants to give me the best!

Then at church on Sunday the pastor talked about John 21. This is after Jesus' resurrection where his disciples were out to fish and they hadn't caught anything all night. Then from the shore, Jesus tells them to put their net in the other side. The part that stuck out to me the most is where it says that when they came ashore their net was full of LARGE fish, 153. God didn't just give them any old fish in the water that night. He gave them the best. He set that aside for them, just like He does for us. He wants to give me the best!

He's good! Here's a couple pictures from the group here last week:

The kids leading us in a song with motions.

Singing a song with parts in English, Spanish and Korean!