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Gary G. Hoag
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”— Mark 8:36
"Do you want to have a country cottage? I refuse to believe you want a bad one. You want to get a wife, but only a good one, a home, but only a good one. Why should I run through everything one by one? You don’t want to have a bad shoe, and you want to have a bad life? As though a bad shoe can do you more harm than a bad life! When a bad, ill-fitting shoe starts hurting you, you sit down, take it off, throw it away or put it right or change it, in order not to damage a toe. A bad life, which can lose you your soul, you don’t care to put right. But I can see clearly enough where you delude yourself; a hurtful shoe causes pain, a hurtful life causes pleasure. The first indeed hurts, the second pleases. But what pleases for a time, later on brings much worse pain, while what brings salutary pain for a time, later on brings endless pleasure and abundant, joyful happiness."
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in Essential Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill, ed. Daniel Doyle, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New York: New City Press, 2007), Sermon 339.4.
This is the sixth of seven posts exploring the theme of 'abundance' in the sermons of one of my favorite orators. If you love these excerpts, do download the PDF of this collection of sermons freely here.
Today, Augustine teaches us that when we choose the way of Christ, which our Lord told us would have hardships, we can anticipate abundant joy.
He also alerts us that a hurtful life, one that leads to destruction, actually experiences pleasure, but it's only for a short time.
Which way will you take?
Before you answer, consider the word pictures of the bad shoe and the bad life. If you have a bad shoe, you toss it, right?
But those living a bad life, often don't realize it. Why? I will say it again. A hurtful life causes pleasure.
If life for you is all about seeking pleasure, consider this message a warning. Make sure you are on the right path.
When I think of destruction in Ukraine, my mind goes to this famous bridge in Irpin, pictured above on my visit in 2023. The Ukrainian military destroyed to stop the advance of Russian troops to Kyiv.
One way to help shake and wake you is to show you photos like this. Another way is to encourage you to make a sacrificial gift.
Do it not for me but for suffering souls in Ukraine. I return there with CTU Global in December 2026. As I have stated all week, this marks my fourth trip since the conflict escalated in 2022.
Click here to go to the CTU global website. Click the blue give button to give and be sure to write "Project: Ukraine" in the "add a note" section.
What if instead of having a country cottage, you made it a goal to store up a certain amount of money in heaven?
Start today by making a gift.
On another note, I flew to Dallas yesterday to speak at the Evangelical Missiological Conference at Dallas Theological Seminary today.
My paper is entitled, "The Role of ‘Eusebeia’ in the Inscriptions of Ephesus and the Letters to Timothy and Titus."
Click here to download it freely. It's only 10 pages.
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