Dedicated

This is John, I would like to take a moment to share a few thoughts.

Today we were able to worship with family and witness my cousin Karalynn and her husband Caleb dedicate their son Ephraim. They stood in front of Kingsway Christian Church and vowed to raise their son, as best they are able, to know and love Jesus. Both Mirjam and I are blessed that we grew up in families where we had parents who were dedicated to loving Jesus and teaching their children to love Jesus. 

Dictionary.com defines dedicated as: devoted to a task or purpose; having single-minded loyalty or integrity. Or: exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular service or purpose. So what are you dedicated to? I know that my parents were dedicated to raising me to know and love Jesus (just as Caleb and Karalynn are dedicated to raising Ephraim), but at some point I had to make a choice for myself. Would my life be dedicated to Jesus? Will my life be devoted to, have loyalty toward, and be exclusively allocated toward Jesus? 

So many people dedicate their lives to things that ultimately leave them empty. I have seen people dedicated to sports, careers, entertainment, accumulating riches, boyfriends, girlfriends, all of which have left them empty. Sports injuries happen. Careers end. Entertainment only lasts so long, riches rust and go away..... But Jesus never leaves you empty. In Jesus there is hope, healing, and life. Mark 10 28-31 says this

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

29“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 30will 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. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

This weekend marks seven years from when we left Omaha, Nebraska for Salt Lake City, Utah. We were dedicated to whatever Jesus was calling us to do there. Over these past seven years we have seen people surrender their lives to Christ and be baptized, young people grow into leaders, and made many friends. I look back at "John & Mirjam Curry of seven years ago" and I think about how young we were. How naive and impressionable. But we were dedicated. We are missing all of our friends back in Salt Lake City. We are missing the mountains, our house, our neighborhood, and shopping at Winco. But we are dedicated. We are dedicated to Jesus and living a life that tells others about Jesus. We are dedicated to making disciples and planting churches. We are dedicated because we know that life in Jesus is so much better than anything else; and a life dedicated to Jesus will not leave a person empty. 

As we prepare to go to Germany with Kontaktmission we continue to be dedicated to Jesus. If you would like to partner with us either financially or through prayer please e-mail: jcurry2k5@gmail.com.