My word tells you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. What do you make of this? Do you understand this to mean that your salvation is in doubt, and that you must secure it by your own efforts? Yet you are saved by grace through faith, not of your own works. If you approach this verse with the premise that your salvation is not up for grabs, then what does it mean? Don’t settle for mundane vision and lead a mundane life. You have entered an eternal drama and your words and actions have consequences that will echo forever. You should be awestruck at the part you are called to play. 

Have you become so familiar with the Bible that you can read it on autopilot, without engaging the story? Familiarity breeds complacency, and causes things that are shocking to lose their impact. Consider the story of the Centurion with the sick servant. I offered to come and heal the man but the Centurion said that was not necessary since he was confident that I could heal at a distance. I healed the servant and marveled that I had not seen so great a faith in Israel. What would be a modern day equivalent? Can you imagine Billy Graham addressing a stadium full of Christians and saying how could it be that this Moslem has greater faith than any Christian I have met? Does that bring the point home? 

Do you expect to be rich in heaven? It is not a place of poverty, and the descriptions you have suggest abundance. In this world you use money to keep score. Those who have it know that they are on top and those who do not wish that they did, so everyone is aware of it whether they have it or not. Even unbelievers say that you can’t take it with you, and believers realize that in heaven money is not a meaningful concept. That is not the same thing as being rich. Paul knew both how to be abased and how to abound, but these are both monetary references. Are you prepared to let go of money as a meaningful concept? 

Have you noticed how many groups claim to represent me, or claim that I am on their side? I warned about this when I said that many would come in my name, and that you should be wary of them. Many claim that I am aligned with them, but I am not so easily owned. Have you noticed yourself moving in the same direction the longer you follow me? You should expect this. The affiliations that you take on to build an identity are divisions peculiar to this world. I have invited you to be transformed into my likeness. The more you belong to my Kingdom which is not of this world the harder you are to classify here.