Wednesday Bible Study: Abraham plank by Plank part III

 So Abraham, still known as Abram at this point, spends 16 years in Haran, with his entire family.  And at this point, though we've only seen these words once, Stephen tells us God spoke to Abram a second time:

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 

Gen 12:2  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 

Gen 12:3  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Notable here is "From your kindred, and your father's house".  He was to leave family behind in Haran, as he hadn't when he left Ur.  The Book of Jubilees tells us that daddy Terah was fine with this, to a point...

And Terah his father said unto him; Go in peace:  May the eternal God make thy path straight.  And the Lord [(be) with thee, and] protect thee from all evil,

And grant unto thee grace, mercy and favour before those who see thee,  And may none of the children of men have power over thee to harm thee;

Go in peace.

And if thou seest a land pleasant to thy eyes to dwell in, then arise and take me to thee and take Lot with thee, the son of Haran thy brother as thine own son: the Lord be with thee.

And Nahor thy brother leave with me till thou returnest in peace, and we go with thee all together.'

So according to the Jubilees story, Abram was supposed to go back and get them!  But the problem is, God didn't call them, for they were still idolaters, and given to excuses not to leave their idols behind.  Again from Jubilees, Abram tries to talk his father out of his idolatry.  His excuse:

And his father said unto him, I also know it, my son, but what shall I do with a people who have made me to serve before them?

And if I tell them the truth, they will slay me; for their soul cleaves to them to worship them and honour them.

Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee.' And these words he spake to his two brothers, and they were angry with him and he kept silent.

I think this is important to share, because it shows more of the planks Abram was to be built with.  One was that Abram had to accept that God would now be his family, his Father.  As Jesus said:

Mar 10:28  Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 

Mar 10:29  Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 

Mar 10:30  who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

He could not get the reward he was promised dragging his family along behind.  Some people God is going to call to leave their family behind, particularly if that family is stuck in their sinning and rejects Jesus.  Abram's family was unwilling to disentangle themselves from the world; in fact, his brothers were even angry (And according to Jubilees, one of them died for the idols!).  Also, note that Terah wanted to stay silent, in fear of the world.  God will never allow a believer to be silent about their faith.

I have been talking to myself about my sins, and the ways I want to "stay in Haran".  But looking at God's promise to Abram, we see the problem with that:

-You miss out on the wonders He wants to show you;

-You miss out on what He wants to make of you;

-You miss out on the blessings he wants to give;

-You miss being the blessing to others He made you to be;

-You miss out on a level of His protection;

- You miss being a part of the future He's building.

Every one of these strike me.  Each one tells me I have a long way to go.  Abram had over 400 miles to his next stop, his next choice of obedience.  And he wouldn't have made it one step past his family, had he not been willing to put the world AND his family behind him to serve the Lord.

So the question left is, Did Abraham ever go back for Terah and company?  Answer: no.  Did he have a chance? Yes.  Terah was still alive, it would seem, when aged Abraham sent Eliazar to His brother's grandson Laban to find a wife for Isaac- though at 200+, it might not have been feasible.  The bloodline came to Canaan- but the idolaters never did.

Sunday night at the moanies

 So here I am, at the end of two weeks off, because the company that owns our company is in a business that has had a rough couple of years.  And for a lot of reasons, I'm really bummed right now.

Because I have to work?  No, God led me to this job, it frankly isn't hard, and it is provision for my family.  I don't regret where I work.

What I am regretting boils down to this: we used to be a mid-level player in a specific industry, with dreams of expansion, hopes of extending into related industry.  Now, however, we are a constantly-contracting wart on the butt of a much bigger concern that has fingers, toes, and arms into industries both close and far-flung from where we are.  But the thing is, our plant is a highly successful wart, and still is getting treated like our masters are considering Compound W.

Since we were sold to this company- an event trumpeted as being a great deal, that would inject $$$ into our efforts, here's what has happened:

-One plant manager had a stress-related heart attack, another jumped ship just as the sale was announced.

-We used to have a Quality exec and an assistant Plant Manager.  Both have since been deemed unnecessary.

-We've lost two plants to closure, a VP, a VP-replacement, a President, a HR department, a scheduling staff, and a maintenance man.

- I work in a department that used to run three machines constantly, including overtime; one machine is basically unreliable, another needs a belt and other vital parts that we are jury-rigging around.

- We've lost getting a quarterly bonus and haven't had a raise in at least a couple years.

Our plant is consistently in the 90%s in efficiency; The remaining other plant- who (for them) is conveniently located across the street from our biggest customer- only tops 55% when the Boss from the big company is on the floor.  And because they suck, and the other industries our owners are in are sucking, it doesn't matter what we do- no raises, no bonuses, and the little things at holiday times our company USED to do for us, the current Plant Manager does out of his budget.

Though I try not to think about it, it sucks to feel like the whole place has the sword of Damocles over it.  Been through this once before, didn't like it then, either.  And just like then, it started when a kind hearted, old school owner had to sell to a larger outfit who only see $$$.

It's kind of sitting on me tonight, along with much of the same stuff that came out in my last rant.  Today, Pastor Josh preached on Hebrews 12, a message about three 'gauges' we can use to check where we are faith wise.  One is the gauge of "being plural", connected to others of faith.  And that is a problem for me, though there are options available to me.  The second is the gauge of "being light", not carrying the garbage and the things we can't control or don't need; there I think is my bigger problem.  The third is the gauge of "Being focused on Jesus", and I think the 'weight' is dragging that gauge down right now.

I didn't know how to finish this, or if to even publish it- just let it sit and be cathartic.  I flipped over to X just now, though, and read this:

"Did you know that the most mature person in Christ has further to go than he or she has already come?

"Gee James, I'm sure glad we have eternity with Jesus to figure this all out!" "

Okay.  'Suck it up, buttercup', I guess is the motto for the night, and be glad Jesus still walks with me.  Reminds me of another tweet I saw today.  "Satan thought he took everything from Job; but he couldn't take God from him."

M10 show week 147

 

Alright, I am recovered from my rant of Wednesday night and am ready to get on with the regular M10 countdown- and I am taking the unusual expedient of going two years back to target year 1977 this week...

Elvis: Well, why'd that be?

Because my friend, with one single exception of a song that moved up 4 (Neil Diamond's Desiree), every one of the songs for January 7th, 1978 (since they had a freeze week on the first) moved up only one spot!  This way, we have the right week AND a moving chart!  Also, we have a first of 2025 M10with but one debut- a song my son KC put me on to!  Here's bluesman Robert Finley at # 10...

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Now before we get to that, here's some of 2024's M10 top ten!

10- Shannon and the Clams, What You're Missing.  Topped the chart for 2 weeks in July.

9- Juliana Hatfield, Secret Messages. The runner up to the above act for Big New (to me) Act of 2024, this hit #1 for 2 weeks in March.

8- Linkin Park, Heavy Is The Crown. The second of 2 consecutive #1s for LP, this took the heavy crown in late October.

7- Leon Bridges, That's What I love. This followed the above song for a couple of weeks in November.

6- Shannon and the Clams, Real Or Magic.  The first of their two #1s hit for a month in April and May.

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Hopefully, ya didn't mess up yer links this time...

Yeah, my hope as well.  So this week in 1977, we had three 9-spot movers and 2 eight-rung movers.  So our top five in week one of 1977:

5- Barry Manilow, Weekend In New England.  In a couple weeks this would officially be the original M10's first #1.  Up to 34 this week, it would peak 73 in Australia, but 9 in North America.

4- The Jacksons, Enjoy Yourself.  Michael and his bros would peak 6 here, 5 in Canada- but AWOL in Australia.

3- Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Night Moves.  Up to 35 this week, the first of the 9-spot movers peaked at 25 Australia, 5 in Canada, and 6 here.

2- Stevie Wonder, I Wish.  Stevie was about to embark in a golden age, and this one, climbing to 13 this week, would top the North American charts and get to #51 in Australia.

And this week's top dog:

1- Rose Royce, Car Wash.  From the movie of the same name (wish wasn't near so memorable), this one dropped in at #13 this week; it would peak 1 in North America and #12 in Australia.

Hey, ya fergot the #1s this week...

So I did.  Go for it!

Shure.  In the US of A, on Cashbox at least, it was Marilyn McCoo an' Billy Davis, aka two of the Five Dimensions, with You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)...

Never one of my favorites, BTW...

It also swept North America, and another #12 in Aussie-land.

Meanwhile, Canada was still stuck on Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night, which was top a couple weeks back in the US, and made it ta three in Australia.  

An' Australia was stuck even farther back with Chicago an' If You Leave Me Now, which swept all the charts at differnt times.

Wow, that list wuz about as easy as it gets!

Great timing for you!  My #1 for this week in 77 would be Bread's Lost Without Your Love, up 4 to #23 this week...

What about '78?  Jus' because nobody moved don' mean ya ain't got a fave there...

True enough, I suppose... maybe Player's Baby Come Back, would've been a tight race...

Anyway, the final five...

5- Real Estate, Somebody New.  Their 4th straight #1, it hit in late May.

4- Lucinda Williams, While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  My vote for Best Beatles cover ever, she had a 3-week run at the top in December.

Which ya can't get on other charts!

So true!

3- Beabadoobee, Beaches.  My favorite pure fun video of the year, she hit the top for 2 weeks in August/September.

2- Decemberists, Long White Veil. This would finish tied for #13 all time, and grace the top spot in most of August.  

And the top M10 tune of 2024...

HOLD ON!  Suspense, remember?  Lemme give the rest of the M10 first...

Have at it!

9- an' down 2, Matt Berry an' I Gotta Limit...

8- an' holdin' again, Linkin Park an' Cut The Bridge...

7- an' up 2, Japanese Breakfast an' Kokomo, IN...

6- an' down 1, Lucinda and her weepy guitar...

5- an' up one, Midlake an' Roscoe...

4- an' down one, Maggie Rogers an' Don't Forget Me....

3- an' up one, the Cowsills an' She Said To Me...

2- an' holdin', Geowulf an' Dreaming...

An' the same ol' #1....

Wait!  Shouldn't we stop for 'suspense'?

Whut suspense?  Everone knows it's gonna be...

...Junior Senior and Move Your Feet, for a third week!

Well, fine!  And now, the top M10 song of 2024, and 8th all time- from one week in April at the top, and-4 weeks later- one week in May....

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That's the show, see you next time!

The blood on the hands

 I know I'm supposed to be typing up this week's M10 post now.  But I'm not.

By now, most of you know what has happened in NOLA and Vegas.  Let me bring up things I've only seen on X so far.  

-The very-little reported fact that closed circuit tv saw 3 men and a woman planting pipe bombs in New Orleans' Catholic Cathedral early this morning, which police found and exploded safely.  

-The fact that the Tesla blown up at Trump Las Vegas was built so well that, where a normal suicide car might have taken out several people, this vehicle contained the explosion so no one was killed but the idiot driving it.

-The attacker in NOLA was former Army- and while the networks show a list of the commendations he had, another source says he was reprimanded at least twice for extremist views, and was prevented from joining the National Guard for that reason.

-His bio shows a man who spent money like it was nothing, cheated, divorced twice- heavily in debt at this point. Wouldn't be too hard to radicalize a man like that.

-Apparently the Armed forces aren't willing in the Biden Era to follow up reports of radicalism, because of fear of being "racist".  Same thing that allowed the Fort Hood shootings.

-As I type, FBI and police have a large section of Houston (where he was supposedly from) cordoned off while they investigate  a possible sleeper cell he belonged to.

This is not going to be a "Muslims are poison" post.  Like everyone else, some are- some aren't.  What this is about is, how damn stupid it is that we have had political leaders so willing to compromise essential services- such as the FBI, CIA, and FEMA- that we cannot rely on them to do the simplest parts of their jobs correctly.  That our Armed Forces are so infected with DEI that they refuse to stop a threat because they might hurt someone's feelings.  That a city that had ALWAYS before made3 sure Bourbon Street was blocked off properly, allowed a F-150- a big, lumbering pickup truck- go go AROUND a police car parked in the street (but not on the sidewalk), and accelerate away before the officer inside woke up enough to react.  (I saw the video; the officer should have had the car running beforehand, and RAMMED the truck  before he tried to pass; instead, the truck was well out of the picture before the officer finally got out of his unit and pursued on foot.)  Let's also bring up that the chief of police in charge of the thing is a once-retired, once fired, Granny Clampett look alike, appointed by the latest in the series of idiots that NOLA seems "hell bent" to elect as Mayors.  Her latest notoriety was running over two pedestrians in August.

Then internet is all over the "this blood is on so-and-so's hands."  Guess what, America?  This blood is on YOUR hands.  Every one of you who vote in the same old pols who pack police forces, disaster agencies, etc., with political appointees who are trained to go after 'the other guy' instead of doing the job they need to be doing.  I'll even name you an example.  In California, Gavin Newsome promised in March 2023 to build 1,200 'tiny homes' at a cost of $625K A PIECE for the homeless.  He has not had ONE built.  In the meantime, Pennsylvania Amish went to Western North Carolina, having raised $300,000 from their own people, and built 12 tiny homes in 48 HOURS - $25K per, for the hurricane victims that FEMA is screwing over.

It ain't impossible to do the job.  You need to CARE.  And not about your own power. FEMA no longer cares.  They're too busy forcing inspectors to condemn the tiny houses and keep the homeless homeless, and checking yards for Trump for President signs.  The FBI doesn't care.  They're too busy finding unqualified women of color to run out in front of the microphones.  The Army doesn't care, they're too busy making sure the barracks are DEI.  And apparently the voters in many places are not; they're too busy 'voting the way my daddy and his daddy voted.'

So that's what I have to say.  Come get me, FBI, I don't care.  You'll only prove me right.

The M10 New Year's Eve Party

 Ladies and Gentlemen, Barry Manilow...

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Barry, thanks for coming!

BM:  You're very welcome!  But why am I coming in so fuzzy?

Elvis, whispering: Jus' tell him we're streaming on Netflix...

Er, well it's just one of those temporal anomaly things, I guess.  That is one of those songs I always hear in my mind when I think of tonight.  Welcome to our New Years Eve party, folks!  I hope you enjoy what we have lined up for you tonight...

EP:  Whut lined up?  Yer doing this straight off the fly...

Picky, picky!  I have things in mind that will magically materialize, my friend.  Now, get up there and intro our next guest!

EP: All righty folks, here's M10 stars Camera Obscura....

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That was super!  Thanks, Camera Obscura!  Now the next treat- which I'm still working on- is, what songs were #1 when the chart came out exactly on New Year's Eve.

EP: So whut didja find? 

Well, buddy, I found out at least one of them was YOUR next number!  Hit it! ************************************************************

EP:   

Nice job!  So from 1950 to 1989, there were 6 songs on the Cashbox #1 spot on the week ending December 31st. They were:   

1955- Tennessee Ernie Ford, Sixteen Tons....

1960- as you just heard, Elvis's Are You Lonesome Tonight...

1966- The Monkees, I'm A Believer...

1977- The Bee Gees, How Deep Is Your Love....

1983- Duran Duran, Union Of The Snake...

and 1989- Poison, Every Rose Has It's Thorns.

EP:  Thankfully, I wuz on that list!

Yep, because you work cheap!  Anyway, give it up for our next guests, wishing you a great 2025, the Zombies!!!!

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EP: Say, are we gonna have a Beauty Contest?

To answer that question, let me bring in our old friend and attorney, Horace Bellbottom!!!!

HB:  NO.  We are still fielding the Newton lawsuits...

EP: Law-SUITS?  As in, more than one?

HB: I am not at liberty to say.  However, We are contractually obligated to have Mr Newton come in to apologize publicly...

Right now?

HB:  I'm afraid so...

Sigh... very well...  

WN:  I'VE BEEN FRAMED!  SOMEBODY UNTIE M...

Well, I'm afraid Wayne is not very apologetic yet, so lets move onward.  We do have one more guest lined up tonight... and it's a song with a deep meaning for me, about someone I knew but very briefly.  And in my head, I drink a toast to her every time I hear this... Here is Counting Crows...

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And with that, Happy and prosperous 2025 to all of you, and have a great evening...

The years top ten posts

 I tried doing a new Martin World News today, but Jimmy Carter passed into history today and pretty much swamped the front pages.  Not that that news wasn't more important, but he coulda gave me a two minute warning or something.  (ASIDE:  I think he was a good man.  President, not so much, but he made up for that.  And God doesn't judge on scales, thankfully.)

So I decided to get on my stats page and see what posts of mine got the most looks.  And there were some surprising results.  And I thought I'd share them with you.

10- With 58 looks, "Pictures" from March 3rd of this year.  It was a pretty basic, weeks-worth-of-walks post.

Among them this one, which reminds me- last year, they had that "Stay off the ice" sign out from around Thanksgiving until April.  This year, the river has frozen over twice, but no sign of it.

9-With 59 Looks, "Vacation Monday" from July 1st this year.  Another picture post, this time featuring...

...foxes!

8- With 62 looks, "The Big Wet One" from June 25th, 2013.  That time that we- me and Scrappy- got caught in a full fledged severe thunderstorm almost a quarter mile from home!  I had forgot that we almost ran into a skunk that night, too...

7- With 73 votes, "A Post About Nothing" from March 2nd of this year.  Besides discussing the Misty barf incident from #10, it was a memoriam to my ex- mother-in-law.

6- With 82 looks, "Pictures" from October 5th this year.  This one featured the "Crow dance", and my current screen saver...

5- With 115 looks, "A Prayer From Indiana", a bit of my testimony as part of a friend's "50 States of Pray" blog hop from Christmas Eve, 2013.

4- With 117 looks, "Comments And Respect" from January 25th, 2014.  One of the most commented posts, it involved equal parts of someone I considered a friend being IMHO imperious, and me being hot headed.  If you disagree with me, that's okay; but telling me, Do you "SINCERELY" believe you've earned the right to disagree with me?  That's still not gonna fly.

3- With 133 looks, "A to Z with Lil'Ol'Me? from June 14th, 2016.  This was a delightful a-to-z questionnaire that Debbie the Dog-Lady shared as part of a blog hop.  I may have to re-visit this in the coming days.  Among the shocking revelations: I was in love with the Justad sisters from the band Tangerine...

2- With 142 looks, "What Government Is For" from June 27th, 2010.  An epic three-cornered battle between me, Laurie's brother, and a young atheist, that provoked a long, intricate comment debate.

And #1- With a whopping 409 looks, "Sunday Stuff" from July 31st, 2011.  Using the Book of Job to get beyond saying a meaningless, "I'll pray for you," to someone in pain.  Amazingly enough, this is the one of these still in the all time list    (#9), but maybe that means God has been using it to help others.  I truly hope it has.

It amazes me how much of this was old posts- 80 % of the looks were from posts written before this decade!  I imagine that is a lesson to all of us of the lastingness of what we write today...

Wednesday Bible Study: Abraham plank by plank part II

NOTE:  Once again this appears on Sunday, so you can sleep in on New Years. 

 One of the things I learned this week was about where Abram's family actually came from.  I was researching Ur (where they were) and Haran (where they stopped off)  and at some point, I hit an article where an obviously non-Biblical scholar seemed to be bashing the Bible on two points.  One was the phrase, "Ur of the Chaldeans", pointing out that the Chaldeans (as such) weren't in existence then.  Which would be valid, except that "Chaldeans" weren't a people- they were the priestly class of the second Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar's fame.  And as Ur was a holy city to the Sumerians of Ur, Chaldean is as valid as 'priestly class '.

The second is more interesting.  He pointed out that DNA testing (and I don't know where he got this, but whatever) showed that the Israelites originated as Amorites.  He went on to spend many minutes bashing the Bible for "Speaking poorly of the Amorites, as if the Hebrews wanted to distance themselves from their true origin."  Friends, let's go to the Word of God in Ezekiel:

Eze 16:1  Again the word of the LORD came to me: 

Eze 16:2  “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 

Eze 16:3  and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 

So that DNA evidence proves the Bible's accuracy once again, although the commentators I use are from a time that didn't have this knowledge and thought it allegorical.  At this point, I may have you confused, so I want to step back and explain as much as I can what was going on.

So timelines from the Bible and from science don't exactly match- mainly because 'science' can't figure out that Creation and the Flood were real events.  Be that as it may, we can figure this much about those days.

Classical education starts civilization with the cities of Sumer (which included Ur), which were then replaced by the Akkadian "empire" of Sargon.  After him a group called the Guitians came in; we know little about them, because the name was just a placeholder for barbarian tribes who came in and established a kingdom or two.  After they were overthrown and assimilated, native rule returned, but not without more problems in the Amorite tribes.  This may have also been a placeholder name for a group of 'barbarian tribes' (think "illegal immigrants"), so says our scholar above (which also kinda puts a hole in his logic).  At any rate, it seems a solid guess that Abram's ancestors were among those who infiltrated Ur and friends at this time.  In what the scholars name as 2100 BC, a king named Utu-Hegal built an "Amorite Wall" to keep them out.  It was supposedly somewhere between 94 and 100+ miles long- but wasn't anchored at either end, so the Amorites just went around it.  And it wasn't well kept-up, and soon yet another people, this time Elamites, began to cross in and raid.

My guess is this was about the time that Abram was born into.  The Book of Jubilees tells a story of the fields of the Ur- area being constantly raided by "ravens", and famine breaking out.  But Abram, the story goes, knew a way to scare them off that they never returned, and then taught the people better farming techniques to alleviate the famine.  My guess is, the 'ravens' were an allegory for Elamites/Amorites raiding the fields, and about that time, the Sumerians won some sort of temporary victory.  In fact, scholars call this time period the "Sumerian renaissance".  But it wouldn't last for long; between increasing raids, failing agriculture because their irrigation methods soaked the land in salt, and the growing power of Amorite Babylon, the old kingdoms of Mesopotamia began to change.

Between one or more of the three, Terah, Abram's dad, probably thought this idea of Abram's that God wanted him to move to Canaan was a good idea.  Remember, the Bible account says, 

 Gen 11:31  Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 

But Stephen tells us in Acts 7 that Abram was called to journey while still in Ur.  Using both the Bible and the Book of Jubliees, we can guess Terah was 130 years old and Abram 60+ when they hit Haran, which was on the caravan route around the desert to Canaan, and close enough to where Hittite power was in its beginnings to justify the 'matriarchal line' from Ezekiel 16.  Terah, who we are told in several places was an idol worshipper (including Joshua 24), was attracted to the big festival to the god Sin held in Harran on their New Year known as the Akitu Festival, probably... and Abram, torn between the call of God and loyalty to his family, tarried there for 14 years, while God waited.  

And that wait is ironic, definitely God's timing:  14 years God waited for Abram to journey to Canaan; and 14 years from the birth of Ishmael to Hagar, Abram's attempt to 'help' the Lord with His promise, until the promise is actually fulfilled in the birth of Isaac.

So what planks do we learn from all this?  1- you can trust the Bible; if a scientist denies the Bible, it is he that will end up learning. 2- If God calls, don't wait!  Jesus taught this Himself...

Luk 9:59  To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 

Luk 9:60  And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

Luk 9:61  Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 

Luk 9:62  Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

Which ties into a third: You may find yourself choosing between Jesus and family.  Choose wisely...

Mat 19:29  And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.