Which Way believer? Is it the broad or the narrow way?

I am sure you know the story of the strait gate and narrow way as against the wide gate and broad way which we have heard several times; this past Tuesday during our midweek service, the preacher described both ways very colorfully so I decided to borrow it hoping that she will not mind. Really, really and really again, I am not advertising the church I attend but we definitely hear the word of God. I hope you do too in your church otherwise, you need to do something about it. These are very “perilous times”; I sincerely don’t know how any believer can successfully navigate this life without consistently hearing the accurate The Word of God. I guess you read your bible, which is really great, but what you hear may help your understanding and/or interpretation of what you read and maybe also let you know the ones you may have missed. Again, it impacts on the quality of your fellowship since you most likely keep company with some in your church.

 

Mathew 7: 13 “You can enter God’s kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”

So the preacher, describing the broad way, said that the fact that it is broad suggests that it provides  enough room to turn around several times over so that one can sin and repent over and over again until it becomes a normal way of life and others can sway from side to side several times over so that one may be a little spiritual one day and carnal the next so that no one needs to be too much of any just as long as you a good mix - not overly spiritual or outright carnal after all you still prefer to be described as “believer or born again”. The reality though is that notwithstanding the way you prefer to describe yourself, the path that allows you all that movement is one that leads to hell which isn’t the destination you  chose when you chose to make Christ Lord in your life. You just flowed into it for the ease of living. As it is often said, “You know, life does not have to be so hard.”

Romans 14: 17 “For the Kingdom of God is … a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 4: 20 “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”

The truth is, the problem with that narrow gate and difficult road is just what they are “narrow and difficult”. Our challenge though, is that this is the only way that takes us to that end we desire so much as believers in Christ. I guess God let it be that way because He knows that He already provided all the help we need and will ever need to go through and go through well; otherwise the bible won’t refer to His Kingdom which is this narrow and difficult path as meat and drink. Certainly, our God is good and He is not one of those parents described in the African adage, who give with gifts with one hand and retrieve it from you, with the other” so that you actually got nothing. He sent His son to die for us that we may have that gracious life on earth that would facilitate a wonderful life with Him in eternity. If there is anything that could be described as confusing about God, it surely isn’t that. He reaffirms His desire for us to live an amazing life, albeit on this narrow way, by providing abundant grace; not to destroy ourselves by continually  doing wrong and apologizing, but to live marvelously on the narrow way.

Galatians 5: 19 “When you follow the desires for your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Galatians 5: 25 “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

God has laid out clearly for us what He will not tolerate. It behooves us to put that truth before us always even if we fail several times over. To put a lie before one’s self is to short change one’s self. How does anyone in their right senses do that to themselves? God has made it clear that we are required to be Holy, we have to be. He also says every man would reap what they sow, so that our time on earth is our season for sowing whilst the reaping is quality of life we get to live in eternity. We must be careful to ensure that our sowing will produce the harvest we sincerely desire which is why we must put the truth before us always. It will be sad if for ignorance, one sowed bad seeds and only released they sowed the wrong seeds on the day of harvest. What do you want for eternity? We must make that decision daily and God has done all He will ever do to ensure we get the help needed to get our desired result. We must begin to credit God with all the credit that He deserves, which satan would hate because the more credit one gives Him, the more.

Galatians 6: 7 “Don’t be misled-you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

Jesus Is No More Enough

Recently, in the course of a conversation with my Pastor and His wife, Pastor Lanre Kosoko, she said something that struck a chord in me. She said ‘the way believers act today, it is almost as if we think Christ is not enough’ and it has stayed with me. Indeed, I feel like we think God was not smart enough in making Christ just the way He is – Jesus Christ. It is almost like Him just as He is, is no longer enough to be all that He is so that we feel a need to make up for the inadequacy we see. We try to make Him look the way we think He ought to be in these present times so that people can think of Him “highly enough” to accept Him. We forget that the ways of God would normally look foolish in the eyes of man and God is well aware of that yet He worked things like that. Can the created redefine ‘The creator’?  We often try so hard to make Him acceptable that we compromise several aspects of the word of God. People, around where I live, argue that if more people must come to Christ, then people have to be given a ‘soft landing’ to Christianity. Are we suggesting that this life is a burden? Any ‘soft landing’ that compromises the word of God probably leads people elsewhere and not to Christ our Saviour.  Unfortunately, the Word of God is greatly compromised in our times; our gospel is largely ours; put together by our intellect. Pastor Femi Monehin once said and I agree, that “God is not a product of my thinking or philosophy.” He is not a product of any one’s thinking or philosophy. He is God in Three Persons and He is enough for us.

 

1 Corinthians 1: 21a & 23a “For after in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God ... But we preach Christ crucified.”

 

It is the belief of many in these present times, that the intellect of man is more powerful than ever before which said argument is not my focus here, but even if it were true, God has never pretended like He planned to satisfy our intellect. He clearly says that the life that He gives is like a river that flows from within and flows forever. It does not directly feed the intellect. The true gospel is not powerless; it accomplishes its purpose because it is the word of God which is what the world needs. The world needs the healing that only Christ can provide – It is healing that reaches deep down to the soul and spirit of man. There is an insatiable quest for God; a hunger and deep yearning by people who may not even be aware of what they hunger for. Unfortunately, believers do not think highly of what He appears to be and in trying to make Him look better, we are preaching a gospel that is unable to satisfy the world’s yearning. Our intellect is unable to bring anyone to God through Christ; only Christ can do that. Sadly, not even our looks can bring people to Christ. It takes the quickening of one’s spirit-man for Him to become a believer and only the word of God has that quickening power. And until a man’s spirit comes alive, He is not born again. God is a Spirit who can only be worshipped in the Spirit. That hunger can only be quenched by His Spirit.

 

John 14: 6 “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the to the Father except through me”

 

Isaiah 55: 11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.”

 

It is indeed vain for any man to think that they can describe God in an improved way. The mere thought that any man can better articulate who He is than He has done Himself is vain. Moreover, it is my firm belief that the world is tired of an empty Christianity. The world wants more than the glamour that we seem to only give these days. The glamour is good, but the world knows that they need much more than that. The flesh is unable to meet the need; for it profits nothing. Until we ourselves realize that Jesus Christ is enough, we will never make Him Lord in our lives which is His desire. Until He is Lord in your life, how can you effectively tell another to make Him Lord in their own lives? It is time to get real that we may preach Christ. He is the Redeemer and none other. Sometimes, it is merely the desire to have other people follow us that leads to a little shifting from the Truth. Unlike John the Baptist, we struggle to point people to ourselves because somewhere deep down, we need them to follow us. Unwittingly, a number of us have made more followers for ourselves than we have The Master. As we point people to Jesus and they receive life, Jesus works in us to prepare us for leadership His way. As we follow Him, people will look to us to show them to follow Him. There is only one Lord and His name is Jesus Christ.

Ecclesiastes 3: 14 “And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.”

 

Lessons to Be Learnt From the Story Surrounding the Birth of Christ

Through this season, I shall be sharing some of the lessons I learnt from the story that surrounds the birth of Jesus Christ. I have shared some in the past but I few a more things to share. There is so much to learn to help one live life to its fullest in the story. I seem to be learning a whole lot more every time I meditate on the birth of the Messiah – Our Saviour.

John 10: 1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber. But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.”

I am intrigued by the fact that God chose to come through the natural way human beings are meant to arrive on earth. It is worthy of note that though God could have come down in the same way He did when He visited Adam and Eve, He chose to follow the appropriate route. God is amazingly orderly. He made the rule and reserved the right to break it; and breaking it would not have diminished Him, He would have still been God. God is so committed to order that He likened anyone who comes into a thing in a disorderly fashion to a thief. Despite that the earth is rightly His; He chose the appropriate route to come down for the salvation of man. There must be strength in being orderly that adds to giving one the victory. No wonder every situation God enters, no matter how disorderly, begins to reorder itself. 

Luke 1: 38 “Mary responded, I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

Another thing I find interesting is God’s choice of Mary. I like to imagine that there were many other virgins at the time particularly since if you were not a virgin by your wedding night, the man could divorce you. So even if it was not for the fear of God that the girls remained virgins, they would do it to prevent bringing shame upon their families. So it must have been more than her being a virgin that made God choose Mary. Upon a closer look at her discussion with the angel, I found that her heart must have been a major reason she was chosen. Mary trusted God like a child. She definitely did not understand how these things would happen but she let go and let God have His way. How hard it is to say what she said in the scripture above. God is attracted to those who love Him enough to entrust their lives to Him even without seeing where He is going.

John 11: 40 “Jesus responded, didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”

Again, it is worthy of note that Mary was an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. God did not choose someone high up in the priesthood or daughter of one of the priests for such an awesome responsibility. Instead, He chose a girl who knew Him enough to love Him enough to entrust her life to Him. God is in the business of stepping out of the “priesthood” when he wants to do a new and extraordinary thing. It has nothing to do with position but everything to do with the way you perceive Him and how much you love Him. It has everything to do with the extent to which you would entrust your life to Him.

1 Corinthians 1: 27 “Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.”

Is Your Race Still 'On Purpose'?

Acts 11: 23b AMP – “And he continuously exhorted (warned, urged, and encouraged) them all to cleave unto and remain faithful to and devoted to the Lord with (resolute and steady) purpose of heart.

As you read this article I would like to encourage you to please ask yourself a few questions. This is a good time to “ponder anew” like the hymn writer wrote. 

When you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, did you do so with a purpose, is that purpose still before you or have you lost sight of it in the midst of all that is fighting to catch your attention today. If you had a purpose, then it is easier to pursue it with single-mindedness.

Every time we lose sight of the purpose for which we cleave unto God, we walk disorderly. As long as we are reminded of our original purpose, our walk with God is better ordered. Purpose guides our decision-making so that we are not carried away by just any emotion or incident. God wants us to follow Him with single-mindedness – totally focused on Him.

Hebrew12: 1-2 –“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith”

All the good things God gives us are add-ons. They are meant to make this race a little easier so that we can get to the ultimate goal. They are not to take the place of God or remove our attention from God. If we allow this to happen then they become a part of the weight that we are meant to lay aside.

We cannot also allow our focus to be affected by the stories we hear of terrible things that happen in the church today. Such things as should not be mentioned amongst brethren. All the Bishops, pastors, other believers are to encourage us as we go along and not to become the focus. Not one of them is allowed to be the focus of our lives. Their responsibility is to keep pointing us to God. Whether they stand or fall is not an excuse for us to backslide because the Bible tells us that there is already a cloud of witnesses cheering us on. This cloud of witnesses is believers that have run their race and finished well and are in waiting for the great end of all things.

The times that we are in are tough and it is going to get tougher. It is time for you and me to make definite decisions concerning our walk with God. I understand that at some point in war, if a soldier dies, his colleagues can’t stop. You don’t have time immediately to cry over the person because the enemy may catch up with you. I perceive that we are in such times. We have to keep running the race: the battle for our souls is fierce.