THE NARROW ROAD

Date: Wed Nov 26 07:28:41 2008

FEW THERE BE THAT FIND IT - BE SURE TO USE YOUR G.P.S. (God-Provided Scripture)

PROTECT THE BABY AND SPRING SPIRITUAL CHANGE I PRAY.

The media loves to characterize Christians as narrow-minded. You know, I wish I was MORE narrow-minded - so narrow as to be centered only on Christ. "Broad is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to eternal life." There. I said it. Hey, Jesus said it. He was the most narrow-minded man that ever lived. He didn't do anything or even THINK anything unless it was what his father in heaven was doing or thinking. I would like to be in that elite company, my friends.

Note that I said NARROW-minded, not SMALL-minded. Our God is not small-minded. His mind is infinite and defies description. God created stupendous variety and the most intricate details. And he even made MAN is his image. The human mind can contain more bits of information than there are atoms in the universe. Imagine what GOD's mind can contain! Yet, we are like a computer. If there is no software, there will be page after page of gibberish. There are two kinds of software people have ñ while Adam was created with an amazing mind that was without defect, sin brought about corruption, and from then on, people were born with carnal minds. It is only through Christ that we are programmed with a new mind and are even able to please God. It is stunning how much the Bible talks about the mind ñ at least 156 references. Take a concordance or Bible software and do a complete study sometime. Here are a few verses to consider for the moment.

THE MINDS OF UNBELIEVERS ARE DULL AND BLINDED AND THEY BECOME ENEMIES OF GOD IN THEIR MINDS.

2 Corinthians 3:14 "But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away."

2 Corinthians 4:4 "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

Colossians 1:21 "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."

Romans 8:7 "the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so."

UNSPIRITUAL MINDS ARE A BIG PROBLEM

Colossians 2:18 "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.

Romans 8:5 "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires."

OUR MINDS NEED TO BE REPROGRAMMED IN ORDER TO PLEASE GOD.

Hebrews 10:16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will."

2 Corinthians 2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."

OUR MINDS ARE TO GO THE SAME DIRECTION IF WE ARE TO UNIFIED IN SPIRIT.

Philippians 2:2 Öthen make 1 Corinthians 1:10 "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought."

SINCE EVE'S PERFECT MIND WAS DECEIVED, SO CAN THE RENEWED MINDS OF CHRISTIANS. OUR MINDS NEED TO BE GUARDED.

2 Corinthians 11:3 "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

Romans 7:23 "but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members."

Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Colossians 3:2 "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

IF YOU DONíT RETAIN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, YOU WILL END UP WORSE THAN YOU WERE IN THE BEGINNING.

Romans 1:28 "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.'

When I was in college (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), which was 94% male at the time, there was a humor and "literary" magazine called "The Bachelor". It wasn't even tame by today's low standards and was avoided by most Christians. The moniker over the cover title was, and this is close to a direct quote - "The Only Thing about an Open Mind is that it picks up Dirt." How true that is! People talk about being "open-minded", but what they really mean is, don't stick to your values - allow for other ideas to enter your life. The idea is to make your "expanded" mind a Broadway - a wide-open, non-judgmental hunk of gray matter that absorbs lots of data but is slow to make conclusions. When conclusions are reached, they are tentative and subject to change.

The same is true for the church. The church chafes at being called narrow. People look for "relevancy" and "deeper meanings". They are bored with Jesus so they find ways to continue using his name while talking mostly about THEMselves and THEIR feelings and THEIR needs. The devil is quick to oblige, of course. He comes as an angel of light and gets the leadership pressing their new paradigm for success. Their are tons of exits on this roadway of life, and the lanes narrow are we move forward, but only those that persist and remain on the straight and narrow end up at their chosen destination.

What ARE the exits - the by-ways that we end up on that do not bring us closer to Christ? First, of course, is denying the power of God. So many no longer believe that God is active in this world. They sort of believe he might have been at one point in time, but the more they doubt his power now, the more they doubt his power THEN. They begin to rationalize the Bible. They doubt the six-day creation, when the only question might be, "Why did he take so LONG to do it? They then start making metaphors out of miracles Jesus verified were true, such as Jonah being three days in the belly of the large fish. It isn't long before they are doubting the physical resurrection of Jesus himself.

Now some people intellectually assent to to Christ being the way FOR THEM. However, they profane Christ by allowing for other gods or other ways to reach God. It is essential to believe in Jesus as THE WAY. Otherwise, you truly do not understand the nature of separation from God and the unique and only sufficient way he gave us to come into fellowship with him. They don't understand the necessity for the suffering of Christ, his shed blood as our atonement, and his physical resurrection from the dead to seal the deal. Believe me, God would not have allowed his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to be crucified if there was ANY other way to save us. To suggest otherwise is to make God into an ogre. The world gets furious when we simply repeat the truths of the Holy Spirit written in the Bible. Let them boil, but don't exit with them in their folly. ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND.

Some folks don't take that exit. They believe all those essentials, but then they trip over the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They never had the experience themselves, and then they twist scripture to cover their own unbelief and they end up saying people who speak in tongues are of the devil, blaspheming the work of God. Now believe me, I know that the devil has his counterfeits, and that not all who speak in tongues are of God. As I said, believe me, I know. However, when a sincere follower of Christ is baptized with the Holy Spirit, it is a wonderful thing and the person should be encouraged to obey the word, not doubt it.

Again, some folks drive right by that exit with no temptation to exit. By then they are feeling pretty good about the Lord, and about his goodness. They still have unfulfilled yearnings, however, and that is ALWAYS a problem. They seek for ways to guarantee what God does not guarantee. While God in his mercy heals many and provides for many, there are ample examples in the Bible where he doesn't - for reasons known only to him. Some do not like the fact that Jesus is Lord and he can do as he wishes. They want their desires to be required to be given by God at all times and in all circumstances either through covenants brought from the Old Testament or through putting more into the atonement than God did. A 'better" gospel if you will. They believe they can speak these things into existence and that those who are still sick or those who are not rich are lacking in faith. Nothing could be further from the truth, and shipwrecked lives result from doctrines such as these. Though God healed MANY, God did not heal EVERYONE in the early church who was sick. Though God did give MANY financial blessings, God did not give EVERYONE in the early church a lot of money. In fact, in the book of James, it was a problem because people were preferring the rich Christians over the poor ones! God was furious. He castigated the rich, and those were the rich IN the church! Never guarantee what God doesn't guarantee. It leads to disillusionment.

Some folks manage to go by that exit as well and are feeling pretty good about themselves. Next is the one on being perfect. We say we can't be perfect. That we all sin. Well, the man who says he doesn't sin is a liar and the truth is not in him. However, we STILL are to be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect. We cannot tolerate sin in our lives and must move to be purified when we do sin. We can leave NO ROOM for sin or we are off that narrow way. We cannot be comfortable with sin and be on the same road as Jesus.

Well, there are more exits and there are lots more ways we get off-track. Only you know what they are in your life. Just be sure to stay on the narrow road and close your mind to anything and everything that is not in accordance with the gospel ONCE delivered to the saints. IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY WE ARE SAVED! WE MUST PERSEVERE TO THE END! It is not worth anything to end up in spiritual shipwreck. It is worth EVERYTHING to stay close to Christ and to delight in him and in his abundant love for us.

COMMENTS

Name: JohnTheEvangelist

Date: Tue Nov 25 13:55:14 2008

Comment:

You know, WORD wanted me to say "I wish I WERE more narrow-minded." I said WAS on purpose! WERE is the subjunctive used when something is not possible, i.e. "If I were a woman, etc." WAS is correct when it IS possible. My friends, we CAN be narrow-minded like Christ, focused only on the Father. God never commands us to be and to do what is impossible. We ARE to be conformed to the character of Jesus Christ!