The Path is Narrow

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many entering in through it. Because narrow is the gate and distressing is the way which leads unto life, and there are few who find it.”  Matthew 7:13-14

 

“Then one said to Him, Lord, are there few who are saved?  And He said to them, Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  Luke 13:23-24

 

When I was a child I attended a Nazarene church on a regular basis.  If my parents didn’t attend on Sunday the church bus would come and pick me and my sister up.  There I met some really great people growing up and attended Sunday school.  For what it is worth, more biblically sound doctrine was probably taught at that church then what is at many Baptist churches nowadays.

 

It was at this same church that I would give my life to the Lord. At 9 years old during an alter call I would go forward and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  Eventually my parents divorced and we move a few miles away.  Here my family began to attend a Pentecostal church.  With rock instruments up on stage, a pastor would preach his sermon and some well-to-do people who were given authority as Sunday school teachers, etc., we would go there for a couple of years.

 

This was my first instance of seeing speaking in tongues.  I never believed it and thought that those who would speak out during church were not only rude, but lying.  Then an acquaintance of whom I also went to school with one day spoke in tongues, I believed him.  Though I believed that he spoke in tongues, I never had the urge to do so myself.  Despite the best effort of the entertainers to keep our attention, I eventually migrated to the sound booth as an assistant, due to my lack of participation.  For whatever reason my family began to attend a missionary church.

 

For the entirety of my high school years this would be the church that I would attend until I graduated.  Here I made friends with the youth pastor’s and the pastor’s son, participated in many outings and listened to the sermons week after week.  It was also at this church that I began to listen to ‘christian’ rock and I also attended a Youth for Christ ministry on a weekly basis.  YFC is run by Campus Crusade, the youth pastor was also the director of this organization locally.

 

Years would go by and I began to consider that everything that called itself christian could not be so.  I had always wondered why there were so many different sects, but assumed that they were small disagreements, not knowing that one was necessary wrong than the other, with the exception of the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons.  I became friends with a former Bob Jones University student at work and we started studying the bible.

 

We also considered starting a ‘christian’ rock radio station, something which the local area did not yet have.  We both would listen to popular bands, include rap artist DC Talk.  There seemed to be a lot of good that could come out of getting people’s interest in Christ through music.  As I was truly seeking what was correct and right in the eyes of the Lord, I prayed that he would help me find the truth.  After an internet search, way back in 1999, I came across a website called A Voice in the Wilderness.

 

“And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:13

 

“However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth; for He will not speak things originating from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will make known to you things to come.”  John 16:13

 

I wanted truth, God’s truth and there on that website was many of the answers to questions that I had been seeking out.  Confused, as I was pondering, I began to debate with the caretaker of that website about ‘christian’ rock and how it was not wrong.  My debate was based on feelings, emotions and what I was used to, his was based on the word of God.  Of course, I had my verses to throw back towards him as we went back and forth.  Finally, he won.

 

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”  John 14:26

 

Now I wasn’t sure what to think, here was this man on some strange website who appeared to be a Christian and had proven what I thought was certain to be wrong.  There was a catch though, I had to continue on, I had to go down the path that now appeared to indeed be very narrow.

 

Many of my friends, my family, my pastor and youth pastor all listened to ‘christian’ rock.  Now was I suddenly smarter or ‘better’ than they?  How couldn’t they see it, especially those who had taught me?  How could it be so obvious, yet hidden to those people?

 

Regardless of what people might think, I chose to be obedient to God. I destroyed all of my ‘christian’ rock albums.  As time went on there were many other things that would be discovered.  I had a hunger for the Truth and sought very hard to find it.  Suddenly my life began to quickly change and I marched down the narrow path, but as I went down something was happening.

 

“And you will be hated by everyone on account of My name.  But he who endures to the end will be kept safe.”  Matthew 10:22

 

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”  Matthew 19:29

 

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Galatians 2:20

 

The narrow path is indeed the way Home, but in the meantime people were not so considerate to some of these new ‘ideas’ that my wife and I had.  Decisions had to be made and those decisions were made for Christ, to follow Him.

 

“Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore purposes to be a friend of the world is shown to be opposing God.”  Jacob (James) 4:4

 

Take a look around at the world.  Take a better and closer look at the world’s so-called christianity. Salvation is simple, there is not much too it, repent to God and believe into Christ, yet somehow the world has changed it to talking about how God accepts you as you are.  If that is the case then why did Christ have to suffer and die on the Cross for our sins?  Why then did sin enter the world through Adam? Why is there the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ or the end times as an overwhelming amount of people believe?

 

“Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”  Matthew 23:28

 

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”  John 15:18-19

 

The harsh reality is that most people are on the straight and wide path that leads to destruction.  Pay attention!

 

“The wicked shall be turned away into Sheol, all the nations that forget God.”  Psalm 9:17

 

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, prostitutes, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”  Revelation 21:8

 

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, sexual perversion, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Galatians 5:19-21

 

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be led astray.  Neither prostitutes, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”  1st Corinthians 6:9-10

 

Most churches do not worship the true God.  Most pastors are leading their flock astray and on the path straight to Hell.

 

“And He spoke a parable to them: Is the blind able to lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?”  Luke 6:39

 

If a man really wants to find out the truth, the real Truth then he needs to seek God, because Jesus is the Truth that every individual needs to find.  Through the Holy Scriptures, God’s Word to mankind, are the words of life.  This is how someone measures what is right and wrong and what God expects out of all of us.  The bible holds the keys to life, read it!

 

…” holding fast the Word of Life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”  Philippians 2:16

 

“Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal life.”  John 6:68

 

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”  2nd Timothy 2:15

 

“Sanctify them in Your Truth. Your Word is Truth.”  John 17:17

 

Dear reader, are you on the narrow path?

 

“Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the Word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”  John 14:23-24

 

“Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  John 14:6