Crossroads Community Church

August 27, 2014 · 0 Comments

Sunday August 24th, 2014
The Lord is gracious and merciful, what a glorious Sunday morning we have been given! It is always a blessing to gather and worship God together. The praise songs were inspired by Psalms 25 and Pastor Don shared announcements, he then prayed “Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful that you lead us and help us through choices we make, we humbly praise you and ask for your anointing to follow you and love one another, in Jesus name, Amen.”
Each waking day we face countless choices; what to wear, eat, where to go , walk or drive to work; these have some level of impact on our lives yet there are some choices that impact all the more as to which career to practice, where to invest money or who to marry. Then there are behaviour choices we make that can determine the course of our day and can change someone’s life too as to either be encouraging versus critical, happy instead of angry, loving instead of hateful. However there is one crucial choice in everyone’s life; what do we believe and who do we follow?
The way we take determines our fate so we ought to keep it straight, so what is the right way? Here’s some insight, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13, 14. In this day and age it seems much easier to go with the flow, to be carried away into all sorts of ideals and conflicts that end up in misery so how do we find the narrow way and where is the gate that leads to it? There is only one Gate and one way; faith in Jesus Christ, He died for our freedom from sin and our forgiveness unto righteousness, meaning being right with God. Jesus declares this,” I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” John 10:9, 14:6. Entering the gate is not obtained by human birth, we don’t inherit it from our parents beliefs and practices and we don’t get it from warming up a pew in church; It is a personal choice that requires effort, determination, faith and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The way that is wide has many gates, from substance abuse to greed, sensual pleasures to apathy and hatred just to name a few and they all lead down the path of heartache and destruction. As human beings we can be our own worst enemy, and our wisdom is foolishness in comparison to God’s, (Proverbs 12:5, 15, 14:12). There is only One gate that leads to the path of Life and we can find it by surrendering to Jesus, once on it we need to keep on the straight and narrow even when life causes us to doubt and fear, even when we don’t understand why and following is difficult, we need to keep on keepin’ on. The disciples faced life’s challenges as we do and while many fell away a few chose to trust and follow Jesus because they believed he was the Only way,(John 6:66-69). Overtime when we faithfully follow Him, Jesus himself will reveal the things we need to change so we keep on the straight and narrow.
Many may seem to have it all together and seem happy by worldly standards of wealth and status and even those who claim to love god and do all kinds of works, but if it isn’t Jesus they are following towards God the Father they are not on the right path, He is the only way to the Father and He fulfills our every need. When we come to Jesus we commit to following Him and choose to develop a deep relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit helps us carry on while temptation to follow the wide path takes our peace and joy away, it is a thief that leads to death, (2 Timothy 3:12, 1 Corinthians 2:9, John 10:10, Proverbs 16:25).
Beloved the invitation to come through the gate that leads to life is for all but only those who choose Jesus will enter; the world at large may think that all ways lead to God still Only Jesus remains the way, the truth and the Life, He is the only way to the Father. Jesus loves us so much and he understands our human frailty, he knows life will be tough, and he knows our feeble minds and our hearts may falter, yet he wants a relationship with us, he wants us to live like we say we believe and for our lives to reflect not only our professed faith but our relationship with Him, in the end when we face God face to face that is the only thing that will matter. This week dear friends let us reflect on which path we find ourselves and let us ask God if we are on the right one , if we aren’t may He lead us to find His Son, Asherey Shalom!