One Way or Many Paths?

A very well-known former daytime talk show host once argued with an audience member about the very core of Christianity.

The host advocated that there are "many ways" to God. The audience member stood by her belief that there is only one way to the Father. The host refused to be budged from her own logic and, when the audience member flat out asked, "What about Jesus?", the host responded, "What about Jesus?"

Wait.
What?

I never did understand why the host couldn't understand the audience member's exasperation. After all, the host grew up being familiar with the Bible and, so I would think, she understands the basic message of the Gospel: "No way to the Father except through Me." Jesus's own words.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 ESV (my emphasis)

If I can remember it correctly, I believe the audience member cited this verse to the talk show host. The host replied (in support of people who believe otherwise) that maybe that was true for some people, but that other people might be on another path to God.

I might not have everything exact as it was said during that show, but you get the drift.


So many people agree with the views of the talk show host. I personally know people who share her view and, no matter how often I share what the Word of God has to say on the subject, they won't budge.

I'm not confused by people who just definitely do not believe in God. What baffles me is how people believe in God in addition to other gods.

(source)

I know one person very well who will, in one breath, speak of God and, in the next breath, speak of some other god. It's as if they don't realize that, if they actually do believe in God, then there is no other "God".  There might be other 'gods', but no other God.

My impulse is always to shout out to them: "PICK A LANE!" 

I can respect someone who 'drives' on one side or the other but, boy, I can't stand it when someone wants to cruise the middle of the road.

It's especially bothersome to me when I hear someone claim to have been "brought up" in a Bible-based church, yet they want to ignore the Gospel. The Bible is very clear about the way to God:

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14 

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

Then there is the verse that even most non-believing football fans know:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

So, how can someone like that host even ask the question: "What about Jesus?"

It's not "What about Jesus?" but that Jesus is what it's about.

Actually, I shouldn't be that surprised or puzzled by people's attitudes. I was just talking about the long con game that the Enemy has been running on us.

(source)

What I have decided is that, yes, there are many paths - they just don't lead to God. Some people are at least honest enough to 'pick a lane', and directly follow either Christ the Enemy. Then there are the folks who follow the Enemy without even realizing where they are going.

(source)

Maybe some people think they are following one god or another while, all along, they are following the Enemy while he is wearing one of his many disguises.

One thing is for sure, we will all end up finding out whether we made the correct choice. I choose Jesus.

Peace
--Free

Denial and Fence-Sitting

Almost every argument I've heard against Christianity is rooted in one a couple of words: Don't, Want, Won't, Can't -

• I don't want to believe in a God who **fill in the blank**
• I won't follow a God who doesn't tolerate **fill in the blank**
• I don't want to give up **fill in the blank**
• I can't imagine there being only one way/one path, etc.

When I talk to some of my friends and relatives about salvation, they don't outright object to the idea of following Jesus, but they don't make a choice.

I think most objections to following Christ come down to people not wanting to make a definitive choice. (There's that word again...) Or they don't want to submit.

For a lot of people, I wonder if the problem isn't just that they have a sense of immortality. In a way, I get that.

Some of us never think about death as a real thing for us. We read about another person dying and can never imagine that it could have been us. Or we imagine it just long enough to run away from the thought. Because that's scary right?

Even as a Christian, when I lose a loved one, I can't fathom death. I can't fathom the definite end of that human life. That idea of everything that a person was just not being.

Death is huge. It's the end of all choices and opinions and the end of self. And while we are alive, we are all about self, aren't we? 

23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9:23-24)

(source)

And that is, I think, the biggest problem for the people I personally know. 

Before I put my opinions on other people, let me look at myself.

In my human nature, or my flesh, I am a basically selfish person. While I can be generous to a fault, that's a conditional thing for me. I'm generous if I am in the mood, if I feel sorry or worried for someone, and so on. There are lots of 'Ifs' to my personality.

When I look at those verses in Luke, I find the hardest words for some of us are 'deny' and 'follow'. We don't live in a world or social culture that encourages denying ourselves anything. And we are taught from the first days in school to be leaders, right? 

If I have anything to say about people I personally know, I will include them in with myself when I comment on the inability to deny themselves and follow anyone - let alone Jesus. 

• Some of us can deny ourselves food long enough to fast
• We struggle with denying ourselves our entertainment long enough to pray
• We don't follow/listen to our elders, spouses, advising friends
• We don't like to follow/obey bosses on a job
• We don't deny ourselves pleasures to sacrifice for our kids and parents

There are certain words that human find hard to digest from the time we understand language: 

• Obey
• Submit
• No

So many of us have a self-royal, self-important attitude about being in control of things. We think that work, family, friends, love, caring, happiness, giving, and all life should revolve around us. It's as though we think of ourselves as the center of some universe where everything is about and for us.

Us. I. Me. 

Now, I do know people who are very generous and caring and loving and unselfish to a great degree. The problem with that is, they think that this is enough. 

(source)

Being a good person is enough for some things. A good person will probably have a nice obituary written up when they die. A good person will probably be remembered and talked about in a favorable, loving way when they die. 

The thing is though, when that good person dies, they are just as dead as the less-loved person. Then what?

We never want to think about the "then what" part, do we? But that is the part that counts most. It's the eternal part.

One of my friends is such a good and decent person. I really cannot think of one bad thing to say about her - and I have known her for many years. She is a truly 'good' person, but she has never confessed a belief in Jesus Christ. Over the years, she has told me that she believes in "a higher power", "something bigger than all of us", and the like.

I have known quite a few people like this. They believe in something, but they won't name it. I don't know if they have a name for whatever it is they believe in. 

This is heartbreaking for me because, whenever I have this kind of conversation with one of these friends, I think of this from Revelation 3:16:

(source)

So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.

I believe this verse is about those claiming to be Christians, but I always think of it as applying to anyone who won't choose. (I'm going to have to go back and check my study Bible and a commentary on this verse. This is why I need to join a Bible study group!)

The verse does make me re-evaluate my own stand in my faith. I can sometimes be 'lukewarm' when talking with people about my faith. I know that I need to be bolder - not about making them believe, but about asserting and not being ashamed of my own beliefs.

Here's the thing: we are all going to face God one day. We are going to face Him having made our choice. No matter which choice any of us make, it's important enough to think about before we die.

Are you brave enough to choose to say -without any doubt - that,

• that there is no God? or
• that God is? or
• that that god you believe in has nothing to do with Jesus? 

And are you brave enough - sure enough - to live (and die) by your choice?

If you aren't willing to make a choice, that is also a choice. Are you willing to die with that choice?

I suppose there are many Christians who are willing to choose Jesus and to die with that choice. I always examine myself to see if I am living that choice. 

I've made my choice. I believe that there is only one way to God and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm willing to die with that choice, and I'm living by that choice. 

Peace

--Free

Joy in Place of Grief

I'm dealing with my grief much better this week. I believe that's because of two things:

1. I went to church Sunday
2. I realized how selfish my grief is

The sermon Sunday wasn't directly related to grief, but it did affect my thoughts about death. The current sermon series is on the Bible book of Daniel. Daniel is a book of prophecy. All Bible prophecy is about the promise we Christians hold for our salvation. 

While the pastor talked on various verses, I kept reflecting on the fact that we are living in the "end times", and that no matter how long those times might last, every person - saved or not - lives their own end times because of our mortality.

My sister believed on the blood of Jesus Christ. The last hours she was alive, she called out His name and prayed, even though she was in so much discomfort. I believe now that she was praying and yearning for rest. I believe her rest was granted.

Yesterday, while I was going through some of her things, I prayed to God to help ease my sense of loss. I'm not breaking down at every memory of my sister like I was earlier on. I still have moments of pain at the "gone-ness" of her, but I feel more relief and joy as every hour passes. I think of what we all have been promised as Christians. I think of the Henry Van Dyke poem that my dear friend +Sandy Sandmeyer shared with me: 

Gone From My Sight (by Henry Van Dyke)

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,

spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts

for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.

I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck

of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,

hull and spar as she was when she left my side.

And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"

there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices

ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

So now, when I think of my sister (and my mother and father and my brother), I think of their gain more than I think of my loss. While I realize, as my little brother just told me in a recent phone call, that our grief is normal, I know that it can also be selfish.

My sister would be heartbroken to think of any of us wallowing in our misery at her death. She would want us to think of her with love and laughter, not regret and pain. She would want us to go on. Mostly, she would want us to know that her death was not an end for her but a beginning.

I still miss her, but I am better now. Now when I think of her, I try to imagine the joy of those who were calling out to her as she arrived on the other shore. 

We have been promised that there is no weeping in Heaven and, if I believe in that promise, I must put away my time of weeping here on earth for those who are now Home. I'll save my sorrow for those who don't yet believe in life everlasting.

If you are in pain from the loss of a loved one, here are some of God's promises that may help comfort you as they did me:

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2)

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1)

My favorite right now is Luke 23:43 because it reminds me that my sister went immediately into Paradise. Immediately. And it reminds me that my brother who, like the thief beside Jesus on the cross, was accepted into Heaven even though he found Jesus very shortly before death. Praise God.

Peace

--Free