The Always Moving Line
Matthew 7:13-14 [13] Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: [14] Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
My weight is not something I’m proud of, but what I look like is also something I can’t hide so I don’t mind sharing this: When I got married I was around 175 pounds. As I slowly gained weight I always had a number that when I hit that number I was going to cut back. First it was 190. As that came and went it was 200. After that passed it was 210. Then 220. At 220 I finally put some effort in to get some weight off. I’ve since gone back and forth, but never gotten to that number again. I’m sure glad God isn’t that way. These verses show us that the way to salvation is narrow. There’s only one way. We don’t have to worry about getting to a point in our relationship with Christ and then him change the requirements for salvation. I’m so thankful that I can know without a doubt I’m saved!! However, our problem is that’s not how we are in our lives. We have a line that we constantly move. Something we said we would never do, yet we end up doing that very thing. Then we just say it won’t get any worse, but still continue down the same road. We talk about addicts all the time who say they can just quit anytime. We will try to say the same thing at times, but yet we never seem to stop. An alcoholic never wakes up one day and dreams of being an alcoholic. Too often when we go down a road of sin it starts with something small and ends up way farther down the road than we ever intended. We have often heard it said sin will take you way farther than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever dreamed of. Unfortunately at times we also will move that line in our relationship with Christ. Think back to when you first got saved and you couldn’t wait to read your Bible every day, pray every day, be at the church every time the doors were open. You couldn’t believe those people who didn’t share that same desire as you. Yet over time missing one day of reading wasn’t a big deal. Then that one day turned into two, turned into three, and so on and so on. I seen preachers be at our church and be in the preachers class that Bro. Doug would teach and have him warn of not just running at your first chance to go out on their own. No way they’d say. Yet that’s exactly what they’d do and now possibly even completely be out of church. They are invisible lines so to speak so we tend to move them often. What lines are you currently moving in your life? What something you used to do for Christ on a regular basis that now has become just occasionally?
God bless you today! Bro. Josh Richardson
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