The Straight and Narrow

Spirituality Column #154
October 20, 2009
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

The Straight and Narrow
By Bob Walters

None of us should congratulate ourselves with righteous satisfaction simply for believing Jesus Christ is Who He says He is.

Satan knows more about the person of Jesus Christ – and exactly Who He is – than any of us possibly can. So, knowing Christ puts us about even with Satan, who thoroughly understands and willingly acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God.

What makes us different from Satan is that he can not, will not, and does not love Jesus, nor can Satan live eternally in Heaven with the loving God Almighty.

We can … if we want to.

As a practicing, believing and flawed Christian – I think that covers most of us who consider ourselves inside the global Christian communion – I am heartsick when I meet people seeking a “higher consciousness” or a “secret of life” in popular culture who dash past Christ trying to access precisely the things Christ promises.

We fear death. In Christ, we needn’t fear death.

We seek a purpose. In Christ, we have one: to love and glorify God by loving and glorifying each other.

We feel guilty for our sin. In Christ, we are forgiven our sin.

We search for truth. Jesus Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life.

Our intelligence, our creativity, our industriousness, our freedom, our love, our very being – are the creation of Christ. If you think there is any other possibility, get out your Bible and re-read Genesis 1-3 and John 1. The capital-W “Word of God” is Christ.

To Satan’s satisfaction, countless people and institutions around us labor mightily to put curves in a path we know in our hearts is only straight, and to widen a gate that we know in our hearts is only narrow. Philosophy and open-mindedness are virtuous until they rob us of the greatest of all spiritual gifts, the divine Holy Spirit without Whom we cannot fathom God’s love, Christ’s truth, or the Word of God in scripture.

At a funeral recently I heard a message delivered powerfully. “If you choose to lead this life with Christ, then you will spend eternity with Christ. If you choose not to live this life with Christ, then you will spend eternity without Christ. The hard part is, once we die, you don't get to choose.”

Satan is the robber baron of our eternal well being. Choose now, while you can.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests reading 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. Love the truth and be saved.