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January 31
NARROW IS THE WAY
by Ray Prinzing
"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth into life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14).
"Without a way there is no going.
Without the truth there is no knowing.
Without His life there is no living."
As we pick up the record
of Saul (Paul), we read that he desired letters to Damascus, to the
synagogue, "that if he found any of THIS WAY, whether they were
men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem" (Acts
9:2). It was not just any old cult that he was after, but
those who were in THIS WAY. All of his efforts were channeled
and directed towards persecuting those of a specific way, identified
only as THIS WAY.
Jesus clearly stated,
"I am the door: by Me if any enter in, he shall be saved..." but
if he "climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber." (John 19:9,1).
There are those who
claim to be apprehended for THIS WAY, and yet will delve into the
writings of the Far East, with its so-called ascended masters,
because they say there is a "grain of truth" in the writings.
It may even be that the terminology sounds much the same as the
World, and that some of the principles correspond, but it is "some
other way," and we need not try to glean truth from any other
source, when in Christ "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge." (Colossians 2:3).
He is THE Door, and He
is THE Way, to come any other way makes us a part of the thief and
robber crowd. This has nothing to do with "my way," nor what I would
teach, as if we alone knew the truth, it is the call of HIS SPIRIT
to forsake all the ways of self, all the kingdoms of men, leaving
the things of the world behind, stripped of all its lusts and
self-centeredness, that we might follow Him into that more abundant
life. It is a narrow way because we must "suffer the loss
of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
and be found in Him." (Philippians 3:8-9), and yet once we are
IN HIM, the horizons are unlimited.
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