1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:1-5 NIV

It is the heart of a good father to want so see their child learn wisdom.  It is the heart of our Father that we do as well.

The great questions I had growing as a Christian were, how exactly were supposed to live, and why do Christian men do evil when 2 Corinthians 5:17 says it is no longer the nature of a true believer to want to.

As I’ve considered this, I have come to understand that this is indeed what Jesus intended to bring.

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Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:6

As Truth is a person, so is The Way.  As surely as any understanding of who He was and what He taught could be expressed, it cannot be understood outside of the person of Who He Is, What He Did and Why He Did It.  The Path of Life therefore, as it were, is following Jesus.  For the original twelve apostles, this was through both observing who Him directly, as well as by hearing Him teach.  Today, while we do not see exactly how He lived the words He preached, we have His Spirit within us to guide us into all truth.

But, most assuredly, His Words are to be obeyed.  None of His Words can be fully embraced without the provision of His Spirit, but through Him, and His enabling power, we are able to overcome through faith.

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He told them still another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.

Matthew 13:33

It is no large observation to note that people do not usually fully understand all aspects of the Kingdom immediately at the time of salvation.  That which is planted grows, flourishes and multiplies, until greater and greater light is revealed within.  For, surely, the path of the righteous is like the growing dawn, it grows brighter and brighter until the full light of day (Proverbs 4:18).  So, the Spirit comes to reveal to us all truth, to be our counselor, and to help us.

Salvation is not an agreement with a doctrinal statement, but it is an introduction to a person, Jesus Christ.  It is meeting Him, and realizing that there is no other name under heaven whereby men might be saved, and that living with faith in this man, belief in who He is, is the doorway to Eternal Life.

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And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

John 1:16

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:14

We understand that it is by God’s grace that we are saved.  It is not our own efforts, but is His efforts.  It is only by coming with no merit of our own, but as sinners who sin, with no excuse or righteousness of our own merit, and by coming to the bloody cross with our own souls, that we enter into Christ’s life within.  It is only in the fullness of that finished work that we have any life whatsoever.  Paul called any efforts besides simple faith in the cross to be “dead works” (Hebrews 6:1).

On the other side of this is Jesus’ Words, saying, that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and Sadducees, we will in no way ever enter the Kingdom.  He said that the gate was small, and the the road to life was hard and narrow.  Only a few find it.

Between these two places on either side, which we could call ditches, we find the road.  Narrow as it is, it is still the road, and it must be traveled.

When we learn to preach the fullness of His Grace hand in hand with the narrowness of the road, we will have begun to understand the finished works of the cross.

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From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 4:17

The revival we are seeking is the “revival of repentance”.  We could say, we see a measure and we must prepare our hearts more for the coming thing that God has, but the heart of every true revival must always include a increasing draw towards holiness, from the head to the foot.

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.  The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 12:41-42

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But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:14 NIV

As C. S. Lewis said, there is a ditch on either side of the road.  But, as it must also be pointed out, between the two ditches on either side of the road is, namely, the road!

Between the ditch of trying to please God through dead works (Hebrews 6:1-2) and the other of “faith without works”, which is dead as well (James 2:20), is a narrow road called The Highway, and its keeper is the Great I AM, the Holy Ghost.

But, There is a road that leads to life, and His Name is Jesus Christ.

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And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Acts 11:26

In the beginning, that is the beginning of the church, there was no name for this assembly; they were merely a “sect”, a small group of Jews, which the main-stream shunned as “errant”.  They were not named or classified, except that they followed Jesus, really.

It wasn’t until later, about ten years after the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of the Lord in the city of Antioch that they were called “Christians”, or “little Christs”.  Whether for good or for ill, men like to name things, and, for better or worse, the name has stuck. Read more…

Through the blood, we enter in through the torn body of Christ into perfection.  Not merely living in the faith of the outward works, nor even abiding in the flow of the Spirit, but pressing on to complete consummation and indwelling of Him.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Hosea 6:3

It is here that no one need to teach us, saying, Know the Lord.  It may come at other places, but here, there is a knowing in the cloud, and a revelation in the glory.

Above the ark, between the cherubim, the only light of the Holiest of all was God Himself.  No source and no supply, no beginning nor end.

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Of all the patterns of the Old Testament, one of the greatest is the Tabernacle of Moses.

Moses, a prophet of God, was given its design upon the mountain, and told to build everything according to the Pattern He had seen there.

Of its physical elements, there were several major elements, and possibly more than listed here.

There were materials for the posts, curtains, drapes, and altars.  There were dimensions (lengths and widths).  There were counts (number of posts, pillars, etc).  There was furniture (the altars and tables).  There were their utensils (shovels, rakes, censers, etc).  There was its orientation (which way it faced).  There was its layout, with three chambers, each further in.

In addition, there were its gates, how it was to be consecrated, packed up, transported, and set up again, and the way that the priests related to these.

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He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Mark 16:16 KJV

Lest we forget our place, let us remember Jesus words.  He did not come to condemn, because He didn’t have to.  We already were, all of us (John 3:17, Romans 3:23).  Lest we lose our moorings, let us remember the foundations of our faith.  One of the foundations upon which all else is built upon is Eternal Punishment (Hebrews 6:2).  Without these things, we are in error, and we cannot grow into maturity in the things of faith.

None of us can boast about our place in God, for no one is righteous on their own merit.  Paul wrote, “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded.” Romans 3:27.  Even in evangelism, while it is true that we have what everyone else is looking for, and we must not get into fruitless debates, it remains upon the finished works of the cross.  We tell others that they are sinners and condemned to hell, not because we are righteous in our own merit, but because of the very hope we preach.

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