Voltaire said, "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Isaiah reminds us, "The Eternal One’s reach is not so short that He cannot save you. His ear is not so deaf that He cannot hear you. Your persistent wrongdoing has come between you and your God; since you constantly reject and push God away..." (Isaiah 59:1-2 VOICE) There is a constancy to sin, isn't there? We are pulling against it, but it is pulling us into it repeatedly. The fool is never free from the bonds of those chains - from the repeated pulling toward the unwise choice. The wise will call out, realizing they are pulled beyond their strength to resist. Their call will be heard - not by human ears, but by the ears of a God who delights in setting the captive free! Their bondage will be broken. Their freedom is assured! One must realize the need for freedom, though. We have to recognize the bondage of sin - the pull that is beyond our ability to resist with mere willpower. The ...
You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 NLT) Did you ever notice that part in this passage about the gateway to life? Yes, we remember it is narrow, but do we really focus on it being difficult? Not usually! We see coming to Christ as the 'easier road' - one less traveled, but once we find it, we believe the travels will be markedly different than the path we had chosen apart from Christ. While that is true, the path is not always going to be 'easily traveled'. Perhaps that is why it is the road 'less traveled' than the road to hell! Either road is a choice. Don't miss that - we choose to serve our own desires and go the easiest way possible, or we choose to lay down our desires and choose to travel a road that has been prepared yet may not be th...