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Knowing Jesus (Consummation)

Entering Covenant

It is true, that the restored relationship between God and the sinner is best understood as that of a Father and son (or daughter) through the agency of adoption.

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  Ephesians 1:5-6

However, the mechanism of how that happens is revealed more accurately through the relationship of husband and wife.  Allow me to explain.

The first thing a man must do to enter into a relationship with God is to acknowledge his own sinfulness. There is no point talking to a man about being clean if he is still perfectly comfortable with his filthiness. A man cannot claim to love God if he still loves his sin, too.  He first has to become quite repulsed by his own state of being, otherwise it is all lip-service and a self-gratifying desire to escape the consequences of his own choices.  But when a man finally comes to a place of honest self-realization, he also comes knowing that he is not worthy of the God he seeks.  This is true repentance. 

A wretched, sinful man cannot approach a Holy and Just God in his own merit.  The corrupt man would be annihilated simply by the very Presence and Power of God the same way a dry autumn leaf would be incinerated by the flame of a fire.  Man needs a mediator; One who would intercede before God on his behalf. This is who Christ Jesus is.  He came as the Son of Man and the Son of God to fill this precise role. 

 The only way a corrupt, guilty man can be accepted before a holy and just God is to be IN CHRIST. And CHRIST must be IN THE MAN.  And how this happens is best illustrated through the agency of holy matrimony. 

When a man comes to Jesus Christ for the purpose of salvation he must first come BELIEVING.  (John 3:16 & 36, 5:24, 6:40, 11:25-25).  He enters into the covenantal relationship by the act of his will. He must come humbly, submitting himself to God. He comes acknowledging Christ’s person and position as the Son of God.  And he comes recognizing Him as the only One able to do what he is unable to do for himself.  This is the “I Will take Thee” of the ceremony (Romans 10:9-10). 

At this point, the man RECEIVES Christ.  He is inviting Christ, through the Holy Spirit, into himself (Acts 2:38). This is the act of consummation.  The very Spirit of Christ enters into the man’s spirit and becomes one with him.  The spirit within the man, that was once dead, is granted new and eternal life through the Spirit of Christ.  Christ is in the man, and the man is now in Christ. The two have become one. (John 14:17).

The man is a now a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).  He is not the being he was before.  Now, also as an act of his will, he surrenders all rights to himself and his previous identity. He chooses to forsake the desires and nature of the old man in order to yield to the new nature being cultivated within him.  And this is, in every sense, a cultivation.  It is a process that occurs over time with patience, attention, and care.

In Christ, he has a new name, a new family, and a new home. Everything that is found in Christ, is now his.  In Christ, he has protection and provision from the Father. With Christ, he is granted the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven. He has power and authority that is in His name (John 16:23, 17:11).

Now, when God looks upon the man, He sees not the corrupt and sinful man, but instead His perfect, sinless Son. As one would exchange one garment for another, Christ takes the sin of the man upon Himself and exchanges it for His own righteousness. The man’s own life does not speak for him any longer.  Christ’s life speaks for him because his life is covered, or hidden, IN CHRIST (Colossians 3:3, Galatians 3:26-27).  The man has, in a sense, been washed clean by the blood of Jesus, because the His Blood represents His life (Revelation 7:14). He is clothed in His righteousness.

The holy union that has just taken place is what the bible means by the word “knowing” Jesus.    Just as a woman would not enter into the covenant of marriage with a man without first carefully weighing all the ramifications associated with such a union, neither should one enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ without understanding what it means to do so. In fact, I believe this is a more accurate explanation of what the commandment “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” means.  Do not take His name in covenant if you have no intention of living your life as though you were one with Him.  When you take His name, you represent Him in the world (2Corinthians 5:20).  You are a vessel for the Glory of God (John 17:22).  The world looks unto you as a reflection of the nature and character of God. If it hates you, it is because it hated Him first. “And these things they will do unto you because they have not known the Father, nor me.” John 16:3

In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:20

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not; neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.  John 14:17

Do you know Him?

Restored In Christ

Let’s go over the basics one more time. 

Mankind is in a terrible fix.  But God has not left him without hope and a future. He has a plan, and that plan is the gospel.   

So again, what exactly is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ has come to restore ALL THINGS that were lost in Adam.  Christ did all the things that Adam failed to do.

Remember that Adam was…

… created as the first son of God, and that he surrendered this position through a willful act of disobedience.  Because of his sin, he has suffered the loss of the eternal life of the Spirit and as a result, his access to and inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.  He has relinquished his authority over the realm of the earth and has subjected it to the curse of death and decay.  Adam’s sin has separated him from his relationship with his Father.

In light of all the things that Adam forfeited as a result of his disobedience, we can begin to understand why Jesus Christ had to come in the manner in which He did.   Christ came to right Adams wrongs.  Because of the gospel of Jesus, the status of sonship is returned, the curse is reversed, the relationship reconciled, the inheritance restored and the eternal life renewed.

The true gospel of Jesus has six main components; none can be eliminated, and they cannot be reordered.  To do so would be to distort or malign the fullness and power of its message.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is this:

Christ came as the Son of God, conceived in the womb of a virgin by the Spirit of God (Luke 1:31,35).  He was not the son of Adam; therefore, He had no inherited sin from an earthly father.  Because He was born of the seed of a woman (Gen.3:15) He is also the Son of Man, meaning, He was born into the earthly realm with a body of flesh and blood.   

While on earth, He lived a life of complete and utter obedience to His heavenly Father (John 5:30). Not once did He deviate from the perfect will of God.  Therefore, He committed no act of sin.  Had He departed once from the will of the Father, the cross would have meant nothing and there would have been no resurrection.  Mankind would have remained in its lost and dying state for all eternity.

When Christ died on the cross, He paid the penalty of death for the sins of all mankind (Rom 5:8).  The blood of any other creature other than that of a man was insufficient as a payment for the sins of men (Heb 10:4).  God had provided for temporary atonement through the Law and the sacrificial system until such time that His own begotten Son would be born into the earth. He had no sin of His own, but rather the sin of mankind was placed upon Him (2Cor 5:21).   In obedience to His heavenly Father, He willingly laid down His life as the final and sufficient payment for the sins of men. 

Because of Christ’s own sinlessness, death had no power over Him.  The grave had no legal right to hold Him.  Three days after His death, the stone that covered His burial site was rolled away, Christ has been resurrected to live forevermore! (1Cor 5:20,21).

Christ spent 40 more days on the earth in His resurrected body.  Afterwards, He was bodily received up into Heaven (Acts 1:9).  His ascension signaled something especially important in that He, as the Son of Man, now had the ability to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  He inherited the Kingdom on behalf of mankind.  And finally, Christ ascended to His rightful position of authority at the right hand of the Father. 

And the final element of the gospel of Jesus is one that is often overlooked, but is no less important than the others, and that is the promise of His return.  This is one aspect that has yet to be fulfilled but is vital to the final consummation of the kingdoms of heaven and earth.  We often get discouraged when we see the effect that sin has had on our world, but this one promise reminds us that it will not always be this way.  We can look forward to the promise of the day when “the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Rev. 21:3)

Christ came to do for us what no other earthly man could do.  He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. 

So now you may ask the question, “how does this work?  How does this apply to me?”

The first step that you must take to appropriate the finished work of Jesus Christ for yourself is to acknowledge your position as a fallen son or daughter of Adam.  You must understand the depravity of your condition.  Everything that Adam was, you are.   You are dead in your sins, separated from God, and prone in your corrupt nature to willful disobedience.  You are void of the eternal Life of God that would reckon you as a son or daughter of God.  Also because of this, you are revoked of your place in His Kingdom.  You must come to this conclusion first. If you do not, you will not fully appreciate everything that Christ has secured for your eternity.  Any other approach to Christ diminishes the price He paid on your behalf.

Christ did not come so that you could merely have fire insurance against the flames of hell.  He did not come to be an embellishment to your image, a compliment to your social resume, or a a tasty side dish in the grand buffet of your self-ordered life.  

He came to rescue you from yourself and from the effects of Adam’s sin. He came to bring you to into His glory and into all that is His as the Son of God.  He came to secure for you His name, His authority, His position, and His inheritance for all eternity.  He came to bring you home.

He came to be your Lord and Savior. 

“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

The Dawn of Grace

Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.  The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Genesis 3:20-21

From behind them comes the gentle sound of a bleating lamb.  He is led before them bound by a scarlet cord.  He stood before them so innocent and white, that is until the blood began to pour from the wound suddenly struck at his throat.  It happened so quickly they did not have time to fully comprehend what was happening.  In the next moment, his spindly knees buckled beneath him as he fell, lifeless into the pooling red around him. 

Adam and the woman felt their own breath escape; their own legs threaten to betray them.   Burdened by their remorse they watched this innocent one suffer the fate they knew they deserved.  Slowly they began to understand what was happening. God had provided a substitute.  

Death.

Horrible, wretched and final.   They wept as they watched the LORD God fashion garments for them from the lamb’s delicate skin; the scent of his essence lingered on the wool, still warm.   Their nakedness was covered once again.  It was not completely sufficient in God’s economy, but atonement had been made and it was sufficient for now.  That is, until the time the final, ultimate Sacrifice would come.  

Today, death will not visit Adam and his wife.  Today, another took their place.

Suddenly, the vision of God’s masterful plan begins to dawn in the recesses of Adam’s mind.

Adam looks to his wife, who from the time she had been fashioned from his side has been called “Ishshah”, which simply means woman.  But now, he looks to her and calls her by a new name.  

“Eve”.

The Serpent takes a step back.  He stares in utter disbelief at the two humans who stand living and breathing before him!  He too, is trying to process and calculate what he is witnessing.  The man has just been given the curse of death, a curse that is attached to him and his seed, and yet has the audacity to give his wife a name that means life!?

 He had sorely underestimated the depth of God’s Love for the creatures made in His image.  His plan had been wrecked by God’s Grace toward them, a concept altogether foreign to him.  And the whole substitutionary sacrifice thing was something he could not have divined had he tried for a millennium.  And now THIS!  He could feel his rage building. His claws dug nervously into the dust beneath him.

Adam understands that in a spiritual sense, the Serpent has become his “father”.  He has fallen, his spirit darkened, the curse of sin and death had been placed upon him, and consequently, to the sons and daughters that would come after him.  In this way, Adam’s seed had become “the seed of the serpent”.  

But as the light begins to dawn upon Adam, he realizes that none of this is true of Eve.    

It is true that Eve herself will face the consequence of death because she partook of the fruit of the forbidden tree, for disobeying the direct command of God and purposefully leading her husband into the same folly.  Yes, for this, she will one day suffer physical death as Adam will.

But the curse of sin and death are not attached to her seed!

Her seed holds the hope of man’s Redemption.  Her seed carries the promised reckoning for the Serpent. Adam looks to her and calls her by her new name, Eve, which means life, because she will be the mother of all the living.  No, the curse of death is not attached to her seed nor to the seed of the daughters that come after her.

This can only mean one thing, for there is only one way a child of Eve could live forever.  He could not be the son of Adam…

He would have to be the Son of God.

And Adam starts to see God’s perfect plan of Reconciliation unfold in his mind’s eye.  One day, a daughter of Eve will produce another heir for the Kingdom of God, another Son of God who will do what he has failed to do.  God Himself will provide the substitute who, with His own human blood, will cover their sins once and for all, who will come to die the death he should have died, who will pay the price he should have paid.  A Son of Man and a Son of God who will deliver the crushing blow of vengeance to the Serpent, and who will deliver mankind from sin and death to eternal life once and for all.

“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.  For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19

Falling Short

Between mission trips and the world’s health crisis, it seems as though our Glory Road has taken a bit of a detour over the last few months.  I’ll be the first to admit, life has been a little distracting, but now more than ever, we must “recalibrate” and keep our gospel direction!

The last time we had our bibles opened together, we were peering into the events recorded for us in Genesis 3, and we had discovered that life has taken a drastic turn for our earthly parents in the Garden of Eden. 

They had had a rather unfortunate encounter with a master Deceiver and had been ensnared by the same lustful temptation that he himself had been ensnared by; the desire to be like God.  They too, have experienced a dramatic and painful shift in their being. 

Even at this point in the story, they have no understanding of the full implications of what has just happened to them. 

They know one thing only, and that is, they are not what they were only moments before.

And they are naked.

At the very instant of their rebellion, even as they plunged to the ground, the weight of the glory of God has been replaced by the crushing weight of their sin.  Frantic and afraid, Adam opens his eyes in time to see this vestment of glory lifted up and away from him.   His hand reaches toward the sky, as though this desperate act could somehow retrieve it.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

Suddenly, the serpents hissing turns into a hideous, heinous laughter. Their devious enemy watches the Glory depart the freshly, demoted rulers with a deep satisfaction.  Stepping upon a rock to make himself appear a little taller, he straightens himself upright, raises his flinty face toward heaven and with defiance declares,

“If I can’t have it, neither can they.”

We talk of sin.  Intuitively, we know what it is.  Of course we do, we feel it. It has a weight of its own, a presence, if you will, that is undeniable.  And yet, by some strange paradox, it at the same time creates a deep, penetrating void within us.  It is a vacuum we were never meant to have.  And the more we attempt to fill it on our own, the more it gnaws away.  That space was created for one thing and one thing only, the Spirit and Glory of God. 

When Adam and his wife rebelled against the will of God, and trespassing, took what did not belong to them, the Spirit of God was separated from them.  In this way, Adam and his wife experienced a spiritual death (refer to “Understanding Adam and the Realm Within/ Nov. 2019).  It was the judgement of God established for Adam from the beginning.

“But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

It is this way because God cannot dwell in the presence of sin.  God is righteous and holy and just and anything that is not of this same holy nature is destroyed by His very Presence.  I know this will sound strange, but it was a loving and merciful act that God did by removing this part of Himself from Adam.  Had he not done this, Adam would have been physically annihilated completely and immediately, and forever separated from Him with no chance of redemption.

It is not the last act of mercy that Adam will experience before the day is over. However, in spite of this, one thing remains true for Adam.

His very constitution is changed.

The two are now keenly aware of their nakedness and in anguish they seek a way to cover themselves.  

Fig leaves…it’s pathetic and they know it.  It is not enough.  It too falls short.  What, after all, can replace what they have lost?

Mankind has been attempting to cover himself in similar ways ever since.  Neither is it enough, and hidden away in the dark and murky crevices of our consciousness…we know it, too.

Adam and his wife have partaken of the tree of death and have traded their intimacy with the goodness of God for the knowledge of evil.  

Another encounter awaits the man and his woman.  A familiar voice calls unto them,

“Where are you?”

I can imagine the paralyzing terror that Adam felt in that moment, his own blood running cold and furious through his fearful heart.  He knew he deserved God’s condemnation and wrath.  He knew he had yet to stand before the Righteous Judge to receive his sentence and conviction.

What Adam did not know was the depths of God’s love for him.  He did not know of grace and redemption.

He is about to learn some things even the devil didn’t know!

Stick around friend, maybe you will learn some things you didn’t know as well!

Until next time, stay smart and stay safe! God bless you!

Happy Holidays From Glory Road!

I just wanted to take a minute out of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And I wanted to especially thank all of you who subscribed this year. It is such an honor to be on this journey with you through the scriptures and into the heart of the gospel.

Hope to see you all back here soon after Christmas. Meanwhile, stay safe, enjoy your loved ones and don’t forget to offer a hand to those less fortunate.

Most importantly, let us fix our hearts on Jesus , giving Him praise and glory for coming to do for us what we could never do for ourselves.

Love to you all!

Glory Road

The Importance of Believing Rightly

Believing the wrong things can be very dangerous.

One time when my step-sister and I were kids we had taken a long board and laid it across a 55 gallon drum and used it as a teeter-totter.  After a while, we got bored with it and went inside to play with something else.  A short time afterwards, a friend of my step-dad came over and as they were standing around talking, the friend noticed our contraption and asked what we were doing with it.  My step-dad lied and told him we were using it as a ramp and jumping our dirt bikes on it.  Said friend supposed that if a couple of little girls could jump this homemade, Evil Knievel style ramp so could he.  After all, he did just ride his motorcycle over to our house.  Let’s just say it didn’t end well with the friend.   He should have never believed my step-dad… Very dangerous.

People often reject biblical Christianity because they don’t understand it.  Even people who consider themselves to be Christians often reject the parts of the bible they don’t understand.  Having the correct perceptions and perspectives are important; because it affects what we believe and what we understand to be truth.   What we perceive as truth will have a direct bearing on how we order our steps in life. It will determine who and what we value.

“What you see and what you hear depend a great deal on where you are standing.”    C.S Lewis

Perception, or the act of perceiving something, is basically the idea of how we filter incoming information.  We can perceive with any of our 5 senses; touching, tasting, smelling, seeing or hearing,  but it is more than just taking information on board. It is how we process it.  It is how we interpret the data we take in.

Perspective on the other hand, is the position from which we view the world outwardly.   As C. S. Lewis said, it is the view from which we stand. As a dental assistant, I sit on the left of the patient while the doctor sits to the right.  It is part of my job to make the doctor aware of things that he may not be able to see from his perspective; from his limited view from the right side of the chair.   It’s not that he is blind and cannot see, he just can’t see clearly from where he sits. From where we sit (or stand) in life will also determine how we process our incoming data.

We will believe what we perceive as truth.

What we believe defines our reality.

At one time in my life, I did not believe the bible was true.  Oh, I would have told you that I did, but the evidence of my life would have said otherwise.  The sum of my reality did not factor in seeing myself as a sinner, let alone being held eternally accountable for my thoughts or actions.  That was the direction I was walking.

 

But I had people in my life who were praying for me.

And God began to work through those prayers and I started to entertain the thought that perhaps I was believing wrong things.  I allowed the possibility to enter into my mind that perhaps my truth was really a lie; that God was not only real, but alive and well and in pursuit of my heart.

I picked up my old bible and began to seek to understand God and His word.

I started to believe differently.  My reality shifted.

This is why believing is so paramount to the Christian faith.  It is the act of changing your mind- from perceiving one thing as truth to perceiving another thing as truth.  It’s abandoning one reality and surrendering to another.  That is repentance in its most basic form.

 

God implores us in His Word to believe rightly.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3:36

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:35

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.  John 6:40

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? ” John 11:25-26

And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.  He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.  I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” John 12:44-46

Do you get the idea that believing is important?  Look at all the promises that are afforded us by believing!  Salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, to never hunger or thirst for truth, the resurrection, and to never walk in darkness! And that’s just a few from the book of John! (And I didn’t even list John 3:16 here because I know you already know that one, right?  If you don’t, look it up!)

 

It is my hope that by spending time together studying the word, you will come to perceive God like never before.  I pray that it will change your perspective of yourself and the world around you.

Believing is the first step in salvation for a reason.  It opens up the doors for everything else the Spirit has to offer; to receiving, knowing and growing in your spiritual life.

As C. S. Lewis also once said, “We are what we believe we are.”

Just believe RIGHTLY!

All Roads may lead to Rome, but only one Road leads to Glory

I believe God has been inspiring me (maybe nagging me) to start this blog for quite some time- alright, longer than I care to admit.  It’s not that I wanted to be purposefully obstinate, it’s just that I am so completely ignorant of such technological matters.  It felt scary and overwhelming.  But finally I decided to dive in, and with much prayer and pleading with God for the grace and ability to do what I surely believed He wanted me to do, here I am- blogging.

Turns out it’s not really that hard to set up a blog.  There are plenty of helpful websites and Youtube videos to walk you through.  Now, it was just getting down to the task of actually writing something meaningful and intelligent.

I have been contemplating the content of my initial post for some time.  I don’t know why, but I felt like it really needed to be epic.  Again, I was putting too much pressure on myself and making this harder than it should be.   I just wanted to give a proper introduction of the “Glory Road” blog to the world, one that adequately reflected my reasons for taking on this venture.   Then this morning as I lay in bed in the early morning hours, it all started to come to me; the right words I was waiting for.

All Roads

There is an old proverb that says “All Roads lead to Rome”.   The saying got started back in the days of the ancient Roman Empire and was a testimony to the elaborate road systems they engineered, ultimately leading a traveler from any secondary city to the capital city of Rome.    (Now we use it as an expression to mean that there are many different ways to reach the same outcome or destination.)

12th Century French theologian Alain deLille wrote, “A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome”.

Rome was one of the largest and most civilized empires of the ancient world and contributed much to modern government, politics, law, literature, language and society in general.  The problem was they were plagued with blatant immorality.  They worshipped a pantheon of false and pagan dieties that incorporated sex, as well as other perversions, into their religious practices.  They entertained themselves en masse with brutality (especially against Christians), baths and brothels. It is said that the ultimate fall of the Roman Empire came because of its internal moral decay.

A.W. Tozer writes in his book Whatever Happened to Worship?, “Rome went down like a great rotten tree. She still had military strength and the show of power on the outside.  But Rome had crumbled away on the inside.  Rome doted on plenty of food and drink and on circuses and pleasure and of course, on unbridled lust and immorality.   What great army put the Roman Empire down?  Rome fell to the barbarous hordes from the north- the Lombard, the Hun, and the Ostrogoth-people who were not worthy even to care for the shoes of the Romans.  Rome had become fat and weak and careless and unconcerned.  And Rome died.”

Christian, spiritually speaking, we do not want to be on any road that leads us to Rome, and unfortunately, in this world there are many.

Rome, in my analogy, leads to death and sin and destruction.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13.

Friend, as followers of Jesus Christ, there is only one way for us, one road we want to be traveling on, and that is the road that leads us to the One True and Living God-  the Glory Road!

When The Lord led Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness, He led them by His Glory; a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.  The Glory cloud would descend onto the tent of meeting and there the Lord would speak with Moses “face to face”.  When Moses prayed and asked the Lord to ”let me  know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight,” the Lord responded by saying, “My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33.  God’s Glory is His Presence.

If you are a born again, Spirit filled believer of Jesus Christ, then that Glory resides within you.  “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one…” John 17:22.   (And, by the way, if you are NOT a born again, Spirit filled believer of Jesus Christ and would like to be, this website is a great place to learn how.   This is where you can start your journey!)

The Glory of God has descended upon you and you can now hear the voice of your Father leading you in the right way.  But you must harken unto that voice in obedience and follow Him fully.  That is what will keep you on that Glory Road.  “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1John 1:6-7

It is unbelievably easy to take a wrong turn.  It is just as easy to stumble and fall.  I’ve done this many times; so many times it’s embarrassing.  But to be perfectly honest, The Glory Road isn’t always the easiest way to travel.  It is sometimes very difficult and demanding, at times extremely painful.  It always requires a great deal of self-sacrifice and self-discipline. God will at times lead you in ways that will make you scratch your head and wonder if even He knows where He is going. (I promise you, He does.)

By the way, when (I would say “if” but who are we kidding?) you do lose your way and get off track, it’s just as easy to get right back on.  It only requires that you turn around (repent) and head back toward the Light.  It is in these times of wandering away, lost and confused, that God shows Himself to be a loving, gracious, forgiving and merciful God.   “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” Matthew 18:11.   If you stray, He will come looking for you (Matthew 18:12-14).

When we are born into this world we begin a journey of a lifetime.  You have the span of that lifetime to decide which Road you are going to travel; the Road that leads to Death and Darkness or the Road that leads to Light and Life.  “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of Life.’” John 8:12.

Don’t be afraid.  Man up and choose the right road, friend.  I don’t mean to sound like an alarmist, but I fear your time for choosing in running thin.

This is the purpose of the Glory Road blog, to stand in the hedges and the by- ways of all the roads leading to Rome and cry out, “You are going the wrong way!  The right way is over here!”

Help me point others to the narrow way.  Help me cry out to the lost, to those wondering in the dark deceived and misguided by the enemy of our souls.  Let us join together in unity and love and be a beacon of hope to a dying world.

If you have made it this far, then I thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post!  Please feel free to share and invite others to follow the Glory Road blog.  I pray that He uses it for His purposes and for His Glory!   God bless you!