Narrow is The Way

Since I was at school I have always been interested in Ships and of course they are very important to each of us as they carry so much cargo and so many passengers around the world. However, to travel around the oceans, whether by sail or with the more modern engine driven methods of propulsion, we need an efficient guidance system controlled (or interpreted) by the Captain. That ship in the first photo is the “Dunbar” it had just sailed half way around the world and was about to enter Sydney Harbour in poor light and miss-judged the entrance by a few hundred meters and

sank with the loss of all on board but one. The same type of thing happened to the “Costa Concordia”; the Captain thought that the water was safe for his ship to navigate close to the shore, but it wasn’t.

We see therefore that People’s opinions, no matter how sincere, are worthless unless they are correct. I have heard people say “I don’t think it matters what we believe providing we are sincere in our belief”. Now that is definitely incorrect; those two Captains were sincere but that didn’t save their ships.

From a Christian standpoint there are a lot of incorrect assumptions too: Over the years I have had many people say to me “You will get to Heaven” and when I ask them what they base that assumption on, they reply “You have earned a place there by the way you look after your wife in that wheel-chair”. Now that may sound logical, but it isn’t true. The facts, as revealed in the New Testament, are that it is “by grace that you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”. (Ephesians Chapter 2 Verse 8,) Which in modern day English means that God created us to do good kind things so doing them doesn’t earn us any extra points. Just as you don’t praise a pumpkin vine for producing pumpkins, because that is what it is supposed to do!

The fact of the matter, as far as you and I are concerned, is that there is nothing good we can do that will earn us eternal life in Heaven.

This is because Eternal life in Heaven is a FREE GIFT granted to us by God when Jesus paid the price of any sin we have ever committed. All we have to do is accept that gift in prayer and endeavour to follow his ways in future which will of course, automatically include plenty of kind deeds as we endeavour to “Love our neighbour as we love ourselves”. (Matthew Chapter 22 Verse 39).

How Good is that? Don’t take my word for it though, the matter is too important. Check those verses for yourself; they are on your iphone and in your New Testament, if you have one. Romans Chapter 10, verses 9 to 11 is well worth checking too, as is John Chapter 3 and Verse 16 because they clarify the “narrow way” to Heaven that Jesus told us about.

Best wishes with that, Tom.