Our church has a dinner every Wednesday night. It’s free, but we do put out a bucket for donations to help pay for the food. Tonight we’re having steak from Wayne’s for our Wednesday night dinner. I talked to the butcher a few minutes ago and he said the steaks were beautiful. It’s going to cost over $350 for 90 eight ounce steaks. The pressure is on to do a good job on the grill. Often, people want to know what we’re having so they know whether they want to come or not. Sometimes people call the church to see what we’re serving. It will probably be a good crowd tonight. If tonight was strictly a prayer meeting where we had coffee and tea, there would probably be less than 10 people attending. I went to a prayer meeting while on vacation and it was a church with thousands of people on Sunday morning and there were 8 people at the prayer meeting. It is why I worry about church people, including myself.
I listened to a sermon this morning talking about the broad path that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life. It was interesting because the pastor said that even though you are on one path or the other, you are still interacting with those on the other path. This makes it difficult to know if you are on the path headed to the narrow gate that leads to life or the broad path that leads to destruction. You look around and see “lukewarm Christians” (as if there is such a thing), who are not even aware they are not actually following Jesus, and you think you are doing OK because you are just like, if not a little better than them. It makes it difficult to know which path you are on, and too easy to be deceived that you are headed to the narrow gate when, in fact, you are on the broad path of destruction. Someone called my district superintendent to complain about this type of teaching. In doing so, they are complaining about Jesus’ teaching. This is not my teaching, but we are actually taught and warned this very message by Jesus. And the truth is, I could be deceiving myself. I constantly ask the Lord to show me if I am on the narrow path.
By a miracle through the Holy Spirit, once in a while the Holy Spirit convicts someone and beckons someone to abandon the broad path for the narrow way. And his or her life and destination is changed from that day forward. But it never has and never does happen to very many people. Ask God to show you which path you are on. Examine your life.
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Scott Knowlton's Blog 