The Strait & Narrow By James H. Miller e-mail, jhm888@earthlink.net website, cherubimnetwork.com/writtenword
	A small number of us had gathered for our bi-weekly Prophetic Prayer Meeting to share what the Lord had been dealing with us about during the past week.  We started talking about Matthew 7 and Luke 13 and just how “strait and narrow” the gate really is that each of us must travel to reach our destination in Him.  Also, why so many preachers and teachers just do not want to talk about its true meaning or what the God given intention of those (out of sight, out of mind) scriptures are. We often look at certain scriptures and say, “Yea, isn’t that true,” not really understanding the significance of what we are reading, of what God is actually saying to us.  Sometimes we read a word over and over or have someone quote a verse to us over and over and it becomes misquoted. Other times they just become over exercised words others feel we should live by. Instead there should be a revelation of the Word the Lord wants to express in our so-called Christian lives.  Such are the words of Matthew and Luke about entering the pasture gate of life everlasting – one being the strait and narrow and the other, crooked and broad. What we must realize is that both entries - the narrow or the broad - are entered with a price.  It can be either a death-to-self that brings on life, or a death that can bring destruction to both the soul and spirit.  Both, as we will see, represent choices. We can be “overcomers” by means of the strait and narrow or “under-comers” by means of the broad way, never really knowing what could have been.  Let’ s look at what the Lord has to say about it. “Jesus continued to go through towns and villages, teaching and making His way to Jerusalem.  ‘Lord,’ someone said to Him, ‘are those who are to be saved few in number?’  He said to them, ‘Keep on striving to enter through the narrow door, because many I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able to.’” (Luke 13:22-24) Here was a Jew – a devout Jew – who considered himself, and the rest of the Jewish nation, as the saved of God who would enter into the Kingdom of their Redeemer.  No Gentile, as far as he was concerned, would be saved for their sins were many and certainly would not merit any favor from their Jehovah God.   So the question asked was a typical Jewish question he thought he already had the right answer for.  You know, the one that reflected his personal beliefs: I am (Israel) the chosen and they (Gentiles) are not. Notice – no argument on Jesus’ part.  He just did as usual.  He questioned the questioner.  Here Jesus starts His reply by insinuating that this entry was certainly no automatic thing – it was a “striving” by the individual (the word “you” being in literal parentheses here – “You strive”).  Just because we walk and talk with other Christians, dine at their table, go to their church, and say “Jesus is Lord” does not merit us any “free-entry” ticket. If anything, all it does, along with our confession of faith in Christ, is grant us salvation.  Yet, this too was given with a price – His death on a cross. Entering the gate is no different for us.  It is done by “a” cross that we are commanded to take up in order to follow Him: a price many are not ready to pay.  Even King David, who had everything at his disposal, realized that anything worth having comes with a price tag.  We see this demonstrated in 2 Samuel… King David wanted to buy the threshing floor from Araunah, a Jebusite.  This place on Mount Moriah was to house an altar where David was to offer burnt sacrifices so that a plague would be withdrawn by God from his people.  Araunah was going to give David everything he would need for the offering but King David said to Araunah, No, but I will buy it of you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that WHICH COSTS ME NOTHING. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver (2 Sam 24:24, AMP).  Again, David knew that to get God’s attention or enter into His presence you had to enter through the narrow gate. Sometimes it meant a sacrifice of giving or the surrender of something by means of a fast. So, because of the gate and the cross the gate represents, there is a pressing in (a striving).  It is, as Paul mentions in Phil. 3:14 a way to the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (KJV).   Paul knew it was not a journey without obstacles.  It was, and has always been, a journey that would require a price, a pressing through of many obstacles – “self” being the greatest stumbling (obstacle) block to overcome. William Barclay in his study on the book of Luke mentions that the word “strive or striving” is where we get the English word “agony”.  This says, not only is there a price to be paid, but the struggle to make an entrance into the gate is so intense that the only way to describe it is a great torment or suffering of the soul and spirit. It is because of this agony which we will go through that the Lord said “many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able”.  Upon entering, many are willing to pay the price but the further they go towards the habitation of God the more the Lord requires. Many will not be able (willing) to sacrifice the things this world holds them bound to. Matthew, continuing on the same subject in chapter seven verses thirteen and fourteen, says: “Enter the straight gate, because the gate that leads to destruction is both wide and broad and many who enter just might be killed upon entrance (paraphrased)”. It is more descriptively explained in the Message Bible: “Don’t look for shortcuts to God.  The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for successful life that can be practiced in your spare time.  Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do.  The way to life – to God! – is vigorous and requires your total attention (Matt. 7:13-14)” Not only does the Lord first warn us because He knows our every thought, He now gives us options: His way or the wrong way.  Human instinct, based on the flesh without the pre-seeking of God’s direction, will ultimately end in ruin or some type of major re-direction in our walk.  That is not always good since the Lord’s first plan was the best laid plan of them all. As we see by Matthew and Luke, both roads are marked with decisions.  Both require a “yes” or “no” answer, and both lead to an ultimate end.  The end being a life in Christ or a life without Christ.  Few people will take the great highway to life.  Yet, one by one, few will travel in solitude and victory.  On the other hand, the Road to Death is traveled by many and is a road easily traveled with little or no thought.   It is a road that requires no submission of will and no tangible sacrifice of worldly goods and is a road that leads to spiritual death. Jeremiah speaks many times of this “broad-road people” who repeatedly walk the way of the flesh.   Telling God “no” does not bother them, they just do not have the time to do it His way.  An example of this is found in Jeremiah 6:16… “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jeremiah 12, 18, 23, and 31 all speak of a people’s stubborn refusal to walk in the traditional ways of true righteousness (the strait gate).  Moving in their own paths and following their own way (the wide, broad gate) would lead only to their destruction – death.  Now, we, also, have come to the same crossroads of decision. Dark and difficult times lie ahead.  Soon we must face the choice between what is right and what is easy. The choice is just that – a choice, but it is ours and God will not make it for us. In conclusion, let me again quote from Luke 13:23-25, but this time from the Message Bible.  Then you decide: His way or your way. “A bystander said, ‘Master, will only a few be saved?’  He said, ‘Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life — to God! — is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you'll sit down to God's salvation banquet just because you've been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives.  Well, one day you're going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you'll find the door locked and the Master saying, “Sorry, you're not on my guest list.”’”