“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:14 NIV
While thinking on this verse, I thought of the times when I lived in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia on
a farm and went to get the cows into the barn. As I drove the cows in across the field there was one
single trail behind me. I immediately knew that the reason the path is narrow is that few people choose to walk on the path at one time and consistently.
The masses choose the world. I hope you are on God’s path today. Later I thought perhaps it is narrow because each of us have to make the decision to follow the Lord by ourselves. It is our choice.
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Published by rko777
I am a novice writer and painter who loves to be creative. I love singing but can't sing without a hymnal, except for children's songs. I love to make up my own songs and love the old hymns. I love to garden and got that love from my Mom and Dad who taught be everything I know from planting to harvesting to canning. I'm happy gardening, walking with my pug, JD Sir Winston Churchill, painting, and crafting. I love to spend Saturday's sitting in my rocker going through a bible study.
I love working with elementary school aged children and seeing them use their creative gifts. I have taught
Sunday school for a number of years and taught in the public schools for 18 years. I might say I'm retired but I spend most of my time subbing and enjoy it immensely.
The kids spark my own creativeness.
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It is also interesting that this scripture doesn’t say small are the gates, but small is the gate. This makes me think that we will not enter eternal life in heaven with the Father through the gate of our intellect, opinions, god of our choice, good works, accomplishments, etc, but only the one gate of Jesus and His finished work for our salvation on the cross of Calvary.
And the Scripture goes on to say…Wide is the gate that leads to destruction and many there are who take it. But Jesus said I Am the GATE. One GOD/MAN, Jesus Christ. He is the Door and the ONLY DOOR, as Debi indicated above. “I Am the Door through which you may go in and out and find rest in My pasture.
Yesterday, Sara reminded us that there were 12 gates IN HEAVEN. And we pondered that. But the GATE TO Heaven is Jesus Christ. He is the WAY, the Truth and the Life. No man can get to God by any other WAY. He is the Resurrection and the Life. All who believe and follow His commandments will have eternal life, (in Heaven). We will all have eternal life but only those who choose the Way, the Truth and the Life will have eternal life IN HEAVEN. Those who do not choose Jesus Christ, will have eternal fires.
Another thought at Rena’s comments about the cows having to line up to get through the narrow gate. At school when the little children are lining up for lunch there often is a whole lot of ‘juggling’ to get thru the classroom door, first. Sometimes two will try to jostle each other to get through the door at the same time and that causes problems.
But when we enter that gate…it will be solo. We don’t have to jostle or juggle against anyone (except the enemy of our soul) to get through the gate because there is room room for only ONE AT A TIME. And there is ROOM AT THE CROSS FOR YOU. Though millions have come there’s still room for ONE!
The part that interest me in this scripture is the fact that it is so small or insignificance in the whole of the world that one has to search for it. Really search for it!
Jesus, the Door says,”…I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Parallel versions appear in Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:24-25, and Luke 18:24-25.
And, other parables on this thought: Luke 15:8-10, “a women searches for a lost coin. We understand this as Redemption along with the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son.
Matt 13:45,46 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Gee, wonder how he knew how much it cost?
And, scripture from our blog says, “…and only a few find it” I see that it cost us something to get through the gate. So my thoughts are if I want a new house how can I find a way to buy it? How do I know the price and how will I find a way to acquire this house. It cost! We don’t find many houses, probably not any, sitting in a neighborhood saying walk right in and take ownership just for walking in. I think the rich man had a problem because he didn’t want to leave his riches outside! Yet, he would of had more than his mind could comprehend if he made a spiritual ‘stock market trade’.
I better get ready for church. I would stay on the parables all day as they so fascinate me. But, they better do more than that. Hopefully, they will send me on a search for Kingdom Living….
Right, Sara. The parables are amazing….a tiny insight as to how Jesus thinks and how He sees the Kingdom in trying to describe it to us. Like we discussed in service this morning….the Pearl of great price (‘Priceless’ as Sherman said) cost the man EVERYTHING he had. That’s what it costs. He must have been spiritually astute to know, understand, have faith and wisdom and love that the price would cost him everything and in his wisdom was willing to pay that price for it ALL!
In like manner God’s created masterpiece MANKIND was a treasure buried beneath a field of sin and unrighteousness, degradation and decay. God was willing to sacrifice His ALL for His creative masterpiece, to purchase salvation for “man”. He gave His ALL His All is JESUS CHRIST Who ultimately purchased our salvation on Calvary.
Thank YOU Jesus and Father GOD for paying the price for my Redemption.
A thought just came to me. I wondered Do you enter the gate first and then walk on the narrow path? OR
Do you walk on the narrow path to enter the gate?
Now I would imagine that, first, one would have to enter the DOOR, Jesus…that is, come to Christ and give Him one’s life and love….and THEN walk the narrow path by following His GPS (Glorious Plan of Salvation) to remain on the path straight into Heaven. But there might be another view.
Maybe walking down the narrow path first means that the flesh has to shrink and shrink because only the spirit can get through the small gate. Jesus did say in John 6:63 “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing.” And after He continued to tell some pretty ‘narrow’ things while He was teaching in Capernaum it says in vs 66 “many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.” Looks like they left the path…it was just too narrrow.
It seems to me that the path less taken takes a life time of work and focusing and pursuing the truth of the WORD OF GOD in our lives to get to eternal life.
Robert Frost has a poem, “The Road Not Taken” It reads:
The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
After Sara spoke in church that we on the road/path of
the redeemed and we have chosen this path, the above poem came
to mind. We are the redeemed and we have chosen the path less traveled.
We have chosen Jesus.
In Frost last verse of the above poem, it reads
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
For Christians who truly have chosen to take the narrow path the difference
is eternal life. May all contemplate the path they are faced with today.
It’s a choice. One leading to heaven, the other to hell. Which do you choose?
Lord we pray we know without a doubt which road we are on. We don’t want to go before you Almighty God and find the path we chose was not really the right one, because we road in the medium strip and didn’t actually make a clear cut decision.
“Ye that sitteth on the fence, get ye hence” (mg)
James said that the man/woman who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. He won’t be receiving anything from God because he is double-minded, hesitant, wavering, playing both ends against the middle; not siding with right and not siding with wrong, (so he thinks). But in not taking a stand of faith he is the guy on the fence, a ” middle of the roader”, that broad highway that leads to destruction.
Sara taught on the Pearl of Great Price. What it cost, as we discussed above. Throwing our lot in with God is the only way to WISDOM WAY, RIGHTEOUS ROAD, PARADISE PATH, ALLELUIA AVENUE, MIRACLE MEWS, LAUDATION LANE,
SALVATION STREET, TRIUMPHANT TERRACE…..All Roads less taken… except for the wise, understanding, knowledgeable, patient and loving who are on their way to HEAVEN
Yes…and like a verse from the gospel song, “It’s a Highway to Heaven” says…”none can walk up there but the pure in heart.” That qualification will certainly limit the travelers.
Thank you, Lord for sending Your Son, so that we might have a chance to choose this narrow path. Help us remain on the narrow road, when life’s circumstances seems to make this path even smaller.
I guess we better work on keeping the weight off so we can navigate a very narrow path. Hebrews 12:1 “… let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up…”
Excellent scripture in Hebrews, Sara. Look at what the footnotes say about verses 1 through 4. “Long-distance runners work hard to build endurance and strength. On race day, their clothes are lightweight and their bodies lean. To run the race that God has set before us, we must also strip off the excess weight that slows us down. How can we do that? (1) Choose friends who are also committed to the race. Wrong friends will have values and activities that may deter you from the course. Much of your own weight may result from the crowd you run with. Make wise choices. (2) Drop certain activities. That is, for you at this time these may be weight. Try dropping them for a while; then check the results in your life. (3) Get help for addictions that disable you. If you have a secret “weight” such as pornography, gambling, or alcohol, admit your need and get help today. The Christian life involves hard work. It requires us to give up whatever endangers our relationship with God, to run with endurance, and to struggle against sin with the power of the Holy Spirit. To live effectively, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. We will stumble if we look away from him to stare at ourselves or at the circumstances surrounding us. We should be running for Christ, not ourselves, and we must always keep him in sight.”
Needles, your footnotes will give you a shove and knock some weighs off if one cares to read and act on them.
I had another thought about the “small gate”. If I liken the “gate” to one’s mouth, the lips being the door of the opening….perhaps that would be an excellent application; not to be such a ” big mouth”, or a “loud mouth” but to display a “small” mouth, opening only at the proper moment and guarding my “mouth gate” to reserve it for the exhortation of others, praising of God and Heaven and The Word of God.
How often I hear the Spirit of God whisper, ‘keep still’, don’t open your “big mouth”. Do I listen? Not much. But I am starting to listen more attentively to when He checks me from opening my WIDE AND dangerous mouth-gate for He wishes to save me from myself, from taking the wrong path on some whim or emotional charge and to be the cause of detriment to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ because I didn’t know or obey when to ‘shut the wide gate.”
Proverbs says, “even a fool can appear wise if he keeps his mouth shut”. Hmmm. Did Solomon see me down the ages? Thanks Sol. God must have told on me.