DAILY DEVOTIONAL – January 21, 2021

“No U-turns”

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we confess that we have all wandered away in our sin and rebellion against You.  Without Your amazing grace and mercy, without the salvation You have provided freely in the blood of Your Son Jesus, we would be lost and wandering forever without You.  Thank you Lord for Jesus, who is the Way and the Truth and the Life.  Amen.

Scripture: Proverbs 16:25

“There is a way that seems right to men, but its way ends in death.”

Devotional – “No U-turns”

Don’t you sometimes wish there was an app that gave you directions on how to get to exactly where God wants you to go each day?  An app that tells you, “God says turn left here…God says stop…God says make a u-turn!”  Although in our weakness we may think that would be the best thing for us, God knows that such an app would completely destroy faith.  God requires faith and trust because God does not desire His children to be worship robots.  He wants an authentic relationship with us; one of love and devotion and trust so that He can daily reveal His enduring love and perfect faithfulness.

Do you remember what God did in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve chose to sin and disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?  What did God do?  He put a Cheribum, an angel, with a flaming sword that swung back and forth in order to “guard the way back to the Tree of Life.”  Adam and Eve, once created in perfection were now fallen, sinful and rebellious toward God.  Sin had now entered their hearts, and to now eat of the Tree of Life as sinful people would mean they would forever be this way.  God in His amazing grace and mercy would not allow for that.  So the Cheribum now guarded the Tree of Life and Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden of Eden.

In the beginning, there was only one way into creation, and that was by the gracious creative Will of God.  Adam and Eve didn’t ask to be created in perfection, they didn’t request to be given a perfect creation to enjoy and maintain in the presence of their Creator forever.  God created them and all things out of pure grace and love.  It is that same grace and love that prevented Adam and Eve from returning to Eden and staying sinful forever.  God now made the way to salvation a one-way road.  Now, after the fall of mankind, there was only one way out – only one road back to a right relationship with God.  He promised a son that would be born and who would deliver all mankind from their sin and restore them back to the perfection in the presence of God that we could not and cannot attain on our own.  That road was the long, lonely road to the cross on Mount Calvary that Jesus Christ, the promised Son of God, walked for us – a road that was paved through the wilderness and darkness of a sinful world.

Each of us, the children of Adam and Eve, is born in sin; lost and separated from God where death is the unavoidable destination if we were left to our own ways.  As Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seems right to men, but its way ends in death.”   The Good News of the Gospel is that our merciful God has built a new road back to eternal life; a road to redemption and back to the fellowship with God we were intended for.  This road is the only way out of this sinful life, and out of a life of separation from God.  It is a road built by God himself.  A narrow road of faith paved in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.

I know it’s not the popular or safe thing to say in today’s culture, however, popular opinion is not the author of ultimate truth.  The truth is, my friends, that there is only one way back to God; one way, one road to salvation and that is through Jesus Christ and the road He walked to Calvary’s Hill to pay for the sins of the world and provide salvation for all who believe in Him.

Those are the clear words of Scripture over and over again:

• John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
• Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
• 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
• John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” 

Jesus says in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture,” and says in Matthew 7:13, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Stay on the narrow road my friends.  Hold fast to Jesus.  He is the only way home.  Thanks for spending time with me in another time of devotion in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.