Many of the businesses in the building complex where our office is located are involved in the medical and health care fields. One next door neighbor serves kids with autism, the other is a dentist. Directly across from us is a medical organization that offers kidney dialysis treatments; they have the entire building and have a constant flow of patients. Many are brought in by a mobile medical van, usually in a wheelchair. What surprises me is when we see their patients smoking, which is a risk factor for death for those on dialysis.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a doctor years ago. She told me that after a heart attack only 20 percent of those who survive change their lifestyle. They continue to consume foods that are damaging them, refuse to exercise, and/or won’t give up habits that are harmful, such as smoking or excessive drinking. It’s grieving to think of people wasting the one life they’re given because they aren’t willing to let go of short-lived pleasures and make the changes they knew they needed to make to improve their health and extend their life.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7:13-14
The narrow gate comes to mind, one that few will find. Those are frightening words. Jesus is talking to everyone; including those in the church. Pastors tell me that 20% of their flocks contribute 100% of the financial offerings for their church. Funny how we’re back to the 20%. Our checkbook reflects our heart; what we love and believe in. One survey showed that 70% of pastors pray 5 minutes a day. Another survey showed that that 11% of Americans read the Bible daily. Every day in the US, a pastor or ministry leader falls due to sexual sin (including porn) or sexual abuse. 70% of Christian men are viewing porn and most churches avoid it.
As we walk the Christian life the road narrows. We can’t indulge in the sins we used to without getting hit with conviction by the Holy Spirit. The double life is a miserable way to live. So is the way of the double minded man who tries to have as much of the world while dabbling in God. Go this way long enough and it becomes harder to hear the Spirit’s voice; the flesh tends to drown Him out. We either invest more of our heart into our relationship with the Lord, which means hours of prayer and time in His word, or we’re wandering and stumbling, full of self and pride, struggling with the flesh, and living in the misery that comes with trying to live for the world’s fleeting pleasures while claiming that God is our first love. It doesn’t work. “Always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7) describes this condition well.
What we do reveals which road we’re on, far more than our talk or knowledge of the Bible. Those wheelchair-bound patients who are on dialysis are told by their doctors they shouldn’t smoke and that it could kill them. Knowledge is useless if we don’t use it to take the action steps we know we should.
Porn and other forms of sexual sin can kill your spiritual life. So can hatred, anger, resentment, bitterness, pride, and fear. We’re commanded to cut off the stumbling blocks of temptation (Matthew 5). If we need help we ask for it from God and His people (James 5:16). Every believer needs daily immersion in the Bible and prayer (Acts 2:42, 2 Timothy 2:15, John 8:32, and many more). Jesus modeled going away alone for hours of prayer, which means we should do the same (Luke 5:16). The Bible calls isolated believers crazy (Proverbs 18:1). We’re called to be a part of a tribe (Acts 2:42) and be devoted to good works (Titus 3:14). The greatest command is to love with God with everything, all our heart, mind, and soul (Matthew 22:36-40). Lukewarm believers make Jesus so sick that He vomits them out (Rev. 3:14).
For the most part, the action steps given above are taken outside of the church and are determined by the choices we make during the week… and driven by who or what we really love.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
James 1:22-25
Many churchgoers know what the Bible says, at least, those who read it do. The great question everyone must answer is if we are doing what God’s word says and walking the narrow path, or if we’re smoking in the wheelchair and have deluded ourselves. This applies to the individual as well as the church. A church that preaches about prayer yet has no prayer meetings, or doesn’t deal with sexual issues openly and effectively, to name a few, misses the mark. Same for the individual. When is the last time you spent a day alone with God?
We’re not talking perfection here. All of us have our moments (and long stretches) where we wander off the road and fall over the side and down into the ditch, including this writer. Sometimes we set up camp in the ditch and try to make sin work for awhile. Thanks be to God for His great patience, love, forgiveness, and the kindness of continually drawing His sheep back to Him when they get lost in the weeds. Grace abounds, and our Father’s heart toward us is one of restoration.
“The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:8-14
Yet we dare not play the fool and continue to smoke in the wheelchair after we’ve been warned, especially if those warnings have kept coming our way and God has made it clear we’re on the wrong path.
“Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.”
Psalm 85:8
We’re living in a time in history when the wheels have come off and darkness is rampaging. This is the wrong time to be playing church or smoking in the wheelchair, playing with the pleasures and entertainment of this world and making it our god. The storms ahead are going to hit hard – read the book of Revelation and Matthew 24. It’s critical that every believer is committed to being strong in prayer and growing deep roots in their relationship with the Lord so they don’t collapse when the tidal wave hits.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7:24-27
Which path are you on? The narrow road, or the path that the crowd likes?
Are you sitting in a ditch, smoking in a wheelchair, dazed as you stare at your smartphone for hours as so many are doing?
What do you need to change?
If you want help or prayer, contact us.
