LEARNING DAILY

 

John 10:1, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.

 

When I was a kid, we took family vacations in the summer. More often than not, we would find ourselves trying to decide which road to take. Which road would be the best way, the safest way? The wrong road was usually a “shortcut” to get to our destination. There were times we had just missed the way we were to go which met a course correction. I seem to remember we took the wrong way and were lost quite often. I am not sure if there is an inherited trait here, but this might have been passed on to the son. The point is, there comes a time when each of us must choose the direction we are going to take. To my grandchildren I say – pay attention!

 

Here is the focus of writing about the kingdom of self. If the day has not come for you to choose your direction, it will. Each person must decide whether to continue on the road offered by the kingdom of self or to go on a different road, a different way. The kingdom of self is the road where one continues straight ahead; it is an easier road where one enjoys reading all the billboards that tell you to enjoy all the pleasures offered by self-indulgence, greed, your position in life, self-centeredness, immorality, and evil.

 

But eventually anther road, another way – “a fork in the road”, is offered. But it demands self-control and that one give up the unrighteous lifestyle and gratifying the kingdom of self. It is a different road that has a gate across it like a toll road that is blocked with a bar until a fee is paid. Once the fee is paid the bar is raised and those who have paid the fee continue on. For our knowledge here, that fee has already been paid for us by Jesus Christ who took your place and my place on a cross. The choice is to accept or reject that He has paid our fee. Accepting what He did and giving Him our life raises the bar and we continue on a narrower road, a more difficult way to eternal life in His kingdom. Rejecting what He did keeps one on the way of the kingdom of self.

 

Jesus, the Messiah, related this gate to a door of a sheep pen where the sheep are gathered together at night (when possible) to be protected by the shepherd. Go back and read the verse from John above. John is telling all who read this that to enter the pen as one of the shepherd’s sheep the person must enter through the gate he opens for them. There is no other correct way to get into the pen. But John writes some get into the pen some other way without accepting the fee already paid. John called them a thief or a robber. They will eventually be seen for who they are and be removed.

 

When one comes to this “fork in the road” there is a decision to be made. The decision must be made between two gates and the roads beyond the gates.  The road for those more concerned with the kingdom of self, continue on the road they are on – the road of sin, guilt, shame, and separation from God. The other choice is to go through the gate (Jesus Christ) that leads to a life delivered from sin, guilt, shame and separation from God. Each person must choose wisely when facing this “fork” because their eternity depends on it.

More in the next page of the blog.