It’s no secret that many a young person first learned to drive in a relative’s vehicle, maybe out on the farm or some open pasture. Now days, many kids first learn how to maneuver a motorized vehicle with all the various options they have like golf carts and ‘mules’ and ATV’s. And while letting an 8-year old putter around in a golf cart in an open field is one thing, I doubt anyone would be comfortable letting them drive the family van through narrow mountain passes where there are no guard rails. Am I right, or am I right?

We’ve been talking about the similarities between what it means to abide in Jesus and driving a car. So if you read yesterday’s post, then perhaps those verses I left you with exhorting us to pay close attention and be alert, etc... were not just put in there for us to analyze...but rather to do; and for good reason.

Take a look at how Jesus described this roadway that leads to ‘life’- He described it as being ‘narrow’. (Mat. 7:13-14). And He also described another road way as being wide, or broad (depending on which translation you read), and He cautioned that while ‘many’ were traveling this wide road, it would ultimately lead to their destruction. His words, not mine. In Luke 13:24, we were even admonished to “strive, or make every effort, to enter through the narrow gate...”

I would like to encourage you to go back and re-read those last four paragraphs from yesterday’s message again, the ones that had firm warnings and cautions for us. Those passages tend to fall on deaf ears of folks who have been assured of a false security that ‘nothing bad will happen to you...even though you continue to live according to the dictates of your own heart’...(Jer. 23:16-17). And what will happen to those who promote such messages in the ‘Day of the Lord’? (1 Thess. 5:2-3)

Now I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you think I am suggesting that our ‘salvation’ depends on what ‘we’ do...then you are not hearing at all...what I believe the Spirit is trying to get our attention with. But if you are in the camp of those who believe that we have ‘absolutely NOTHING to do with our being ‘saved’, then you need to pause, step back, and think that one through again. Because if that is the case, we know that it is the will of God for ‘all men to be saved’ and for ‘none to perish’ (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9), so can we just assume the ‘whole world’ will be ‘saved’?

Or is there a need for people to respond to the gospel...and to ‘believe’ and ‘repent’ and ‘obey’? What did Jesus say would happen if we failed to truly ‘repent’? (Luke 13:3,5; Heb. 5:9)

Friends...my heart is burdened because so many people today have no idea how much eternal danger they are facing because they were taught that being a ‘Christian’ was simply saying some words and then put it on ‘auto-pilot-cruise-control’, being told the road would be bumpy at times along the way, but rest assured...heaven would be there final destination, ‘guaranteed’. Jesus made it pretty clear: “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom...but those who DO the will of the Father”. (Matt. 7:21)

Oh...one last question for you to consider: If I sell you a car, and I ‘guarantee’ it’s in working condition or you get your money back, it’s one thing to return the car to me and I make good on my ‘guaranteed promise’. But what are you going to do IF...you find out that those who promised you ‘peace and safety’...that they misled you? Sounds like it might be too late then, would you not agree? I don’t see where that door opened up for those foolish virgins who were desperately knocking and pleading…in Matt. 25:11-12.