I’m guessing it has to be a universal game we’ve all played at some point in our early years of childhood, and one that I currently play with my 4-year old grandsons even today. You know, the one where you try to maneuver through the rooms of your house without falling into the ‘lava’? So you crawl over chairs and sofas and place pillows strategically around on the floors so you can make your way through unscathed. I think we also included ‘quicksand’ when we were boys, but that was because our dad raised us on the early B&W Tarzan movies IYKYK.

But the idea is pretty simple and clear...you take any missteps and off into the lava you go, unless someone is close by and can ‘save’ you quick enough.

It all boils down (no pun intended) to knowing where to walk or where to step to avoid falling to your peril. Have you ever watched someone traverse a stream or small river and it appears they are ‘walking on water’? Truth be told- they know where to step on the rocks that lie just beneath the surface so they can get across easily without slipping in up to their knees or waists, or even deeper.

It's knowing where...or how to walk...in order to avoid ending up in a place or predicament you don’t want to find yourself in.

When Jesus first appeared on the scene some 2000+ years ago, His message was pretty clear...’repent and follow Me’; and if you don’t repent...you will ‘all likewise...perish’ (Luke 13:3,5). That wasn’t a threat; it was a warning. But no need to fear for those who do repent ...and ‘take up their cross and follow Him’, right? He came to ‘show us the way’ (as in where the hidden rocks are to walk on). Can I also add here, this ‘taking up a cross and following Him’ is not an ‘option’? (Luke 9:23;14:27,33); that is if you want to be ‘saved’. Oh...and it’s not ‘lava’ that Jesus came to ‘save’ us from. It was God’s wrath (Rom. 5:9).

So why is God’s ‘wrath’ on the earth today? Well, actually, it is on everyone who does not ‘believe in His Son, Jesus’ (John 3:36), and the reason God’s wrath was/is upon each and every one of us ...was because His laws were broken; and His law brings ‘wrath’ (not to mention death and condemnation and curses- Rom. 4:15; Gal. 3:10; 2 Cor. 3:7,9). We know that ‘all of us have sinned’ (Rom. 3:23) and for anyone who is still unclear as to what ‘sin’ is, we are told it is the transgressing or breaking of God’s laws (1 John 3:4). “Sin...is lawlessness.”

Guess how Jesus ‘saves’ us from God’s wrath? He leads and empowers us ...and then shows us how to ‘not break God’s law’; hence ...why this idea of ‘following Jesus’ as opposed to just saying you ‘believe’ in Him...makes such a huge difference. I’ll give you a moment with that one.

You ought to begin seeing why this idea of ‘abiding in Jesus’ really is more important to focus on than whether one is ‘saved’ or not, because if you are ‘abiding in Him’, guess what you are not doing anymore? You are not ‘sinning’...because you are ‘keeping His commandments and walking just as He walked’ (1 John 3:6; 2:3-6). And if you are abiding in Him...what better place is there to be? Of course you are ‘being saved’ if you are abiding in Him. It’s all the folks out there who are NOT...abiding in Him...and ‘think they are saved’ (Luke 6:46; Matt. 7:21-23) that concerns me. When you read that passage in Matt. 7...we learn of a lot of folks who clearly ‘thought they were saved’, but were told otherwise. What was the reason they were told to ‘depart’ from the Lord? They continued to break God’s laws (Matt. 7:23). And who were the ones that were ‘gathered up and thrown into the fire’, according to the parable of the wheat and tares that Jesus taught in Matt. 13:41-42?

Now...doesn’t John 5:14 begin to make more sense to you, where Jesus healed that man after 38 long years of misery, and then told him to ‘go and sin no more or something worse might happen to you’? And take a quick look at Romans 1:18 and Ephesians 5:5-6, if you would please.

Oh yeah, my comment about being concerned for all those people who ‘think they are saved’...allow me to expound on this. It’s not my call to say who is or isn’t saved. That is way above my pay-grade. I’m just trying to bring to light what is written in our Bibles so we can do a better job at ‘examining our own hearts’ to make sure we ‘pass the test’ (2 Cor. 13:5).

Are you familiar with that old story about the ‘Emperor who wore no Clothes’? You can do a quick Google search for the synopsis if you are not. But I mention this story because I fear there are a lot of people today who were taught and convinced that because they ‘accepted Jesus as personal Savior’...that they are now ‘clothed in His righteousness’, without really understanding what that even means. Talk about misleading people and making them a ‘two-fold child of hell’ which Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing, in Matt. 23:15!

If you think you are ‘clothed in His righteousness’ because you repeated a simple prayer and show up weekly at a meeting house to join in on the songs and hear Bible stories and such taught...you may want to tap the brakes on your ‘secure assurance’ and do a deeper dive into what this Book is teaching us; because many of God’s people will be ‘destroyed’ for a lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6).And this is not God’s will or desire at all (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9).

I honestly don’t remember what happens at the end of the story with the Emperor who had been parading around with no clothes all that time thinking he was fully clothed; but I’m guessing at some point ... reality sunk in and he realized how duped he had been. He had been wrong in his beliefs. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of being in this position I am in today where I am imploring people, especially professing ‘believers’, to simply ask this one question: “What if we’ve been wrong in what has been handed down over time through the traditions of men?” It wouldn’t be the first time this happened (Jer. 16:19; Mark 7:6-9,13).

What are you trusting in these days...a handful of Bible verses and a good ‘gut feeling’? (Prov. 14:12; Matt. 22:11-14).

(And some of you thought this was going to be a 'political' post!)