ENTER YE IN AT THE STRAIGHT GATE – Jesus described a counter-culture, a swimming against the current. This would not be a popular route or an obvious one. Loving an enemy. Refusing to retaliate. Forgiving on every occasion. Giving beyond the norm. Considering only provision for today. Mortifying all unseemly thoughts. Fleeing from praise or flattery. Eventually we will see the gathered Church of the Ages as a “little flock” in comparison to the numbers who could never abandon their self-love or lusts.
BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM – Those who have been fore-ordained by God into His family will manifest both the right confession and the right fruits of a charitable heart. The mouth and the actions must display the inner man. For years the parable of the Vine (John 15) troubled me because it appeared as if the husbandman had cut a member out of the Vine and burned it. I now see the unfruitful branch as a pretender and not a life-carrying branch. The same might be said of people who occupy church pews in hypocrisy.
YOUNG MAN, I SAY UNTO THEE ARISE – Not a fact of the scene missed the Master’s notice. Here was a young man, stricken in his prime and the chief joy and only provider for his widowed mother. The Saviour’s voice traversed the gap to the place of the dead and commanded that young soul back into living fellowship and purpose. No small comfort to those of us who have lost believing loved ones for a time beyond the veil.
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