Imagine that you live in a town that is a port for a cruise ship. Driving by, you see happy people boarding the ship. You hear talk around town of the wonderful things passengers on the cruise ship get to experience. You want to board the ship and experience these same things. The problem is that, for whatever reason, you do not want to pay the price of the ticket. So, you look for a different way to board the ship. Once on board, you hope to have the same experiences as the paying passengers have. After all, it is not how you board the ship that is important. Once you are on board, you will be a passenger just like everyone else.
You set about finding a different way to board the ship. There are some who have told you that the way to board the ship is to climb up the side. There are some who have told you that the way to board the ship is to sneak in with the employees. You determine that climbing up the side might require too much effort on your part, so you choose instead to sneak in with the employees. Once on board, you rejoice. You have made it. You are a passenger on the ship.
You enjoy the same benefits as the paying passengers. That night, you see the same beautiful sunset, you walk the same decks, you sit in the same deck chairs but as it gets later, something is different. The paying passengers all happily enjoy a meal in one of the dining rooms. The paying passengers find their way to their rooms for some much-deserved rest. But there is no chair in the dining room for you. There is no room for you to retire to for the evening. There is something else different too. The paying passengers go about their activities confidently, without a care in the world. While you, hungry and tired, continually look over your shoulder and attempt to avoid eye contact with anyone lest you be discovered.
As a stowaway on board this luxurious cruise ship, you enjoy some of the benefits just by being there, but the full benefits are elusive to you. You thought it would be so much fun and so relaxing, but while the paying passengers are having fun and enjoying all the perks that go with being a legitimate passenger, you are finding more loneliness than joy, more fear than peace. You have entered the wrong way.
Just like the stowaway on the cruise ship, many people have attempted to stow away into the Lord’s church, into a relationship with the Creator Himself. They have the same opportunity to enter legitimately as everyone else but do not want to meet the requirements of God. They look for a different way, possibly an easier way to enter. They ask others what they should do to enter into the church and are told that all they must do is believe that Jesus is the Son of God or that they must pray the sinner’s prayer or that they must go through a series of classes. Choosing one of these methods, they identify themselves as Christians and rejoice that they have done what was required to become a follower of Christ. They begin to experience some of the blessings a Christian experiences just as the stowaways on the cruise ship experienced some of the benefits of being paid passengers. But just as with the stowaways, there is something missing. There are moments of joy, but they are fleeting. There are moments of peace, but it is not quite as satisfying as others seem to be experiencing. There are moments of hope but what that hope is seems to be different for different people. There is confusion as to what is the right way to live. The question becomes, “Is there even a right way to live? “There are so many people who refer to themselves as Christians but who teach different things, behave different ways, worship God differently. All this confusion causes true joy, peace and hope to be elusive.
There are a lot of people who call themselves Christian, who say they are part of the church, who claim the benefits being a Christian offers but many of these same people have not, either because they do not understand what is required or because they have listened to someone else’s ideas instead of studying for themselves, followed God’s instructions. Yes, God has given us instructions for life and godliness, instructions describing what He wants us to do and how He wants us to do it, instructions that will allow us to enter into a relationship with Him. Following these instructions is not complicated but does require humility and sacrifice on our parts.
How does someone discover what God requires to be a true Christian? To be in a relationship with Him and full access to all the physical and spiritual blessings He has promised to those who love Him? That sets you on the path to spending eternity in Heaven? God, in His infinite wisdom, has revealed to us all that He wants us to know, all that we need to know, to become a Christian and to enter into a relationship with Him. God has given us His inspired word — the Bible.
As you study the Bible, ask yourself a few questions. What did the early Christians do to become Christians? At what point did these early Christians rejoice in their newfound relationship with God? What did God do when these people obeyed Him? Where is the prayer of faith found? Where are the words “faith only” found and what does the Bible say about “faith only”? Did everyone who believed in Christ become a Christian?
To get started, I would suggest a thorough reading of the book of Acts. Notice what each of these people did as they discovered what God required of them. Did they need to change their lives in any way? Have you done what God requires? If you would like some help in finding your way through the Bible, in finding out what God wants from you, I would love to help you.
Diana Dow
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
“‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” Acts 2:40-41.
“And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47
i grow weary of finding blogs online and reading what appears to be truth, only to find out that they are using one of the many false perversions of the bible. The bible says that there will be false Christs in the world….and only proves to me that its time to get off of the internet, and stay in the word of God…the Authorized King James 1611.