The Narrow Door

Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.  Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”  He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside, knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’  “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’  “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’  “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.  Away from me, all you evildoers!’  “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Issac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.  People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of God.  Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”  Luke 13:18-30

He did not tell them to remain on their couch, nor did He prescribe a specific performance sequence through which to enter the narrow doorway.  He simply said make every effort to enter through that doorway.  Does this mean we are to struggle in our quest to be found worthy?  That is what the world would convince you, for they too have been blinded by manful ways.  This is not easy Word to ponder, it requires relationship with Holy Spirit in order to grasp fully what may seem as contradictions to the unwise, but are clear to those who have ears to listen.  No we cannot find our way to heaven through our own efforts, but we must still make an effort to enter through the right doorway.

This lesson is for all believers to remain steadfast to the Right Path, the skinny road that leads to the narrow doorway reserved for the faithful to the end.  There are ample diversions, countless opportunities to be waylaid, forgetting our duties and sacrificing our inheritance for a soup trade or a fistful of dollars and sin.  This is a reminder, one of the innumerable calling us to be ready for when the time comes it will already be too late for decision making, sacrifice, surrender and change.  The Lord has spoken and consistently tells us that those with ears to hear, let them listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.  Now these warnings don’t specifically come until the outset of the Book of Revelation, but is that not the time to which we find ourselves committed?

I want to be known by the Lord on that day.  I want to be found with oil in my lamp.  I do not wish to weep and gnash my teeth standing outside a door that no one may open but the Lord.  I do not wish to see the prophets from a distance and fall anguished that my opportunities were mistaken and forsaken.  I do not wish to be part of the many who try to enter but cannot and are denied by the Risen Lord.  I would plead to You now Lord for my inclusion in the Kingdom and ask that You remember me on that great and glorious day.  Praise You in Your Glory, have mercy upon me in my fleshly insignificance.