Train Tracks or Wrecks?

Isaiah 30:21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.

You ever feel like you are at a crossroads in life? You ever feel like there has to be something better, something different, something that is tugging a change in your life? Better might not be the right word, but a different path that the one you are currently on. You ever feel that change welling up deep within you? I have told those close to me for some time now, I could sense a change coming. I know not what it is, have thought maybe this was it a few times, but I still know God is doing something, I just don’t know what yet. We always have the ability to change anything, any path, any desire we may have in life; that is a gift that God designed us with, simply known as Free-Will. We are not on train tracks, we are able to divert at any given time. But, the key is to trust the conductor, the one who actually has you on tracks you can’t see, called sovereignty, and to only divert at the intersections he has laid out before you. I have followed God’s direction and had incredible highs and intimacy with him. I have moved when I thought it was him, and encountered incredible adversities. How do we know what to do?

Isaiah’s book is full of the highs and lows of God, the sovereign control, grace, mercy, justice, provision, punishment, love, intimacy, and incredible patience he has with us. I have heard Isaiah is the most quoted book in the Bible. It seemingly flows with the evidence of God to whatever state we find ourselves in. It shows us how a just Father disciplines his children, yet continues to love them faithfully. It shows us how stupid we can be in rebellion, the sin that is within us. Even within this chapter, is where we are today in my nation, in our world. 9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. 10 They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. 11 Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” The watered down, soft, weak, prosperity, profitable, non-saving gospel, is gaining strength today. We want to know what God can do for us, and plenty of false prophets are proclaiming it from pulpits today. Where is hell being preached? Where is repentance and being a bondservant (a slave) being preached today? Where is sacrificing yourself for the One who sacrificed himself for you being proclaimed? If you are not a living disciple, one who places your self-sacrifice to Jesus above all, you may not get to meet him but at Judgement Day. I am going to stop right here, and share the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the NIV (clear simple translation). The best thing I can ever do in this blog, is to share God’s Word, not my own. For the simple proclamation of God’s Word will always do the work within the hearer that I cannot, and always what God desires for it to do, never once in history not accomplishing it’s work. (Isaiah 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.)

Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
True and False Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.