the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:24. Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter Into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father. Matthew 7:21; Matthew 13:14.
These are the Lord’s own words which He spoke to His disciples when they asked Him if there be few who are saved. He admonished them to desire and to strive earnestly to be saved. What would He answer if you asked Him, Lord, shall I be saved? Here you read His answer. This is said to you and not to Peter and John only. To you, to you, the Lord says, Strive earnestly! For there are many who think that they have heaven in their bosom who shall yet never see it. "They seek to enter in," the Lord says, ’’and shall not be able. " Why? Because they do not seek in the right way. But you say, This is terrible. May it terrify you to your own salvation! The Lord says it that you should not make light of heaven and play with it. You believe in Christ; he who believes in Him shall be saved. But is your faith such that it leads you in the narrow way and through the strait gate, sets you free from the world, from the lusts, and from sin, and prompts you to strive forward and upward? Many seek to enter in; but they seek to enter in by ways of their own, and through gates chosen by themselves, not in the narrow way shown by the Lord, and not through the gate mentioned by Him, that is "strait" and that brushes off everything that clings to them:
the world and sin, yea, even one’s own self. Or men seek heaven with much trouble and exertion, but in their own strength, not in living faith in Christ, not in fellowship with Him, not with the heart, but with the head. Or, they take too much with them on the way; they load themselves down with temporal things so that, pressed down by the burden, they are unable to raise themselves up to the heavenly things. For this reason they are not able to reach heaven. Jesus is the way and the gate; he who walks in Him and strives by His help, shall enter in and find pasture.
Lead us all our days and years
In Thy straight and narrow way;
Lead us through this vale of tears
To the land of perfect day,
Where Thy people, fully blest.
Near Thy throne forever rest.
