Don’t Go Playing In Traffic

I remember taking a work trip from Fresno California to my home town, and riding with two guys who knew (seemingly) everything about Baseball. They could name sports statistics from certain teams and certain players dating back to 1911, and I was impressed (for the first few hours). I couldn’t help but thinking this,  though: knowing all those stats, and even a bit of the family life of your favorite baseball player won’t get you in to their mansion if you come knocking. In the same way, we play that game with God. We might know Histories, Bible verses, do everything a Christian is “supposed to do” and not know Jesus at all. Just because we seek to knock on the Pearly Gates, doesn’t mean we’ll be allowed in, even with all the knowledge and church time we may have!

I love you, and because I do, I want you to know I will tell it like it is. Too many of us are playing with fire, quite literally, where eternity is concerned. We may go to Church on Sunday, sing the right songs, throw money in the plate where we can, serve where we can, do what we can, but we don’t know Jesus. It’s like playing in rush hour traffic on the highway and expecting every car to be paying attention! Eventually, we’ll get hit with 2 tons (or more) of reality. We can’t have one foot in Jesus and one foot in the world. He is mutually exclusive in that He says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) and says of those who don’t know Him “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7: 21-23)

Eternity is real. All of us will meet it, whether sooner or later. Our only hope and security is in Christ Jesus. Why play with eternity when Jesus gives us full assurance, sealed with His blood at the Cross of Calvary and the empty tomb in the middle of a Garden? Time is short. Shorter than we think. Don’t go playing in traffic, go and seek Jesus who offers you life, free from the burden of sin and death, and seek Him every single day!

Matthew 7:21-27

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Matthew 15:1-9

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Philippians 2:1-11

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.