Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
The world has always wanted God’s blessings. It has always valued them and honored them and proclaimed them. It has always envied those who were blessed this way by God because it desires those blessings. Yes, the world has always done this. It has always valued the blessings of security, prosperity, wisdom, unity, and orderliness.
What the world has never wanted is to obtain those blessings by living the way God said we must live in order to attain to those blessings. It is precisely because everyone attempts to obtain those holy blessings in his own way that Jesus had to die. “All we like sheep have gone astray,” declared Isaiah. “We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Life is the greatest of God’s many blessings, and everybody in the world wants to live. The world wants the blessing of life. Nations go to war with each other when one nation threatens the life of the other. The world has always wanted God’s blessing of life, especially eternal life. To live forever in peace is the greatest hope of all men. But how very few people pursue eternal life God’s way!
Only by living God’s way will we ever attain to the blessings of God that we all seek. This is what the world does not believe. It believes in the blessings, but it does not believe in how those eternal blessings can be obtained. It is the pathway of God’s righteousness that alone leads to everlasting life.
If God has opened your eyes to see that pathway, if He has invited you to walk on it, be thankful. Remember what Jesus said: “Many shall seek to enter in and will not be able.”