Connected in The Word 8-21-24
Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Luke 13:24
I really like the picture for today’s devotion. If you get this through your email, you can check out the picture for this devotion (and all the devotions) by going to my homepage at https://connectedintheword.beehiiv.com/. We all enter life separated from God because of our sinful condition inherited from Adam and Eve. Think of it as a giant brick wall that we can’t get through, around, under, or over. Left to ourselves, we would be separated from God and lost forever. But here’s the Good News – God made a door through that brick wall of sin. However, it’s not a door that He expects us to squeeze through, a door with a special combination we need to figure out, or a door we need to find because He has hidden it somewhere. It’s not that kind of door!
Instead, it’s a door He uses to come down to us. That Door is Jesus! God comes to broken and lost sinners through the Door of Jesus! Jesus comes to us through His Gifts of Word & Sacrament. In these Gifts, our sins are forgiven, and faith is conceived and nurtured by the power of the Spirit. In the waters of Baptism, we are wrapped up in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God comes to us in and through Jesus, and God reconciles us to Himself in and through Jesus!
Striving to enter the “narrow door” simply means BELIEVING that Jesus is the Door that God uses to move you from Death to Life!