Worse than hell? Better than heaven?

Wednesday 7-15-15 (Home, Modesto, California)

Scripture reading:    Isaiah 22-24    Heb 12

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Heb 12:13-15  Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.  Try to live in peace with everyone, and seek to live a clean and holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  Look after each other so that none of you will miss out on the special favor of God. NLT

O.  We are encouraged, not to just seek our own life of holiness, but to consider “those who follow you” and “look after each other.”  We must recognize that others are following in our footsteps. 

A.  Yes, I must walk straight, but not only this.  I must clear out an open pathway for others, so the weak and lame can follow me without stumbling.  I am, whether I choose to be or not… I am a trail-blazer pushing ahead with a machete cutting a path through the jungle of this life.  I am an engineer facing that big mountain and that deep valley.  I have the responsibility to cut a road into that mountain side and build a bridge over that deep ravine.  I must not only concern myself with making heaven, but God says, “look after each other”… “those who follow” me.

There is something worse that hell… and there is something better than heaven.  What could that be?  To find myself in hell and know that I have led my little son there to suffer… that would be worse than hell.  To find myself enjoying the bliss of heaven and know that I have led my little boy there, too… that will be better than heaven.  Somebody is following me in the path that I am clearing.  Somebody is counting on the bridges I have built.  May no one stumble over some failure that I have left behind on my record!  May I mark out a straight, clear path to heaven!                                                 

P.  Oh Lord Jesus, somebody made a wrong turn that led to a precipice… and fell.  A preacher is caught in an act of sin.  He cries out for forgiveness, and You forgive him.  But what about the hundreds of younger, weaker ones that were following in his pathway… now walking confidently toward that same precipice?  Oh God!  Help me to make a straight pathway for little children, youth and adults to safely follow me through the mountains and valleys of this life and into those open pearly gates.  And then I will find something better than heaven… for I will not have arrived there alone.  Amen.

Note:  They say that even the most insignificant person will accumulate at least 8 followers in his or her lifetime.  But for those of us who are leaders… that number becomes astronomical.

Ralph

The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole 1860–1934

An old man going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide.

Through which was flowing a sullen tide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followed after me to-day

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been as naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”