Look for the Gate

Daily Reading: Revelation 22

Scripture Focus: Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. (Revelation 22.14)

Devotional Thought: Recently, it has become quite trendy to condemn borders.  I try to understand this sentiment, but I have noticed that many of the very ones who decry international borders set up boundaries of their own, demanding that people interpret life as they do or be left on the outside, looking in (cancelled).  Or, they hide behind walls and security fences in their gated communities. 

But, what really intrigues me are those who imply that God is against borders.

If I read the Bible correctly, God is not against borders.  As a matter of fact, at the very beginning of human history he set up a mercy border, guarding the Garden of Eden.  When he gave the Promised Land to the children of Israel, he established borders for the tribes.  Jesus, when he was teaching his disciples talked about the borders around sheepfolds and how they were there to protect the sheep.  Though God has established borders, he also has set up gates so that people could cross through those borders.  Jesus said that he himself was the gate for the sheep.

Even heaven has a border - and a border wall!  But, there is a gate to heaven.  There is a way to make that celestial city our eternal abode.  None need be turned away.  But, all who come in must enter by the gate.

Are you trying to get into heaven by some other way?  Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14.6).  If you run into a wall, don't complain.  Look for the gate!

Prayer: Jesus, I praise you that you are the gate for the sheep.  You are the way to the Father.  I believe that you died for my sins and rose again from the dead.  I confess you as my Lord and my God.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 105.23-36

23 Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

24 And the Lord made his people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes.

25 He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.

26 He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

27 They performed his signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham.

28 He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they did not rebel against his words.

29 He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die.

30 Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.

31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.

32 He gave them hail for rain, and fiery lightning bolts through their land.

33 He struck down their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.

34 He spoke, and the locusts came, young locusts without number,

35 which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground.

36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength.