The Struggle is Real. Enter by the Narrow Gate

Welcome to episode 11. If you're tuning in for the first time, I want to thank you. And in this episode, I'm gonna kind of have a kind of a reflective and discovery episode, so you want to stay tuned if that kind of floats your boat. But right now, let's go to John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word, and cue intro guy.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome again to episode 11. I want to start off by telling you the Christian walk is simple, but it's not easy. If you've ever had the thought, "I'm a Christian, why is this happening to me?" I want to give you a couple verses to kind of chew on right now, and they're both found in Matthew. It's 7:13 and 14. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way, which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Now, there are many false beliefs when you start battling in this Christian walk, but life that is going to be easy, I don't see that anywhere in the Bible. In fact, you can argue that it's the exact opposite. And here's another thought: to be successful in any area of your life, you must make up your mind to do something regardless of the cost. Now, as an example, I'm going to use this podcast, and, and not because trying to talk about this podcast, but I— this is something we all start in the same position when we come to Christ. We are babies in Christ, so we start as infants. And this podcast, I had absolutely no idea about this podcast, but I had made up my mind that I'm gonna do 30 episodes, one a day for 30 days. And there's just power to a made-up mind. But one of the struggles that you fall into is, you know, along the way— here I am on episode 11— and along the way, you know, you start comparing yourself to other podcasts and other people that have been doing this a whole lot longer, or maybe are a whole lot better at it. I mean, because in all honesty, I was thinking, How hard can this be? You're talking to a microphone. But there is so much that I had no idea what I was going to— with editing, with trying to schedule the time, what you're going to talk about, how you're going to load. I mean, there's so many things that go on and just developing just this podcast. But let's take that back to the Christian walk. You know, you, you come into— you really don't give God anything other than your life. And then you have all of this. I had 29 years of very bad programming now, and we all come into this Christianity. Why? And the question is, why is it so difficult? Well, we come into this Christianity or this Christian walk from different areas of life. We have different backgrounds, but now each person coming in has a different growth rate. You know, there's a seed that's planted in, in you And it's the, it's the seed, it's the incorruptible seed, or it's the faith, the measure of faith that is planted into you. God the Father gives you that faith when you're, when you're saved, but it's a different, you know, it goes into a different— your heart's different than my heart, so it goes into a different, it's different soil, and we have different growth rates. What normally takes someone, you know, a week or two to get, for me it was a month and a half. I mean, I didn't say I was fast, but once I got it, I get it. We also come into this, we're at different maturity levels. When you're listening to this, you know, you may have been in it for— you may be in Christianity for 5 days, 5 years, 50 years. You know, we're all at a different— all of us are coming into this at different levels today of maturity. Some of us are still babies, some of us are teenagers, some of us are adults. And some of us are old, old men and women in Christ. So we're at different maturity levels. Now, we're— the other thing that I don't hear a lot of people talk about is we're all in the same body. We're in the body of Christ, but we are different parts of the same body. And an example that I like to use is if I'm baptized into the body of Christ, if I'm baptized in as a little toe, I'm a little toe. I mean, God's not schizophrenic. He don't baptize me in as a little toe and next Thursday or 10 years from now, he's gonna say, "Nah, I'd rather have you as an eye." No, if you get baptized in the body of Christ, God knows what he's doing. He puts you there for a purpose. He made you for a specific purpose. God puts you in his body right where he designed for you to be. So if I'm a little toe and I've got the microphone in this example, all I'm going to talk about is balance. We, you know, we need to get— we need to have more balance in your life. Everything's going to be about balance or filling out a shoe or running. And, you know, we can relate— I can relate to running and walking and standing and kicking. I mean, things that, things that a foot does or a leg, you know. And the other part of that, you know, some of the people— if you've ever been around somebody, and one of the things, if you listen to this podcast and you don't like it I mean, that's okay. I'm not gonna— I'm not trying to talk to everybody. I want to talk to the people that want to listen, and they're trying, you know, the things that I want to do. I want you to know this is a battle. This life is a battle, and that you and I need to— we need to get serious about it. But if, if you think that, you know, life is just a dream and there's no issue and all of the things that I don't really believe then we're probably not going to hit it off. And, and that's okay, because if I'm a little toe in this analogy, I'm going to get along with— if you're in the body of Christ and you're a foot, or you're an ankle, or you're a shin, or a knee, I mean, I— we're, we're kind of similar or close. If you're an eye, or a nose, or a neck, I mean, we may not have a whole lot in common. So I think that's part of the other thing, is when we're trying to figure out our place, you know, and we started, you know, comparing ourselves to other people and, oh, I need to be more like that guy, or I need to be more like that girl. And that is not anything. You can't be further from the truth. You are you. Just be the best you you can be. And the last thing, and I— this is incredible to me. I do a lot of reading on Barna, but I think in his research Christians— over 50% of Christians do not believe that Satan is a real being. And I— that is just hard for me to believe. If you don't think Satan is a real being, I mean, that, that's tough, because Jesus did not cast out imaginary beings or concepts or evil. He cast out demons. And he really did that, and he walked through life, and, and those are real. So those things, if you, if you think Christianity is different or difficult, it's mainly because of those examples that I gave you. It is a— I mean, it's— we're all coming at this at different angles. We all got different paths. We all got different places in the body. We all are different maturity rates. Some of us are green and growing, and some of us are ripe and rotten, but We're all in this together, and we're all— if you're— if you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are in the body of Christ. And, you know, to think that life is just going to be easy— do you think Jesus ever struggled? I mean, do you think that he thought, well, you know, things are going to be super easy because I'm God? I mean, I want you to read Matthew 26:37-39. I'm going to read it for you real quick. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me." He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, "O Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." One of the reasons Jesus was able to overcome is because he had a— it's the power of a made-up mind. I mean, he had already made up his mind. He knew why he came. He came to die for you and I. He came to live a sinless life and to die a death we couldn't die, and to be risen again on the third day. We just really have to make up our mind that we're going to do something. And that's— I kind of want to tie it all back together with my 30 days in this ep— in this podcast and all that. And I, I'd I would love to have more downloads and comments and reviews, but in all honesty, I've— it does— none of that matters because I've got 19 more episodes after today. And so I'm going to 30 regardless of if anyone hears me or if anyone comments. I'm gonna do 30 straight episodes. Christianity is extremely difficult because we have so many choices. Every day you can decide what you're going to do with your day, what you're going to do with your time. And I want to introduce you in the next episode one of, I think, one of the most misunderstood topics in the body of Christ and my take on it. Again, I want to thank you for listening. And before we go, if you've ever struggled with the Great Commission, my sponsor 1211 Apparel has your answer. 1211 Apparel, the most powerful clothing line in the world, because it's based on the Bible and gives glory to God. Jesus gave his followers a Great Commission before he left, and that Great Commission includes you and me. But if you have ever struggled with sharing Jesus, 1211 Apparel created Prayer Wear and Share to help. It's a free training on how to fulfill Jesus' promise of light and easy found in Matthew 11:28-30. Since 1211 Apparel is Bible-based, they start out with giving first. Give and it will come back to you. This is not a theory, it's the truth. 1211 Apparel wants to give you access to unlimited Christian tracts and free training to help you get off the pew and into the battle for the souls of your friends and family. Use our special link, nodoubtonlybelieve.com/battle to get started today.

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