“Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me.” John 14:6)
A dream I had in the morning of 20th October, 2016 that caught my attention. It was short but certainly gave me a sermon. A man called me as I stood outside the house. I asked why he wanted to see me. All I heard from him was “Pathfinding”. I followed him to a room where there were some people and he was instructing them on what to do. Then, I woke up. I went to look up for the term Pathfinding:
Pathfinding or pathing is the plotting, by a computer application, of the shortest route between two points. It is a more practical variant on solving mazes. This field of research is based heavily on Dijkstra’s algorithm for finding the shortest path on a weighted graph.
Pathfinding is closely related to the shortest path problem, within graph theory, which examines how to identify the path that best meets some criteria (shortest, cheapest, fastest, etc) between two points in a large network. (Wikipedia)
Of course the Bible many times uses things that are happening in nature to explain the spiritual. Do we have the shortest path problem in Christianity? Pathfinding simple means finding a path. It can be the shortest path. Don’t Christians like short cuts to qualify as candidates for Heaven?
If only I could shake hands with the Pastor or make him my friend.
If only I can be singing in the choir.
If only I can do something for God.
If only I can pretend to be nice, I will pass for a good person.
If only I can build that Church, my name will go around that I am the one who built it.
If only I can have Bible school degree in Divinity that will settle it.
If only I can be reading the Bible, fast and pray so that people will see me.
If only I can visit the Vatican and see the Pope.
If only I can feed the poor and belong to a Christian organization.
But the shortest path to heaven is through Jesus Himself. What if we do all these things and come at the door and the keeper ask you, “have you receive the Holy Spirit since you believed?” You may say I don’t know if there is such a thing as the Holy Spirit. I have been doing some great works for the Lord you know. This kind of a person wants to climb some other way and not taking God’s provided way. The sheep however, like Apollos and certain disciples Paul met at Ephesus would want to know the right path. (cf. Acts 19:1-7) Some people think it easier to go in through the window than the door?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. (John 10:1-2)
Christians have to take the Path of the Pathfinder, Jesus than to try to make or create their own paths. The Webster definition of Pathfinder:
A person who goes ahead of a group and finds the best way to travel through an unknown area.
A person or group that is the first to do something and that makes it possible for others to do the same thing.
Full Definition:
One that discovers a way; especially: one that explores un-traversed regions to mark out a new route.
Christopher Columbus discovered America. It was a long and dangerous expedition. However, finally the new world was revealed. To find the path may not have come easy and the distance to cover too must have needed enormous sacrifice. Columbus who was an Italian explorer made four trips from Spain across the Atlantic. His discovery did change human history ushering in the goods, culture, technology and people between the Old and the New worlds. Many explorers came to know of the route and started to sail to America. However, the path finder and the discoverer of the new world will always be remembered. Today Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries in the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492.
History also talks about Vasco da Gama. He was a Portuguese who discovered the sea route to India. His initial voyage to India between 1497 and 1499 was the first to link Europe and Asia. What will a captain at sea or a pilot in midair do without a compass? A hiker can find himself in grave danger, moving in circles, stranded and confused in a large and complicated desert without a map. The Map serves as a guide for him to find his path again when he is lost and gives details of the topography of the place for water and shelter.
The Children of Israel journeyed in the wilderness for forty years without the use of a map or any device to help them. They were all strangers to the environment there were in and even where they were going to. None of them knew the way to Canaan. However, the path they will use was already known by God. It was God’s provided way for them. He had prepared the way they were going to take. Therefore, even before the Israelites started the Journey from Egypt, there was a path for them to get to the promise land. No one must have ever dared to use the same path the Israelites took from Egypt if God is not with him. How would the person cross the red sea? The Egyptians tried but they all drowned. We cannot take God’s provided way without God Himself leading. We have to follow the footsteps of the Master. You know there are no short cuts to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We try to take short cuts many times but get in to trouble, fall in to a pond or something. It is what happens when we get out of the path of God – the grand old high way of God.
God had to divide the red sea because it was the path for his people to pass through to go to the promise land. Moses was not just a prophet or a messenger, he was a SEER. The pillar of cloud that appeared by day and the pillar of fire that appeared at night kept the Children of Israel in the way so that they will not be lost in the wilderness. All of them could look at what was happening but very few of them could see what was happening. God was not revealed to many of them and many died in the wilderness because of unbelief.
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.” (Exodus 13:21)
The house of God is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth but not all in the house can see the fire. The pillar of fire has never left the church. The children of Israel may have used different fires to light up their camps but not all could see the fire of God leading them and that is why some wanted to go their own way – even the way back to Egypt. Fire is not only often used in the bible to symbolize the presence of God, it is also used in association with searching, illuminating, separating, cleansing, purifying, and judging. (Gen.15:17; Exodus 14:24; Deut 4:24; Luke 3:16-17)
The people are looking at the bible today but are they understanding it? If the Church will only follow the pillar of fire, the light of the Holy Spirit, she will make Canaan as sure as anything. Daniel’s walk with God had to pass through the lion’s den. Despite how dangerous it must have been he continued the walk anyway. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to walk through the fire. The furnace was heated seven times hot and king Nebuchadnezzar was going to throw the three men in it after they refused to worship his idol but God was with them.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of fire, and they have not hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.” (Dan 3:24-25)
There is one thing certain, no matter how difficult the path might be, God will always be with His children who take His provided way. Some may pass through the waters, some through the flood, some through deep trials but all through the blood. Look at Calvary and you will see the path. Look at the many religions we have today and the different paths people are taking spiritually. Man has always wanted his own way. In the Garden of Eden, God told man to eat from the tree of life but he went and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Serpent’s preaching and doctrine was more appetizing for man. When man fell he made his own religion and wanted God to operate on his terms. However, God will always provide an opportunity to help man find his path again. Even when Cain became wroth and had in his heart to kill his Brother Abel, there was a sin offering provided for him but he rejected it. Noah preached to the people in his day about the coming flood and how God has provided a way of escape to help the people through the flood but they rejected it. He provided a way for the children of Israel but they kept jumping on and off the path and God had to rebuke and chastise them. Joshua told the people to choose this day whom ye will serve. Israel kept going the wrong way and lost her path till blindness in part happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (cf. Romans 11:25) Hopefully she will find here path again when the Pathfinder appears to her.
If you have lost your path then you will need a pathfinder. Even if you have not lost your path, you will need the pathfinder to keep you in the way. You don’t close your eyes in the day when walking even though you are sure of where you’re going. Likewise, you don’t switch off your touch light because you are in the direction of your way home. If you disobey these rules what will happen is that you will find yourself sway to the left or to the right without you knowing. Jesus is our Pathfinder and He doesn’t want us to derail from the path. He is the way the truth and life. Yes, His death on the cross made the way for man to be reconciled to God. Through a covenant God made with Abraham, long before the trip, victory was promised for the children of Israel. It is unfortunate that despite the fact that they had the pathfinder, many of them died in the wilderness and could not make it to the promise land. We don’t want to be in the situation of holding and reading the Bible and die in the wilderness because it has not been revealed to us. We look at it but don’t understand it at all. In the Old Testament, the Children of Israel were given the Law. Jesus came to fulfill the law and provided the path-way for the people to follow but many still engaged in pathfinding choosing their own paths.
The land of Canaan was to provide physical rest for the children of Israel on condition that the people obey the laws of Yahweh. It was supposed to be a land very different from Egypt where they were taken as slaves and was like a brazen furnace for them. Jesus rebuked the Israelites for their blindness to recognize Him as the one to lead Israel. However, many of them claim that they see and therefore, they did not need Jesus. “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, we see; therefore, your sin remaineth.”(John 9:41)
Jesus gave a sermon and told the people to enter in through the narrow gate. However, He made it clear that not many will find it. At the beginning of His ministry, we know He had a lot of followers but at the end only a relatively small number of disciples stayed with him. Where were all those five thousand men He fed, and all the great number He healed and cast out demons from? The word, “narrow,” is fairly easy to understand. When a road is narrow, many people cannot walk on it, when a gate is narrow, many people cannot enter in through it.
“Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.”(Matt.7:13-14)
But what actually made the gate narrow and not broad? God doesn’t want anyone to perish but at the same time honors His word. What made the seventy to depart from Him? Jesus only said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He just spoke the word and they did not believe Him. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal Life.”(John 6:66-68)
Look at the way people reject the word today. They say this scripture or that one is not important. But is all scripture not given by the inspiration of God? God is in His word and if we consider some scriptures not to be important how can we come to Christ or enter in? Modern ways of life, traditions and customs have made worship unto God to please men and not God. The word is a filter and won’t let anything that is contrary to the scriptures to pass through. Many will not want to be filtered by the word and will therefore, go where they can still keep their worldliness and profess God. Many people really need to find the path to salvation. There are over 7 Billion people living in the world today, and many are still pathfinding or choosing the wrong path. But the pathfinder, Jesus, is here to show us the way. We can find our path by opening up to God’s word to teach us and the spirit to lead us. The pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that led the children of Israel from Egypt to the land of Canaan are in the Spirit of truth to guide the people in to all truth. God has sent a prophet with a message to get the people out from spiritual Egypt of confusion to the promise word.
You know I thought I was a Christian but I was just an ignorant man in a religious system; A very confused place to be in. Being there is like having a map without knowing how to read it. The bible is the road map to heaven. It will help you find your path only if you understand it. It doesn’t matter even if you are lost in the wilderness, so long as you can read, study and understand it; you will find your way out. The Lord will make a road for you in the wilderness. (Isa 43:19)
Don Moen wrote a song titled, “God will make a way where there seems to be no way.” Yes, by a road way in the wilderness he will lead us. I have heard many testimonies of what the Lord is doing in the lives of many believers. You find yourself in a situation where solution is practically impossible. The doctor tells you, you are going to die in one week but you lived on. You were almost drowning after your boat capsized in a sea but a miracle happened that you were one of the few who survived. There is no secret what the Lord can do. What He has done for others He will do for you. You can always find your path even when hope is gone if you only surrender to the Lord.
I will not be here today writing this message if I did not surrender to the Lord and He guided me to find the path. At the age of 36 years, my life was still the same. No job, no wife, and I still lived with my parents. Anything I tried to do I just couldn’t succeed. One evening as I was walking in a careless manner along the highway, fed up with life, I said, “If I am the only one who have sinned let me die and go to hell.” In the night I had a dream seeing myself inside a great fire but not burning; and I was crying to the Lord to help me. Then I woke up. As the day dawn and being a Sunday, I could hear the church bells chiming, beckoning people to come for worship. The fire must have cleansed me instead of destroying me for I felt the desire to go closer to God. I had stopped going to Church. I was just a church goer and the religious system didn’t do me any good. I asked the Lord to lead me to a place where I can worship Him and feel His presence.
Many people don’t know there is a place to worship God. “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way that these people worship their gods. Out of the territory of all your tribes the Lord will choose the one place where the people are to come into his presence and worship him.” (Deu.12:4-5) We know that God’s appointed place of worship was in Jerusalem. King Jeroboam tried to make his own way for the people to follow; a path that led the children of Israel astray. God had said Jerusalem was the place of worship but Jeroboam erected two places of idol worship in Bethel and in Dan. He stopped the people from doing their pilgrimages to Jerusalem to worship the one true God. The Bible tells us he led Israel to sin. God had promised Jeroboam his kingdom will be secured but he didn’t trust God’s promise. God sent a prophet from Judah to rebuke him but he would not listen and his doom, decline and fall was inevitable. Unfortunately, he didn’t die with his doctrine of idolatry which was palatable to the children of Israel who continued in the practice.
Today our provided place of worship is in God’s word. It is not about where the church is located or how big the church is. It is all about God’s word. God is in His word. When a Pastor departs from the word, the members are left in the wilderness and may end up taking the Broadway to Babylon. I was in Babylon myself but when I cried to the Lord He came and showed me the path to walk in. Yes, in answer to my prayer, the Lord sent a pastor to our home a few days later that led me to Christ and baptized me in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. God by His grace showed me the narrow way. It is the way of the cross, the narrow road the Lord created for His followers. It is a rugged road but I don’t have to worry when the dove leads. Even though my knees have been feeble and I had to fall sometimes, the Lord always gave me strength to rise again and continue in the path.
I cannot just believe I had to say, “If I am the only one who have sinned let me die and go to hell”: It is not a place for anyone to go to. They were just the words of a poor sinner who was suffering from innumerable problems and was angry with God as if He was the cause. Hell is not your destination but heaven is. If you are looking for the pathfinder, call on Jesus and He will help you. Someone said destination is the place you are going. Destiny are things that can happen to you, choices you make, people you meet, and things you do in your life which may or may not be predetermined by a greater being. Therefore, remember that there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 16:25)
A man was leaving his home one morning and his youngest child asked him, “Daddy where are you going?” He just smiled and waved at his son. He finally arrived where he was heading to, and stood on top of the cliff where he had to fall and commit suicide. Once more the tender voice of his young son, came pounding in his mind, “Daddy where are you going?” He tried to shake it off but it didn’t go away. The voice sounded so real that he stood for a minute to think and asked himself. “But where I am I going to?” It is common sense, before you travel to somewhere to find out some information about where you want to go to. Every time we have to travel to a place we have never been before, we try to get information about the place we want to go. If there is somebody there to receive us, it even makes the journey more interesting.
The man who wanted to commit suicide decided to go back home – it is better to say God’s love stopped him from the wrong path and killing himself. On his way back, he passed by a man sitting on a rock reading a book. The man stopped reading and looked at the man who was passing by and said, “Sir, I wish to talk to you about Jesus.” It was the beginning of his friendship and reconciliation with God. The man came to know that there are two destinations when you leave this world – heaven and hell. He was an atheist. It is good for everyone to read about the two places and chose the path to follow and who will receive you at the end of your flight.
I was reading the news one day and read an article about suicide. The writer said quite a number of people commit suicide each year. And there are many suicide hot spots. In some countries, they try to build high guard rails in suicide hot spot bridges to prevent suicidal from jumping off the bridge. But that cannot help very much because if a person is determine to commit suicide, there are many ways to do it. But the gospel can help to turn that around. If you have received the Lord Jesus, then help your neighbor not to jump off a bridge but to walk on the bridge built at Calvary.
The mere thought that someone wants to commit suicide is frightening. It is not easy for many people to discuss about suicide but talking about it does help save lives. It may not be just one thing that makes a person to want to take his or her own life and the following are not exclusive: Failure, pain, loneliness, rejection, abuse, depression, guilt, helplessness, and hopelessness. The one person who can fill all these vacuums in peoples’ lives is Christ. We need the touching Message to help someone in despair change course and walk on the bridge Jesus built with three nails, two pieces of wood and one rugged cross. Your testimony, gospel message, outreach, witnessing can help bring a lost soul to the Pathfinder and help him change course.
Maps are of different kinds. You have the road maps, political maps, land use maps, maps of the world for example and they serve many different purposes. The Bible is the road map to heaven.
“If you wander off the road to the right or to the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, here is the road. Follow it.” (Isa 30:21)
The good shepherd will always take proper care of the sheep. If anyone wonders and goes off the path, he will go and look for it. Jesus told the disciples that a little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. (John 16:16) We know not Christ in the flesh but in the Spirit. Don’t go about pathing or looking for the shortest path. The Pathfinder is here.
IF ANY MAN WILL COME AFTER ME, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, AND TAKE HIS CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME. (MATT 16:24)
