THE GATE

By Rick Mathes

John 10:9 ” I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

A prisoner I picked up at a local prison made me stop the car in the parking lot while he got out and kissed the ground. In another case a prisoner to be soon released was postponed and he went berserk, climbed the gate and bled to death in the razor wire. See the convicted felon goes through the gate to serve his sentence and then out the same gate when he is released.

The prison gate is the front door to Satan’s mansion and the Lord’s gate leads to a turns-style on the narrow road to glory. In true life, the shepherd leans across the sheep-fold entrance and with his staff becomes the gate to keep the sheep in and the wolves out.

I thank God there is a gate. Can you remember when you were “just out there” like a dog returning to his vomit? It was a merry-go-round with no beginning and no end: round and round. Now I have a hope in sight and the Good Shepherd is at the door.

It’s our blessing that there is only one gate. Jesus teaches us that He is the only way. Even though Christians, Muslims and Jews worship the God of Abraham, that doesn’t mean you can get to heaven through them equally. God had a Son who is God who said that He is the way, the truth and the life. He said that no one comes to the Father but through Him. He said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Muslims and Jews who don’t confess Jesus as Lord are going to Hell according to the Word of God.

The gate is so wide open to everyone that it is almost busting off of its hinges. The Lord spread His arms out on that timber and said, “I love you this much.” So it is with the gate that is wide open to you right now. It’s a gate with strong hinges that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. How reassuring is that?

You can search all the religions of the world that ever were and you will not find a leader who said he would die and then raise himself up to life in three days and do it!

This gate is the entryway of earth to heaven. There is only one and you only have one chance to go through it when your heart beats its last. I’m not a stupid person. I’m smart enough to know that if I step through this gate and there is no God, what have I lost? But if I don’t and He returns to face me, I have lost everything forever.

Step through the gate for an experience you won’t soon forget!