Look Straight Ahead

Recently I started to read the book ‘The Holy War’ by John Bunyan. It’s an allegory, a story with a hidden meaning, about a walled town besieged by an enemy, who uses guile and deception to try and gain access through its five gates to enslave its inhabitants. The names of the gates are Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate and Feel-gate.

The town in the story represents a human soul and the gates represent our five human senses. The enemy is satan and his evil forces, who seek to gain access and control of our lives, often through those senses, so that we leave the safe path of God’s will and purposes for us.

Satan’s strategies haven’t changed since he approached Eve in the Garden of Eden, whispering his lies to her ‘Ear-gate’ and persuading her that the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would make her wise. Seeing through her ‘Eye-gate’ that the fruit was delightful and good for food, Eve reached out to take it and eat, quickly joined in her disobedience by Adam. No crash in history compares to theirs as they veered from the path of obedience to God, and creation itself crashed with them.

We live in times when we are assaulted from all sides with all kinds of images and messages. From the media and movie industry, with its impressive special effects and emotional storylines, to the smiling actors paid by advertisers to persuade us to buy their products, there has perhaps never been such a time when Christians have needed to be more careful not to be drawn from God’s narrow way.

I know, from looking at the internet, how even videos and sermons claiming to be Christian can contain unhelpful images, or subtle questioning and distortions of God’s word, and, sadly, well-known Bible teachers and ministries with big online followings have been known to suddenly veer off course, as they give in to cultural pressures.

How then can we stay on God’s safe path? Psalm 119 is really one long answer to that question. Here’s a few verses from that psalm:

‘With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You’ (Psalm 119:10-11).

‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’ (Psalm 119:105).

Godly friends and Christian leaders can encourage us in our walk with the Lord, but He wants each of us to grow in intimacy with Him and recognise His voice. In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer lovingly encourages his readers to move on from the basics of Christian teaching and go deeper in God’s word, so that they ‘train their senses to discern good and evil’ (Hebrews 5:14).