Cattle Guard  

Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured.  Rick Warren

Why is this happening to me? Why am I having such a difficult time? One answer is that life is supposed to be difficult! It's what enables us to grow. Remember, earth is not heaven!  Rick Warren

We lived in the country growing up and often we would drive along and there would be open fields on either side of the road.  When I was a kid I didn’t quite understand cattle guards.  I mean you would have a herd of cows in the field with no gate to keep them there.  The only thing stopping them from running loose was a cattle guard.  It seemed kind of silly to me that you would think you could keep a bunch of cows in a fence when the gate was wide open or in this case no gate at all.  In this case necessity is the mother of invention because farmers didn’t want to keep getting out of the truck or off the tractor to open a gate so the cattle guard was invented.

You guessed it.  This started me thinking.  We are kind of like the cattle and Satan is the cattle guard when it comes to heaven.  The gate is wide open for any of us to walk through.  The problem is we walk up to the cattle guard (Satan) and decide we don’t want to take a chance or we decide we like the open field better (temptation) than a chance at heaven.  The open field in this case would be the things this world has to offer.  There are all the temptations that we can’t resist.  It is so much easier to stay on the other side than to risk crossing over.  If we cross over we might have to change what we are doing or our friends might not like us anymore.  So we decide to stay on the inside of the fence thinking we are safe and happier there. 

God created in each of us a longing for heaven.  If you feel like you are missing something in your life it may just be that longing for heaven that seems just beyond your grasp.  Take the chance and cross over. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there is a longing in my heart for heaven.  When I am driving to work every day in the quiet of the morning I am often thinking of You.  My thoughts so often turn to You because You are my salvation.  I have walked through that gate and I have never looked back.  You created in me a need for Your presence in my life.  Thank you for providing me a way to cross over to You.       

Scripture: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”  Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:18-31