Friday, August 27

Give me understanding and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
Psalm 119:34

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

It was the very last step in what had been a six-month short term missionary assignment in Bolivia, South America. Lorene and I had spent most of the first year of our marriage serving as teachers at an evangelical university in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and while we loved our time there, we were also VERY ready to return home.

As we climbed the last set of stairs to get to our departure gate, we were greeted by a man who was dressed in what looked like a uniform of some kind – who looked like some sort of airport or government official. When he asked for my passport I simply assumed he would check our visas – put yet another stamp on the page – and send us on our way. But instead, he said in Spanish, “This visa is not valid.”

I replied in my very inadequate Spanish, “Huh?”

He pointed to the signature on the stamp in my passport and said, “This man does not work for the government anymore, therefore this passport is not valid.”

Then I understood. This was a guy in a uniform who looked like he might be an airport employee of some kind who recognized we were foreigners and was trying to shake us down for a small bribe in return for letting us board our flight. We could have given him a few dollars and been done with it. But I had had enough – I wasn’t going to pay a bribe. So I turned to the front page of my passport and pointed to the stamped signature of then U.S. President Ronald Reagan. I half shouted in half Spanish, “See this, this is El Presidente, Ronaldo Reagano, and he is my amigo! We are getting on that plane!” And the man looked stunned for a moment and then gestured with his hands as if to say, “What can I do?” and he let us pass.

The point of this story is that sometimes it’s not about who you are – but who you know! We enter the narrow road of salvation not based on who we are – but on who we know. We receive the gift of eternal life not because of all we have accomplished, or because of how good we have been, but because of what Jesus has done for us.

This is the gospel. This is the good news. It’s not about you! It’s not about me! It’s about who we know. And because it’s about Jesus – the narrow gate is open to all who are willing to let him stamp the passport of their hearts with his truth, love and salvation.

Close you time with God this week by thanking him for his word and for his salvation, and ask him to help you continue to grow in your spiritual understanding and ability to share his truth with others.

Brian Coffey