A Highway of Holiness.
Good Morning Friends,
This Father’s Day as I consider the life of my own father, I also contemplate the roads he paved that have led my life into greater joy and the roads in the Bible that guide us to walk A Highway of Holiness.
Scripture: Recite [the words I am commanding you] to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 6:7 (NRSV)
and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
Matthew 5:41 (NRSV)
For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew 7:14 (NRSV)
A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
Isaiah 35:8 (NRSV)
Message: I do hope you remember the roads you have travelled with your earthly father. Some may be emotional and others paths more physical. All are experiential. There is a message in the earthly journey that can be enlightened through a better understanding of the journeys in the Bible. There are a lot of roads in the Bible. The Roman roads brought soldiers and order and one kind of peace. There were the trade routes connecting Jerusalem to the World that brought commerce. The 18 mile journey from Jerusalem to Jericho that descends 3,500 feet through desolate mountains brings us the story of the Good Samaritan. The Road in the Wilderness tells of temptations. The Road to Calvary shares with us the sacrifice made so we could have a better life. And the Road to Emmaus shares with us a walk with Jesus so our eyes can be opened. One of my favorite roads is the Road through Samaria and its story of the woman at the well receiving Jesus but still facing rejection but nevertheless bringing results of witness. All of them are instructive as to the steps of Jesus and the direction God would have us to follow. In them I hope we see our Christian function and on this day our fatherly function to preserve and season life in a covenant with our children, to reveal danger, dispel darkness, to show the way, to be a marker on the road and not a roadblock. And it is here that the Daddy Day pilgrimage parade stops for a moment to consider the footsteps of Jesus at the crossroads of kingdom and community. Now standing at the crossroads on this Trinity Sunday on this Heavenly Father’s Day what path will we choose? Will we take the narrow crosswalk to heaven or will we take the wide open highway to hell. Friends, most of the world is not a sanctuary. Fathers know this and need to teach their children the way of love in the face of danger.
Pray that we see salvation on the road ahead. Pray we learn the importance of self-discipline and endurance on the road to spiritual maturity. Pray that we seek the small gate and the narrow road. Pray that we follow Jesus on paths of righteousness. Pray that we are followers of the Way. Pray that when we come to a cross in the road that we take the path of Jesus as a witness of love for our children but more importantly as a witness to the love of our heavenly Father.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 