Guonzou watched helplessly as the tidal floods overwhelmed him. He was on the brink of drowning.
Having lost all hope, he suddenly heard the sound of a helicopter above. The pilot desperately maneuvered to lower a rope ladder to him. Guonzou was told to jump from the higher ground where he stood and grab it. He leapt:
Oops! He missed the ladder... by only a few inches.
The pilot watched tearfully as the furious tidal waves took their prey. Tragic.
Sadly, many professed children of God will miss heaven by only a few inches. Of them, Christ will say:
“Yet lackest thou one thing.
”
They will have overcome in many aspects of life, only for one little thing to bar them from heaven. A compromise on the Sabbath. A quick, thoughtless visit to an illicit website. A habit of crude jokes or foul speech. That one “small” thing: tolerated, entertained, excused—will prove eternally costly.
“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.
”
What’s your spiritual condition right now? Will you miss heaven as Guonzou missed the ladder: just by inches?
You may be zealous. You may have sacrificed much for the gospel. But will Christ’s solemn words ring out in your ears?
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.
”
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
”
Are you willing to renounce everything that would separate you from God?
“If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
”
Your love for God must be supreme. No idol can remain. No compromise is worth your soul.
Don't miss heaven by inches. Let go. Let God. Grab the ladder. Grab Christ: and live.