He learned there what labor meant.  Also he learned how there was only one thing that common men understood and respected in a co-laborer, and it was the grit and muscle to stand the grind.”
              –Zane Grey  (Wanderer of the Wasteland)

    “They meet with darkness in the daytime, And grope at noontime as in the night”
              –Job 5:14 (NKJV)
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Do you ever feel as if the whole world is against you?  The dog even snarls when you come home, the cat hisses, and the goldfish rolls over on its back.  Everyone is at your back; it seems that wherever you go, whatever you do people are against you, they even dream up lies about you and pass them off as truth.  Where can you turn?  Do you just say, “phooey with it all” and escape to wherever?
    David has been bemoaning his attackers.  They come at him without excuse.  They say things that are not true, they cause division.  What does he do?  He could go back out to the wilderness and tend the sheep, but no, he has the calling and anointing of God on his life.  He must face them, but how?  Let’s look at the last part of Psalm 35 (HCSB).

    19 – Do not let my deceitful enemies rejoice over me; do not let those who hate me without cause look at me maliciously.
    20 – For they do not speak in friendly ways, but contrive deceitful schemes against those who live peacefully in the land.
    21 – They open their mouths wide against me and say, “Aha, aha! We saw it!”
    22 – You saw it, Lord; do not be silent.  Lord, do not be far from me.
    23 – Wake up and rise to my defense, to my cause, my God and my Lord!
    24 – Vindicate me, Lord my God, in keeping with Your righteousness, and do not let them rejoice over me.
    25 – Do not let them say in their hearts, “Aha! Just what we wanted.”  Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
    26 – Let those who rejoice at my misfortune be disgraced and humiliated; let those who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and reproach.
    27 – Let those who want my vindication shout for joy and be glad; let them continually say, “The Lord be exalted.  He takes pleasure in His servant’s well-being.”
    28 – And my tongue will proclaim Your righteousness, Your praise all day long.

    Paul tells us in Colossians (3:17,23) to work for the Lord, to do everything as unto Him.  If we do that those around us cannot bring fault against us, for we will have proof to show them.  In my dealings with Christian businesses (perhaps I should say pseudo-Christian) I have that many of them are more fraudulent than non-believers.  One instance of this was when I went to buy a vehicle.  Both the manager and head salesman were “Christian” and I knew them as they went to my church.  I had dealings with them as parents.  They told me that they would give me the best deal possible.  I believed them.  After two hours of waiting they came to me with a figure and I politely thanked them, but told them I could not afford it.  The answer came in unison, “Give us time, we’ll go back and figure it out again.”  I stopped them.  They had told me that they were going to give me their best deal, and I couldn’t accept it, now they are telling me they can give me a better deal.  Hmmm, something was wrong.
    Now this wasn’t an attack on me, but the issue is–who can you trust?  Those who come at you with promises, can you trust them?  Those who attack you maliciously, you know they are not to be trusted.  David understood that in the midst of everything he could trust in the Lord.  We are to be faithful, do our best, and trust in the Lord.  Augustine wrote, “Whatever you do, do well, and you praise God.  Do you transact business?  Do no wrong, and you have praised God.  Do you till your field?  Raise no strife, and you praise God.  In the innocence of your works, prepare to praise God all the day long.”
    Often we lean toward our emotions.  Let me tell you that emotions are deceiving.  They can quickly and easily fool us.  Many live based on emotions.  Listen to those coming out of church they might say, “I could really ‘feel’ God today.”  Or they might say, “the place was dead today, I didn’t ‘feel’ anything.  I remember dealing with one parent about her child.  She made the statement, “I can’t give my child to the Lord; I’m afraid of what He might do.”  There is something wrong when you cannot trust the Lord.  Who reigns in your life?  The lies of the devil, your emotions, your own opinion, or what God says in His holy Word?

         “O for a faith that will not shrink
          Though pressed by many a foe,
          That will not tremble on the brink
          Of any earthly woe.”
                  –William H. Bathurst

When a man pulls a gun on another man, he’d better have a reason, a mighty good one that he’s mighty sure of.  A gun isn’t a toy.  It’s nothing to be worn for show or to be flashed around, showing off.  When you put a hand on a gun you can die.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Man From the Broken Hills)

    “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
              –Galatians 6:14 (NKJV)
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There is much clamor today that all ways lead to God and heaven.  That is contrary to the Bible; the Bible does not teach universalism, for there is only one way to God–through Jesus Christ.  It is not an easy way to find for entry is the result and reward of struggle; the struggle to find Jesus.

         “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
                   –Luke 13:24 (NKJV)

    The word “strive” is where get our word “agony.”  Barclay says that, “the struggle to enter must be so intense that it can be described as an agony of soul and spirit.”  Now that is not something we hear or see much in our churches today.  Tiny Tim and his “Tip-Toe Through the Tulips” would not be a theme of the person in agony trying to enter the narrow gate.  It is not “la-di-da” all the day long.
    When is the day of salvation?  It is now, therefore, a person must seize the opportunity now to enter the gate.  The gate that is Jesus Christ for salvation is only through Him.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached about “cheap grace.”  Gary Collins wrote a superb book, “Beyond Easy Believism.”  Many will seek, but there are few who strive.  “There is no ease, no finality in the Christian life.  A man must ever be going forward or necessarily he goes backward.” (William Barclay)
    Jesus said that “many…will seek to enter.”  But then those words, “and will not be able.”  Too harsh for our sensitive, enlightened ears?  Do you think you can actually just slide into heaven?  “It is a hard matter to get to heaven, and a point that will not be gained without a great deal of care and pains, of difficulty and diligence.”  (Matthew Henry)
    Look around you, are people “striving”.  Men are lazy-seeking; they do not wish a laborious striving.  Work is hard, whining is easier.  Listen, heaven is not a right.  It came at a price.  An early church hermit said this about the gate, “When Christ mentioned the narrow door, he meant controlling your thoughts and eliminating your own will, for the sake of God.” (Ammonas)  
    Legalism?!  Not hardly.  Strive, I tell you again, strive.  “We must strive with God in prayer, wrestle as Jacob, strive against sin and Satan; we must strive in every duty of religion, strive with our own hearts.  Be in agony, strive as those that run for the prize, excite and exert ourselves to the utmost.”  (Matthew Henry)
   I see little agony.  How many stay around the altar (remember the tarrying services?)?  We say our lunch prayers and our evening prayer but seldom wrestle with God over something.  Look again at your walk–what path are you on?  Too many don’t seek the gate, much less strive when they find it.  “Their desires are cold, and their endeavors feeble, and there is no strength or steadiness in their resolutions; and thus they come short, and lose the prize, because they do not press forward.” (Matthew Henry)

No man cuts himself free of old ties without regret; even scenes of hardship and sadness possess the warmth of familiarity, and within each of us there is a love for the known.”
             –Louis L’Amour  (Lando)

       “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
              –1 John 3:2  (NASB)
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Do we really want to be nearer the Lord?  That will mean carrying a cross, do we really want to be that near?  Do we want to be like Moses and want to see the face of God?  Do we really want to have faith, oh but we must, for without faith it is impossible to please God.  This hymn has been on my mind the past couple of weeks by Fanny J. Crosby.

         “I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
          And it told Thy love to me;
          But I long to rise in the arms of faith,
          And be closer drawn to Thee.”

We have was are now known as “worship leaders.”  Those who say they lead unto into the throne room of God.  No, it is the Holy Spirit that brings us to Him.  And true worship means to be consecrated to His service.  True worship is when we have lost our will in His.

         “Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
          By the pow’r of grace divine;
          Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
          And my will be lost in Thine.”

Abraham was a friend of God.  God came to visit Abraham one time to give him two messages.  One was a promise of the covenant, the other a promise of wrath.  One would result in the birth of Isaac, the other in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  However, the point is that God said, He was Abraham’s friend.  They spent time together.  Have you ever been with the Lord for a long period of time then wonder, my…where has the time gone?

         “O the pure delight of a single hour
          That before Thy throne I spend,
          When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,
          I commune as friend with friend!”

Life can be full of troubles and trials, and toils and woes.  Right now we know what the Scriptures tell us about God.  For those who spend time with Him, they get a better feeling of who He is, but even then there is much we cannot know about Him.  One day, we shall see Him as He is–in all His splendor, majesty and glory.

         “There are depths of love that I cannot know
          Till I cross the narrow sea;
          There are heights of joy that I may not reach
          Till I rest in peace with Thee.

                       Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
                       To the cross where Thou hast died;
                       Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
                       To Thy precious, bleeding side.”

In the eternal strife to keep alive on the desert a man who conquered must have assimilated something of the terrible nature of the stinging cholla cactus, and the hard, grasping tenacity of the mesquite roots, and the ferocity of the wildcat, and the cruelty of the hawk—something of the nature of all that survived.  It was a law.  It forced man to mete out violence in advance of that meant for him.”
              –Zane Grey  (Wanderer of the Wasteland)

    “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
              –1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)
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I have not seen Bill Wilson in years now, but we used to correspond, and he came several times to minister at our church.  Once in conversation, I told him, “Bill, I couldn’t do what you do with the children in Brooklyn.”  He replied, “You could, if you were called to do it.”  There is one thing that all Christians have in common and that is a cross.  Besides the cross of Jesus Christ, we must also pick up our own cross.  All Christians will bear a cross, but it will be peculiar to the person.  It could be mental, physical, emotion, or spiritual or a mixture of those.

         “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'”
                   –Luke 9:23 (NKJV)

    First, Jesus says to “deny himself.”  This is a radical decision for once we decide to follow Jesus things will never be the same.  Denying ourselves means that we no longer know ourselves.  The self does not exist.  We are to deny what we want, our pleasures and desires, and follow the Lord doing what He wishes for us to do.  Someone has said that we are not to “indulge ease and appetite, for then it will be hard to bear toil, weariness, and want.”
    Second, we must take up our cross.  You must be willing; you must pick it up for it will not be thrust upon you.  One you have it across your shoulders don’t be murmuring, complaining, and whining that you are carrying a cross.  Remember, you willingly picked it up.  Don’t covet or be jealous of the cross that someone else has to bear, the Lord knows what you need and what you can handle.  So as you walk with that cross on your shoulders, do it as unto the Lord, keep the proper attitude.
    What kind of cross will it be?  That is not known until you pick it up.  Barclay said, “To take up our cross means to be prepared to face things like that [crucifixion] for loyalty to Jesus; it means to be ready to endure the worst that a man can do to us for the sake of being true to him.”  
    “As Christians we will not set our desires and our will against the right Christ has to our lives.  It does not mean cultivating a weak, nonassertive personality or merely denying ourselves certain pleasures…we are to recognize that we now live for the sake of Christ, not for our own sake.”  (Walter L. Liefeld)  This is not a one time activity–it must be done daily.  “Cross-bearing is continuous.  It is heroism of the dull common hour.” (George H. Morrison)  The crosses are many, the day may be long, and there may be days that seem all too dull and common.  What do you think the words at the end of life mean?  Well done, good and faithful–you have carried your cross well.
    One more thing to consider as you stoop to pick up your cross.  When the person who was to be crucified reached down to pick up the beam he must carry he knew where he was going.  This is a one-way journey.