The Gateway

Everything in my experiences of the first two pages of this website happened rather quickly. More quickly that is, than my understanding of what had really happened. Some of that came together in the following months as I read the Bible, and talked with other Christians. Some of it though took many years. Some of it I am still in the process of understanding.

Essentially what had happened was that I had interacted with the gateway into the supernatural life that God has created for that purpose. I had just enough of what is needed to get me through that gate, but not enough yet to clearly see it, or to understand what it consists of. Nevertheless, there is in truth such a gate, and it is there for you too, if you can find it. One of the signs you should look for is that it seems to you the very thing you do not want to go through. It is precisely at this point that many people will say to me “Well that is nice for you, but it doesn’t have any bearing on me.” You are probably feeling that way as you read this. You may be getting uncomfortable with where I might take this now. I want now to expand a little on the specifics of what actually happened during those few seconds when I was confronted with whether to pass through the gate, or whether to be defeated outside it.

The gateway obviously has two sides. The one facing outside usually looks threatening, scary. For me it was that way because, as you may remember, I knew that to pass through it meant giving up my own way of living. I don’t mean I thought I had to wander around the countryside like Jesus. I meant I understood that there were some things that I had to resolve to abandon if I was going to get through that gate that, at this stage we could call “Surrender to God”. I don’t really know how I knew what they were. In fact some of them I wasn’t aware of (such as taking drugs), but only understood later. That’s another sign you are near the gate. You know of at least one thing in your life that can’t pass through the gate with you. For me it was sexual promiscuity. That was the main thing I knew would have to change. Not next week, not tomorrow. Now, right that second. You can’t get through the gate with an attitude of “I’ll decide later, after I check it out.” It turns out that there is a Christian jargon for this. It’s called REPENTANCE. It’s a definitive turning away from the things that cannot exist on the other side of the gate. Things that cannot coexist with the supernatural Life that God wants to give you. It’s an amazing experience though, to pass through the gate. It involves being supernaturally changed, and it is a one way street. Like being born, or like dying, it can only happen to you once. Once it is done though there is no going back, because if you can still go back, you haven’t really gone through the gate. From the outside the gate looks like death, because there are some things in your life you have to be prepared to let go, to die to.

Once you get inside the gate though, it appears not that you have walked into the gateway of death, but rather out of it. The place you just left is the place of death. The place you have walked into looks like… something you’ve always wanted…

There’s more to it though. Something else that’s critical, or you’ll have no gate, or the wrong gate. This is the name and person of Jesus Christ. There are very good reasons for this, which I didn’t understand at the time. All I knew then was that I was being offered escape and security from evil by the person of Jesus Christ. I knew who I meant. I meant the Jesus Christ who was the sinless Son of God. The one who was crucified for the sins of the world, and who three days later rose from the dead. I don’t know how I knew which Jesus this was, but out of all the Jesus’ that are talked about in modern culture, it was that one. I found out later why it was this one, and came to understand later why it could only be by going through this Jesus Christ. I will link back to this page in a few weeks to explain more fully and clearly why it could only be this way. For now though, it is sufficient that the doorway into a wonderful new life through which I passed is found only in the person of that Jesus Christ.

We humans love to boil things down to basics, and Christians boil this one down to this phrase: “Repentance and Faith.” It means giving your life back to its rightful owner, God. And part of that is trusting in the one God sent to make that equation all work out alright, his Son Jesus Christ. Who was dead, and is now alive forever. How that works we’ll leave for another post. However I would stake my life on the fact that it does work, and for anyone who will repent and trust in Jesus Christ. Amazing.