Staying the Journey: The Narrow Road

By CJ Williamson

Given all of life’s distractions in this current culture, it is difficult to walk the narrow road. Between the desire to live a comfortable life we often make spiritual sacrifices that are detrimental to our overall spiritual health. Before we know it, we have widened the narrow road beyond recognition. The only problem is God doesn’t widen His vision of the same road. So, together looking back at heroes of the faith mixed with personal stories of struggle and victory, this book will enhance your ability at staying the journey of the narrow road.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781400329328

CJ Williamson

Servant of Jesus; I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the church. I choose to love and serve her anyway, even with all her flaws. My life verse, Micah 6:8 “Do Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly. . .” is my inspiration for family, life, and ministry. I am a husband, father, bestefar, servant, and friend.

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INTRODUCTION

The idea

iwant to introduce you to this idea that has been rattling around in my brain for some time. It hasn’t always been clear, in fact often it has been as confusing to me as it might appear to you in the beginning. You see i am writing this as i try to understand myself in this, or perhaps, to understand myself on this journey of life.

It began as a political rant really, a very long time ago. You see, i was having a conversation with a Youth Pastor friend of mine during a teen event on the campus of one of our denomination’s Universities. As i thought through it i wasn’t really upset at government, or politics, but the Church. i realized that Jesus leans left on many social issues. He also leans right on many social issues. In fact, i believe that Jesus would not be left or right but the center and in being in the center, it would blow the socks off our two-party system in America. He would be a third party. Of which there is no party but rather a call to action of the heart, soul, mind, and strength of the individual, and collectively as a Body of Believers: A force to be reckoned with, something so radical it would cause others to hate and plot murders.

His agenda would not be a political agenda but a heart agenda. He would not be satisfied with only part of us, but instead desiring all of us! He would be relentless in His pursuit of us and yet willing to allow us room to reject and walk away from Him as a matter of the heart.

Do you know what i love best about this whole journey that i have been traveling? It’s that after all this time, i realized that Jesus is more important than i am, more prominent than you are, more significant than a system or human philosophy. He is more concerned about our whole being than a political agenda, and He knew it long before we were ever born. It is why He chose to die rather than fight for a political solution to our depravity. He knew that there was no political solution only complete victory over sin, and that was only possible through death. As it is true today, death is required, the death of our old self. Rebirth in Christ. Repentance, coupled with faith, full of hope, completed in love.

This is the journey that i have been traveling, and now share with you, it is the very essence of this book. Our first stop will be that great children’s story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, or better yet their Hebrew names, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, found in the Old Testament book of Daniel. We will be starting with chapter 2, verse 46, and reading through verse 23 of chapter 3.

i will attempt to summarize the story for you but let me encourage you to read this story from the source before moving to chapter one. Although it isn’t necessary, it would just ensure that we are on the same page.

We begin with the introduction of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who as friends of Daniel are rising to high positions in the land of Babylon. Men of stature and influence, set in positions of authority over the affairs of Babylon. The King, who held all the power in Babylon, has just erected a statue in honor of himself and has placed the decree that everyone is to bow down and worship the golden image when they hear the music play or be thrown into a burning furnace.

However, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego already have an allegiance to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Great I AM. These three men are faced with a dilemma. They have three options: share their allegiance by dividing it between the Great I Am and this massive hunk of gold; continue their devotion to the Great I Am- only sacrificing their power and stature, or switch their allegiance to the golden image and solidify their power and prestige in the Babylonian Kingdom.

What to do? If they bow down, they save their lives and careers; if they don’t, they get thrown into a burning furnace. They could share their allegiance and live a double life, outwardly bowing to a lifeless image, all the while secretly living for the God they have known both inwardly and outwardly which would ultimately be sacrificing the very relationship they are trying to preserve.

Well, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego stay faithful to their God the Great I AM! The one who declares, (a)I am the Lord the God of all flesh, is anything too difficult for me? When the music plays, they stand. Because of their belief in an idealism of living for a God in spite of the unfavorable odds of worldly success, they received the promise- a trip to the fiery furnace.

How many of us would be so bold? So willing to give up all of our worldly success to take a stand for our Savior Jesus? Ready, in the sight of certain death, in the shadow of a burning furnace-like our three heroes? The furnace was burning so hot that it killed the guards! So what of our new found friends, they fell bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Are you ready?

Ideally, we would all answer, I am ready, willing, and able to stand up. But, in our reality, we are far from it; whether we are willing to admit it or not. So what is the answer? We need to get past ourselves, past our real world, past capitalism, past democratic socialism, or our relativism and step into the ideals of God. Regardless of the world around us and its values, irrespective of what is available to us, regardless of even ourselves; we must hold to the righteousness of Christ. (b)But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good. How? Why? (c)". . .our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us. . .but even if He does not. . ." Now that’s ideal!

This sort of staying power doesn’t just appear! It is something that is cultivated, nurtured, built up layer upon layer until Staying the Journey becomes a way of life and not an idealism that is unattainable in our Real World or Relativism approach to life. i hope that together as we turn the pages of this book, we will discover how to find ourselves Staying the Journey of the cross, against all the odds.

a. Jeremiah 32:27 NASB

b. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 NASB

c. Daniel 3:17,18 NASB

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CHAPTER 1

Big vs. Small

Big city life, i can remember it well. Four-lane boulevards greet you as you walk out the front door. Watch your step! as the cars race by as if life would stop if the occupants didn’t arrive in the next five minutes! People are too busy to notice other people and unwilling to try. If for some reason you know your neighbor, it’s because either you have called the police on them or they on you. Going anywhere meant standing in lines a mile long, as if you were waiting in line for a ride at an amusement park, only to find yourself purchasing something you would later regret. All because everyone else has one, so the commercials lead you to believe.

Forget enjoying Christmas with a real tree. By the time they cut