{"id":5914,"date":"2020-02-29T17:27:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T07:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=5914"},"modified":"2020-02-29T17:49:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T07:49:05","slug":"are-you-sure-youre-on-the-right-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/are-you-sure-youre-on-the-right-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Sure You’re On The Right Road?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Are You Sure You’re On The Right Road?<\/h3>\n

“If you’re wrong about being right with God, then it really doesn’t matter what else you might be right about.”<\/p>\n

By: Fr Anthony Messeh<\/p>\n

Original post by Fr. Anthony Messeh blog site<\/p>\n

\n

About 15 years ago, a friend of mine and I set out on a road trip to visit another friend who lived about three hours away. The route to get there was fairly simple; it was one highway the entire way. Neither of us owned a GPS at the time, but we didn\u2019t need one. We had something just as good\u2026 MAPQUEST!<\/p>\n

The directions were clear and straightforward: take Route 50 for 140 miles, then once you hit a city called Westover, MD, the destination will be on your right after \u00bd mile.<\/p>\n

Simple. Straightforward. A piece of cake. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n

Well\u2026 to make a long story short\u2026SOMETHING WENT WRONG!<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to us at the time, we somehow managed to exit off of Route 50 and onto Route 301 mistakenly. Route 301 goes NORTH and we need to be going EAST. So instead of being in Westover, Maryland, we found ourselves in Glasgow, Delaware!<\/p>\n

(I say \u201cwe\u201d but really it was HIM; my friend was the one driving, not me. I was actually asleep in the passenger seat at the time and had I been awake, surely we wouldn\u2019t have gotten lost \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n

We drove for almost an hour on Route 301 \u2013 the whole time clueless to the fact that we were on the wrong road. But the real problem wasn\u2019t that we were on the wrong road; the real problem was that we were on the wrong road THINKING that we were on the right road.<\/p>\n

Let me repeat: the real problem wasn\u2019t that we were on the wrong road; the real problem was that we were on the wrong road THINKING that we were on the right road.<\/p>\n

Because we thought we were on the right road, we didn\u2019t stop and ask for directions\u2026 we didn\u2019t check a map\u2026 we weren\u2019t worried or concerned in the least. As far as we were concerned, everything was fine. The sun was shining\u2026 the birds were singing\u2026 we were cruising with the windows down in my 1999 Mitsubishi Galant.<\/p>\n

Everything seemed fine.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t. We were on the wrong road. And every minute we were on that wrong road was taking us one step further away from our destination.<\/p>\n

One of the earliest writings in Christianity is a book called the Didache, also known as \u201cThe Lord’s Teaching through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations.\u201d It was written in the first century by the 12 guys who knew Jesus best and its purpose was to convey to the world His teachings.<\/p>\n

Listen to what the first sentence in the book says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways.\u201d Didache 1:1<\/p>\n

Simple and to the point. There are only two roads in life; if you’re not on one then you’re on the other. They may look similar in the beginning, but they are as different as can be. One road leads to life; the other to death.<\/p>\n

SO MAKE SURE YOU\u2019RE ON THE RIGHT ROAD!<\/p>\n

\u201cOk, thanks for the public service announcement Fr. Anthony, but you don\u2019t have to worry about me. I\u2019m ok. I\u2019m definitely on the right road. I mean, I\u2019m a \u201cgood\u201d person. I go to church almost every Sunday\u2026 I help old ladies across the street when I can\u2026 and I read YOUR BLOG faithfully every day! So surely I\u2019m on the right road, aren\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n

Look\u2026 I\u2019m not saying that you\u2019re not on the right road, but I\u2019m saying that you need to check. My friend and I spent an hour driving down the wrong road thinking that we were on the right road. And during that entire time, we didn\u2019t have a clue we were lost. We thought everything was fine. But in reality, we were lost. We were so lost that we didn\u2019t even know we were lost. And every passing second that went by just made us more and more lost\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026UNTIL WE REALISED IT! Once we realised it, everything was fine. We turned around and retraced our steps and got back onto Route 50. Getting back on the right road isn\u2019t the problem; the problem is REALIZING that I\u2019m not currently on it.<\/p>\n

So which road are you on? Be honest. Are you walking on the path of life? Are you deepening your relationship with God daily? Are you growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? Are you becoming more like Him?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just say \u201cI\u2019m not doing anything bad.\u201d That isn\u2019t the question. The question is \u201care you growing closer to God and closer to His image within you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t think that I\u2019m judging you or trying to scare you; I\u2019m not. I\u2019m just asking questions. One of the things that I learned from that road trip is that it never hurts to stop and ask for directions every now and then \u2013 especially when you\u2019re headed to a destination that you\u2019ve never been to before.<\/p>\n

Why? Because you don\u2019t want any surprises at the end of the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone who says to Me, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, \u2018Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?\u2019 And then I will declare to them, \u2018I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!\u2019\u201d Matthew 7:21-23<\/p>\n

Original blog found at-\u00a0 http:\/\/www.franthony.com\/blog\/are-you-sure-youre-on-the-right-road<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are You Sure You’re On The Right Road? “If you’re wrong about being right with God, then it really doesn’t matter what else you might be right about.” By: Fr Anthony Messeh Original post by Fr. Anthony Messeh blog site About 15 years ago, a friend of mine and I set out on a road … Continue reading “Are You Sure You’re On The Right Road?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[192,193,187],"class_list":["post-5914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-judgment-day","tag-salvation","tag-spiritual-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5914"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5931,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5914\/revisions\/5931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}