Imagine, if you will, that you can look down from the clouds and see two paths stretching our across the land.  The paths are different, yet appear to go in the same direction.  Someone walking on one path can see the person on the other, even have a conversation with them.  Both paths traverse over various terrain, sometimes smooth and level, sometimes rugged and steep.  There are times that a traveler on either path would feel as though they were standing atop the highest mountain.  Yet quickly the path shifts and the view becomes one of looking up from the depths of a dark valley.

From your perch high above the travelers, you can see their destinations.  One path leads far in the distance to a place of great reward, of peace, and of healing.  It is there that burdens carried by the traveler will be laid to rest for all time.  As the traveler makes his way along this path, he knows the nature of his destination.  It is this that keeps him traveling through the worst of the trip.

The other path leads to a place of destruction, of torment, where burdens are multiplied and pain is constant.  The traveler on this path has heard of this place, but at times doesn’t believe the stories.  He even jokes about the people he will know when he gets there, and besides he feels he can change his mind at the last minute and jump to the other path.

What we can also see is that there are, along the way, several bridges that connect the pathways.  As our travelers move along the path, the one moving toward the land of great reward calls out to the other, inviting him to come and join him.

“The path is rough over here,” he shouts, “but the destination is worth the trip!”

“No, I’m fine,” answers the destruction bound traveler, “I want to explore some other paths before I decide anything.  Besides, it sure doesn’t look like it’s any fun over there.”

Along his path, he runs into other travelers heading to the same end.  They cheer him and encourage him to continue to seek his own path and find his own way.  “After all, there cannot be only one way to the land of great reward!” they tell him.

At every bridge the traveler on the other path calls out and offers to explain why his road is different and why it is the only way to get to the place they are striving toward.

And at every opportunity, he is met with the same answer, “No, I need to find myself and explore every path to be certain of which one is right.”  And like a chorus, his fellow destruction-bound travelers agree and mock the other path as being too narrow.  Even some of his fellow travelers on the path to great reward tell him, “Don’t call to him.  He will come over in his own time.  That’s what I did and I’m ok.”

Just as the two travelers are approaching their final destinations, there appears one last bridge that leads from the destruction path to the path ot great reward.  The traveler on the path to great reward runs ahead and calls out to his counterpart, “I’ll wait here for you and tell you about this land of great reward.  Maybe you will change your mind before you go on.”

“OK,” yells the other traveler, “I’ll make a deal.  If I find nothing better by the time I get to you, I’ll listen to you.”

But before he can reach the last bridge, his path begins to change.  The ground shakes and begins falling all around him.  The gates ahead swing open wide and he is easily swept inside on a wave of dirt and rock.  His fellow  traveler on the other path can only stare helplessly.  The gate to the land of great reward swings open and a voice calls out to him, ““Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

We do no favors to those who do not know Christ when we foolishly allow them to think there will always be another chance.

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