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There were no elevators in Jesus’ day, but if there had been, He would have still described Himself as the “stairway to heaven.”

You see, a life bound for heaven is not one that gets saved and then sits around expecting everybody else to be faithful and to do what we are called to be doing.

We are to work diligently for the Kingdom as a result of our salvation, demonstrating that we appreciate the deliverance we’ve received into a purpose-full life on earth and an indescribable joy in heaven.

What prompted this devotion topic?

When a newly recruited disciple told Jesus that He was the King of Israel, Jesus turned it up a bunch of notches.

“Then He said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.” (John 1:51).

I really like the metaphor of the stairway.

I can’t stand on the bottom step and say “Up, please!” and then wait who knows how many years for God to lift me to heaven when I die.

Instead, I am to do all that I can to move closer to God, step after effort-prompted step.

No, I didn’t create the stairway.

I simply chose to follow it.

I realize that I can’t get carried away with the metaphor here.

My point is simply this — our journey to heaven involves our sincere, faith-compelled efforts to continually draw closer to God one step at a time on the stairway that will never collapse, never digress, never misdirect and that ALWAYS leads to eternal peace and joy.

Remember that John 14:6 said that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man gets to heaven except through Him.

James tells us that faith without works — i.e., without taking steps up the stairway — is dead, or more accurately, impotent.

Such a fruitless faith is useless for the Kingdom and for ourselves.

Let’s resist the trap of thinking we can get on the bottom step — or even that we can simply stop somewhere along the stairway — and that we’ll be OK eternally.

We’ve got to keep moving in order to demonstrate that our faith is still real and that our relationship with God is still one of surrendered service to Him, not one of “checking the box” for ourselves.

Pray. Serve. Study. Serve. Give. Serve. Repent. Serve.

And then repeat.

Such steps draw us closer to God, traveling up the stairway to heaven.

As always, I love you
Martin

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