Short Cuts – by Eliezer Gonzalez

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Oct 14, 2015 2767

Let me confess something about myself. I rarely wash my car. I am so busy, and I am not the sort of man who has a testosterone-fuelled love affair with all things car-related. My car gets me places. That’s all.

The other morning I was travelling to the television studio to do some filming for Good News Unlimited, and I remembered how dirty my car was, and that I had to pick someone up along the way.

I remembered that there was an automatic car wash along the way that would wash my car in less than 5 minutes, and I thought that sounded like a great idea. I know that the proper way to wash a car is by hand, but I thought this was a great short-cut.

So I drove in, paid my money, and made sure all the car windows were closed. Then I sat back to relax while my car began to be pulled gently forward and my car began to be gently sprayed with water.

This seemed all quite pleasant to me, so I sat back and took out my phone to check my emails.

Suddenly, I was started as the noise outside the car became thunderous as powerful jets of water began to hit the car, and the car even seemed to shudder and shake with the force of it all! And the worse of it was that water was pouring in over my right shoulder, through the window. Being an old car, the window didn’t seal properly!

As I sat there feeling wet and miserable, I reflected that I should have washed my car properly. Short cuts rarely work out.

It’s the same thing with salvation. There are no shortcuts. We try to find all kinds of shortcuts through fulfilling our Christian duty and religious obligations, and through all kinds of works.

There are plenty of automatic car-washes along the journey of faith to cause us to detour. But in the end, we will only regret our own efforts. We will be sorry for every detour, because no matter what any person or church may tell you, there are no short-cuts:

Salvation is only by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Peter said it best:

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” ­– Acts 4:12, NIV.

– Eliezer Gonzalez