Jesus Provided A Compass

What Did Jesus Do?


“Lord, we do not know where you are going.
How can we know the way?”
John 14.5

With the advent of Global Positioning Satellites, onboard navigation systems in cars, and hand held devices that uplink to the stratosphere, a Boy Scout's iconic compass is fast becoming a quaint artifact of the past. But the latest cutting edge technology does not change the ageless truth that, without help, all of us are pretty much like Thomas, clueless about the way we should go. In a word—lost. Fortunately for the lost, Jesus provided a compass.

While a Scout's compass may soon be obsolete, the compass which Jesus supplied will never be replaced. What is this compass? Why, it's Jesus himself! The orbits of all satellites eventually decay, and they come crashing in flames back into the atmosphere. Automobile navigational systems sometimes stop short of getting us to our desired destination. And even a trusty old compass can point in the wrong direction if it suffers a sudden, sharp jolt which messes up the polarity of its needle. Jesus never fails, he always “points” true. And unlike maps and navigation systems which might suggest alternative routes to get us where we need to go, Jesus made it quite plain the he is the only way any of us will reach our destination.

Despite what worldly philosophers, humanists, progressives, most scientists, and many cultures teach, our destination, our destiny, is directly connected to the Father. Everyone is destined to either spend eternity with the Father, or be totally cut-off from him. The sole determining factor in where we end up is Jesus. Either we follow him, as he unfailingly leads us to the Father, or we don't, and wind up lost forever.

Truly, to be lost, and to have no clue where to go, is to trouble our hearts. But Jesus has given us the one perfect and sufficient remedy to this problem—himself! And, unlike satellites, navigation systems, and compasses, which don't actually go ahead of us and check things out for us, Jesus has made the very journey we ourselves need to take. The Lord has blazed the trail, so to speak, arrived at the destination, prepared a place for us, and sent back infallible guidance for us to follow. In fact, in and through the Holy Spirit, Jesus accompanies us every step of the way, until he himself presents us personally to the Father. I don't care how much you pay, you won't find any GPS system that can do even a fraction of what Jesus alone can do.

When I try and figure out what makes GPS, navigational systems, and even the humble compass seemingly more popular than Christ, the only answer I can come up with is marketing. Businesses do a better job selling technology, than the Church does of giving away Jesus. Many people, it seems, can be more easily talked into spending lots of money on things that can still leave them lost, rather than freely receive Jesus, and possess “the way, and the truth, and the life” now and forever.

So, a good part of our “job” as Christians is to always be ready to share Jesus, to provide those who are lost with the one, true, perfect, and unfailing “compass” who alone brings us safely to where we all need to be, to the Father. That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion NC
PS 37.4