The Path to Eternal Life
Two Simple Rules
This is the nonfiction companion to Chapter 3 of Birth Pangs of the End Times. Please read it first.
Two Simple Rules
When 16-year-old Katie is forced to leave her village and go to Ketchikan to live with her uncle Andy, he gives her two simple rules to live by:
Do everything as unto the Lord.
Choose to follow truth in every situation.
Katie innocently thinks, "Sure, I can do that. I can follow these two rules." But as the story develops, following these two rules will cost her everything.
In the same way, following these two rules will lead you into eternal life, but they may cost you everything.
📖 Story Connection
In this chapter, which spans about 3-4 years of Katie’s life, she finishes two years of high school, then enlists in the Army’s “high school to flight school” program. A natural aviator, she graduates #1 in her flight school class and chooses to become a medevac pilot.
The chapter ends with her being stationed in a combat medevac unit in a fictional mid-east country, where she’s christened with the nickname ‘Poca’ by three of her fellow pilots.
❓ Core Spiritual Lessons
We’re early in Katie’s life story, but Andy’s ‘Two Rules’ provide Katie with a simple moral framework that will guide her thoughts and decisions in every future trial.
📜 Biblical Teaching
Who is Your God?
Before sharing his two rules with Katie, Andy asked her two questions. The first was, “Who is your God?” This question sounds simple, but it’s not.
All Christians will say they worship the triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Many will be surprised
But many who think they’re Christians will be surprised during their judgment when Jesus says,
“Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
How can this be?
Actions Speak Louder than Words
Our daily decisions and actions reveal whether the triune God is our God—or not.
Do you do the things that please God,
or, do you compromise with the world, doing things you know aren’t right in order to comply and prosper within Satan's world system?
Your priorities and daily choices are a form of worship. They plainly reveal who your God really is.
Two Simple Rules
Rule #1: Do everything as unto the Lord.
If we prioritize God as #1 in our heart, we will worship Him by doing everything as unto the Lord.
‘Everything’ includes our devotion, our time, and our resources.
Rule #2: Choose to follow truth in every situation.
Before sharing his two rules with Katie, Andy’s second question was, “What standard do you live your life by?”
Oprah Winfrey popularized the phrase “my truth” and “your truth,” but truth isn’t relative. There is only one truth.
In chapter 3 Uncle Andy said, “The Holy Spirit and the Bible are my standards to live by.”
Andy’s second rule, “choose to follow truth in every situation,” is the same as his standard for life, but phrased in a non-religious way. If we depend on the Holy Spirit and the Bible to guide our decisions, we’ll be following the truth in every situation.
If any person follows the truth in their life, their path will eventually lead them to know Jesus, and to be reconciled to the Father through faith in Him. It doesn’t matter if they’re in a closed country, or alone on a desert island.
What is Truth?
In John 18:38, Pontius Pilate famously asked this question as he interrogated Jesus. He Pilate had no understanding that the man who stood before him is the embodiment of the Word of God. (John 1:1) He is the incarnation of truth itself. (John 14:6)
As certainly as following a stream downhill leads to a river, which leads to the ocean, consistently following the truth in your daily life will inevitably lead you to faith in Jesus, and through him you’ll gain eternal life.
🛤️ Practical Application
Reflect:
Have you prioritized God first in your life? Or do other people, or things, crowd God out of your daily life?
How much of your free time does God get?
Have you compromised the truth to get ahead in the world?
Action Steps:
Starting today, prioritize God #1 in your heart, which will then manifest in your daily life choices.
Starting today, choose to seek the truth and follow it in every situation. This will make you walk a different path than the vast majority of people, so expect to be separated from people in Satan’s world system. In John 15:19, Jesus warned his disciples, saying,
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember:
Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23)
🙏 Prayer
Father, make us your overcomers, of whom it is written:
‘It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.’ (Revelation 14:4-5, paraphrase)