Which way to go?

Prov 14:12; 16:25 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Many men will look at the circumstances around them and believe they see clear enough to make sense of what is right. But these two verses describe a situation where what seems right unto a man is anything but. It is actually the way of death. Only God's word shows the way of life, and that way is Jesus.

Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (Jn 14:6)

This is the right way, to come to the Father by Jesus, every other way is the wrong way. Those who try to enter in some other way are thieves and robbers.

But what about my rational mind, my logical thinking. I should be able to see the truth or the right way using those abilities. Can't I discern the truth through observation and testing? The fact is that I can be easily deceived when trusting in my "natural ability". The scripture says that the natural/earthly mind cannot be subject to the ways of God. "(T)he carnal mind is enmity against God:for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom 8:7) The word of God is clear. The things which we know by the flesh are suspect at best.

In fact the ways of the world will bring you in opposition to the ways of Jesus. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4)

A famous and popular historian, Barbara Tuchman, wrote it like this:

“AT ABOUT THE TIME COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA, the Renaissance—which is to say the period when the values of this world replaced those of the hereafter—was in full flower in Italy. Under its impulse the individual found in himself, rather than in God, the designer and captain of his fate. His needs, his ambitions and desires, his pleasures and possessions, his mind, his art, his power, his glory, were the house of life. His earthly passage was no longer, as in the medieval concept, a weary exile on the way to the spiritual destiny of his soul.”

— The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

She saw in history the way of the man who thought he had the right way figured out and yet was moved only to folly. Peter described the ways of man as pollutions; "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." (2 Pe 2:20)

What can man do to overcome folly? The way of humility is the answer:

Jesus said, in Jn 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true."

Put your trust in the way of life, the word of God, it will be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path and will lead you to the right way, his name is Jesus!