September 15, 2014
Matthew 7:13, 14
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
From investor.bk.com – Burger King’s official Investor Relations website – came the following announcement on May 20th of this year:
Burger King Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:BKW) announces today a new brand
outlook they’re calling, “BE YOUR WAY”. A spin on their famous, 40-
year old brand positioning “HAVE IT YOUR WAY®”, “BE YOUR WAY”
reminds people that no matter who they are, they can order how they want to
in BURGER KING® restaurants and that they can and should live how they
want anytime. It’s ok to not be perfect. Self-expression is most important and
it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots.
“BE YOUR WAY” is one of the most dangerous philosophies of life there is! Consider again this statement: “…no matter who they are…they can and should live how they want anytime.” – emphasis added. This is the philosophy of the devil’s domain – “…all the kingdoms of the world…and their glory…” (Luke 4:5 and 6). And it is exactly opposite of what God wants for human beings!
What is the way of the Lord?
• Proverbs 6:23 – God’s “…commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”
• Isaiah 35:8 (KJV) – “…an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness…”
• Matthew 7:13 and 14 (our featured scripture) – “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
• John 14:6 – “Jesus said…‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ ”
• II Peter 2:2 and 21 – Peter calls it “…the way of truth…[and] the way of righteousness….”
As a matter of fact, the earliest descriptive name given to the disciples of Jesus Christ was simply “…followers of The Way!”
What is the way of natural man?
• Proverbs 4:19 – “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”
• Proverbs 16:25 (KJV) – “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
• Jeremiah 5:4 – “They are foolish; for they do not know the way of the Lord.”
• Romans 3:10 through 12 and 16 through 18 – “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God….Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ ”
Jeremiah, in chapter 17 and verse 9 summed up the reason for the wrong choices involved in the way of natural man: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Man needs a new heart, a new nature – called a new creation in II Corinthians 5:17 – and that only comes about from being born again (see John 3:3 through 5). And that occurs only when one accepts the Lord Jesus Christ into his or her heart and life – having their sins forgiven and washed clean before the Father.
So, “BE YOUR WAY”? As Mollie Zeigler Hemingway put it in the article “Happy Warrior” – National Review, August 11, 2014 – “A culture that tells whoppers in order to sell Whoppers isn’t a healthy one.”
I think I will buy my burgers at Wendy’s!